Dwight Peavy was stuck in sin, but God intervened and saved him. Dwight recounts how he was on the verge of abandoning hope when God took him off his path of destruction and into a life of fellowship with God and his people. What Is Addiction? How Can We Help Each Other? by Michael Hochstetler Osceola Christian Fellowship This is the 282nd episode …

Scripture describes baptized believers as “dead” with a life that is “hidden with Christ.” Marlin Sommers explores the contrasts of this joyful “death-life.” What does it look like when we put on Christ and put off the old human?

Vince Lewis was an officer in the United States Air Force for 24 years, flying multiple combat missions during the Vietnam War. He commanded a B-52 (a nuclear capable bomber) at Griffiss Air Force Base during the Cold War and achieved the rank of Lieutenant Colonel with top level security clearance. In this episode, Vince describes how he came to C…

Lot is often regarded in a poor light, yet the apostle Peter described him as “righteous” (II Peter 2:7-8). Glenn Martin explains the research he did on Lot and explores the important pieces he believes we have missed. How was Lot righteous? Have we misunderstood this story? Is there another perspective that has been lost to history? Glenn Martin’s…

Dan Yoder has lived in Ireland for the past 28 years as part of a mission and church plant. He discusses lessons he learned while planting a church in a cross-cultural setting and addresses some of the specific challenges he encountered. This is the 279th episode of Anabaptist Perspectives, a podcast, blog, and YouTube channel that examines various…

This is the 278th episode of Anabaptist Perspectives, a podcast, blog, and YouTube channel that examines various aspects of conservative Anabaptist life and thought. Anabaptist Perspectives has done a number of episodes on the early church and how their writings can inform and instruct us today. Kyle Stolzfus addresses some of the points previously…

It is often argued that the early church did not teach penal substitutionary atonement, but rather taught Christus Victor. Dean Taylor argues that penal substitutionary atonement thinking was present in the texts of early Christian writers such as Origen, Eusebius, and Chrysostom alongside Christus Victor teachings. Dean believes that Anabaptists h…

In previous episodes with Paul Lamicela, the audience asked many questions about the book of Revelation. Here Paul engages with some of these questions and defines some of the discussion around the rapture, the tribulation, and the millennium. Resources referenced in this episode: The Gospel of Matthew: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary Discontinuity t…

Yuriy Kravets tells the story of his interactions with Anabaptists in different parts of the world and discusses portions of global Anabaptist history. Why did Anabaptists scatter to begin with? What happened to those who fled persecution to the East, instead of traveling west to America? What can we learn from the global Anabaptist community today…

Ruth Anna Kuhns shares from her personal experience as an educator who experienced teacher burnout. She shares tools for promoting sustainable teaching and avoiding unnecessary teacher turnover. Thriving teachers have greater opportunities to create engaging educational experiences for children. Our First Episode with Ruth Anna This is the 274th ep…

Tania Taylor enlisted in the United States Army along with her husband, Dean Taylor. They were stationed in West Germany during the Cold War, and during that time they came to believe in nonresistance and enemy love. She and her husband filed for conscientious objector status from the Army. After leaving the Army they joined a new church group with…

Anabaptists have been known for their refusal to use the power of the state to accomplish Christian goals. Dan Ziegler warns that Anabaptists on both the left and the right are losing this commitment. He calls us back to a biblical understanding of the two kingdoms for the sake of the church and her ministry.…

The term “faith” in our English Bibles could often better be translated as allegiance—or so argues Matthew Bates. The term “allegiance” better captures both the authentic relational import of faith and its relationship to the royal gospel of Jesus, who is Christ the King. Taking seriously both the nature of the Gospel as a proclamation of kingship,…

Hew Gregory-Smith was an Anglican vicar and missionary from the United Kingdom. Hew began a long journey of reexamining his beliefs after he encountered challenges to what he believed and taught. Eventually, this led him to the teachings of the Anabaptists, and he moved his family to Ireland to join a Mennonite church there. In this episode Hew sha…

