After Death

by J. Alec Motyer

Paperback

First published February 1, 1996

About the author

J. Alec Motyer (M.A., B.D., D.D.) was formerly principal of Trinity College in Bristol, England. He has extensive experience in parish ministry and is well known as a Bible expositor. He is author of The Prophecy of Isaiah, and he is Old Testament editor of IVP's commentary series, The Bible Speaks Today. He has written several volumes in that series.

Reviews

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read a number of books on Universalism in the last few years, and most of them have been very long, and in every case mostly miss dealing with the main issue: what does Jesus Himself say about death and judgement? Motyer has manage to write a short book (less than 90 pages) and deal with all the issues. The result is that he finds the case wanting for Universalism, while still admitting that Paul writes in some of his epistles in such a way as to indicate that all will be saved - eventually.
Motyer also deals with the less prominent issue of conditional immortality, again finding the case for it wanting, and, late in the books with spiritualism - a 'movement' that was still strong at the time the book was written but which has now waned considerably.
Motyer insists on following what Scripture says, and the result, though not necessarily pleasing to those who feel God's love must supersede his justice rather than work in tandem with it, is satisfactory.
(The edition I've read was published in 1965, much earlier than the one listed here. So there may have been some revisions in the later version.)