You are absolutely right; God does indeed “know who is in the Lamb’s Book of Life,” for He is the One who wrote the names into that book. We read in Revelation 21:27, “But there shall by no means enter it (the heavenly city) anything that defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.” Why is it called the “Lamb’s Book of Life?” Because the Lord Jesus is the “LAMB of God” (see John 1:29, 36) who gave His life and shed His blood so those who believe on Him can receive ETERNAL LIFE (John 3:16 & 5:24). Some believe these names were written in the Book the moment a sinner believes on Christ, but they were written down before time began. This is taught clearly in Revelation 13:8 where the unsaved are told their names are not there, “whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” God planned the way of salvation through His Son’s death on the cross before time began and He also wrote the names of all who would believe at that time. I would also add that believers were “chosen in Him (Christ) before the foundation of the world” (Ephesians 1:4).

Will God listen to the prayers of the unbeliever who will never repent and trust in God’s way of salvation? In Isaiah 1:1-14 God speaks of the wicked unbelievers in that day and then He tells them in verse 15, “When you spread out your hands, I will hide My eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I WILL NOT HEAR. Your hands are full of blood.” Turning to the New Testament, we read in John 9:31, “Now we know that God does NOT HEAR SINNERS; but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does His will, He HEARS THEM.

Yet there is one prayer of a sinner that the Lord will hear; the “prayer of repentance.” We see a case of this in the book of Jonah where the king of Nineveh, after hearing that God would judge the city for their wickedness, told the people to “CRY MIGHTILY to God, yes, let every one turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. Who can tell if God will turn and relent, and turn away from His fierce anger, so that we may not perish” (Jonah 3:8-9). We read next that “God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way, and God relented from the disaster that He had said He would bring upon them, and He did not to it.” Now let’s turn to an example in the New Testament. In Luke 18:13 we read, “And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God be merciful to me a sinner!’” How did God react to his prayer? Verse 14 says, “I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” God DOES “hear the pray of repentance” and it will lead the “the sinner being justified.”

If you are reading this, I must ask you, “Have you taken your place as a lost sinner before God, knowing that your sinners deserve death and judgment (see Romans 6:23 and Hebrews 9:27)?” If so, then God will surely show you mercy. He has provided His Son to be your Savior and the moment you REPENT and BELIEVE on Him you will be justified (declared righteous). We read of this in Acts 20:21 and Romans 3:24-25, “Testifying to the Jews and also to Greeks, REPENTANCE toward God and FAITH toward our Lord Jesus Christ…Being JUSTIFIED freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God has set forth as a propitiation by His blood, THROUGH FAITH IN HIS BLOOD.” (DO) (727.5)