Primitive Baptist Photo Album – Sister Zopha Pitney

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Elder A. D. Pitney and Sister Zopha Rower Pitney

Sister Zopha Pitney (1891-1952) was the first wife of Elder Admiral Dewey Pitney (1892-1968).  She was a believer, a faithful Christian wife and mother (she raised four sons and one daughter), and a mother in Israel to many.

Among the possessions left by Sister Pitney was the photo album presented here.  It includes individual and group photographs of Primitive Baptist ministers and their wives from around the turn of the 20th century through the 1910’s.  Most of these ministers are from the midwest region, and the photos appear to have been taken from a “Portraits” book similar to Elder Potter’s, Cash’s and Webb’s.

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Pitney Photo Album (Click to Access)

Special thanks to Sister June (Hunt) Pitney and Brother Paul Pitney of McDonough, GA for sharing this album with us.

If anyone is familiar with the source of these photos, or is able to identify any of the unlabeled ministers from the group photos, please comment and share with us.

Otherwise, enjoy this opportunity to connect faces to the men with whose articles, books, and stories you are likely already familiar.

 

 

 

Elders at Unknown Meeting Circa 1910's

Elders at Unknown Meeting Circa 1910’s

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The Order of God’s House – by Elder J. M. Bullard

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Elder J. M. BullardElder J. M. Bullard was born July 10, 1895 and died on May 2, 1979.  He was a minister of the Primitive Baptist Church for more than 50 years.  Elder Bullard was a well educated man, serving as a public school teacher and administrator, Business Administrator of Northeast Mississippi Junior College in Booneville, MS, and finally as a member of the Mississippi State Legislature.

Elder Bullard was a close friend of Elder J. D. Holder for whom he moderated the Holder-Nichols debate in 1950.

Elder Bullard was a frequent contributor to Primitive Baptist periodicals, and authored booklets including:  Ministers in My Day, Ministerial Qualifications, The Atonement, and The Order of God’s House.

If any of our readers has or has access to any of the above, please contact us with information on how we may acquire digital copies of these writings.

The Order of God's HouseIn The Order of God’s House, Elder Bullard presents a concise, yet powerful, call to order in the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ.  In our day, there are many calls for unity at the expense of Biblical truth.  Elder Bullard identifies his purpose in writing in the Preface when he states:

“I trust that my only motive is to seek out the ordered path that the Church should travel in, and to sight some errors of its procedures. The Church of Jesus Christ has the greatest mission of any other organization on earth.

Christ gave her the orders, the laws, the commands, to carry out that mission.

The mission of the Church was not to populate heaven; not to prepare the alien hearts of men for the glory world; not to bring about a spiritual birth; but its mission was, and is, to prepare the Lord’s people for service in the kingdom here in the world.

It is to do this in perfect harmony with the teachings of God’s inspired Word that orders her in the way of righteousness.

When she observes the laws of her Master, she is a bright and shining light.  There is no light in the world today like this glorious light.  But if that light which is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!

Hence, the need to study the order of God’s house that we may walk as children of the light.” 

Regardless of where lines of fellowship, communion, and association are drawn, it is clear that there must be such lines.  Elder Bullard reminds us that it is the Word of God which is our standard and only rule of faith and practice.  It is the responsibility of every believer to ensure that they are laboring to contend for the faith, and to ensure that God’s house, the Church of God is kept in good and working order.