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• Part 12, Part 13, Part 14
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Older Sermons Recently Added

Barbed arrows repulsed
preached by Rev. Dr. Ian R. K. Paisley on Sun May 25, 1969

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A defense of Christian education
preached by Mrs. Ann Foster on Sat Feb 25, 1984

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Watch Kilskeery Free Presbyterian services live online here

I have just sent in to the Editor of the ‘Belfast Newsletter’, this response to a letter from a Mr Ferguson which appeared in yesterday’s edition.

I am replying because there are some matters in the letter that need correcting and also the issue dealt with needs a response from one involved in the controversy of Dr Paisley’s entering power-sharing arrangement with Sinn Fein/IRA from the very outset.

I think too that there is a need to highlight, for the present generation, details of events that were not made public at the time.

I trust that this will encourage those looking to the Lord for a restoration of the Free Presbyterian Church to its former stand for God, to continue praying for such.

Let us echo the prayer of the Psalmist.

“Turn us again, O LORD God of hosts, cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved,” Psalm 80:19.

Sincerely in Christ’s name,

Ivan Foster

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Dear Editor,

In response to Mr Richard Ferguson’s letter of yesterday (22/4/25), I must first of all point out that the ‘headline’  — ‘Free Presbyterians accepted the abomination of sharing power with Sinn Fein/IRA, which has helped a minister to hold an Irish language event’ contains both a falsehood and a truth.

1. It is false to say Free Presbyterians accepted the abomination of sharing power with Sinn Fein/IRA. That implies a wholesale acceptance of the folly of Dr Paisley back in 2007.

I think the fact that Dr Paisley had to step down as Moderator in January 2008 indicates that a majority of the Presbytery were opposed to him holding the position of ‘First Minister’ in the power-sharing executive at Stormont and that of Moderator of the Free Presbyterian Church.

I believe the subsequent removal of him as First Minister and then as leader of the DUP, was an indication of heaven’s disapproval of the step he had taken.

I personally had told him, as a member of a Free Presbyterian Presbytery delegation, which met with the leaders of the DUP in November 2006, that his actions were akin to those of Jehoshaphat. The great king had acted foolishly and was rebuked by the Lord through his servant, Jehu, the prophet. Click to read more…

Posted on 2025-04-23 a 4:59 pm

— A brief exposition of Psalm 15 —

First study, part 2

For ease of reading, I am splitting this first study into two parts.  Here is the second part

By Rev Ivan Foster (Rtd)

III. WHERE IT IS THE TRUE BELIEVER IS TO ABIDE.

“LORD, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? who shall dwell in thy holy hill?”

For the Old Testament believer these two places represent the location of the God appointed place where He is to be worshipped.

1. It was a place appointed by the Lord. “But unto the place which the LORD your God shall choose out of all your tribes to put his name there, even unto his habitation shall ye seek, and thither thou shalt come: And thither ye shall bring your burnt offerings, and your sacrifices, and your tithes, and heave offerings of your hand, and your vows, and your freewill offerings, and the firstlings of your herds and of your flocks: And there ye shall eat before the LORD your God, and ye shall rejoice in all that ye put your hand unto, ye and your households, wherein the LORD thy God hath blessed thee,”Deuteronomy 12:5-7.

That is what distinguishes the religion of Christ, true religion, from all those invented by man. Every element of true religion is ordained of God!

In the Westminster Confession of Faith, the underlying confession of Free Presbyterianism, there is this statement in the chapter dealing with the Holy Scriptures. ‘The whole counsel of God, concerning all things necessary for his own glory, man’s salvation, faith, and life, is either expressly set down in Scripture, or by good and necessary consequence may be deduced from Scripture: unto which nothing at any time is to be added, whether by new revelations of the Spirit, or traditions of men. Nevertheless, we acknowledge the inward illumination of the Spirit of God to be necessary for the saving understanding of such things as are revealed in the Word; and that there are some circumstances concerning the worship of God, and government of the Church, common to human actions and societies, which are to be ordered by the light of nature and Christian prudence, according to the general rules of the Word, which are always to be observed.’ (WCF, Chapter 1, Paragraph 6). Click to read more…

Posted on 2025-04-23 a 6:00 am

Every form of complimentary adjective has been employed to describe the pope who has just died.

Considering that he and all previous popes, have assumed titles which they have no right to and are guilty of blasphemy by so doing, I, along with all who believe the Bible, believe he was not what the duped followers of his religious teachings believed him to be.

He, along with all previous popes, led a religious organisation which, despite its claim to be the only ’true church’, was in world-wide violation of God’s Law, especially that stated in the ten commandments, Exodus 20:4-6, and repeated many times throughout the Bible.

“Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; and shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.”

This law is broken repeatedly every day in all Roman Catholic places of worship and in the homes of the ‘faithful’!

That which God forbids is a chief feature of the religion of the popes!

The Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter 25:6 says this of all popes:

‘There is no other head of the Church but the Lord Jesus Christ. Nor can the Pope of Rome, in any sense, be head thereof; but is that Antichrist, that man of sin, and son of perdition, that exalts himself, in the Church, against Christ and all that is called God.’

That view was shared by Protestants generally from such men as John Wesley to Charles Haddon Spurgeon.

I well recall seeing his angry and bad tempered display when a poor benighted woman devoutly clasped his hand in misplaced affection. He slapped her hand away in a most irritated manner.

I believe that the world was given a true glimpse of the man and the highly ‘stage-managed’ persona of the ‘holy, humble, gentle’ deceptive facade was breached. Click to read more…

Posted on 2025-04-22 a 10:44 pm

This is a copy of a letter sent out by six Free Presbyterian ministers as a protest against the recent spectacle of two Free Presbyterian ministers organising a meeting to promote the Irish language in company with Sinn Fein representatives.

See —

The Irish Language and the Sinn Fein/IRA campaign to extort more money from the public purse to finance their ‘Gaelitising’ Ulster!

This letter will refresh the hearts of many Free Presbyterians who have mourned at the path down which the Free Presbyterian Church has been led in recent years.

It should encourage those who will rejoice at the actions of the six ministers who signed the letter to pray that many others will show the same courage and ‘Stand up, Stand up for Jesus’ in these evil times.

Sincerely in Christ’s name,

Ivan Foster

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Letter: We regret the fact that fellow Free Presbyterian ministers would allow themselves to be used over the Irish language

As Free Presbyterian ministers, we wish to respond to recent media reports of a meeting held in Farranshane House Antrim, on the history of Presbyterianism and the Irish language. The meeting was organised by Rev Paul Thompson who gave subsequent media interviews to the BBC and Cool FM, and was attended by Sinn Fein chair Declan Kearney who claimed to have been personally invited by the Rev Thompson.

No one can deny our history and the fact our Protestant forefathers used the Irish language as a means of evangelising native Irish speakers in the 17th-19th centuries. They are to be honoured and commended for their efforts. However, the context and use of the Irish language is completely different today. It has been hijacked by violent republicanism to fight a culture war against Protestant and Unionist traditions and culture. Whilst symbols, emblems and expressions of Unionist traditions are opposed and have been removed from public places, Sinn Fein has aggressively pushed the Irish language into the public arena, even into places where only a minority desire it.

