Where Would You Pitch Your Tent?
Percy Ray

Percy Alexander Ray (1910–1991) was an American preacher and evangelist whose fervent ministry left a profound impact on the Independent Fundamental Baptist movement. Born on May 21, 1910, in Mississippi—specific details about his early life and family are sparse—he experienced a transformative conversion in his youth that propelled him into a life of preaching. Known as "Dr. Percy Ray" after receiving an honorary doctorate, he dedicated over 55 years to ministry, most notably as the pastor of Myrtle Baptist Church in Myrtle, Mississippi, from December 15, 1935, until his death in 1991. His passion for revival and soul-winning defined his career, leading him to establish some 40 churches. Ray’s preaching career was marked by his establishment of Camp Zion in 1948 near Myrtle, Mississippi, a camp meeting ground that became a hub for spiritual renewal, drawing thousands annually with its emphasis on prayer and old-fashioned preaching. His sermons, characterized by fiery conviction and titles like “Boiling Pots and Blood” and “Back to Bethel,” were preserved in audio recordings and continue to circulate through ministries like Free Gospel Preaching. He pastored Myrtle Baptist Church for over 50 years, fostering a legacy of evangelism that extended beyond his local congregation through Camp Zion, which remains active under the direction of his successor, Earl Farley. Ray died on April 11, 1991, and was buried in Union Cemetery, Chalybeate, Tippah County, Mississippi, leaving a legacy as a preacher who tirelessly called America back to God. Personal details such as his education or family life are not extensively documented.
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Sermon Summary
In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of believing and following the word of God without being influenced by those who try to undermine it. He encourages the congregation to preach, teach, and live according to the Bible, regardless of what others may say. The preacher also calls for a return to old-fashioned hellfire damnation preaching and a focus on sin, rather than being swayed by the moral and entertaining crowd. He warns against aligning with wickedness and urges the audience to stand up for what is right based on the teachings of their forefathers and the Bible.
Sermon Transcription
This sermon was recorded at Camp Acor, an old-fashioned Baptist camp meeting hosted by Southside Baptist Tabernacle. We are located at 6710 Textile Road, Ypsilanti, Michigan, 48197. Our phone number is 734-482-4122. Southside is an independent, fundamental, Bible-believing Baptist church. Camp Acor is held under a tent on a church property on Textile Road, beginning on the second Sunday in July and ending on Friday. All are invited. See our website for more details. Our website is www.campacor.org. That's www.campacor.org. This recording is made available for your edification. Please do not change it or alter it in any fashion without written permission of the pastor. If you have any questions or would like to speak to someone about your personal relationship with Jesus Christ, please feel free to visit the church, call us, or write us via snail mail or by email at pastor at ssbtonline.org. Thank you. Genesis chapter 13. Genesis chapter 13. And Abram went up out of Egypt, he and his wife, and all that he had, and lot with him into the south. Abram was very rich in cattle and silver and in gold. He went on his journey on south even to Bethel, under the place where his tent had been at the beginning between Bethel and Hea, under the place of the altar which he had made there at the first. And there Abram called on the name of the Lord. But also which went with Abram had flocks and herds and tents. The land was not able to bear them, that they might dwell together, for their substance was great, so they could not dwell together. There was strife between the herdsmen of Abram's cattle and the herdsmen of Lot's cattle, the Cainites and the Prezite, dwelt then in the land. Abram said unto Lot, Let there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, between my herdmen and thy herdmen, for we be brethren. Is not the whole land before thee? Separate thyself, I pray thee, from me. If thou takest the left hand, then I will go to the right, or if I will depart to the right hand, then I will go to the left. And Lot lifted up his eyes and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered where they ever were, before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, and as thou comest unto Zohar. Then Lot chose him all the plain of Jordan, and Lot journeyed east. Separate themselves the one from the other. Abram dwelt in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelt in the cities of the plain, pitched his tent towards Sodom. The men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the Lord exceedingly. The Lord said unto Abraham after Lot, as were separated from him, Lift up now thine eyes and look from the place where thou art, southward, northward, eastward, and westward. For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed forever. I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth, so that the man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered. Rise, walk through the land in the length of it, and in the breadth of it, and I will give it unto thee. Then Abram removed his tent, came and dwelt in the plain of