A listener asked: “Which early church creeds can Anabaptists affirm?” Jaran, Marlin, and Reagan discuss how the Anabaptists have engaged with the Apostle’s Creed and the Nicene Creed. What did the early Anabaptists believe about the Creeds? The Complete Writings of Menno Simons: Anabaptism in Outline: Song II from the Ausbund: Lecture on the Trinit…

Fred Saldana was a US Marine during the Vietnam War whose platoon saw intense combat during the Tet Offensive and other significant battles throughout the war. Wounded many times and awarded multiple Purple Hearts, Fred eventually left the Marine Corp full of bitterness, trauma, and anger. For years afterwards he searched for meaning, and ultimatel…

When we are young life is filled with ambitions, dreams, and possibilities, but life happens and we easily become cynical. Merle Burkholder gives practical steps and challenges us to become people who do the work God has given us to do. Read the essay and comment at https://anabaptistperspectives.org/essays/how-passionate-25-year-olds-become-fruitf…

Do the debates about Christianity that stirred so much violence in the 1500’s still matter? Stephen Russell and Dean Taylor emphasize the importance of a believer’s church and the church refusing to adopt governmental power. “The same theology in similar circumstances will likely produce similar results” Love Is Like a Fire: Stephen Russell talks a…

Jeff and Deana Swanson spent years searching the Scriptures to find what Christ was calling them to. They share their story of looking for a community that they could plug into, and how they came to the Anabaptist worldview. This is the 267th episode of Anabaptist Perspectives, a podcast, blog, and YouTube channel that examines various aspects of c…

The English Bible is a translation of manuscripts in Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic. How did we get the manuscripts that Bible translations use? Why do we see differences between different translations of the Bible, and should this concern us? Andrew Lamicela pulls from his experience as a teacher of biblical Greek to explore why biblical languages mat…

Susie Coyne grew up in Slovakia and was part of the Gothic underground. She later became involved in New Age Spiritualism and other dark practices, and had no interest in Christianity. In this episode, Susie tells her story of how she came to see that every knew will bow to Jesus, and ultimately how her and her husband left the New Age world behind…

What does it mean to be a disciple of Jesus? Charles Moore joins us to discuss a radical picture of truthful, peaceable, subversive allegiance to Jesus. The conversation is framed around Stanley Hauerwas’s latest book which Moore helped him produce. Moore also reflects on the significance of Hauerwas’s work for his own Christian journey and for the…

There are many forms of addiction. What causes it? How can we relate to those suffering from an addiction, and what are tools for dealing with addictions? Michael Hochstetler, a counseling that focuses on helping those trapped in addiction, gives insight into how we as individuals and churches can properly care and help those in addiction. Essays F…

The hosts of Anabaptist Perspectives respond to concerns that some of our guests are “woke” (or associated terms). This term can be used to identify awareness of social dynamics, to advocate for specific agendas regarding gender and sexuality, or as a catch-all term of critique. The currently popular “anti-woke” movement brings its own set of dange…

Do medical "sharing plans" give an example of bearing one another's burdens or do they make us self-sufficient and individualistic? Marlin Sommers argues they are an economic tool distinct from brotherly aid. He challenges us to share to address actual needs and to pool our resources to support ambitions Christian teaching. https://anabaptistperspe…

Edsel Burdge walks us through plainness, starting with the Quakers, addressing concerns of plainness at various points of conservative Mennonite history, and makes a case for why considerations of plainness should matter to Christians today. Burdge thinks of plainness as an approach to life that identifies a person with God’s people while resisting…

Trauma is complicated, with many different opinions and stigmas surrounding it. But what are basics all of us should know about trauma, to help us be more caring and gracious towards those that have experienced it? Michael Hochstetler is a counseling that speaks from his experience of helping those who have experienced trauma. Frank Reed Course: Th…