We are dismayed that Free Presbyterian ministers would allow themselves and their event (regardless of their intentions) to be used by Sinn Fein and the media to promote their republican objectives. We are also aghast at claims that at least one Sinn Fein member was personally invited to this event and thereby afforded a predicable opportunity to promote his political agenda. We stand with the victims of republican terrorism, not with those who continue to support and glorify the terrorists who murdered and maimed innocent people in an immoral terrorist campaign, and as such we wish to publicly disassociate ourselves from it.

It is noteworthy that while there may have been a Gospel presentation this was absent from the coverage in the media. Tellingly, the BBC kept back an interview with the Secretary of State in which he questioned opposition to Irish signage recorded last week until Friday with the result that the report on the event in Farranshane House ran on the same day.

We regret that the organisers allowed themselves to be used in this fashion.

Rev Darryl Abernethy,
Rev Graham Middleton,
Rev Brian McClung,
Rev David McLaughlin,
Rev Daniel Henderson,
Rev Andrew Patterson

Posted on 2025-04-21 a 4:40 pm

“Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen: and if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not. For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised: and if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable,” 1 Corinthians 15:12-19.

These verses came before me while Rev Samuel Fitton was preaching a really excellent message on the resurrection of Christ yesterday morning — ‘Proofs of the resurrection’  from 1 Corinthians 15:4. I would encourage everyone to listen to it.

In various forms across the world many have sought to witness to the truth of Christ’s resurrection from the dead on the third day as stated by the angel to “Mary Magdalene and the other Mary” was they came “to see the sepulchre”.

“And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. And go quickly, and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead; and, behold, he goeth before you into Galilee; there shall ye see him: lo, I have told you,” Matthew 28:5-7.

Many of these events smack of superstition  and man-inspired notions of how we should remember the Lord’s death and resurrection.

We have been told how we should do that in the simple gathering around the `table of the Lord’ of which Paul sets down God’s will in 1 Corinthians 11:23-34. It is thus we show “the Lord’s death till he come.”

In 1st Corinthians 15, Paul is rehearsing the truths of the gospel. “Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; by which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain,” 1 Corinthians 15:1-2.

Ministers ought to note that they need to often repeat the simple, central truths of the gospel, especially when error has enter the congregation.

GOSPEL TRUTH is God’s antidote to SATAN’S LIES!

In considering the verses of our text, please note:

I. THE TRUTH OF THE RESURRECTION HAS ALWAYS BEEN ATTACKED.

There have been many which have said, like these foolish people in Corinth, “there is no resurrection of the dead”.

1. It is a hated truth because it declares the defeat of the devil. So said Peter. “Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil,” Hebrews 2:14.

Likewise, Paul spoke of the triumph of the cross. “Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross; And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it,”  Colossians 2:14-15. Click to read more…

Posted on 2025-04-21 a 8:00 am

The Irish Language and the Sinn Fein/IRA campaign to extort more money from the public purse to finance their ‘Gaelitising’ Ulster!

Today’s BBC Northern Ireland news website had the following article prominently (naturally) displayed!

Free Presbyterian Church holds Irish language event

Two pictures adorned the news report.

They are of Rev Paul Thompson (left) and Rev Kyle Paisley.

The report was all about a meeting entitled: ‘Preispitéirigh agus an Ghaeilge’, and was held at Farranshane House in Antrim’s Rathenraw estate. It was organised by the Pastor of Antrim Free Presbyterian Church, the Reverend Paul Thompson.

Rev Kyle Paisley is reported as saying: “Languages, including Irish, are “a gift of God to communicate and to make connections with people.”

He must never had have read or understood the Genesis account of why God, as a judgement rather than a blessing, confounded the languages of mankind because of the rebellion instigated at Babel.

“Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech. So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city. Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth,”  Genesis 11:7-9.

The report say that Rev Thompson stated that the event was the fruit of a lot of work that’s been going on behind the scenes in our community. ‘There’s a deep intersection between Presbyterianism and the Irish language,’ Mr Thompson told BBC News NI. ‘I think there’s a great ignorance over the role of Presbyterians. From a Christian Pastor, we’re seeing young people embrace this as something that’s part of their past, their heritage. It’s creating that environment for people to look back at their history,’ he said. Click to read more…

Posted on 2025-04-18 a 6:48 pm

Many ministers, including Free Presbyterian Church ministers, may well have received this morning an email from Caroline Bradley, national representative of ‘Care for the Family’.

It is an invitation to become involved is a series of meetings, convened by organisations prepared to cooperate with error, and which are held in ecumenical churches or those sympathetic to Ecumenism.

The invitation is to be rejected and that for the following reasons.

1. The observations and objectives they set out to achieve are in and of themselves commendable but the methods employed are unscriptural.

These organisations claim to be opposed to the ‘secularisation’ within society, which is to the detriment to Bible principles. However, they are ill-informed as to God’s ordained means of accomplishing these objectives. They fail to see who and what is responsible for the digression away from the Bible, not just by society generally but by the mainline church in particular!

It was not the ‘Communist Party’ or the ‘Atheistic Society’ which initiated the modern trends that have taken the churches on a path back to Romanism and away from the fundamental truths of the Bible!

No, such trends began most openly within ‘Christendom’, as far back as the early years of the 20th century! Click to read more…

Posted on 2025-04-17 a 1:49 am

— A brief exposition of Psalm 15 —

For ease of reading, I am splitting this first study into two parts. Below is the first part.

By Rev Ivan Foster (Rtd)

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One Commentator introduced his thoughts on this Psalm 15 with these words: ‘This psalm refers to a single subject, but that the most important which can come before the human mind. It is the question. Who is truly religious? who will enter heaven? who will be saved? The psalm contains a statement of what real religion is; one of the most explicit and formal of the statements which we have in the Old Testament on that subject.’

There indeed can be no more important subject than how a sinner can be right with God!

Job

In his contentions with his ‘comforters’, Job asked the question and gives an answer: “Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one,” Job 14:4.

This question comes up again and again in the book of Job.

“What is man, that he should be clean? and he which is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?” Job 15:14.

“How then can man be justified with God? or how can he be clean that is born of a woman? Behold even to the moon, and it shineth not; yea, the stars are not pure in his sight. How much less man, that is a worm? and the son of man, which is a worm?” Job 25:4-6.

A Guide Needed

Man is at a loss to find the way of redemption in and of himself. He needs a guide, a guide and teacher! The Saviour said: “That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit,” John 3:6. The plain implication of these words is that there is a great chasm between the ‘flesh’ and the ’spirit’, that is, the Holy Spirit. Click to read more…

Posted on 2025-04-16 a 8:00 am

This is an article that was written and distributed in 1986. Therefore its data is somewhat out of date but I might suggest that it is was almost prophetic in its warnings regarding the failure to meet the dreadful challenge facing children under ungodly education within the State school!

Sadly, I think that it must be conceded that few Free Presbyterian parents took any heed to the dangers facing their children back in 1986 and, sadder still, there are even fewer taking any heed to the warnings of the even greater threats children face today in State schools.

Many Free Presbyterians will acknowledge that there has been a decline from the position occupied by our church on the matters of worldliness, separation from apostasy and contending for the faith, back some 40 years ago. That is evident in the lack of concern amongst Free Presbyterian parents regarding the dangers their children face.

