What a thought provoking summary! Lecture 22: Be History Makers!
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Radical Reformation History
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Great delivery! Thank you so much!
A wonderful course about a reformation that was truly radical. The historical information by itself is very interesting, but it was even better since it was coupled with the themes of "what if Jesus really meant every word he said?" and "being makers of history rather than just repeating history".
I love the massive amounts of sources that are presented. There is probably hundreds of hours of research if not into the thousands that went into making this course, and we get to take it all in in a condensed package, and I am extremely grateful for that. I do agree that understanding our past will greatly impact where we end up in the future, and because of that I consider this course extremely valuable.
This was a wonderful overview.
This is an excellent teaching of history that examines powerful kingdom movements, holds them up for the church today, and brings out challenges and lessons for us to apply. These lessons also cause us to face hard questions in our own daily lives and choices. Here Jesus is the main focus, his teachings are woven throughout the lessons, and his body, the church community, is displayed in the glory that God designs for her to have.
Dean Taylor is a fantastic teacher. I am ashamed and upset to say that in my six years of studying the Bible in college & seminary this rich history was not talked about once.
I pray this material will start being taught in every church & Christian school.
I pray this material will start being taught in every church & Christian school.
Great course to learn some of the history of the anabaptists. Very inspiring!! Many lessons to be learned as well!!
I found this course quite challenging and inspiring. The last session especially was a very challenging inspiration, and an excellent climax to the study. Recommend!
Great courses very informative
I immensely enjoyed the course on Radical Reformation History. Dean repeatedly called us back to focus on becoming like Jesus. I appreciated the emphasis on humbly examining what worked then and how we can apply that today.
Great course! Reminds us to stay on course with Jesus' plan to change the world, not to get side tracked from anything that takes our eyes off of this plan. Through history Dean shares with his students the many mistakes of groups that took their eyes off of Jesus and got derailed. Then of groups that were History Makers that kept their eyes on Jesus and his plan and had a fire for following him and proclaiming his Kingdom.
This course makes sense out of church history. No dry and boring chronicles found here. Instead, I was amazed and inspired by fascinating tales of true followers of Christ.
Very well explained course.
For all people who want clarity about what they believe and if you think you are having a hard time making decisions in your Christian journey you should opt for this course and i a sure you will get clarity given the examples of various believers who came before us and showed us the best way to follow the Way of Christ our King
This course helps you to see a clearer view of the streams of Anabaptist history--the good, the bad, and the ugly of it all. Lot's of lessons to learn from and take to heart here.
This course was filled with lots of real-life stories and examples, many of which are very inspiring, and many of which are very sobering. There are many things to appreciate about this course:
1) First and foremost, above all else, the Christ-centeredness of this course really stood out to me. We need to continually make sure that our center and our focus remains Jesus and His teachings. Amen, dear brother Dean. Amen and Amen!
2) The frequent use of quotations from many primary sources, such as the letters of Conrad Grebel, the Hutterite Chronicles, the writings of Menno Simmons, the Martyrs Mirror, 20th century sources, etc. really helped bring all the historical figures and historical movements alive.
3) I really appreciated the "warts and all" approach this course used. While there are so many stories of bearing witness to Christ in hostile situations, living faithfully for Christ, and remaining faithful unto death in Anabaptist history that should inspire us individually and collectively, there are also lots of examples of mistakes and failures that should serve as warnings to sober us. The fact that the many splits and occasional strange teachings were covered in a honest and transparent way was very much appreciated.
4) Conveying the incredible focus on missions that has persisted throughout Anabaptist history right up to the present time was a real eye-opener. The amazing success of the Anabaptists in places such as Indonesia and East Africa was really thrilling to hear about.
5) The course definitely ended on a very high note - a resounding "altar call" to be history makers and not history stoppers!
The few quibbles I have with this course are incredibly minor, especially considering that these lectures were recorded years ago, somewhere back in the 2013 timeframe.
1) I know that once the Anabaptists began spreading out all over Europe (which happened rapidly!), it is difficult to juggle the history of all the different areas (Swiss, Dutch, Moravian, etc.). Even so, the placement of Lecture 11 "The Birth of the Amish", was a bit jarring since it suddenly advanced what had been a story of the 1500's up to the 1690's/early 1700's. The start of Lecture 12 then fell back to the earliest Anabaptist days again. A minor quibble for sure, but there may be a better place in the sequence of the lectures for Lecture 11.
2) Speaking of the late 1600's/early 1700's, I personally would like to have heard more about the influence of Pietism upon the various Anabaptist groups.
