What Was I Hoping For the After Reading This Book?

Loved the ending, the plot, and the characterization. However, Grits, did you think that Richard P. Belcher got us any closer to deciding on an eschatological viewpoint? I am not sure he did.

Belcher's Suspense

As important as Bible prophecy might be, it is not an essential and major doctrine of the church. . . . Believers must also learn to major on the major doctrines and minor on the minor doctrines, and never major on the minors nor minor on the majors.

This is what the lead character notes on page 31 as he has been asked to write a book about eschatology. The plot also includes a search for his birth parents. In the preface Belcher also calls for eschatological caution and "Christ-like humility towards others with whom we may not agree."

The discussion last January at the beginning of the blog left too many questions. Now I have wanted all year to be able to approach this subject with both humility and objectivity. All the vews claim to be biblical. Which one is right? Continuing to study with humility is right--of that I am certain.

I will be very curious to see what Rev. Ira Pointer, Jr., the lead character of Belcher's theological novels,  discovered along with finding out who is the real Ira Pointer, Sr., his absent father.

GRITS, you jumped ahead and finished the novel. You just couldn't put it down. I am half-way done and would have finished except I was waitng for you.

Belcher's Theological Novels

I just finished reading Journey in Grace by Richard. P. Belcher. The lead narrator Ira is a student studying to become ordained. In the meanwhile he is serving his second Baptist church and he is engaged to Terry whom he marries in the last chapter. There are several subplots and always theological inquiry with Terry. Throughout the novel they study Calvinism, the definitions, Scriptural basis for the five points of Calvinism and the questions that Calvinism generates. Their inquiry ends just before they marry.
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At the end of the novel, the narrator Ira writes: "As we left the church after the reception, the question crossed my mind, 'What theological search shall I make next?' The answer came immediately--'Eschatology!' " Belcher did write such a book, but it is out of stock now. Here is how it is described.

A Journey in Eschatology - A Theological Novel

"Dr. Richard Belcher This is the continuing story of Ira Pointer, as he faces another theological search. Thinking he is free of such pursuits for a while, he is again suddenly thrust into the most difficult of all quests, the search to unravel the various eschatological (pertaining to the last day) views of his day. His mind is at times boggled by the many eschatological terms, and claims -- Pre-mil, post-mil, a-mil, preterist, historicist, pre-trib, post-trib, etc. But not only is he searching for an understanding of theology in this difficult area, but he is involved with another search. We learn in this book that he was reared in a children's home, having been abandoned by his parents at 2 years of age. So when the writing of this book opens the door to search for his birth parents, he at first rejects the possibility, but then after prayer, becomes deeply involved in that arduous and even dangerous challenge."

Anyone out there read A Journey in Eschatology?