Share Your Experience

I learned a lot, though the hodge podge collection of lesson subjects keep a person guessing. Not cohesive at all. In Bro David's life story, he made an admirable effort to find truth, but I really did wonder if his account should be balanced with the reality that it is more important for us to learn to blend into an imperfect body of believers, than it is for us to find the 'perfect' church. (which doesn't exist) Glen D Yoder

Very fascinating to learn that materialistic philosophies existed long before the modern age. This course does an excellent job showing this thread throughout ancient history.

Overall one of the best theological courses on this site. Summarized thoughts:
1. Trinity and Jesus and the Father
I could say far too much on this topic. I researched it heavily after hearing David Bercot's audio on the Early Christian understanding of the Trinity. I recommend David Bercot's Trinity videos as well. Certainly explains the ante-Nicene consensus view on the Trinity and what the relationship is between the Father and Jesus. Much more, however, could be said. My constructive critique would be, to really grasp what David Bercot is saying, it may need to be spelled out what he is not saying. Certainly, after explaining the Trinity similar to David Bercot does here, many people will not understand and still hold on to Augustinian, semi-modalist theology that improperly conflates the Father, Son and Holy Spirit in a way no ante-Nicene would ever dream of doing. I would also warn that a small minority of Ante-Nicene Christians deviated slightly from this formula of the Son and Holy Spirit being God in the sense of being eternal and having the same nature as the the One God (ie the Father), particularly regarding the Holy Spirit. Origen (Comm. on John) and Eusebius (Ecclesiastical Theology) expressly taught the Holy Spirit is a created being and not fully divine like the Father or Christ. But then again, the Scriptures say very little about what kind of person the Holy Spirit is. But this is a minority, and as early as Irenaeus one would get the doctrine of same nature (at least regarding Jesus) and eternality of Jesus and the Holy Spirit.

2. Why God Permits Evil: Hard to overstate how early Christians held to free will as a necessary explanation for the entire Christian system. Great apologetic of Christianity as a whole and the early Christian understanding.

3. Satan and Demons: While scholars like Michael Heiser have recently exploded with this doctrine, they tend to ignore the early Christians as ignorant Greeks and only care about Jewish sources. Yet the early Christians' reception of the doctrines found in 1 Enoch would have saved Heiser all the trouble.

4. Difference between spirit and soul: David Bercot just taught me the importance of this doctrine, and how it transforms scriptural interpretation. A+ insight.

5. Gifts of the Spirit: I have a serious critique on this one, and the sole reason for removing a star. Fellow brothers, why would you treat this issue as one that is left to the listener to come to his own conclusion? 1 Corinthians 11-14 teaches us to earnestly desire the greater gifts, namely, prophecy. If you teach headcoverings are for women today, than prophecy must necessarily be for women today, which was expressly given for prophecy. Christians are not given the option of believing the supernatural gifts of the Spirit continue today or not. And the Ante-Nicene Christians not only experienced and believed they continued in their day, they taught that they would continue until Jesus returns. Eusebius' Ecclesiastical History Book V, ch. 18 quotes Second Century Miltiades contesting the Montanists. But far from denying the spiritual gifts the Montanists abused, Miltiades expressly says "the gift of prophecy should be in all the church until the coming of the Lord." Similar proof of doctrinal continuationism is found in Disputation of Archelaus and Manes' interpretation of 1 Corinthians. There is no other Ante-nicene view. And Irenaeus' statements in Proof ch. 99-100 condemn denial of continued supernatural gifts and prophecy as equally offensive to the doctrine of the Holy Spirit as denying the divinity of Christ is to the doctrine of the Son. He also condemns those who deny the gift of prophecy remains in the church in Against Heresies III.11.9, comparing it to blaspheming the Holy Spirit, all proving continuationism was considered an essential doctrine.

6. David Bercot's Testimony and Continuing Pilgrimage: Great story and testimony of the wonderful workings of God. Praise God.

7. Shadows of Christ in the OT: Wonderful reminder that the OT is about Christ and the importance of not denying allegorical treasures.

8. Myth of Evolution: Great overview of the pagan and ignorant origins of evolution and philosophical materialism. One of the best apologetics for theism I've heard. Thank you, brother David.

