Revelation 17:8
Revelation 17:88The beast that you saw—it was, and now is no more, but is about to come up out of the Abyss and go to its destruction. And those who dwell on the earth whose names were not written in the Book of Life from the foundation of the world will marvel when they see the beast that was, and is not, and yet will be.
Interpreted within the Watchtower's identification of the wild beast with human political organisation — historically applied to the League of Nations and the United Nations, which "was, is not, and is about to ascend." The names written in the scroll of life are read as those Jehovah approves, with the writing understood as reflecting foreknown approval rather than individual predestination.
Leave the beast's identity alone; it is a separate argument and not where this verse is useful. The phrase that matters is that names were not written in the scroll of life from the founding of the world. Whatever else is happening, the writing is described as having taken place before the world began and as determining who marvels at the beast. That sits alongside a cluster of texts a Witness may not have read together: in their own Bible — foreordained according to the purpose of the one who accomplishes all things as he decides; — what Herod and Pilate did was what God's hand and counsel had determined beforehand; and 9:22. The Watchtower's position is that Jehovah foreordained the class and not the individuals. The question worth asking is whether that distinction holds: if God can determine the whole pattern of history without overriding anyone's will, the same mechanism works at the level of a person. Keep it for a later conversation. This is not doorstep material. Compare , , .