Maram, which is in Hebron, and built there an altar unto the Lord. Reading, if correctly read, the 13th chapter of the book of Genesis. Thank you for letting me come. A lot of things I'd like to say to you personally, but I'll not take time because you've been here all day. And I'll say something else before I leave, probably. But it's a great honor, a great privilege you've bestowed upon me to invite me to come and invite me to speak with such preachers as this one you've just heard, and with Brother Lochte and Brother Shipman, two of the best preachers I know of in the country. With them in here preaching, and get an old boy out clogged like me, it'll be rough on you. And I enjoyed the man that just spoke. I'd like to see him get in it. And God said, by the foolish of preaching, he saved folks. And didn't say by the foolish of singing or by the foolish of ball gaming or entertaining or nothing else. He said, by the foolish of preaching. So if they get a little foolish, let them go to it. If they get saved, that's what he's stressing, wasn't it? Saving folks. Hallelujah. And I enjoyed it. Thank God for it. And it's such a blessing to be here to see many of you. We welcome you to come to Kemzah on August the 6th through the 9th this year. It's for young people and adults. I hope you can come. We have Brother Laverne Butler who's going to be with us again, and J. Harold Smith's going to be with us for the whole week. And those two within yourselves, along with some other great preachers, will be there, and you certainly want to be there to hear them. We're going to have a great time. And always for preachers and laymen and their wives in March, following the second Sunday in March, we want you to keep coming. And I want to thank the church for contributing regularly to the support of our work down there because there's been times when we couldn't have kept going if it hadn't been for folks like you that has helped us through the years. God bless you for it. I just wish I could tell you how much it's meant and how much it's helped at times when we need help. And I greatly appreciate every penny that you've given as personal gifts and as a church beyond words of expression. It's good to see my friend, Brother Don Green. I just rejoiced when I saw he was here. And I rejoiced when I found my good friend, Brother Pat, over here singing. He always blesses you, doesn't he? It's good to have him here to bless your hearts. Thank you for letting me come. Like I said, there's a lot of things I'd like to say. We love your pastor and appreciate him for the glory of God. Let us pray. Our Father tonight, we're here conscious that you've been here blessing people all day. And we're conscious that it'll be no strain on you to bless yet. Because you don't get tired. We get tired, but you don't. And you said where two or three would be gathered in your name, you'd be there. And so, our Father, we're reminded that you're here. We may not recognize you. We may miss you. Because we're not here personally in spirit. You're here anyway. But help us to be here where you're at and to be blessed with you. God bless every preacher that's here tonight. Thank you for every one of them. Bless the churches that are represented here tonight. We pray thy blessings upon them. Bless Southside, O God, in a special way. And bless this precious pastor, Brother Walker. How we thank you for his life and his influence and his testimony and his witness and his leadership. Those who work with him. And God, we pray that you'll continue to bless Brother Locke and Brother Shipman, the others who have happened to lead in this conference. Give them thy power and thy direction. And O God, take thy servant now and loose his tongue and illuminate his mind. Give us holy unction. Send us away conscious that you said something that will stay with us. And we'll praise thy name for it in Jesus' name. Amen. I want to talk to you tonight a little while about being careful who you pitch a tent with. Be careful who you pitch a tent with. God told Abraham, said, get up and go to a place that I'll show you. And Abraham pulled stakes, carried his herdmen, his family, their herd and everything he had. And the folks, the neighbors said, have you heard about Uncle Abraham? What? Poor fellow has lost his mind. He just pulled stakes, don't know where he's going. Uncle Abraham, where are you going? Don't know, just going. God told me to go and he'd show me where to stop at. So he loaded up everything and headed out. And everybody in the community thought, sure, he's crazy, lost his mind, got sick mentally. But he just headed out. And it came an hour when God said, this is it, Abraham. And the first thing Abraham did is build an altar and worship God when he found out that was the place. He got that altar built and worshiped God. It wasn't a place pleasing to his nephew, Lot. And some of Lot's herdmen and probably part of Lot's family didn't like it. And as a result, when they took up their boat there, they began to complain and stirred up strife between Lot's herdmen and Abraham's herdmen, stirred up trouble. And as a result, they started to fuss. And Abraham called in Lot and said, looky, we're brethren. Let's not have any fussing. Let's not have any strife. We're brethren. Let's get along together. The whole world's out here in front of us. If you don't like where we're at, you just pick what you want and I'll take what's left. That's a good