Such a decline augurs ill for our church unless the Lord, in mercy, stirs our people and awakens them to their backsliding.

May we hear the voice of Christ in those words He wrote to the church at Ephesus: “I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars: And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name’s sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted. Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent,” Revelation 2:2-5.

Might I just add that if there are any ready to respond to the appeal at the end of this article that they contact the Convenor of the Presbytery Education Board:

Rev Brian McClung,
8a Boltnaconnell Road,
Crumlin,
Co. Antrim,
BT29 4SZ.

(bdmcclung@btinternet.com)

Or the Principal of Kilskeery Independent Christian School:

Mrs Pamela Foster, BA(Hons), MEd,
Kilskeery Independent Christian School,
Old Junction Road,
Kilskeery,
Co. Tyrone,
BT783RN.

(pj.foster@independentchristianschool.org)

Sincerely in Christ’s name,

Ivan Foster

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CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS and the FUTURE of FREE PRESBYTERIANISM

by Rev. Ivan Foster

In 1978 the Presbytery of Ulster of the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster heard a request from Rev. Ivan Foster to consider the need for Christian schools. Following a discussion a delegation of ministers and elders met officials of the Department of Education. The outcome of that meeting was a recommendation to Presbytery that permission be granted to any church that wished to start a school. The Presbytery agreed in principle and appointed a Presbytery Education Board, chaired by Rev. Foster, to supervise the new missionary enterprise. Click to read more…

Posted on 2025-04-12 a 6:24 pm

This is the recording of my message on the Sabbath evening past and the notes of that message.

I trust it will be a blessing to you.

Sincerely in Christ’s name,

Ivan Foster

Read sermon notes here

View a video of this sermon below:

Posted on 2025-04-07 a 6:25 pm

We are told in a news report that an asteroid is on a possible collision course with the earth.  Here is a link to the article:

Asteroid update issued as ‘city-destroying’ space rock continues towards Earth 

I thought upon another ‘star’, and its devastating collision with the earth, when I read this report.

“And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters; And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter,” Revelation 8:10-11.

The news article reports that scientists, who are following the course of this asteroid, estimate the date of a possible, and that word is to be emphasised, collision with the earth, in 2032. Were it to hit the earth, it is again estimated by the scientists that the impact would be 500 times more destructive than the explosion at Hiroshima in 1945, when the Americans dropped an atom bomb upon the Japanese city, in order to force the Japanese to surrender.

Illustration

This news item is most illustrative of the glorious event of the second coming of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

Few are aware of the approach of this asteroid. Indeed, this article might be the first you have heard of it! In like manner, few, even amongst Christians, are aware of the signs of the nearing of the Saviour’s return. This is a time of ‘slumbering and sleeping’ (Matthew 25:5) instead of watching and waiting (1 Thessalonians 5:6)!

However, as 2032 looms nearer, I am sure that virtually all mankind will be aware of this event and, depending upon what further news the scientists tracking this asteroid publish, might well be filled with trepidation and fear.

This is how it will be as the second advent draws near and signs of that event become more obvious to those who have been indifferent and careless about eternal matters. Hear what the Saviour says.

“And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken. And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory,” Luke 21:25-27.

Bible

The Bible says that at the close of this age, when the Lord causes the third of seven trumpets to sound, a ‘great star’, a celestial body, will strike the earth with most serious consequences. Click to read more…

Posted on 2025-04-05 a 5:25 pm

A book has been recently published in the USA entitled:

The Scandal of Schism

The author is Chris Anderson, who has been a pastor, church planter, and a missions catalyst around the world. He is the president of Church Works Media, an author, and a hymn-writer of well over 50 hymns.

The publishers’ ‘blurb’ on this book reads:

A Journey from Sinful Division to Biblical Fidelity

‘Is Christian unity a lost cause in today’s polarized world?

What if the greatest threat to Christianity comes from within?

The Scandal of Schism addresses these questions head-on, providing a balanced view of when separation is necessary and when it is sinful. In this book, Chris Anderson guides readers through the delicate task of maintaining church unity without compromising on truth. This book emphasizes the importance of separating from those who promote error, cooperating with those who uphold the truth, and avoiding schisms that distort the gospel. Anderson’s narrative is both a memoir and a theological exploration, making a compelling case for a renewed commitment to biblical fidelity and loving unity. With personal insights and biblical wisdom, Anderson lays out a roadmap for Christians seeking to respond to division or difference with humility. Readers will find guidance and hope for fostering harmony in their own hearts as well as in their local churches.’

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Now what does this quote taken from the above statement mean?

‘This book emphasizes the importance of separating from those who promote error, cooperating with those who uphold the truth, and avoiding schisms that distort the gospel.’

Well, we get an answer to that question from one whose name heads the list of endorsements — Dr Mike Barrett.

Here is his endorsement.

“This book is long overdue. I wholeheartedly recommend it—as an encouragement to recovering sectarians and an exhortation to those who will likely disagree. Anderson exposes his heart as he chronicles his journey from rigid separatism to a more balanced interpretation and application of biblical separation. Happily, there are many—myself included—that have taken the same journey. I have never considered myself to be a radical sectarian, but in the providence of God, I was born, raised, educated, and involved in ministering within extreme fundamentalist environments. Ironically and thankfully, it was in those places that I became thoroughly convinced of Calvinism and covenant/reformed theology. Consequently, I was suspect to some in fundamentalism and a token novelty to others. I serve now in a wider, yet conservative, evangelical environment without a guilty conscience and still believe in biblical separation. This book is not about my journey, but I so resonated with its message. In reading this book, you may find yourself either agreeing with Anderson or perhaps beginning a similar journey for yourself.”

—Michael Barrett, Senior Research Professor, Biblical Studies, Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary

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Please note this statement in Dr Barrett’s endorsement :—

‘Anderson exposes his heart as he chronicles his journey from rigid separatism to a more balanced interpretation and application of biblical separation. Happily, there are many —myself included—that have taken the same journey.’

The ‘rigid separatism’ from which Chris Anderson and Dr Barrett have journeyed, to take up a position of a ‘more balanced interpretation and application of biblical separation’, is that separation taught in the Word of God and which the Free Presbyterian Church here in Ulster has sought to adhere to since our founding in 1951. Click to read more…

Posted on 2025-04-03 a 5:01 pm

Posted on 2025-04-02 a 10:33 pm

“Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people,” Proverbs 14:34.

I read this verse in my daily reading on Thursday of last week and I greeted it as an old and well-loved friend. I learned it from hearing it repeated in prayer meetings some sixty one years ago, when I was just converted to Christ.

Would I be right in thinking that if I were starting out on the pilgrimage of life today, this verse would not be as familiar to me because of not hearing it quoted in today’s prayer meetings,  in the manner in which it was quoted back then?

I think that, sadly, it would be as I fear!

I. IT SEEMS THAT BACK THEN, THIS VERSE WAS ON THE LIPS OF VERY MANY IN THE PRAYER MEETINGS.

It was quoted as a means of comfort, as there was an earnest seeking to see our province turn back to the Lord.

