THE GREAT AUTHOR

Any human author could claim to have the most written and published books in the world, but they would not begin to touch the authorship of God. 

Many who know and have studied God as The Great Author can recall the passages in Daniel and Revelation that help support this portrait of a documenting God.  A judgement scene with records showing the proof of actions is found in Daniel 7:10 - 

• "The court was seated and books were opened." 

This same kind of scene, if not the very same scene, is mentioned in Revelation 20:12 -

• "And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books."

Another Book that is mentioned quite often right at the end of the Bible is The Lamb's Book of Life or The Book of Life. Philippians 4:3; Revelation 3:5; Revelation 13:8; Revelation 17:8; Revelation 20:15; Revelation 21:27 – all speak about The Lamb's Book of Life. The mention of something twice for affirmation in Scripture is worth noting, but to observe six mentions of this book is like God trying to show you The Book of Life itself. This book is foreknowledge of those who would place their faith in God through His Son Christ Jesus (Revelation 13:8).

Books of all kind can be found within The Scripture. The Bible loves to refer to other written material, for example it references - 

• Book of the Wars of the Lord – Numbers 21:14
• Book of Jashar – 2 Samuel 1:18 
• Book of the annals of Solomon – 1 Kings 11:41
• Book of the annals of the kings of Israel – 1 Kings 14:19
• Book of the annals of the king of Judah – 1 Kings 14:29
• Book of the annals of King David – 1 Chronicles 27:24

These books, written by earthly authors are documents meant to record details concerning the subject of the book title. Similarly, God has written a book with every human's story in history documented in it.

This particular book numbers our days and/or chronicles everyday of our existence - "Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be." - Psalm 139:16

I like to imagine that God has an impressive, Heavenly Library. I would like to think that part of the attraction is that the binder that has my current name and future Heavenly names on it contains two columns inside: (1) one column tells the actual story of my life with God's intervention on my behalf noted and (2) the development of my faith told in the other column with God's intervention also noted and every sin removed from the pages by Christ Himself. The author of Hebrews states it this way -

"Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God." (KJV) - Hebrews 12:2

The New International Version translates "author and finisher" as "the pioneer and perfecter of our faith". God blazed the trail for us to walk out; God wrote down a glorious plan for our lives - "For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." - Jeremiah 29:11  However, even when sin entered the picture many years ago - Christ came so that our story will have an awesome ending. That is one reason He is called The Great Author!