spirit, wasn't it? That's Christian spirit. And as a result of it, Lot went out and beheld the whole countryside. He looked it all over. I can see him looking it all over. And he saw the plains of Jordan that is well watered and good grazing. And he thought, well, Uncle Abraham's got it made. He don't need to get any richer anyhow. So I'll take my herdmen and my herd and family, and we'll go down where the plains of Jordan where there's plenty of grass and plenty of water, and soon we'll be rich. And he said, all right, Uncle Abraham, since you've given me my choice, plains of Jordan, all of that down there is mine. You can have the hills. And so Lot loaded up his herdmen and his herds and his family, took all he had, moved down in the plains of Jordan where the grass was, where the water was, where it's easy to get rich. Selfishness got a hold of him. Now let me pause to say this. Selfishness will get you with the wrong crowd, and the wrong crowd will get you away from God. And when you get away from God, you're going to lose everything you've got. So you just remember that. You'll see that before the picture is completed this evening. And he moved down. Well, instead of when he moved out and left Uncle Abraham, he didn't have nothing but the hills, no grass, no water. All of his cattle, all of his herdmen lived up there without any water, without any grass. Now he could have pitched a fit, and have been roughed on his nephew Lot. But he didn't. He just went down back to the altar and got down and prayed, and God said, Get up, Abraham. Look northward, look southward, look eastward, look westward. Take a good look. Every way you look, all you see is yours. And your seed will be as the numbers of the grains of sand, or as the stars, if anybody can number them, then you'll know how many your offspring will be. And furthermore, because you've acted like this, I'll bless your children, bless your descendants, and bless those that bless them. And I'll curse those that curse you, and curse those that curse your descendants. And that covenant still stays good. If you want to get in trouble with God, you mess with a Jew today, and you're done in trouble. You brought yourself a bunch of trouble on when you started. Matters not whether it's a natural Jew or an engrafted Jew. It's dangerous to mess with a Christian. Now you go out and mess with the old lost sinner in the lost church, remember all you want to, but you've got to keep your dirty mouth and dirty hands off of God's youngins. They're Abraham's descendants, so to speak. They're engrafted Jews. And as a result, God said he'll curse those that curse them. And if you want to get cursed by God Almighty, just mess with God's youngins, and he'll put a curse on your back. I don't care if you're a deacon, or you're a sister in the church, or who you are, or another preacher, or a leader in the denomination of what you are, you just shut up on God's youngins, and you done bombard you a bunch of trouble. And God won't quit it when you holler either. You just remember that. Because God ain't going to lie to save your nasty hides. He just won't do it. You say, well, I know some, and God hasn't done nothing. Well, don't get in a hurry. They're not going anywhere. God won't be when they get there. He'll tell them good when he gets ready. He don't have to get in a hurry. Because they're not going to go nowhere anyhow. God won't be. And as a result, God blessed old Abraham and showed him where to dig some wells. And when he dug those wells, there's all kind of water in them. He watered his cattle. And God caused grass to grow in those hillsides. And there's all kind of grass. And God blessed Abraham's descendants. They've always had plenty. And this country. Yeah, man. This country has been blessed bountifully as no other country on the face of God's earth. You listen to this preacher. Did you know that there's no nation on the face of the earth can survive without America? If America cut off all of our supplies to every nation under the sun, they'd all go under. Including Russia. No nation can survive without our support. God has blessed this nation as no other nation. And the reason of it, we've respected a Jew and respected Christianity. And the churches of the Lord Jesus Christ and God's ministry. And that's the reason of it. And God said he'd do it. And he's going to keep on doing it. And all these God-fighting infidels and atheists and skeptics and so on. And communists. Just wasting their time and getting themselves in trouble when they fight us. Go on and stand for America. Go on and believe in the things that your forefathers taught you. About God and about the church. Don't get scared. They're not going to destroy us. Just stand up for what you know is right. In the light of this book. Now as a result, Lot pitched his tent. Down there where the wealth was. Pitched his tent. Down there where the entertainment was going on. Pitched his tent with a wicked crowd. As a result of it, my friends, There's some things I want to take note of with you tonight. First of all, There's three people I want to call on the scene on this question. We've got one in the 15th chapter of Luke. There's a young man that had everything he needed. He wanted for nothing. But he became a smart aleck. Smarter than his papa and his brothers and his neighbors. And he went in and said, Give me my part of the estate. Give me what belongs to me. I'm tired of this disciplined