It was quoted in defiance of the ‘pundits’ who advocated the adoption of liberal and modernistic theological notions of what it was would benefit society. In general, such ‘moral think tank theorists’ favoured the abandoning of “the old paths, where is the good way,” (Jeremiah 6:16) in order that a ‘Bibleless” society be formed! Click to read more…

Posted on 2025-04-01 a 3:03 pm

Audio sermons

Click here to listen to all the sermons on this website!

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KICS assembly talks. Current series: “KICS Studies – Studies in Jude”

• Part 8, Part 9, Part 10, Part 11
• See all the talks in this series here.
• See all the KICS assembly talks listed here.

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Watch Kilskeery Free Presbyterian services live online here

“For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works,” 2 Corinthians 11:13-15.

As I said in Part 1 and also in the introduction to Part 2 of this article, I set out to expound the verses above and apply them to an impious email from one purporting to be a female ‘minister of the gospel’.

It will be seen in that first article that the silly woman who attacked me, mocked young girls for wearing berets as they sang in church. She seemed totally unaware that a head covering is commanded in Scripture for a lady engaged in public worship in the house of God, 1 Corinthians 11:4-6.

She but confirms that she is one of the ‘Bible-rejectors’ who abound today and who can blithely call themselves ‘servants of God’!

I then moved on to note how that from the dawn of this Christian age, the devil has been actively corrupting the truth of God by his evil agents who creep into unsuspecting churches (Jude 3-4) and who transform themselves into what is professed to be “ministers of righteousness.”

We now take up the final part of the study.

THE APPROACH OF THE FINAL THREE AND A HALF YEARS OF THIS AGE HAS BEEN SIGNALLED BY A NUMBER OF OCCURRENCES IN RECENT TIMES.

1. The world-wide rejection of the Word of God within professing Christendom. There has always been heresy and false doctrine to be found within the ranks of the professing people of God. Judas Iscariot was, as it were, the forerunner of those who, pretending to be true disciples, were in fact intent on destroying the work of Christ.

Heresies

Such has caused great divisions and disruptions but as Paul says: “For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you,” 1 Corinthians 11:19. The activities of the ‘heretics’ serve to stir up the true believers, like sailors on a ship boarded by pirates, and every effort is made to resist such and remove them from the ranks of the people of God.

Thus, some of the greatest definitions and explanations of the fundamentals of the faith have come out of those controversies that the invasions by false prophets have generated. There is no better example than the wonderful Catechism and Confession of Faith that emerged in the wake of the great Protestant Reformation. They still serve as ‘anchors of the soul’ to true believers.

Since the Second World War we have seen a flood tide of departures from the truth of the Bible. It has advanced so far that ‘faith’ of Sodom and Gomorrah has become the standard of religious thought in most of the mainstream denominations.

Here in Northern Ireland, once considered the home of the most conservative of true Protestantism, Ecumenism with its objective of reunion with Roman Catholicism and the embracing of every false and immoral perversion of man, has ordained openly professing sodomites to office.

The total rejection of the Bible, which the embracing of sodomy and its associated perversions which ever increase in diversity and number and are embraced by governments and public bodies such as churches and schools, as unexceptional manifestations, while in truth they are disclosures of devilish depravities!

2. The spirit of murder that is ever more common. I found this graph on the Internet:

At one stage, around 2004, the number of murders in England and Wales had increased five-fold from 1960 and it is presently some three times what it was sixty years ago.

Stabbing

Murder by stabbing is very common amongst the young and the motive is usually one of the most trivial kind! Life carries no value and can be taken on the basis of the slightest perception of an insult!

Furthermore, ‘infanticide’ has increased horrifyingly. Little ones are done to death in the most fiendish manner. Many recent court cases have revealed that children have been treated most cruelly by those supposedly caring for them. The little ones have been done to death in a manner in which no human being would put to death an animal! Click to read more…

Posted on 2025-03-31 a 6:00 am

The following headline appears in a UK national daily newspaper on Wednesday, 26th March, 2025.

EU urges ALL citizens to prepare for war with ‘survival kits including food and water to survive 72 hours’ amid fears of WW3

It brings to mind the Saviour’s words in Matthew 24:6.

“And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.”

The newspaper report states:

“The European Union is pushing for every household in the 27-nation bloc to have a three-day survival kit ready in case of war or natural disasters.

EU crisis management commissioner Hadja Lahbib said the proposals will be formally presented today as part of a broader ‘preparedness strategy’.

Brussels is hoping to ensure every citizen is equipped for 72 hours of self-sufficiency amid the growing threat of continental conflict breaking out.

EU citizens will be told to stock up on a dozen key items, including matches, ID documents in a waterproof punch, bottled water, energy bars and a flashlight, as part of their ‘resilience’ kit.

European leaders have said the invasion of Ukraine could soon break out into a ‘global’ war.

Some Scandanavian (Sic) countries have already stepped up their prepation (Sic) by distributing war survival guides.

The EU has now joined such efforts following a landmark report from Finland’s former president Sauli Niinisto last year on strengthening Europe’s civilian and military preparedness.”

Saviour’s words

To return to the words of the Saviour, quoted at the beginning of this article, it is very clear that as this age draws to a close communal unrest, societal break up and fragmentation and national disputes will increase. We are to expect nations to become more belligerent toward each other.

Headlines like that above, feed the notion that we are on the verge of a catastrophic nuclear confrontation between East and West that will destroy the world and end humanity! Click to read more…

Posted on 2025-03-28 a 5:10 pm

Watch a video of this sermon below:

Posted on 2025-03-28 a 4:38 pm

Posted on 2025-03-28 a 4:26 pm

 

Posted on 2025-03-28 a 4:25 pm

This article was forwarded to me and I am sure that that there is much that is useful in it as a means of discovering the threat to Bible Christianity that Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) presents.

An exposure of the errors of CCM, by Rev David DiCanio, was so resented by a few in the Free Presbyterian Church that upon his refusal to repent of doing that which is in keeping with the Standards of his church, he was cast out of his missionary work and disowned.

We are looking to the Lord to deal with this action against our brother and put right this dreadful wrong, at whatever cost to those who put their hand to this shameful act.

Sincerely in Christ’s name,

Ivan Foster

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Video Series – The Satanic Attack on Sacred Music

March 25, 2025

Few things are more dangerous doctrinally and philosophically to a Bible-believing church than contemporary Christian music and contemporary worship music. It is at the heart of the blending and merging that is creating the end-time, one-world “church.” It is a bridge to extremely dangerous things.

The victory is not merely “keeping the hymnal.” The victory is in proper, ongoing education for the entire church. Tradition and ignorance will not do.

The Satanic Attack on Sacred Music – This course consists of a textbook and a video series with about 18 hours of teaching, packed with photos, graphics, audio and video clips. One previewer commented, “The series is broad and deep with serious factual analysis according to properly interpreted Scripture.” Click to read more…

Posted on 2025-03-25 a 8:36 pm

This message, by one of the number of young Free Presbyterian ministers who share the views and convictions of the founders of our Church, is really worth hearing both by the older generation of our denomination and, most importantly, by the younger generation.

View a video of this sermon below:

Posted on 2025-03-22 a 5:41 pm

A teacher, who professes to be a Christian, has been sacked for stating what the Bible teaches regarding the moral perversions involved in the ‘LGBT’ and ‘transgender’ movements. Read the report here.

