PROBATION AFTER DEATH (Lat. probe tio, from probate, to test, examine). A theologi cal doctrine according to which man's future destiny is not unalterably fixed at death, but either all men or a certain class of men will be. placed on trial in another life for a definite period or until they shall have yielded to God's redeeming love. In one form or another this doctrine has been held by many Jews and Chris tians since, under the influence of Persian and Greek thought, the idea of future punishment developed among them. (See BELL) Some have thought of a fixed period extending from the death of the individual to the final judgment; others have made the period indefinite in length, depending upon the intensity of the soul's re sistance to the grace of God. Some limit pro bation after death to such persons as have not had opportunity in this life of accepting Christ; others think that the same privilege will be extended to all men. Scriptural support for the doctrine has generally been sought in I. Peter iii. 19-20, iv. 6, in which a critical exegesis unquestionably is obliged to find the belief ex pressed that Jesus, after his death, went to Hades to proclaim the gospel to one class of the dead, viz. those who had been disobedient in the
days of Noah. Mille the advocates of future probation have emphasized the necessity of actual knowledge of the life, teachings, death, and resur rection of Jesus, many defenders of the officially recognized system of eschatology have regarded such knowledge as of loss importance than the moral and religious disposition that under favor able circumstances may find expression in a free and intelligent acceptance of Christ. A changed estimate of the value of the statements of eible and creeds, and new methods of approach to the whole subject of man's future existence, have tended to remove from public discussion what once was a very burning question. Consult: Dorner, System der ehristlichen Glaubcnslehre (Berlin, 1879-S1; Eng. trans., Edinburgh, 1880 84) ; Dorner on the Future State, translation of the eschatological section of the preceding work by Newman Smyth (New York, 1883). See ESCHATOLOGY; IMMORTALITY; JUDGMENT, FINAL; HEAVEN; 1NIV4RSALISM.