The Scroll of Life: The Little Scroll of Life of Revelation 5

Details: Written by: David Dozier; Created: 14 May 2024; Last Updated: 27 May 2024; Hits: 204

The Scroll of Life:

The Little Scroll of Life of Revelation 5

The Mentions of the Lamb’s Little Scroll of Life

There are five direct mentions of the Little Scroll of Life, and one indirect mention (v20.12):

Rev 3.5
‘He who overcomes will thus be clothed in white garments; and I will not erase his name from the scroll of life, and I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels.
Note that the Holy Spirit inspired John to use the word βίβλος here, but βιβλίον in all other references to the Lamb’s Scroll of Life (including chapter 5). From this we can safely conclude that βίβλος and βιβλίον are synonyms (at least in the Revelation).

Rev 13.8
All who dwell on the earth will worship him, every one whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the little scroll of life of the Lamb who has been slain.

Rev 17.8
The beast that you saw was, is not, and is about to come up out of the abyss and to go to destruction. Those who dwell on the earth, whose name has not been written in the little scroll of life from the foundation of the world, will be amazed when they see the beast that was, is not and will come.
The phrase (used also in Rev 13.8) “whose name has not been written …” [ὧν οὐ γέγραπται τὸ ὄνομα] is interesting:
“whose” is plural, while
“has not been written” is singular.
John’s did not write “whose names have not been written”. He appears to emphasize each person whose name is not in the Lamb’s book of Life rather than merely grouping them together.

Rev 20.12
I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and scrolls were opened. Another scroll was opened, which is the [little scroll] of life, and the dead were judged from the things which have been written in the scrolls, according to their deeds.

The Greek phrase is:
καὶ ἄλλο βιβλίον ἠνοίχθη ὅ ἐστιν τῆς ζωῆς

The antecedent of the relative pronoun ὅ [nominative singular neuter] is βιβλίον (scroll) [nominative singular neuter]. So, while the NASB placed [“the book”] in brackets (indicating an inference), in the context the βιβλίον of that phrase can only be the “little scroll of life”.

Rev 20.15
And if anyone’s name was not found written in the scroll of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
Note that βίβλος is used here instead of βιβλίον.

Rev 21.27
Nothing unclean and no one who practices abomination and lying shall come into it, but only those who have been written in the Lamb’s little scroll of life.

[It is interesting that John used two words for the Scroll of Life:
“Scroll of Life”, βίβλος [G976], vv3.5; 20.15.
“little scroll of life”, βιβλίον, [G975], vv13.8;17.8;20.12;21.27.
Whatever reason John may have had for their distinction, it appears conclusive that βίβλος and βιβλίον are semantically equivalent terms (along with βιβλαρίδιον, at least in the Revelation).]

Proving that the Little Scroll in Revelation 5 is the Lamb’s Scroll of Life

It is now time to prove from the Scripture that the Little Scroll of Rev 5 is the Lamb’s Scroll of Life in Rev 20.

1: The Unusual Details of the Little Scroll

Let’s look at two remarkable properties of the Little Scroll in Rev 5.1:

a scroll that had been written within and behind
βιβλίον γεγραμμένον ἔσωθεν καὶ ὄπισθεν

It is very interesting to note that John, as he describes the writing on the scroll, uses two of the same four adverbs (ὄπισθεν and ἔσωθεν) he used previously to describe the “arrangement” (I don’t know what other term could/should be used!) of the eyes of the four living beings in chapter 4:

Rev 4.6b
In the midst of the throne and around the throne were four living beings full of eyes in front [ἔμπροσθεν, G1715] and behind [ὄπισθεν G3693].

Rev 4.8b
… are full of eyes around [κυκλόθεν G2943] and within [G2081 ἔσωθεν] ...

The little scroll which John saw was rolled up and sealed; this much might be straightforward to envision. However, we run into trouble if we try to proceed any further. John was instructed to write what he saw (Rev 1.19, and we can be certain that he did so without interpretation). The problems arise with a pair of otherwise simple adverbs:

the Greek adverb ἔσωθεν [G2081] is used 12 times in the NT and is translated as inside, within and inwardly;
the Greek adverb ὄπισθεν [G3693] is used 7 times in the NT and is translated behind and back.