3) I also would like to have heard more regarding any "brotherly agreements" that the various Anabaptist groups wrote up to help regulate life in their communities. It was great to hear about the tremendous sacrifices regarding missions and martyrdom, but it also takes a crucified life to live day-by-day, week-by-week, year-by-year in a close-knit fellowship of believers. The spirit of self-sacrificial love that is required for long-term stability of Christian fellowships is always something that I need to hear more about.
Compared to the solid strong points of these lectures, those are minor quibbles indeed. I definitely rated this course 5 stars out of 5 stars. As someone who fellowships with a "Restoration Movement" congregation, I learned a lot. But even more, I heard many lessons to take to heart and put into practice in my daily living and my family's daily living. I heard many testimonies that were truly inspiring, and also many examples of mistakes that I pray to God we learn from and never repeat. But mostly, I saw the desperate need for kingdom Christians to continually keep all things centered on Jesus Christ and His teachings.
1) First and foremost, above all else, the Christ-centeredness of this course really stood out to me. We need to continually make sure that our center and our focus remains Jesus and His teachings. Amen, dear brother Dean. Amen and Amen!
2) The frequent use of quotations from many primary sources, such as the letters of Conrad Grebel, the Hutterite Chronicles, the writings of Menno Simmons, the Martyrs Mirror, 20th century sources, etc. really helped bring all the historical figures and historical movements alive.
3) I really appreciated the "warts and all" approach this course used. While there are so many stories of bearing witness to Christ in hostile situations, living faithfully for Christ, and remaining faithful unto death in Anabaptist history that should inspire us individually and collectively, there are also lots of examples of mistakes and failures that should serve as warnings to sober us. The fact that the many splits and occasional strange teachings were covered in a honest and transparent way was very much appreciated.
4) Conveying the incredible focus on missions that has persisted throughout Anabaptist history right up to the present time was a real eye-opener. The amazing success of the Anabaptists in places such as Indonesia and East Africa was really thrilling to hear about.
5) The course definitely ended on a very high note - a resounding "altar call" to be history makers and not history stoppers!
The few quibbles I have with this course are incredibly minor, especially considering that these lectures were recorded years ago, somewhere back in the 2013 timeframe.
1) I know that once the Anabaptists began spreading out all over Europe (which happened rapidly!), it is difficult to juggle the history of all the different areas (Swiss, Dutch, Moravian, etc.). Even so, the placement of Lecture 11 "The Birth of the Amish", was a bit jarring since it suddenly advanced what had been a story of the 1500's up to the 1690's/early 1700's. The start of Lecture 12 then fell back to the earliest Anabaptist days again. A minor quibble for sure, but there may be a better place in the sequence of the lectures for Lecture 11.
2) Speaking of the late 1600's/early 1700's, I personally would like to have heard more about the influence of Pietism upon the various Anabaptist groups.
3) I also would like to have heard more regarding any "brotherly agreements" that the various Anabaptist groups wrote up to help regulate life in their communities. It was great to hear about the tremendous sacrifices regarding missions and martyrdom, but it also takes a crucified life to live day-by-day, week-by-week, year-by-year in a close-knit fellowship of believers. The spirit of self-sacrificial love that is required for long-term stability of Christian fellowships is always something that I need to hear more about.
Compared to the solid strong points of these lectures, those are minor quibbles indeed. I definitely rated this course 5 stars out of 5 stars. As someone who fellowships with a "Restoration Movement" congregation, I learned a lot. But even more, I heard many lessons to take to heart and put into practice in my daily living and my family's daily living. I heard many testimonies that were truly inspiring, and also many examples of mistakes that I pray to God we learn from and never repeat. But mostly, I saw the desperate need for kingdom Christians to continually keep all things centered on Jesus Christ and His teachings.
Dean Taylor presents a very informative and eye opening history of the Anabaptists. When we hear about the "reformers", we always hear about Calvin, Luther and Wesley to name a few. I myself had never heard about the Kingdom Christian reformers as detailed in these classes. In my opinion, the above mentioned "reformers" did just that, they reformed the Roman Catholic church in some important ways, but the Ananbaptist reformers, tore down the Roman Catholic teachings and built upon the cornerstone, the firm foundation, which is Christ. Thank you Dean for this course.
Enjoy this review of our story. "Push your way through the neck of the bottle, when you get inside it opens into a wide space". This course gives context to many supporting writings referenced. The early Anabaptist period is covered the best, I now understand the Munster Tragedy much better. The reason I didn't give 5 stars, I felt the subject was rather large for the course time. Perhaps it was different in class. Not all the class discussion is audible either.
Would definitely recommend this course to anyone places value in history, especially if they place value in heritage etc. This course is good at bring out the strengths and weaknesses of what we value in light of history! Only thing that was a little unsettling was how often the Christian church ran into problems and sometimes quite far from truth!