life. I'm going to go somewhere. And the father divided the estate. Give him his portion. And he took it and carried it down in a far country. And pitched his tent down there. With the harlots and with the drunkards. And with the wicked people. And soon they relieved him of all he had. They relieved him of his character. They relieved him of his health. They relieved him of his wealth. And left him a pauper. Left him nowhere to sleep but with the pigs. Left him nowhere to eat but the slop of the hogs. And left him with no health. Left him with nobody with any confidence in him. Left him with no manhood in him. Left him down there by himself. Now listen, my friends. Sin wastes. He wasted his substance and righteous living. That wasn't his money wasted. That wasn't his property wasted. That was his father and his mother's and his brother's. Part of it, most of it belonged to the others. But the father just gave him what was his to shut him up. And he went down there and wasted that that didn't really belong to him. And he wasted something else. God had given him a character. God had given him a good mind. God had given him a healthy body. God had given him a chance at being somebody in life. And he goes down there and spends it all with highlights. And spends it all with sexual immorality. And all with booze and gambling. And lost his health. Lost his honesty. Lost his virtue. Lost everything that man could hope for. Lost his chance in life. And lost his ability to do what God created him to do and brought him into the world to do. He lost everything that was given him. And come dragging back barefooted without anything to eat or wear. Wound up in the hog pen. Now I tell you when you decide you're going to quit God. And quit being obedient to God. And to your parent. And to the authority of God. And say give me my life. I'll live it like I want to live it. I'll live like I want to go where I want to go. Do what I want to do. Act what I want to act. You'll do it all right. But I'll tell you one thing. You'll wind up in the hog pen. Eating slop with the hogs. And naked. And your virtue gone. And your manhood gone. And your hope gone. Your health gone. Your chance in life gone. Your wealth gone. And you'll be gone with it. Just remember that my friend. Lot took his herdman and his herd. And his family. And they moved down to Sodom. And pitched his tent towards Sodom. And the men were exceedingly wicked and sinful in Sodom. And those men influenced his herdman. Those men influenced his family. Those men influenced him. He quit having family altar. He quit worshiping God. He quit serving God. He quit honoring God with his life. And all he's doing is getting rich. And it grew worse and worse. And all of his family went to the devil. Began to drink and dance and gamble. And come for sex perverts. And everything else. And there they are down there. And as a result of it. It got so far. He'd spent all God give him. God had given him the ability to make a living. And be respectable. God give him health. God give him wealth. God give him some other things. And God got tired of giving. And he said, okay. I'm going to burn it all up. And take it all away from him. And let him go. And they called on Uncle Abram. Abraham, a man of God. An honored God. A friend of God. Called. Said, if I find 50 riders. Will you spare a lot? Yeah. Pardon me God for a fine 40. Yeah. Fine 20. Fine 10. Yeah. Couldn't even find 10. And so God as a result. Reigned, rimstone and fire. You know the story. Burned up Lot's family. They all went to hell. His daughters. Son-in-laws. And grandchildren went to hell. His herd went to hell. Those of them wasn't saved. And all of his cattle. All of his herd burned up. And the Dead Sea stands today. Where Sodom and Gomorrah used to stand. And where Lot used to dwell. And the rise of that water. The fall of it never changes. Over 2,000 years have passed. And the water level in the Dead Sea stands there. New water runs in. Fresh water runs in. Dives when it hits the Dead Sea. God said in the book of Peter. It's to warn those who should act. Would live ungodly. He lost everything. It stays lost. And old Lot tried to get out. And on the way out. His wife turned to a pillar of salt. And then his two daughters and his wife got drunk. Committed adultery with him. And he gave birth to two of the weakest generations ever walked on earth. The Amorites and Moabites. And took ten generations to clear that mess up. And the afflictions of it have been on us ever since. But I'll tell you my friends. When he chose. He walked off down there. And left off God's altars. And he chose to serve. And to get rich. And to satisfy his family. Which way are you going to pitch a tent? God built altars. I mean Abram built altars. God worshipped God. Abram honored God with his life. And believed in God. And stood for God. And God blessed him and blessed his descendants. Still blessed his descendants. Which way do you want to pitch your tent? And I want you to know. My friends. We're in a day when. The world is trying to get us to pitch our tent the wrong direction. Now listen to this preacher. We're trying to. Soften a lot of things down. That's what I want to talk to you about tonight. Who are you going to pitch your tent with? You're going to pitch it to the compromising. Push your foot and ease your mouth. Preachers that won't preach against sin. Listen. Sin is wrecking this country. Sin. Sin is