So, when John writes:

“a scroll that had been written within and behind”

most expositors assume that John was saying that the scroll was written “on both sides”. Since the scroll remains rolled up (this is clear from the description in chapter 5!), how can anyone claim that it was “written on both sides” when the “inside” surface would be impossible to see?

[Remember the description of the four living beings in Rev 4, when John tells us they have eyes “in front, behind, around and within”. If we apply the same “interpretation” (because of the use of 2 of the same 4 adverbs) to the eyes of the living being as we do for the little scroll, are the eyes also “on both sides”? How does one visualize the eyes of the living beings being “on both sides”? What would that even mean? “Both sides” of what, exactly?

My point is that two of the adverbs John used describe the relationship of [adverb] the eyes to the living beings and the relationship of [adverb] the writing to the scroll are essentially impossible to visualize. We must simply accept John’s description and leave it at that rather than interpreting "on both sides".]

2: The Overwhelming Glory and Power of the Little Scroll

The next element that we must consider is what John details in v5.3. Examine the verb used here: “look”; it is the very common verb “to see”, βλέπω [G991].

“… And no one … was able to open the book or to look into it.”
… οὔτε βλέπειν αὐτό

There are two elements of the highlighted phrase which are noteworthy:

the main verb is a present active infinitive
there is no preposition

A clumsy literal translation would be:

“or to be looking it” [that is, there is no preposition is in the highlighted phrase]

So far, this is not much help. Let’s see what can be done to explain it.

Rev 5.1 asserts that the Little Scroll had some manner of writing so John clearly saw something. The present tense of the infinitive of the main verb helps us here, and suggests a better choice for the translation of the main verb:

“or to gaze it” [again, there is no preposition is in the highlighted phrase]

which illustrates the durative action of the present tense infinitive.

At this point, though, we must infer the missing preposition (for our understanding in English). Some possibilities might be:

“or to gaze at it”, or
“or to gaze on it”, or
“or to gaze upon it”, or
“or to gaze through it”, or
“or to gaze inside it”, or
“or to gaze into it”, or
“or to gaze within it”, etc.

Something, though, we must consider is perhaps the fact that John did not include a preposition in his description is because he was unable to pick one! (He uses prepositions in more than 600 other places in the Revelation, so it clearly is not from any supposed unfamiliarity with Greek prepositions on John's part.)

[For those of us that can’t afford Logos, I highly recommend Rick Meyers excellent e-Sword app. The preposition search I used was:

In the Bible Search dialog (you will have had to download the Greek NT WH+ NT first), set the Search Range to Revelation/Revelation.
Select Regular Expressions (REGEX).
Set the search term to PREP.

The search yielded 317 verses found, 655 matches.]

The issue is: How does one describe something that is indescribable? This is yet another reason why we should refrain from speculations such as "Written on both sides."

3: The Little Scroll is Sealed with Seven Seals

Whatever else may be true, the 7 seals guarantee that the contents of the Little Scroll were set and never changed. Since the Lamb takes the Little Scroll from the right hand of the One on the throne, it tells us also that the Father, the One on the throne Who holds the Little Scroll, set its contents and held onto it until this moment.

This is exactly what this well-known text so marvelously teaches us:

Eph 1.3-4
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him.

Long before there was anything, the LORD’s elect were in His mind; He therefore chose them and recorded their names in the Little Scroll. The Little Scroll was then sealed with seven seals.
This divine action “before the foundation of the world” also set in motion that “Golden Chain” of Rom 8:

Rom 8.28-30
And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.

4: The preeminent and unique merit of the “Lion of the tribe of Judah”, Rev 5.4

John “wept greatly” for an unspecified period (remember, this is implied by the use of the imperfect indicative tense), but then at some point was told to “stop weeping!”—an imperative—by one of the 24 elders.

Rev 5.5
One of the elders said to me, “Stop weeping! Behold, the Lion from the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has overcome so as to open the little scroll and its seven seals.”

The emphasis of Revelation chapter 5 is the “little scroll of life” and the Lamb Who alone is worthy to open it. For this reason, John first describes the scroll in the right hand of the One on the throne, then the Lamb in His glory.

