Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #94143 in DVD
• Released on: 2005-03-17
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Color, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 180 minutes

Customer Reviews

A Great Series
As Christians living in lands where we enjoy religious freedom we are apt to forget the price that so many have paid for their faith. As Christians with a great wealth of theology at our disposal, we also forget that the faith as we know and love it has been bought with the price of much blood. The history of the church is filled with stories of men and women who advanced our understanding of the Scriptures only at great cost to themselves. Even those who did not sacrifice their lives often paid a terrible price as they were despised and rejected by their peers. We owe a great debt of gratitude to those whom God chose to use in this way.

Reformation Overview provides brief, half-hour overviews of some of the men who were used by God to carry-on the faith. Based on the Gateway Films/Vision Video church history video series, this DVD combines narration from Dr. Ken Curtis, President of the Christian History Institute, with clips from the film series. Divided into six equal segments, the series examines several of the most prominent Reformers: John Wycliffe, John Hus, Martin Luther, Ulrich Zwingli and John Calvin, The Anabaptists and William Tyndale. Dr. Curtis brings narration directly from many of the scenes that are so important to church history - the pulpit where John Wycliffe preached his final sermon; the monument that marks the spot where Jon Hus' was burned; the door of the Wittenburg Cathedral; the room where William Tyndale translated the Scriptures into English. History comes to life not only through a glimpse of these locations, but through the films.

The lessons the viewer will learn from this series are clearly beneficial. He will learn of the conflict that has always followed God's people as they sought to understand the Scriptures and spread the gospel message. He will learn of the price that so many Christians have been privileged to pay for their beliefs. He will learn of the great faith displayed by so many faithful servants of the Lord. Ultimately he will have his faith strengthed and hopefully understand how important it is that we remain students of history. The old adage that "those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it" seems especially significant in the church, which so often seems set on erasing its collective memory of the past. There is church history past 1972 and it is critical to our faith that we maintain a link with the great Christians of days past.

Included on the DVD are two PDF files, one of which is a 24-page student workbook, and the other a 48-page leader's guide and optional Bible study. This adds great value to the presentation and makes it useful for Bible studies or part of a home schooling curriculum. This series is a perfect addition to a church or school library. If your local public library allows donations, consider adding this to their collection.

Reformation Overview is a wonderful little series and one that was beneficial to my faith. I watched much of it with my son, who, although only five years of age, enjoyed it as much as I did. It provided us many opportunities to discuss how deeply Christians ought to love God and how deeply Satan despises this faith. It was an opportunity to grow for both child and adult.

A well presented short history.
I used this series at my church and found it personaly enjoyable and easy to use. You will get a 30 minute detail of video and documentary (including snippets of biographical movies) and you are also given a worktext with additional information.
The result is a great compact tool for the presentation of Christianity at the inception and culmination of the Reformation. Lots of valuable information, key places and key players. It makes the viewers wish they knew more, and better able to reconnect with a history (both positive and negative) that they have little recollect of.
As a Christian, this is essential to our heritage!

Six Excellent Lessons



Here is a quick tour of the Reformation using the life and work of the key players.

In a relatively short time the viewer receives a wonderful series of presentations about a critical time in church history that was the origin of several denominations and still impacts us today.

Each unit has a blend of clips from movies this company produced as illustrations of the narrative lessons. Each segment is an excellent overview of many complicated events. And together these make for a great collection.

There are six chapters of about 30 minutes each. Those that were pivotal in church history during this era were John Wycliffe, John Hus, Martin Luther, Ulrich Zwingli with John Calvin, The Anabaptists and William Tyndale

Each chapter is done in a self-contained way. They can be seen separately or together.

It would take a person dozens of hours to gather this much information from various books or web sites. Yet here it is in an easy to follow format.

After seeing these abbreviated units then the viewer may choose to also see the longer versions that have the full length movies with the whole story line and no commentary to interrupt. Each one has excellent costumes, sets and acting.

This movie is highly recommended for small groups, Sunday school classes, home school learners, Christian school libraries and all students of church history.