Bishop Justus C of E School in Bromley, south London, sacked Glawdys Leger for telling pupils that being LGBT was a sin.

WHY?

In truth, I am at a loss to understand why any professing Christian would wish to teach in a school run by the Church of England or the Church of Ireland, given that both are wholly aligned with the apostasy and departure from God’s Word today. Both systems are ‘pro LGBT’ and the true believer has no place in such a school. God has never commanded His people to enter the apostasy in order to resist it! To do so is to step outside His will and so deprive oneself of His help when trouble comes.

Paul said: “At my first answer no man stood with me, but all men forsook me: I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge. Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me . . . and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion,” 2 Timothy 4:16-17.

To try and do ‘right’ by doing ‘wrong’ will bring the Christian to that place of danger whereby they may experience something of God’s wrath. This we are warned of in Revelation 18.

“And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities,” verses 4-5.

Furthermore, it will encourage Christian parents to send their children to such schools when they see one professing faith in Christ there as a teacher!

There is only one place a for a Christian to teach and that is in a Christian School!

Reaction

The reaction to this teacher’s statement of simple Bible truth is proof of the utter sellout of that denomination to the lie of the devil! It is no fit place for a Christian.

Let it be remembered that if we would serve and honour the Lord, there is but one place to do it! Click to read more…

Posted on 2025-03-22 a 5:18 pm

“For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works,” 2 Corinthians 11:13-15.

As I said in Part 1 of this article, I set out to expound the verses above and apply them to an impious email from one purporting to be a female ‘minister’ of the gospel.

It will be seen in that first article that the silly woman who attacked me, mocked young girls for wearing berets as they sang in church. She seemed totally unaware that a head covering is commanded in Scripture for a lady engaged in public worship in the house of God, 1 Corinthians 11:4-6.

She but confirms that she is one of the ‘Bible-rejectors’ who abound today and who can blithely call themselves ‘servants of God’!

I am moving on to note how that from the dawn of this Christian age, the devil has been actively corrupting the truth of God by his evil agents who creep into unsuspecting churches (Jude 3-4) and who transform themselves into what is professed to be “ministers of righteousness.”

We now take up the second part of the study.

THE GREAT SATANIC DECEPTIONS, SEEN THROUGHOUT THE AGES, WILL INTENSIFY AT THE CLOSE OF THIS AGE.

Just as the devil’s past deceptions have been very successful,  to the beguiling of countless millions through his denials of the gospel, though utterly failing to overthrow or hinder the eternal purpose of God, so the truth that I have just stated is one the devil has sought to deny, conceal and deride! Click to read more…

Posted on 2025-03-20 a 5:11 pm

The following is an article which appeared in the Sovereign Grace Advent Testimony magazine, ‘Watching and Waiting’, October-December 1983.

It was brought to my mind when a recording of a panel discussion at a ‘Youth Meeting’, sent to me, indicated that they had been told by one Free Presbyterian minister, who ought to have known better and whose name I will not reveal for I would not wish him to be embarrassed by a public exposure of his folly, that a verse in Psalm 122 did NOT mean what it plainly said!

The verse was: “‭Pray‭‭ for the peace‭ of Jerusalem‭: they shall prosper‭‭ that love‭‭ thee,” verse 6.

The young people were told that the word ‘Jerusalem’ did not mean the city of Jerusalem but rather the ‘church’!

This is the thinking of the ‘A-millennialist’, who has learned his eschatology from the notions propounded by a heretic from the third century, one Origen.

There is a simple maxim that every Christian should remember regarding our understanding of the Bible. It is: ‘God says what He means and means what He says’! We should ever take the words of Scripture literally except where we are told that they are parabolic or figurative or symbolic. We do not need men to come to us and tell us, ‘When God said this, He really meant something very different!’

Those who would put forward this notion want to place themselves between the reader of the Bible and God and be a ‘mouthpiece’ who can tell them the real meaning of Holy Scripture.

That is ‘priestcraft’ and can only lead people astray as we see in Roman Catholicism today! Click to read more…

Posted on 2025-03-19 a 12:59 pm

Posted on 2025-03-17 a 10:34 am

(Youth Rally, Markethill Free Presbyterian Church, March 16th, 2025)

It is a common feature of Holy Scripture that the Lord constantly repeats what His purpose is for His people. That is because we forget so quickly. Hence the warning: “Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life: but teach them thy sons, and thy sons’ sons,” Deuteronomy 4:9. Some of you here tonight are the children and grandchildren of faithful Christians, with whom it was my privilege in years past, to share in the Free Presbyterian Church’s public stand for the Lord in these times of apostasy.

If that is your ancestry, then give thanks to the Lord for His mercy and grace to you and your forebears.

Read sermon notes here

 

The Free Presbyterian Church Founders (L to R) — Jack Gibson, George Hutton, Cecil Harvey, Rev Ian RK Paisley, William Emerson, Rev George Stears, James Morrison, George K Gibson, William Miscampbell, and Hugh James Adams.

Posted on 2025-03-17 a 9:50 am

“For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works,” 2 Corinthians 11:13-15.

Yesterday (11/3/25) I received an email from a female, or at least it was signed by one bearing a female name and with the designation (Rev) attached. With the satanic confusion that is abroad today, it is difficult to tell at times!!

She is someone living in complete defiance of Paul’s teaching in Titus 1:5-6. “For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city, as I had appointed thee: If any be blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children not accused of riot or unruly.”

Whatever else she may be, she cannot be in obedience to this Scripture and claim to be a minister of Christ!

The title ‘elder’ is interchangeable with the title ‘overseer’ or ‘bishop’ as Acts 20:17, 28 demonstrates. A minister, an elder who labours “in the word and doctrine,” 1 Timothy 5:17, can only be a man. That is the teaching of the Bible!

Claims

This person claimed to be a ‘sister in Christ.’ She further claimed that she was converted over sixty years ago and has been ‘over 40 years . . . in Christian ministry.’

This person then began what was really just a tirade against our conformity to Biblical worship.

Here is one comment: ‘Watching live Free Presbyterian worship on utube I observe the need for outward conformity to expectations. Recently from XXXXX FP I was delighted to see a choir of about 40 young people but dismayed to see how the young girls all felt constrained to wear strange berets  (very similar to the Brethren head coverings.) There can be no Scriptural authority to put such expectations on them. I suspect that are merely responding to church and peer pressure.’

Those are her words not mine!

Doubtless, the final words are meant to ‘embarrass’ me! I find I have no difficulty finding myself aligned with any who, in this matter, obey the teaching of the Bible.

I would much rather be in such company than in that of this sneering female Bible-rejector!

The source of this ‘constraint’, so contemptuously referred to, is merely a desire to obey God.

“Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonoureth his head. But every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered dishonoureth her head: for that is even all one as if she were shaven. For if the woman be not covered, let her also be shorn: but if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be covered,” 1 Corinthians 11:4-6.

So much for ‘no Scriptural authority’, as asserted by this female ignoramus!

Rant

She continues her foolish rant: ‘My conclusion is that the Free Presbyterians could more rightly be known as the Bound Presbyterians.’ Click to read more…

Posted on 2025-03-13 a 11:09 am

This article sprang out of an email I sent to a Christian bother who felt that the Free Presbyterian Church’s actions in  its protests in the past could not be justified from the Word of God. Naturally, I disagreed.