I appreciated all of the content in this course, but particularly liked David's personal testimony and continuing pilgrimage lessons. These have given my family food for thought as we look to our own future and what churches we want to join hands with.

The course make some analyze my own world view as well as how I view my part in the spiritual world.

I like the clear way this was presented. I live learning about ancient history and it sheds so much light on what's going on today. There is nothing new under the sun. I hope he updates the shroud part to the new evidence and why the testing that was originally done has been dismissed due to the piece that was cut was from a repair not from the shroud. I learned alot.

:)

These lessons offered a diverse array of insights, and I found the information quite valuable. Thank you, David, for your thorough research!

I found a couple of good ones and one lacking and then some others. I think The Historic Faith courses have spoiled me. This section just wasn’t up to the extremely high standard of all the other courses on here. Please take this as constructive criticism for I am very thankful for all you do

This course opened my eyes to a new perspective of the Faith I came to understand all my life.

Understanding these things sure is good!

These messages include lots of good and interesting content.

I have learned SO MUCH from David Bercot and friends! Thank you for these teachings!

I really enjoy it and always looked forward to it.It answered a lot of my questions. If I new about this one I would have done it first.

I like it. Very informative and historical.

At first glance, this course really doesn't look very appealing. But some of the stuff covered in this course are very foundational and important. Recommended to anyone.

Very informative, encouraging and bold.

Answering the myths is an eye opener as we do just take for granted many things that have been handed on to us. Thank you for the depth of your answers to these and many more subjects concerning the historic faith.

It was interesting and gave me a wider perspective.

I am really glad that this course was created to contain all of the miscellaneous messages that do not fit in anywhere else. This course was a great idea!

I do not have an opinion one way or the other regarding whether or not the messages in the course should have quizzes linked to them. Being a place for miscellaneous messages, I can see where the messages in this particular course do not need quizzes.

I found dear brother Bercot's three very personal messages in this course (i.e. "My Testimony", "My Continuing Pilgrimage" and "Lessons God Has Taught Me") to all be very convicting and very challenging! I appreciate all of brother Bercot's messages, but these three in particular have had a real impact on my life and my pursuit of Jesus Christ and His kingdom.

All of the messages in this course contain excellent and balanced presentations of their respective topics. Three other messages in this course that were especially helpful to me for my obedient love-faith relationship with Jesus Christ are "Jesus and the Father", "Why God Permits Evil", and "The Difference Between Spirit and Soul". I have always had a special interest and appreciation for Old Testament typology, so I really enjoyed the message entitled "Shadows of Christ in the Old Testament" and I hope that many more messages on this topic will be included on this website. And I believe everyone will be really surprised to learn about the real roots of theory of evolution in the message entitled "Greek Philosophy and the Origin of Life".

I do have two small quibbles with this course, both of which I believe can be easily remedied:

1) Some of the messages in this course do not contain any supplemental documentation on the "Materials" tab for the message. Since this is a "miscellaneous" course, that is okay; although I have gotten spoiled by some of the other courses and I have quickly come to appreciate and enjoy having an outline or a transcript available. There is one message, however, in this course that definitely requires the supplemental material provided by Scroll Publishing to be made available. This is the message entitled "What Did Jesus Look Like?". Scroll Publishing actually makes two CD's (or two digital downloads) available for this message, the first being the contents of dear brother Bercot's spoken message, and the second being a CD (or digital download) of pictures that are referenced by brother Bercot during his speaking. Since brother Bercot refers to these pictures very often in his speaking, this message suffers greatly by not having the pictures available in the "Materials" tab. I am hoping that the 41 pictures that Scroll Publishing includes on the second CD (or in the second digital download) can be placed on the "Materials" tab for this message.

2) The message entitled "Was Jesus the First Feminist" is a two-message set supplied by Scroll Publishing. At first, I assumed that both messages had been combined together into one long message, since the run time of the message is something like one hour and 44 minutes. But when I listened to the message, there is one portion that is repeated over and over several times and this drives up the total run time. So I am wondering if the full contents of both messages are being included, although it seems like that was the intent. Maybe the audio just needs to be edited to fix the portion that is repeated over and over several times.

Again, compiling all of these messages into a "miscellaneous" course was a great idea and I am thankful for the opportunity to listen to all the messages contained in this course.