Customer Reviews

On Fire for Christ: Stories of Anabaptist Martyrs, Retold from Martyrs Mirror

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ON FIRE FOR CHRIST is to MARTYRS MIRROR what a movie trailer is to the movie. MARTYRS MIRROR, written in 1660, is 1150+ pages revealing the history of the Christian doctrine and martyrs from the time of Christ forward. The majority of the book focuses on Anibaptist martyrs.

ON FIRE FOR CHRIST reviews the history of MARTYRS MIRROR, its author, and the anibaptists. It then presents 15 accounts of martyrs from MARTYRS MIRROR. The authors rewrote each story from fictional standpoints, presenting them from the point of view of someone in the story. This method makes the stories more enjoyable to read for most people. Most of the accounts are well written, though the authors added too much fluff (for my tastes) in a few of the stories.

MARTYRS MIRROR, at 1100+ pages, is well worth the read. However, if you are daunted by the size, then ON FIRE FOR CHRIST will give you a good sampling of it without being overwhelming. I do recommend it. 184 pages, illustrated.

First of all, I should admit that I am not myself an anabaptist though I am a Christian who admires much in the Anabaptist tradition. Even though I'm not completely a pacifist, I also admire the determination of many Anabaptists to hold this belief in the face of ostracism and persecution. The seventeenth century book "Martyr's Mirror" details graphically some of that persecution. Admittedly though the sheer lenght of "Martyr's Mirror" may keep some readers away (I still haven't read it cover to cover). "On Fire for Christ" presents the stories of some martyrs in the longer book and the authors used the interesting concept of telling about the sufferers in stories told by characters. These characters ranged from family members of the martyrs to others. Overall, the stories are sad but inspiring. I recommend the book.