Once that first element, the scroll, had been described, one of the elders points out the Lord Christ; He now is in view and prominent in the scene and comes forth to take the Little Scroll and break its seals. The Elder’s first words to John are the command to “stop weeping”, followed immediately by the literal Greek phrase “Behold! He overcame, the Lion ...” in the emphatic lead position in the sentence.

The verb used here for “overcame” is the common Greek word νικάω [G3528, to conquer, overcome]; it is used nearly 30 times in the NT and translated variously as “overcome”, “prevail”, “overpower”, and “conquer”. An interesting note here is the tense John used, namely the aorist indicative. This tense clearly tells us that Christ waged a battle—once—and overcame; that is, He is not still waging the same battle. He alone is worthy to open the scroll because His battle “to overcome” was actual, not potential!

[Consider the theological import of this expression in view of the heretical Arminian view of redemption, namely that Christ made it possible for all sinners to be saved but did not actually save any until a person “asks Jesus into his/her heart” (a thoroughly unbiblical expression).

The use of the aorist (“overcame”) in Rev 5.5 clearly shows the Arminian interpretation unbiblical in the extreme. The Lord Christ overcame and will, during the Great Judgment of Rev 20, open the scroll containing the names of His elect, whose redemption He accomplished—not potentially but actually!]

The elder used two expressions when identifying the Lord Christ:

the Lion from the tribe of Judah, and
the Root of David.

Both are rich expressions rooted in the OT Scriptures. The former expression is found first in Gen 49:

Gen 49.8-10
Judah, your brothers shall praise you; your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies; your father’s sons shall bow down to you.
Judah is a lion’s whelp; from the prey, my son, you have gone up. He couches, he lies down as a lion, and as a lion, who dares rouse him up?
The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until Shiloh comes, and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.

At the time of Jacob’s prophecy, the tribe of Judah was merely a lion’s cub, an incipient lion. But by the time he was revealed to John, that future son of Judah was a full-grown lion, that One to whom all the nations ultimately would bow down (during His Millennial reign upon the Throne of David). As the text implies, any attempt by anything (person or nation) to challenge Him would be as suicidal as it is foolish. The Lion of Judah overcame to purchase the names of His elect, and just as the lion overcomes its prey, so too will the Lion of Judah overcome all His enemies in a day yet future.

The same metaphor of the lion is used in one of the most interesting prophesies in the Old Testament from the prophet Hosea:

Hos 5.8-15
Blow the horn in Gibeah, the trumpet in Ramah. Sound an alarm at Beth-aven: “Behind you, Benjamin!” Ephraim will become a desolation in the day of rebuke; among the tribes of Israel I declare what is sure. The princes of Judah have become like those who move a boundary; on them I will pour out My wrath like water. Ephraim is oppressed, crushed in judgment, because he was determined to follow man’s command.

Therefore I am like a moth to Ephraim and like rottenness to the house of Judah.

When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah his wound, then Ephraim went to Assyria and sent to King Jareb. But he is unable to heal you, or to cure you of your wound.

For I will be like a lion to Ephraim and like a young lion to the house of Judah. I, even I, will tear to pieces and go away, I will carry away, and there will be none to deliver. I will go away and return to My place until they acknowledge their guilt and seek My face; in their affliction they will earnestly seek Me.

[It is astonishing to me that this prophecy is not mentioned in commentaries by Hendriksen, Beale, Riddlebarger, Morris, Ladd or Hoekema. All purport to expound Bible prophecy, but none recognize this remarkable prophecy.]

So not only will the Lion of Judah overcome the nations during the Day of the Lord, but the LORD also has already torn (as a lion) His chosen people Israel because of their continued obstinance and disobedience (specifically, rejecting the Lord Christ as their Messiah). This is the primary reason that the history of national Israel, since the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D., is a nation forced to endure multiple trials for her continued obstinance. But just as it is certain that the Lord “tore them to pieces” and ensures that they remain in that dismal state until their national repentance (Zec 12.10-14), so too is it certain that He—the Lion of Judah—also will restore them as His national people during the great Day of the Lord:

Hos 11.8-11
How can I give you up, O Ephraim? How can I surrender you, O Israel? How can I make you like Admah? How can I treat you like Zeboiim? My heart is turned over within Me, all My compassions are kindled. I will not execute My fierce anger; I will not destroy Ephraim again. For I am God and not man, the Holy One in your midst, and I will not come in wrath. They will walk after the Lord, He will roar like a lion; indeed He will roar and His sons will come trembling from the west. They will come trembling like birds from Egypt and like doves from the land of Assyria; and I will settle them in their houses, declares the Lord.

