Many today, who call themselves Baptists, are totally ignorant of the history and beliefs of their early forefathers! As a result, they mistakenly label those today who are holding historic Baptist beliefs and practices as heretical---or at best they say such people just cannot be Baptists! Ira Pointer, the primary character of our "journey" books, is invited to speak for a number of weeks on Baptist history in a somewhat typical present day Baptist church. And when he teaches the true history and doctrine of the early Baptists, one man especially, the Chairman of the Deacons, tries every way possible to close down the studies.
Ira Pointer, he thinks, is not a Baptist! The other people of the church are also shocked at what they hear, but they are gracious enough to listen to the presentation with open hearts and minds, and then they are shocked at what they had never been taught about Baptist history and doctrine! Much turmoil and danger unfolds in both mystery and uncertainty, as Ira with the backing of Dink and the pastor sets forth his convictions concerning Baptist history!
The idea for the book actually came from the positive response to a 2009 series of articles by Dr. Belcher entitled "An Historical Examination of the Doctrine of the Church Among Baptists With Special Reference to Southern Baptists and Church Purity." This material was originally part of a Th.M. dissertation submitted to Covenant Theological Seminary in 1973, but the response to the articles shows that the material is definitely still applicable to contemporary Baptists in particular. I am certainly glad that Dr. Belcher has once again made such important teaching available and accessible to many who would otherwise struggle to learn history and doctrine. He definitely has a way of putting the cookies on the bottom shelf where we can all reach them! And he also always makes his work available at very good prices. I encourage all to head over to the Richbarry Press website and check out the whole Journey series, as well as the many other good books Dr. Belcher offers.
