The need of the Trail of Blood and translation Before we kind of poll the group tomorrow on what languages are needed for our immediate use we might ask a couple of questions. by Jim Curran

Jim Curran Admin 02/17/21

The need of the Trail of Blood and translation Before we kind of poll the group tomorrow on what languages are needed for our immediate use we might ask a couple of questions. So why translate the Trail of Blood and why this book? Having been home missionary in a neighborhood where I carried over 30 languages of tracts I saw the need for people to have materials in their own language. That is true of Tracts, the Scripture and to a lesser extent other materials. Obviously the Trail of Blood falls into the “other materials” category. I would never want the translation of this work to take the place of (proper) translation of the Scripture or needed tracts. People learn much better when they are reading in the language that they think in. So why do we need materials like this? In America there have been many churches that have deserted their Biblical Baptist distinctives and do not know the price that was paid in blood. I know this is becoming a problem in different parts of the world as well. This helps people to have a Biblical basis. So why the Trail of Blood- there are certainly much more comprehensive works? For its size the Trail of Blood packs a whole lot in. There is a lot of Biblical Baptist doctrine and history stuffed into a compact little package. Because of it’s compact size and large amount of information for its size it lends itself to this kind of project. It is also readable by the people in the pew. While there are others that are more comprehensive their size makes it much harder and more time consuming to translate. That is what I think makes this little book an ideal subject for this. It is small enough (and public domain) that it can be photocopied if regular printing is not practical. Understanding the limitations. While I love this little book realize that this is a brief work that is an introduction to Baptist history. That is what this did to me when I was given one by my pastor. The fact that this is an introduction is something that both its supporters and critics often miss. Supporters may sometimes see this book as the answer to everyone’s questions about perpetuity. However this book does not give all of the answers simply because of its size. It was actually made as a notes from a series of sermons. On the other hand critics attack it for not enough documentation etc…. but how much documentation can a 40 page booklet hold? While the Trail has a lot it is limited by size and scope. In these cases we can refer to more comprehensive sources such as DB Ray and JT Christian among others. As a note we do have links to many free Baptist history books that you can download at this link. They are in English though. https://www.facebook.com/groups/baptistchurchhistory/permalink/1168179383377209/