I tried to set forth the reason why back in the heyday of our protests, when Dr Paisley was in his prime, we believed we were obeying the Word of God in going out to challenge the Ecumenists, Modernists and Romanisers, who had taken over the established denominations.

I hope the article it is helpful to younger Free Presbyterians.

Sincerely in Christ’s name,

Ivan Foster

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Explaining the stand of the Free Presbyterian Church since its founding.

“But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear,” 1 Peter 3:15.

In this article, I would like to try and give the Protestant perspective of the political and religious controversies here in Northern Ireland.

As we look at the state of things today in Northern Ireland, there is one in high office who upholds the political view that the IRA were right in their terrorism and generally did no wrong. Sinn Fein leader, Michelle O’Neill, who is ‘First Minister’ in the Stormont Assembly,  has the support of many in the electorate who believe that the only ones who had the right ‘to shoot to kill’ were the members of the IRA.

It is for this reason that there have been ongoing attempts by such to punish, by imprisonment, soldiers and policemen, who in the course of their duty and in the defence of life, shot those engaged in terrorism. Click to read more…

Posted on 2025-03-07 a 11:36 am

I am posting this sermon — ‘A message for Protestants from the funeral sermons of priests at the funerals of the Loughgall IRA gang’ — preached by me on 24th May 1987, in Kilskeery Free Presbyterian Church.

Read sermon notes here

 

My memory of it was stirred while corresponding with a dear Christian to whom I was seeking to explain and defend the witness of Free Presbyterians over the years.

Our witness was not perfect or free from error, “For ‭there is‭ no man‭ that sinneth‭‭ not,” 1 Kings 8.46, but I believe that I can say that there was with us, over the years, a ’spirit of jealousy’ like that which possessed Elijah. “‭And he said‭‭, I have been very‭‭ jealous‭‭ for the LORD‭ God‭ of hosts‭: for the children‭ of Israel‭ have forsaken‭‭ thy covenant‭, thrown down‭‭ thine altars‭, and slain‭‭ thy prophets‭ with the sword‭; and I, ‭even‭ I only, am left‭‭; and they seek‭‭ my life‭, to take it away‭‭,” 1 Kings 19:10.

The Lord bless you all richly,

Ivan Foster

Posted on 2025-03-05 a 12:49 pm

This is copied from the BBC Northern Ireland news website of today (3/3/25).

The repudiation of the IRA campaign of murder and slaughter by this man is self-extolling and falls far short of true Biblical repentance.

He only changed his views when it became possible that he would become a victim of the terrorism that he had practised on others!

To say that the IRA’s campaign of slaughter ‘was a total waste, absolute total waste of energy, of life, of resources’ is very far removed for a true acknowledgment before God, that he is guilty of heinous crimes deserving of the wrath of God!

Such is the standard ‘expressions of sorrow’ offered by Irish Republicans. Regularly you have evidence of this hypocrisy and affected piety and posturing, as was the recent case of the ‘First Minister’, Michelle O’Neill’s extolling of IRA murderer, Brendan McFarlane.

See:—

Sinn Féin defends tributes to IRA man

All that grows and sprouts from the fallacious roots of Romanism is false and fraudulent!  The BBC and others of that ilk, may be ready to ‘canonise’ this murderer, but that is not how heaven sees his kind! Click to read more…

Posted on 2025-03-03 a 4:38 pm

Here is what ‘contemporary worship music’ or ‘contemporary Christian music’ will eventually bring about!

I am grateful to the brother who brought this article to my attention.

Just as a tiny microbe may enter our body without us being aware of it, but soon it will manifest its evil impact and bring illness and even death, so a seemingly small error may enter the body of the ‘Church’ and, if not checked and dealt with properly and scripturally, bring down to ruin that church.

However, as is often the case, that meant to destroy the infection is resisted by our body and a cure is not affected.

We see that in our church at the present time, Contemporary Christian Music has been embraced by some. When an alarm was sounded by Rev David Dicanio, his timely and proper warning was resented and resisted and he was ejected by the foolish actions of misguided men. Click to read more…

Posted on 2025-03-03 a 3:55 pm

In the Autumn of 1887, Charles Haddon Spurgeon and his congregation withdrew from the Baptist Union.

In his magazine, ‘The Sword and Trowel’ of November 1887, he wrote the follow definition of what the Baptist denomination had become and why it was he had to withdraw from it.

His definition is truly one that gives us a clear view of just what it is for a Christian church to apostatise. It also pictures for us the spiritual state of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, from which Dr Paisley led a separation back in March 1951. As a result of the heresy of Prof Davey and his ilk the PCI had sunk down into the same depths as the Baptist Union in the last century.

“As a matter of fact, believers in Christ’s atonement are now in declared religious union with those who make light of it; believers in Holy Scripture are in confederacy with those who deny plenary inspiration; those who hold evangelical doctrine are in open alliance with those who call the fall a fable, who deny the personality of the Holy Ghost, who call justification by faith immoral, and hold that there is another probation after death, and a future restitution for the lost. Yes, we have before us the wretched spectacle of professedly orthodox Christians publicly avowing their union with those who deny the faith, and scarcely concealing their contempt for those who cannot be guilty of such gross disloyalty to Christ. Click to read more…

Posted on 2025-03-01 a 6:29 pm

Audio sermons

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KICS assembly talks. Current series: “KICS Studies – Studies in Jude”

• Part 5, Part 6, Part 7
• See all the talks in this series here.
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Watch Kilskeery Free Presbyterian services live online here

In my article, ‘What to do when a crisis overtakes the people of God’ I used the actions of Moses in Exodus 32, as “a prime example of obedience to God” in a day when great sin had broken out amongst God’s people.

Moses sought the Lord that He might not destroy Israel but grant repentance and forgiveness.

God answered His prayer though the ‘ringleaders’ were punished, Exodus 32:26-28. ‘Three thousand men’ were slain and the rest of Israel spared. This amounted to a small percentage of the nation that were deemed guilty of great wickedness. It was for this reason the nation was spared and thus provides us with a basis for believing that sin amongst God’s people does not ALWAYS require us to separate from them.

All sin and wrong-doing amongst professing Christians does not qualify as ‘Apostasy’ and therefore require separation from the guilty by the faithful believer!

There are occasions when we cease shopping in a store because we do not like some of the products on sale, some of the prices charged or the behaviour of the proprietor. We cannot avoid contact with much that is sinful in this world for “then must ye needs go out of the world” (1 Corinthians 5:9-10).

Such withdrawing of contact is not the same, however, as the separation that the Lord commands us to exercise with regards apostasy. That separation is to be complete and public and is usually accompanied by a denouncing of those we have separated from and an explanation of the reasons for our actions. We are not to even ‘touch’ the uncleanness of apostasy, (2 Corinthians 6:17).

But then sensible people readily understand that distinction! Click to read more…

Posted on 2025-02-28 a 8:00 am

I am posting these comments in response to some ‘Facebook’  criticisms, mounted in reply to my recent Burning Bush article: “What to do when a crisis overtakes the people of God”.

