William R. Estep was a family man as well as a highly regarded professor of church history at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary for 40 years. He was a prominent church historian in the Southern Baptist circle and authored many works on church, Baptist, and Anabaptist history such as Anabaptist Beginnings, Renaissance and Reformation, and Whole Gospel Whole World. He has also served as a pastor in several churches in Texas, Kentucky, and Oklahoma as well as taught at Baptist seminaries across the world including nations such as Canada and Columbia. The number of years he has researched, taught, and lived serve as the authority that he has to write about the early Anabaptist history.
Summary
In the first seven chapters of The Anabaptist Story, Estep walks the reader through the birth
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Estep marks the birth of Anabaptism in the first chapter during the Reformation alongside well known reformers such as Martin Luther and Ulrich Zwingli as the first baptism of the Swiss Brethren took place in 1525. He went on to illustrate the disputes that occurred between the Swiss Brethren and Zwingli to help the reader distinguish clearly between the two including the October Disputation in 1523. Estep also points out that the ability to distinguish between the Anabaptists, inspirationists, and rationalists is vital to understanding the Reformation. The role that the key figures like Conrad Grebel, Felix Manz, and George Blaurock played during the development of Anabaptism is thoroughly described in the second chapter. Estep also portrays passion and commitment to truth along with the persecution, imprisonment, torture, and martyrdom that followed the Anabaptists as they began to share and teach the truth of God’s word that they were so dedicated to. Among those highlighted in the book, an entire chapter is dedicated to