After Acts: Exploring the Lives and Legends of the Apostles

I heard an interview with the author on the radio promoting the book. It sounded good and since I haven't been able to piece together what happened after acts for myself I decided to buy the book and read. It was exactly as advertised. It went though the lives of the apostles after acts using various secular and church historical accounts as well as heretical writing to piece together what really happened to the biblical figures once their names disappeared from the biblical accounts. This book is obviously written with the believer in mind. I doubt that anyone is going to open this book and be won over the Christ but I know that my faith was strengthened though it. I remember at one point while I reading, I laid the book down and thought that these were actual real people.He also goes through in the introduction what church history is. I liked this. I remember when i was in my early 20s and set out to read the new testament from cover to cover. I got to the end of revelations and thought where was the beheading of Paul, where was Peter crucified upside down. I had heard pastors stand in front of the church and make statements to this effect as in the same breath that they talked about Jesus crucifixion. I almost felt lied to. It took me a long time to come to grips with church tradition and biblical truth. Now that I do bible study at the church, I always make it clear when I am referencing church tradition and not what is in the actual bible.

I really appreciated the author's focus on what we can actually derive from history as to what happened to the Apostles (and friends) following the events that are recorded in the Book of Acts. I've read Fox's Book of Martyrs and although it is a beloved book for many Christians, there is often little to no historical evidence (outside of legendary development within the Church) for some of the recorded events.Liftin's "After Acts" provides the reader with the historical evidence that is available for arriving at the most plausible conclusion as to what actually happened (or probably happened) to the Apostles after the events recorded in the New Testament.This is a great book that any Christian who is interested in Church history will enjoy. It's a quick read too!

Nice overview of the history that we know (or can entertain as possible) of the apostles. Some of it was quite interesting and helpful. Do know that he has entire chapters on Mark, Luke, and Mary--none of which were apostles. A few of the apostles have scant and limited information available, so they are compiled into the left-over's chapter. There were certain parts I was left wanting more discussion or explanation.

To clarify my position at the outset - I am an evangelical Christian who holds to Biblical inerrancy in the ordinary sense of the term and as reflected in the Chicago Statement.Overall I would recommend this book ONLY for the very discerning and mature Christian for three reasons.First, the author (PhD from Univ. of Virginia) says he is a conservative Bible believing Christian scholar – p. 18 “I am definitely a conservative. This approach affects how I handle biblical texts as historical evidence. I assume that the Scripture will always be true and I will never doubt God’s word.” – but much of the book demonstrates that he really does not believe the Bible in the historical evangelical sense.For example, on the same page in which Dr. Litfin says he believes the Bible is true (p.18) he re-defines what “true” means to him such that it no longer means “true” in the ordinary sense – certainly his “true” is not equal to evangelical inerrancy or the Lord’s jot and tittle inerrancy. On p. 18 he writes: “I will operate with the overarching belief that errors about timeless truth, or intentional misrepresentation from the author, are not found within Scripture.” (my emphasis). To rephrase Dr. Litfin’s position, he means that Bible may well be wrong about many important facts, such as creation, fall, and Noah’s flood as described in Genesis, and as well Jesus could have been mistaken when he cited those events as factual - but nevertheless the “spiritual” truth of the Bible somehow is unaffected by error. In short, Dr. Litfin holds to a mystical, illogical, double-speak view of Scripture that is largely consistent with the Barthian neo-orthodoxy rejected by true conservative scholars.This liberal slant plays out partly in that a fair bit of the book is written as if Dr. Litfin embraces, to some degree, the philosophy undergirding the historical-critical method of biblical interpretation – namely that the Scriptures are a man-made product. (I assume his PhD from U VA would be steeped in that method). This is seen in his comments questioning the apostolic or apostolic delegate (e.g. Luke) authorship of New Testament books.Although he only deals with minority of the NT books re authorship, for example, on p.146 he writes:“[n]early all liberal scholars agree that these two works (1 and 2 Peter) were written by other individuals who pretended to be Peter at a later time. This may sound strange, but the theory isn’t as far-fetched as it may first appear. Numerous texts by Petrine imitators actually were written in the ancient period, so theoretically, these two letters could be examples of such writings. On the other hand, both of these letters explicitly identify the author as the apostle Peter in their opening verses. For an author to falsify his identity and represent himself as Peter WOULD SEEM TO VIOLATE THE TRUTHFULNESS OF SCRIPTURE.” (capital letters added). No kidding!Another example, on p.68 he suggests – using an A- grade – that perhaps Luke did not write the books of Luke and Acts.Second, while posturing himself as an evangelical inerrantist, the author (i) seems favorably disposed to some degree to some Catholic doctrines that are not Biblically supportable, and (ii) seems to hold a view of salvation which incorporates a large portion of Catholics.Pp. 83-84 re Mary:“Is Roman Catholic devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary so outlandish that we can safely ignore Mary altogether? Or does this form of spirituality have legitimate roots in the ancient church and perhaps even Scripture? Those who are turned off by modern veneration of the Blessed Virgin must not forget that the angel Gabriel declared Mary the ‘favored one’ of God…”Pp. 143-144, after giving a Catholic-slanted, and historically inaccurate, introduction to the rise of the papacy (posturing it primarily as an early interpretational issue as to MT 16:18 rather than the 4th century political power struggle that it was between West and East), Dr. Litfin writes:“Even those Christians who do not believe in the Roman primacy must still marvel at Peter’s prominent role in the church.”’Third, from an academic reader’s standpoint, the book did not live up at all to my expectations since it is not nearly as scholarly as I expected - so I was disappointed. Having read much of Philip Schaff's works and studied the ancient period I guess I was hoping for more.

It was interesting reading about what happened to many who are in New Testament following the writing of the Book of Acts, the history of the first century church up to around AD 64. The author, who is also a professor at Moody, does an excellent job analyzing the data and grading how reliable Church Tradition is regarding these men's histories. I wish the data was more definitive, but these men lived a long time ago. An excellent read.

Great book. Using ancient manuscripts (both religious and secular), church history, legend, and geography of that time, the authors have done an amazing job of exploring what happened to Jesus' apostles that isn't mentioned in the book of Acts. I love that they give all the beliefs that have been handed down through the centuries and then respectfully give the factual reasons why something is probable, possible, or unsubstantiated.

Author approaches each character he is researching from as unbiased a view point as any person can. His research is excellent. He presents you with the facts, his educated opinion based on these facts but then allows you to make your own decision of how to apply this information to your own conclusion.Not a light read, but very educational.

I really liked discovering what happened to the Apostles and authors of the New Testament and reccomend it to anyone who would like to know the same.I believe it is very well researched and the author tries hard to determine fact from fiction. His scoring of the main facts at the end of each chapter also provides us with an ability to see popular claims in context and be wiser in our understanding of the vagaries of recorded history.

The writer gave a good perspective on what is historically reliable, an appendix or some additional document to explain his methods for evaluating the evidence would have been helpful.The 'report card' at the end of every chapter was especially helpful as a summary.Good for anyone who is interested in church history

Book worth taking the time to read.