The basis of the criticism was that if what I said in my article was correct then our forefathers were wrong in leaving the Presbyterian Church in Ireland back in 1951, for that church was, it is claimed; ‘still a majority evangelical denomination at that time.’

I have never read a more untrue and stupid statement than that!

For some reason, neither myself nor my article was named in the Facebook criticisms, so I will observe the same measure of anonymity when dealing with this matter, and not name the author.

This morning, as part of my daily reading of God’s Word, I read these words in Job 27:3-4.

“All the while my breath is in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils; my lips shall not speak wickedness, nor my tongue utter deceit”.

I believe I can humbly say that such has been my desire throughout my 61 years of preaching and writing. There have been times when something I have said or written has been challenged and, as the Lord is my witness, I can say that my heart trembled lest I had indeed set forth in the Lord’s name that which was wrong. It was only when I carefully checked my statements and found them in keeping with God’s truth, that the fear was lifted.

I have likewise reacted to the reported comments on FaceBook, which criticise my article. However, I do not find in them any reason for my changing what I said, however it may appear.

The teaching on apostasy is that which was followed by the founders of the Free Presbyterian Church back in 1951.

The denomination from which our founding fathers separated had embraced heresy back in 1927 when the General Assembly voted by 89% to back the man who had denied, among other cardinal truths, the atoning blood of Christ and His deity, as well as mocking the idea of the inerrant inspiration of God’s Word. Click to read more…

Posted on 2025-02-26 a 7:52 pm

“‭Now when these things were done‭‭, the princes‭ came‭‭ to me, saying‭‭, The people‭ of Israel‭, and the priests‭, and the Levites‭, have not separated‭‭ themselves from the people‭ of the lands‭, ‭doing‭ according to their abominations‭, ‭even‭ of the Canaanites‭, the Hittites‭, the Perizzites‭, the Jebusites‭, the Ammonites‭, the Moabites‭, the Egyptians‭, and the Amorites‭.‭ ‭For they have taken‭‭ of their daughters‭ for themselves, and for their sons‭: so that the holy‭ seed‭ have mingled‭‭ themselves with the people‭ of ‭those‭ lands‭: yea, the hand‭ of the princes‭ and rulers‭ hath been chief‭ ‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬in this trespass‭.‭ ‬‬

‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭And when I heard‭‭ this thing‭, I rent‭‭ my garment‭ and my mantle‭, and plucked off‭‭ the hair‭ of my head‭ and of my beard‭, and sat down‭‭ astonied‭‭.‭ ‭Then were assembled‭‭ unto me every one that trembled‭ at the words‭ of the God‭ of Israel‭, because of the transgression‭ of those that had been carried away‭; and I sat‭‭ astonied‭‭ until ‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬the evening‭ sacrifice‭.‭ ‬‬‬

‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭And at the evening‭ sacrifice‭ I arose up‭‭ from my heaviness‭; and having rent‭‭ my garment‭ and my mantle‭, I fell‭‭ upon my knees‭, and spread out‭‭ my hands‭ unto the LORD‭ my God‭,‭”‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬ Ezra 9:1-5.

In the morning services in Kilskeery Free Presbyterian Church of late, there has been a setting forth, by the minister, Rev Samuel Fitton, of the vital and very relevant teaching of the book of Ezra.

On two recent Lord’s Days, the above verses have been expounded. As is the case with most preachers, even when sitting under good preaching, thoughts arise in one’s mind from the passage under consideration that may be a little diverse from what the minister is setting forth. It is impossible in one message to comment on all that is contained in any given passage of God’s Word.

As the minister spoke, in his introductory summary of what has been noted so far in these opening verses of Ezra chapter 9, there occurred to me a thought very applicable to the situation in which the Free Presbyterian Church finds itself today.

I jotted down that thought for further consideration later. I want to share with you what presented itself to me from this passage.

1. EVEN IN THE MIDST OF REVIVAL, SIN MAY BE HARBOURED IN THE HEARTS OF GOD’S PEOPLE.

1. Note what Ezra said in his distressed praying in response to the revealing of the wickedness found amongst the Israelites. Click to read more…

Posted on 2025-02-26 a 8:07 am

“‭The wilderness‭ and the solitary place‭ shall be glad‭‭ for them; and the desert‭ shall rejoice‭‭, and blossom‭‭ as the rose‭.‭ ‭It shall blossom‭‭ abundantly‭‭, and rejoice‭‭ even with joy‭ and singing‭‭: the glory‭ of Lebanon‭ shall be given‭‭ unto it, the excellency‭ of Carmel‭ and Sharon‭, they shall see‭‭ the glory‭ of the LORD‭, ‭and‭ the excellency‭ of our God‭,‭”‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬ Isaiah 35:1-2.

I was prompted to consider this subject by the foolish boasting of the recently inaugurated president of the United States, Mr Donald Trump. He is a man renowned for his swank and swagger and vain-glorious self-promotion. But even he ‘outstrips’ himself when he claims that his election is an indication that America’s ‘Golden Age’ has begun.

Screenshot from a YouTube video

Our last study brought us to the end of this age. What will follow is clearly stated to be so in the Word of God.

THE NEXT AGE WILL LAST FOR 1000 YEARS

The following quotation from Revelation chapter 20, follows on from the closing verses of Revelation chapter 19.

“‭And‭ I saw‭‭ heaven‭ opened‭‭, and‭ behold‭‭ a white‭ horse‭; and‭ he that sat‭‭ upon‭ him‭ ‭was‭ called‭‭ Faithful‭ and‭ True‭, and‭ in‭ righteousness‭ he doth judge‭‭ and‭ make war‭‭.‭ ‭ His‭ eyes‭ ‭were‭ as‭ a flame‭ of fire‭, and‭ on‭ his‭ head‭ ‭were‭ many‭ crowns‭; and he had‭‭ a name‭ written‭‭, that‭ no man‭ knew‭‭, but‭ he himself‭.‭ ‭And‭ he ‭was‭ clothed‭‭ with a vesture‭ dipped‭‭ in blood‭: and‭ his‭ name‭ is called‭‭ The Word‭ of God‭.‭ ‭And‭ the armies‭ ‭which were‭ in‭ heaven‭ followed‭‭ him‭ upon‭ white‭ horses‭, clothed‭‭ in fine linen‭, white‭ and‭ clean‭.‭ ‭And‭ out of‭ his‭ mouth‭ goeth‭‭ a sharp‭ sword‭, that‭ with‭ it‭ he should smite‭‭ the nations‭: and‭ he‭ shall rule‭‭ them‭ with‭ a rod‭ of iron‭: and‭ he‭ treadeth‭‭ the winepress‭‭ of the fierceness‭ and‭ wrath‭ of Almighty‭ God‭.‭ ‭And‭ he hath‭‭ on‭ ‭his‭ vesture‭ and‭ on‭ his‭ thigh‭ a name‭ written‭‭, KING‭ OF KINGS‭, AND‭ LORD‭ OF LORDS‭.‭ ‭And‭ I saw‭‭ an‭ angel‭ standing‭‭ in‭ the sun‭; and‭ he cried‭‭ with a loud‭ voice‭, saying‭‭ to all‭ the fowls‭ that fly‭‭ in‭ the midst of heaven‭, Come‭‭ and‭ gather yourselves together‭‭ unto‭ the supper‭ of the great‭ God‭;‭ ‭That‭ ye may eat‭‭ the flesh‭ of kings‭, and‭ the flesh‭ of captains‭, and‭ the flesh‭ of mighty men‭, and‭ the flesh‭ of horses‭, and‭ of them that sit‭‭ on‭ them‭, and‭ the flesh‭ of all‭ ‭men, both‭ free‭ and‭ bond‭, both‭ small‭ and‭ great‭.‭ ‭And‭ I saw‭‭ the beast‭, and‭ the kings‭ of the earth‭, and‭ their‭ armies‭, gathered together‭‭ to make‭‭ war‭ against‭ him that sat‭‭ on‭ the horse‭, and‭ against‭ his‭ army‭.‭ ‭And‭ the beast‭ was taken‭‭, and‭ with‭ him‭ the false prophet‭ that wrought‭‭ miracles‭ before‭ him‭, with‭ which‭ he deceived‭‭ them that had received‭‭ the mark‭ of the beast‭, and‭ them that worshipped‭‭ his‭ image‭. These both‭ were cast‭‭ alive‭‭ into‭ a lake‭ of fire‭ burning‭‭ with‭ brimstone‭.‭ ‭And‭ the remnant‭ were slain‭‭ with‭ the sword‭ of him that sat‭‭ upon‭ the horse‭, which‭ ‭sword‭ proceeded‭‭ out of‭ his‭ mouth‭: and‭ all‭ the fowls‭ were filled‭‭ with‭ their‭ flesh‭,‭”‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬ Revelation 19:11-21.

