Reply to "Reviews of various Bible Video Series"

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A review of:

The New Testament Bible Stories for Children video series

AKA: "Jesus: A Kingdom without Frontiers" NT series

AKA: "Bible Stories for Children New Testament"
or "Bible Stories for Children Old Testament"
currently being distributed through CBD by "Under God's Rainbow"

Overall rating: Thumbs up
...depending on which of the DVDs in the series you're talking about.

Posted on 11/12/12 by ZBCC

Anyone ever use the Kingdom Without Frontiers video(s) sold by Under God's Rainbow? They seem to have a lot of Bible stories covered for a very reasonable price. Curious to know if anyone has any opinions or experience using these DVD's.

Posted on 11/22/12 by Luanne Payne

These were first done in 1998 by MONDO TV ...an international publishing house that does animated Bible videos.

They were distributed by CCC of America on VHS under two names, "Jesus: A Kingdom Without Frontiers" NT videos and "In the Beginning" OT videos.

They have been repackaged as "The New (or Old) Testament Bible Stories for Children" DVD series by Under God's Rainbow.

There are many clips from this series on YouTube and not all of them are attributed.

There were 26 video's in the NT series and 24 video's in the OT series. I have only seen two of them, "The Boy Jesus in the Temple" (I liked), "Prophets in the Desert" (I didn't like).

They are a "classic" style animation, and as with a lot of these videos they will add to the story line to fill the 30 minutes. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing as it's always good to have the children watch for things found in the bible and things not found in the bible. In some cases, the storytelling expansions do serve the purpose of the story itself.

At the end of each video, they include a 3-4 minute "tutorial" on the history of that time at the end of the videos. Depending on your audience, and which of the episodes we're talking about, you may find them very useful.

UPDATE:
They are being redistributed under a new series name "The New Testament Bible Stories for Children" and "The Old Testament Bible Stories for Children" now being distributed by "Under God's Rainbow."

We found them at Christian Book Distributors.

You can see parts of them on You Tube - just do a search for "Bible Stories for Children New Testament" or "Bible Stories for Children Old Testament" by Allegro Media.

Here's one about the Temptation of Jesus, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKOCmVcFEnM

Luanne

Posted on 12/3/12 by Scotland UCC

I purchased one of the "Under God's Rainbow" DVDs today at our regional Christian bookstore in hopes of possibly finding a resource for a rotation on Jeremiah in a year or so. The selection, "The Prophets" caught my eye in that one episode entitled, "Jerusalem Burns" covers the fall of Jerusalem. I don't know that I've ever seen that story put on film for kids before. The first half of that episode was kind of interesting watching the portrayal of Jerusalem's destruction, especially the depiction of the sacking of the Temple. Unfortunately it didn't have much about Jeremiah in it. While the video shifted to Ezekiel, there really wasn't enough about him in it either to support a lesson plan.

Overall, after watching two out of three episodes on the DVD, I'd say don't waste your time on this series. The storyline in this particular DVD is rather disjointed and just hard to watch.

It would be interesting to see how Nest Entertainment would produce the same story, but alas, it seems as if they've stopped producing new Bible videos in their series.

Any audio/video teaching ideas/suggestions on Jeremiah besides the movie on "Jeremiah" starring Patrick Dempsey and short segments of the "What's in the Bible?" DVD on the prophets? These are the only two resources that I've found that cover Jeremiah and the fall of Jerusalem.

Originally Posted on 12/4/12 by Neil MacQueen

Thanks for the review Ron. Too bad those particular "episodes" weren't good for you.

UPDATE:

I've seen several of these now, and depending on WHICH of the videos in the series we're talking about, I do like some of them. Chapter 6: Jesus is Tested (about the wilderness temptation) is very good, for example. I don't mind the extra-storytelling elements in that video because they speak to Jesus' character. For example, the video shows him quoting scripture as he heads into the wilderness.

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