damning this society. Which we live in. We've got preachers and politicians going all over this country. Preaching against abortion. I'm against abortion. Why don't you get up and pull pips and into political rallies. And start preaching upon these low down sorry men. That's committing adultery with these women. And making heaven have abortion. Did you ever hear them preaching on sexual immorality of these men? That's causing women to have to have an abortion. Why don't you preach against the fellows that's causing women to get in trouble. I can remember when a man. If he got a woman or a girl pregnant. My friends he went to the electric chair or the gas chamber. It ought to be that way now. Because he's took something for that woman you can't ever restore. It's the same as a death. And yeah. We've got a lot of politicians. A lot of preachers. That's all you hear about. The table. I'm against it. Don't misunderstand me. I think it's wrong. I know it's wrong. I preach it's wrong. But why don't we open fire on the devilish old men. Old sex perverts running around messing up all the women. That's having babies. Heaven have abortion. We're saying nothing about that. All the politicians preaching against a bunch of low down reprobate men. A bunch of old sexual maniacs. Going around messing up the women. Why don't we preach against that? Do you ever hear them preaching against that? No. You're afraid to politician. You're afraid you won't get their vote. I'm not afraid of the old blurry eyed outfitch. There's nothing meaner than a man mistreating a woman like that and getting her pregnant. Then have to have an abortion. Don't have to but she does. Who's the cause of it? The low down men that started it. They're the one that sowed the seed. They're the one that caused the trouble. Why don't we wake up and preach. And teach against it. And sound the trumpet against such stuff as that. Let's face the truth. And my friends, where are they going to stand? I can remember the day 15 and 20 years ago. See I'm getting old. You didn't hear nothing about the Bible. Whether it's true or wasn't true. You didn't hear folks trying to pick it to pieces. Raised questions in their mind. Why worry about it? Why hold on to questions? Stand up and preach the word of God. It is true when God said it. It's true now. And everybody that's preaching it ain't true. It's a lie. And headed to hell for preaching it that way. Don't pitch your tent with that smart-ass bunch. Those theologians and those professors. And those skeptics that's trying to take it apart. And say it don't mean this. Just let that bunch go on to hell with it. You preach it like God said it. Teach it like God said it. Stand up and hold it up like God said it. Don't pitch your tent with a bunch of modernists. And a bunch of skeptics. And a bunch of theologians. And scholars that's saying the Bible don't mean this and mean that. It means exactly what God said. It meant what it said a hundred years ago. It meant what it said when God said it. And God don't take it back. God don't have to take it back. And it'll always mean. And we need to get in our pulpit. And preach the truth. And preach against sin of the devil. And quit compromising. We pitch in our tent with the ball teams. And with entertainment. And with sing-ins. And a lot of things. And we ought to be preaching in hell fire. And damnation. And judgment of God. Till the sinner crowd gets so shook up they can't eat or sleep. Or work till they get saved. That's what we need. Let's face the truth. Who are you going to pitch your tent with? These little mealy-mouthed scarecrows. Trying to be popular preachers. And get the big church. Or go back and preach the judgment of God. And the wrath of God. Hell fire. And damnation. Judgment of God. Until folks get so shook up they can't sleep. They can't eat. And as he said they'll go crazy if they don't get saved. Who are you going to pitch your tent with? That crowd that will pat you on the back and say, That's a nice sinner. He preaches nice. He don't preach about our nakedness. He don't preach about our mixed bathings. He don't preach about our cussing. He don't preach about our drinking. He don't preach about our adulteries. He's a nice preacher. Who are you going to pitch your tent with? The naked crowd? The undressing crowd? The alcoholic crowd? The sex crowd? The dancing crowd? The mixed bathing crowd? Hey! Who are you going to pitch your tent with? Who are you going to pitch your tent with, honey? Or we're coming back to the elders and pray the fire of God down. Until folks will get out of conviction, until they can't sleep or eat and get saved. Or little ass sermonettes. Or churchettes. What way are we going? Where are we going? Who are you going to choose? He pitched his tent to where the wicked men continually before his family influenced his family. Choice involved influence on his family. Involved influence on his herdmen. Involved his influence on his business. And as a result of it, he lost his business currently. And it got dumped in the fire and burned up. What effect is your preaching having, my friends, on the spiritual life of the community in which you live? What effect is it having on those that live around us? What is it doing? Is it shaking people up again? We need some old time hell fire damnation preaching across this country. We've shut up too long about sin. We've pitched our tent with a little nice talking crowd. The more