The Kingdom that Turned the World Upside Down

by David Bercot

In The Kingdom that Turned the World Upside Down, Bercot seeks to tell the story of the early church—“taking the reader back to Jesus’ teachings of the kingdom” (Back Cover)—and how the modern church has left that pattern—“teachings that have too often been forgotten” (Back Cover).

For the most part, he does a fairly good job of this. But unfortunately, he doesn’t really offer too much that he hadn’t already written in Will The Real Heretics Please Stand Up? He goes about making his point a different way—scripture and logic rather than quoting the second and third century Christian writers—but time and again, he makes the same points he’s already made. And while this method—scripture—is certainly superior to citing, say, Clement, it doesn’t really provide anything different than countless other books provide. It issues different answers than the typical evangelical-doctrine-book provides, of course—so those who are among the evangelical world may do well to pick it up for a different viewpoint that comes from scripture—but it lacks the new-and-exciting feel that Heretics brought by coming to those answers through a different, even if inferior, route.

And, ultimately, this book ends the same way that Heretics did: an appeal for the reader to consider (and join?) the Anabaptists, Bercot’s own faith. His belief—like most people’s beliefs—is that the church he is a part of is the one that is properly following the New Testament pattern. And while he offers much for the reader to consider, he comes across as enough of a salesman to taint his plea.

So, my recommendation: if you’re not familiar with Bercot and want to see where his (or the Anabaptists’) viewpoints originate from the scripture, pick it up and give it a skim. If that’s not particularly interesting to you—or you’ve already read Heretics and already know his point of view—you could probably do just as well to skip this one.