The latter expression, Root of David, also finds its source in the OT:

Isa 11.1-10
Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse,
and a branch from his roots will bear fruit.
The Spirit of the Lord will rest on Him
...
Then in that day the nations will resort to the root of Jesse,
Who will stand as a signal for the peoples;
and His resting place will be glorious.

[The Hebrew verb “resort” (dāraš) in Isa 11.10 above means “to resort to, seek, seek with care, enquire, require”. It is a perfect description of what we can expect during the Millennium when the Lord Christ sits on the throne of David in Jerusalem and becomes the focus of the various nations—much to the astonishment of the Amil “expositor”. (Isa 9.7, 16.5; Jer 33.17; Luk 1.32)]

Paul quotes from Isa 11 (and others) while demonstrating and proving the mercy of God extended to the Gentiles in the Gospel:

Rom 15.7-12
Therefore, accept one another, just as Christ also accepted us to the glory of God. For I say that Christ has become a servant to the circumcision on behalf of the truth of God to confirm the promises given to the fathers, and for the Gentiles to glorify God for His mercy; as it is written, “Therefore I will give praise to You among the Gentiles, and I will sing to Your name.”

Again he says, “Rejoice, O Gentiles, with His people.”

And again, “Praise the Lord all you Gentiles, and let all the peoples praise Him.”

Again Isaiah says, “There shall come the root of Jesse, and He who arises to rule over the Gentiles, in Him shall the Gentiles hope.”

Finally, the Lord Christ Himself reminds us one last time, at the very end of the Scriptures, of the fact that He is the fulfillment of the prophecy that He is both the root of and a Son of King David:

Rev 22.16
“I, Jesus, have sent My angel to testify to you these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.”

[The Lord Christ Himself points to His heritage from David at the end of the canon of Scripture, and cited above are some references that the Lord Christ will sit on the throne of David. It is important that John records this, because that One who descended from David will rule on earth once again as its King during the Millennial Kingdom.

Those of the Amil persuasion appear “to go out of their way” to avoid this; there is no room in their eschatological fantasy for a restored national Israel, with the Lord Christ ruling from Jerusalem on the throne of David when He returns. They avoid a simple, direct understanding of the covenant the LORD made with King David (and implicitly with David’s descendants 2 Sam 7.8-17). Rather, they maintain the fantasy that the Lord Christ currently rules the earth spiritually from His throne in heaven.

Likewise, the Amil proponent avoids the content of that magnificent historical Psalm 89: 19-21, 24, 28-29, 30-32, 33-35, 36-37.

A full rebuttal of Amil eschatology, as a series of articles, is underway.]

Clearly, we are to recognize that not only is the Lord Christ, the Lion of Judah and the Root of Jesse the only One worthy to open the scroll, the entire system and arrangement of redemption was planned long ago and is currently being fulfilled in every detail!

[The Lord Christ told us the same thing when He debated the Pharisees:

Mat 22.41-46 [Mar 12.36; Luk 20.42]
Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question: “What do you think about the Christ, whose son is He?” They *said to Him, “The son of David.” He said to them, “Then how does David in the Spirit call Him ‘Lord,’ saying,
‘The Lord said to my Lord,
“Sit at My right hand,
Until I put Your enemies beneath Your feet”’?
If David then calls Him ‘Lord,’ how is He his son?” No one was able to answer Him a word, nor did anyone dare from that day on to ask Him another question.

Though He is David’s son, He is nonetheless David’s Lord!]

5: The Syntactic Arguments for the Little Scroll of Life in Rev 5.1

1. The One to Open the Little Scroll of Life Must be Worthy

We have:

Rev 5.2-3
And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, “Who is worthy to open the little scroll and to break its seals?” And no one in heaven or on the earth or under the earth was able to open the little scroll or to gaze upon it.

If the scroll is to be opened, it must be opened by someone worthy of doing so.