than manner crowd. The entertaining crowd. The ball game crowd. Sin which can put on the biggest ball game, win the most things to put up in the window. I haven't been to a church yet that is showing trophies for souls that is winning. And I've been to a bunch of them that have trophies of all kinds reached all across the states for the ball game. Brag about it. You say we don't like you personally. I knew you wouldn't believe it. I come so you have something you didn't like. It's a lot easier to have entertainments and put on socials and all kinds of outings and all kinds of trips. All kinds of singing trips and this and this to go soul winning. Well it's going to hell and while they go to hell we're entertaining each other and putting on little socials. And playing ball and eating out and having a dance about. Which way are you pitching your tent brother, sister? Brother Bridges which way are you pitching a tent? These route are the route that brings us to persecution like the early Christians fought. Like our forefathers suffered in jail. You say why we having it rough? Paul said you haven't suffered yet to the shedding of any blood. Nobody shed any blood over preaching yet. Nobody's been put in jail over preaching yet. Let's just face it tonight. And he pitched his tent towards Sodom. What? Selfishness gets us with the wrong crowd. And that wrong crowd will pat you and brag on you and pat you on the back to get you away from God's way of preaching. God's way of teaching. God's way of living. You listen to this preacher tonight. It's getting too easy to live in sin in our churches all over America tonight. We're not going to have a revival until the church people get repentant of sin and clean up their lives and change their way of living. We're just well to face it tonight. We're just as well to face it. You need to expect it. The television media has so brainwashed us Americans until nothing's wrong anymore. Everybody else is doing it. Everybody else is living like that. What a sin 10 years ago. Is this much sin inside of God now as it was 10 years ago? The Bible is still as true as it's ever been. The Bible hadn't changed. I don't care what Dr. Doodle Digger, Post Hole Digger said about it. The Bible is still what God does say of God, does say of God, does say of God. Don't let all these fools run around trying to undermine the Bible. Don't penetrate that bunch of fools that's trying to undermine what the Bible teaches. Believe it like God put it. Believe it like God said it. Preach it, teach it, live it, practice it, and let that crowd go to hell if they want to go to hell. God said heaven and earth may pass away, but my word will never pass away. The word of God is here to stay, and all the forces of evil in hell can't change it. I better quit before I get stirred up. This sermon was recorded at Camp Acor. An old-fashioned Baptist camp meeting hosted by Southside Baptist Tabernacle. We are located at 6710 Textile Road, Ypsilanti, Michigan, 48197. Our phone number is 734-482-4122. Southside is an independent, fundamental, Bible-believing Baptist church. Camp Acor is held under a tent on a church property on Textile Road, beginning on the second Sunday in July and ending on Friday. All are invited. See our website for more details. Our website is www.campacor.org. That's www.campacor.org. This recording is made available for your edification. Please do not change it or alter it in any fashion without written permission of the pastor. If you have any questions or would like to speak to someone about your personal relationship with Jesus Christ, please feel free to visit the church, call us, or write us via snail mail or by email at pastor at ssbtonline.org. Thank you. ♪♪
Where Would You Pitch Your Tent?
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Percy Alexander Ray (1910–1991) was an American preacher and evangelist whose fervent ministry left a profound impact on the Independent Fundamental Baptist movement. Born on May 21, 1910, in Mississippi—specific details about his early life and family are sparse—he experienced a transformative conversion in his youth that propelled him into a life of preaching. Known as "Dr. Percy Ray" after receiving an honorary doctorate, he dedicated over 55 years to ministry, most notably as the pastor of Myrtle Baptist Church in Myrtle, Mississippi, from December 15, 1935, until his death in 1991. His passion for revival and soul-winning defined his career, leading him to establish some 40 churches. Ray’s preaching career was marked by his establishment of Camp Zion in 1948 near Myrtle, Mississippi, a camp meeting ground that became a hub for spiritual renewal, drawing thousands annually with its emphasis on prayer and old-fashioned preaching. His sermons, characterized by fiery conviction and titles like “Boiling Pots and Blood” and “Back to Bethel,” were preserved in audio recordings and continue to circulate through ministries like Free Gospel Preaching. He pastored Myrtle Baptist Church for over 50 years, fostering a legacy of evangelism that extended beyond his local congregation through Camp Zion, which remains active under the direction of his successor, Earl Farley. Ray died on April 11, 1991, and was buried in Union Cemetery, Chalybeate, Tippah County, Mississippi, leaving a legacy as a preacher who tirelessly called America back to God. Personal details such as his education or family life are not extensively documented.