Review: Drive Thru History® “Acts to Revelation”

by Sally Matheny

Whether he’s in a jeep, a Volkswagen, or a horse drawn carriage, Drive Thru History® host and narrator, Dave Stotts passionately retells historic events with an adventurous flair. This week I’ll review one of his latest projects, the Drive Thru History® “Acts to Revelation

: The World of the First Christians.”

The Format

The Drive Thru History® “Acts to Revelation: The World of the First Christians” product includes three DVD discs and a 124-page study guide booklet. All are enclosed in a hardcover binding.

The discs do not have the episode titles on them but are labeled one through three. The contents page in the booklet lists the titles and the numbered disc where they are located. Each disc contains six episodes, giving a total of eighteen episodes. An episode is approximately thirty minutes in length. That’s almost 500 total minutes of viewing!

Review of DVD Content

If you’ve ever wanted to travel to Israel, Turkey, Greece, or Rome, then hop into the passenger seat of whatever Dave Stotts is driving! He takes us on a scenic trip to those places as well as many others.

This mini-series covers the lives of the early Christians: Peter, James, Philip, Stephen, Paul, Barnabas, Silas, Timothy and John.

You can see a full list of episode titles on the Drive Thru History® website but to name a few:

“The Gospel Shared at Pentecost”

“Saul of Tarsus & the Road to Damascus”

“John and the Island of Patmos”

“The Seven Churches of Revelation”

In addition to people and places, we see passages of scripture, either ESV or NIV, printed in text across the screen. We also hear Stotts read scripture.

Dave Stotts has a gift for presenting history in an easy-to-understand conversational style which helps hold viewers’ attention. He also makes an occasional quirky facial expression or an awkward movement and most assuredly says something hilarious in every episode. But this is very well-balanced and well-placed in each episode. His humor never interrupts or distracts from the truth of God’s Word.

One humorous scene is when Stotts encourages a touring “throat-singer” to hum the Drive Thru theme song. We pressed the rewind button three times! There are no words to describe it. You’ll just have to watch the DVD.

Speaking of music, the musical scores for the Drive Thru episodes are magnificent. They enhance every scene.

Some biblical passages are depicted by reenactors and some are colorful illustrations “brought to life” with special effects.

Drive Thru History® is well-known for teaching history on site. “Acts to Revelation” is no exception. We see amazing relics and ruins as well as gorgeous scenes of present day places.

Stotts shares biblical history but he also shows us the history of the Mediterranean region through geography, museums, and other interesting things.

Review of the Study Guide Content

The study guide is filled with full-color, high gloss pages.

The “Contents” page is titled, Episodes and lists the episodes in order and on which numbered disc they appear.

In the study guide, there is a section devoted to each episode. The following format is used for every episode.

The first page of each section contains a photo and a quote.

The second page is a summary of the DVD episode. It’s very brief with only four or five sentences.

The third page is five questions. They are not life application questions but solely focus on the facts presented in the content of the DVD episode.

Also, located on the bottom corner of the page is suggested reading from the Bible. For Episode 15 the suggested reading is the Book of Hebrews.

On the fourth page of each episode section is a “Side Road.” This includes two photos or illustrations about one specific topic of interest from the episode. It’s not additional information but restates something presented in the DVD.

The fifth and sixth pages of each section contain a two-page photo spread.

The answers to the questions are provided in the back of the study guide book.

How My Family Used “Acts to Revelation”

No suggestions are offered on how to sequence the use of the materials provided. We weren’t sure if we were supposed to read a portion of the study guide first or watch the DVD before doing anything in the study guide.

Since the product is advertised for homeschool Bible and history curriculum, then we figured it’s all about flexibility and meeting the needs of individual families.

We tried using it in different ways and found what worked best for my family.

Since we used this as a family Bible time, we began by reading the scripture quote, the summary, and the “Side Road.” Then, we watched the correlating episode and discussed the questions together at the end.

The Recommendation

This Drive-Thru History® series comes highly recommended. I like the emphasis it places on the historical accuracy of the Bible and how beautifully it presents it.

This series would make a great supplement to a high school Bible history curriculum. Students could easily extend the course with further research and written assignments.

However, if used for a family Bible study, you may want to adapt or create new questions more suitable for younger students. You could even add some life application questions.

I think the DVD content would mainly hold the attention span of those who are age twelve and up, but younger ones could watch shorter segments.

My 8th grader and my husband and I enjoyed watching “Acts to Revelation” together so much so we’d like to get the Drive Thru History® “The Gospels” series.

You can watch a free episode at the Drive Thru History website or catch up with Dave Stotts on Facebook or YouTube!

Also, you can read more reviews about Drive Thru History® by clicking over to the Homeschool Review Crew blog.