John notes something remarkable: it was not just an “ordinary” angel (if there is such a being!), but a “strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice” who posed the question, “Who is worthy …”? The scene John observed was designed to arrest the attention, to cause all to stop and wonder at the inquiry.

Without question, he forced all attention to the Little Scroll.

We may be tempted to believe that it would be a relatively easy task to break the seals and unroll it. What we learn from the text, though, is that opening the scroll is not a question of strength, intelligence, cleverness, patience, or fortitude. However, the verb “proclaiming” is a present active participle and modifies the action of the strong angel. He called out repeatedly throughout some unspecified period to a large audience, the purpose of which must at least drive us to understand the following:

It is vital that the scroll be unsealed and opened.
A thorough search was made for a being to unseal and open the little scroll.
Whoever will unseal and open the little scroll must have earned that right—He must be worthy to do so.

[NT Greek verb ordering is not always the same as we express in English. Frequently, we think chronologically when dealing with multiple main verbs while in the Greek the ordering is what the writer intended to emphasize. We have a case of that here. John was not thinking of the chronology:

break the seals, then
open the scroll.

Instead, his emphasis was on the opening of the scroll. This emphasis is seen in his construction:

τίς ἄξιος ἀνοῖξαι τὸ βιβλίον καὶ λῦσαι τὰς σφραγῖδας αὐτοῦ
“who is worthy to open and break …”

rather than

τίς ἄξιος λῦσαι τὰς σφραγῖδας αὐτοῦ καὶ ἀνοῖξαι τὸ βιβλίον
“who is worthy to break … and open”

The emphasis is upon the opening of the scroll, not the breaking of its seals.]

The mighty angel, as we noted above, proclaimed for an extended period to find someone worthy to do so, and as we see in the following verses, no one came forward.

Before we get to the fact that no one other than the Lord Christ was worthy to open the scroll, there is another element of Greek syntax in Rev 5.2 that correlates well with the use of the aorist active indicative for the verbs “to open” in Rev 20.12; that is, it is the use of the aorist infinitive here (in Rev 5.2):

“... to open the scroll ...”.

The syntax in Rev 5.2 teaches us that the purpose of the proclamation is to find someone worthy to open the scroll—once—at an unspecified future point. That future point is Rev 20.12 where we find that the “little scroll of life” was opened—once.

As far as Rev 20 is concerned (and through the end of the book), once the “little scroll of life” is opened, there is neither inference nor statement that it is ever closed (another clear inference of the use of the aorist tenses in Rev 5.2 and Rev 20.12). This is consistent with the thought that the little scroll is the “little scroll of life”; more to the point, it would be foolish to assume that the little scroll of Rev 5 is anything other than the Little Scroll of Life of Rev 20.

[The Scripture does not tell us what happens to the “little scroll of life” after the Great White Throne Judgment. Likely, it will endure, since it had already existed from the foundation of the world and there is no clear reason that it simply should cease to exist. If this is the case, then it would be another testament to the permanence of the LORD’s Word generally and His election of grace specifically.]

2. The Scrolls of the Lost Dead and the “little scroll of life” Are Opened Together

At the Great White Throne Judgment, when the Scrolls of the Lost Dead are opened the also is opened:

Therefore, so far, there is nothing in the Greek syntax that would rule out the possibility that the sealed scroll in Rev 5 and the “little scroll of life” in Rev 20 are the same scroll.

Rev 20.11-15 (the Great White Throne Judgment) makes it very clear that it is the lost dead (plural) are inexorably summoned to judgment and the little scrolls (plural) of their deeds (plural) are opened. After the “scrolls of the deeds of the dead” are opened, another unique scroll is opened: the “little scroll of life”.

[While it is not stated explicitly in the text, the use of the plural nouns in Rev 20.11-15 for the lost dead and for the scrolls on which their deeds are recorded implies that there might be one scroll per person. Whether or not this is an accurate speculation, the fact remains that there is a careful and deliberate distinction between the many scrolls of deeds of the lost dead and the one “little scroll of life”.]

The syntactic point to note here is that the tense, voice and mood of the verbs used both to declare that the “little scrolls of the deeds of the dead” were opened is identical to that used for the opening of the Little Scroll of Life, namely the aorist passive indicative.

The aorist tense (the tense used to indicate an event that took place at a point in time), along with the passive voice, John tells us that as he observed and recorded the scene, the scrolls of deeds (all of them) were opened.

[Stated another way, if, hypothetically speaking, we were given the opportunity to see the storage room holding the scrolls just prior to the summoning of the lost dead to judgment, we would see an immense number of closed (rolled up) scrolls. They remain closed until they were needed for the great judgment. Once the judgment began, they all were opened.

Indeed, there would be no reason for them to be opened prior to the judgment.]

The syntactic detail that we must apply here is that if we accept that the “scrolls of the deeds of the dead” were opened because the great judgment began, so too must be the opening of the Little Scroll of Life—since the opening of both types of scrolls are described using identical Greek syntax within the context of a single verse! This is the “natural” and simple reading of Rev 20.12.

[The eschatological meanderings of the Amil proponent distort the plain understanding of Rev 20. It is painful to read their "exposition" as they attempt, unsuccessfully, to fit the narrative of text into their ideology.]

3: More Details of the Little Scroll of Life

In summary, we need to keep three important details in mind as we proceed:

First, the Little Scroll of Life does not need to be opened for the LORD to “find out” those who are His:

2 Tim 2.19a
Nevertheless, the firm foundation of God stands, having this seal, “The Lord knows those who are His,”

The names of His elect have been recorded from the foundation of the world (Eph 1.3-4, Rev 13.8; 17.8) by the One Who elected them, so by definition He already knows! Clearly, the “little scroll of life” has a different purpose during the judgment.

Second, the statement of Rev 3.5 tells us that the Lord Christ (the One Who stands in the midst of the golden lampstands, Rev 1.12-13) confesses our names (from a source not disclosed), not reads our names from the “little scroll of life”.

Third, no one was able to open the “little scroll of life” except for the Lord Christ Himself! Why is this? Because He alone is worthy!

Rev 5.5
and one of the elders *said to me, “Stop weeping; behold, the Lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has overcome so as to open the book and its seven seals.”

It is important to note that the first three words (in the Greek text, καὶ οὐδεὶς ἐδύνατο) of Rev 5.3 are “And no one was able...”. John placed that phrase first in the sentence for emphasis.

Rev 5.3
And no one in heaven or on the earth or under the earth was able to open the little scroll or to look into it.

Besides the emphatic lead position in the sentence, in Rev 5.3 John used the imperfect indicative of the verb “was able”. From the distant past to the point when John observed the scene, no one of the LORD’s creation was ever able to open the scroll.

Rev 5.4
Then I began to weep greatly because no one was found worthy to open the book or to look into it;

At some point the search ended; this is the significance of the aorist tense for the main verb “was found”. The result will always be the same: no one—ever—has been or will be found worthy among the countless billions of sentient beings in God's creation whether they are in heaven, on the earth, or under the earth (persons whose physical, temporal lives have ended but nonetheless exist in Hades awaiting the Great Judgment).

[We will see the same phrase used again at the end of this chapter and expanded.]

However, the text above provides a pair of important truths:

The seals of the Little Scroll would be broken and the scroll opened.
The “Lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the Root of David” is the One who will do this.

What John stated was that the scroll was so overwhelming that no one could, for any length of time, “gaze upon it”! Only a scroll filled with the names of those purchased by the blood of the Lord Christ could overpower the senses and force the gaze away! Like John's initial view of the Lord Christ while he was still on Patmos, when he could only collapse under the brightness of His pure glory, so too is one engulfed when in the presence of the “little scroll of life”. It is no wonder that no one was found worthy “to open the scroll or gaze upon it”!

[Once we grasp the true context of Rev 5, note how utterly inadequate and ridiculous are the “interpretations” of the “little scroll of life” (in the appendix here)! When you read them, you should be able to understand just how silly they are, and how none of them could require the averting of the eyes!]

6: The Unique Function of the Little Scroll and the Doctrines of Election and Reprobation

It is at this point that we must handle another critical doctrine (or at least a summary of it): divine reprobation with the attendant context of divine election.

In the appendix below I present the purpose of the “little scroll of life” and the Doctrine of Reprobation which we learn from Rev 20.15:
Appendix B: The Doctrine of Reprobation

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