The conjunction, ‘and’ with which chapter 20 begins indicates clearly the time of the events in the chapter — they immediately follow the return of Christ to this earth! Click to read more…

Posted on 2025-02-24 a 8:04 am

Posted on 2025-02-23 a 1:55 pm

“‭And‭ Jesus‭ stood‭‭ before‭ the governor‭: and‭ the governor‭ asked‭‭ him‭, saying‭‭, Art‭‭ thou‭ the King‭ of the Jews‭? And‭ Jesus‭ said‭‭ unto him‭, Thou‭ sayest‭‭.‭ ‭And‭ when‭ he‭ was accused‭‭ of‭ the chief priests‭ and‭ elders‭, he answered‭‭ nothing‭.‭ ‭Then‭ said‭‭ Pilate‭ unto him‭, Hearest thou‭‭ not‭ how many things‭ they witness against‭‭ thee‭?‭ ‭And‭ he answered‭‭‭ him‭ to‭ never‭ a‭ word‭; insomuch‭ that the governor‭ marvelled‭‭ greatly‭,‭”‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬ Matthew 27:11-14.

‘Contumacy’ simply means a stubborn refusal and is used within ecclesiastical circles for the refusal of any who will not bow to the authority of a church court.

I have no doubt that the refusal of the Saviour to answer some of the questions put to Him by His accusers would have been seen as that termed today as ‘contumacy’.

It is to be noted that the Saviour did not refuse to answer all questions put to Him. In our text above we have Him answering the question, “Art thou the King of the Jews?”. But it also says that; “when he was accused of the chief priests and elders, he answered nothing.”

Why was that so?

May I suggest that had He refused to answer the first question it would have left the impression THAT HE WAS NOT THE KING OF THE JEWS! Silence would have implied He was unable to truly affirm that He was the Messiah.

However, His silence in response to the other questions, based upon the lying testimonies of false witnesses, clearly indicated that such accusations were unworthy of a reply.

DAVID

David likewise chose this course of action in the face of false accusations. “‭They also that seek‭‭ after my life‭ lay snares‭‭ ‭for me‭: and they that seek‭‭ my hurt‭ speak‭‭ mischievous things‭, and imagine‭‭ deceits‭ all the day‭ long.‭ ‭But I, as a deaf‭ ‭man‭, heard‭‭ not; and ‭I was‭ as a dumb man‭ ‭that‭ openeth‭‭ not his mouth‭.‭ ‭Thus I was as a man‭ that heareth‭‭ not, and in whose mouth‭ ‭are‭ no reproofs‭,‭”‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬ Psalm 38:12-14. Click to read more…

Posted on 2025-02-22 a 8:03 am

Dear Friends,

I have submitted the following letter to the ‘Belfast Newsletter’ a short time ago.

Whether or not it is published remains to be seen!

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Washington Madness

Sir,

The recent statements issued by the Whitehouse in Washington, by both the President and his subservient flunkies, promote a strong suspicion that the President, whose cosseted upbringing and lifestyle has created an illusionary world in which the man lives, believes himself to be the supreme repository of wisdom.

I don’t think I have ever listened to a world leader more limited in his ability to vocalise!That such a man should be considered as a pillar of moral rectitude and a political ‘messiah’ by millions of American voters, is utterly astounding! Click to read more…

Posted on 2025-02-21 a 1:28 pm

Rev Beattie went to be with the Lord on 13th February 2025.

“And Joseph went up to bury his father: and with him went up all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his house, and all the elders of the land of Egypt, And all the house of Joseph, and his brethren, and his father’s house: only their little ones, and their flocks, and their herds, they left in the land of Goshen. . . For his sons carried him into the land of Canaan, and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah, which Abraham bought with the field for a possession of a buryingplace of Ephron the Hittite, before Mamre. And Joseph returned into Egypt, he, and his brethren, and all that went up with him to bury his father, after he had buried his father,” Genesis 50:7-8, 13-14.

Those words from Genesis chapter 50, were part of my daily reading on Monday 17th February. I thought of the brief glimpse that the children of Jacob had of the promised land as they buried their father Jacob, before returning to Egypt.

I mused on how it is that Christians too catch a glimpse of the promised land at the funerals of their believing family members, before returning to the daily routine in the ‘Egypt’ of this world in which we dwell. May it be so as we consider the service of a faithful preacher and bid farewell to a brother in Christ. Click to read more…

Posted on 2025-02-20 a 2:32 pm

Here is the morning message preached in Kilskeery Free Presbyterian Church on the Lord’s Day past – (16:2:25).

Rev Samuel Fitton was preaching on the subject of “Compromise Amongst God’s People”.

The general reaction to the message was one of rejoicing at the refreshing power of God amongst us under the minister’s preaching. For the older members it brought back to mind the witness of the Free Presbyterian Church which the Lord had owned and blessed mightily in past times and for which the Lord had brought the denomination into existence to uphold before the world.

I want to share that message with you today. I trust you find it as a great a blessing as it was to those in the service.

Ivan Foster

Posted on 2025-02-18 a 12:30 pm

IT IS WITH SORROW THAT WE INFORM OUR READERS THAT THE DEATH HAS TAKEN PLACE OF REV WILLIAM BEATTIE, retired Free Presbyterian Church minister.

He went to be with the Lord yesterday evening, February 13th 2025.

Funeral arrangements may be viewed here.

---

Called home 13th February 2025. Beloved husband of Sally and the late Bertha, loving father of Phillip, Louise and the late Samuel, father in law of Margaret and William, dearly loved Granda of Noah, Samuel, Kezia and Abigail.

Funeral Service will take place in Martyrs’ Memorial Free Presbyterian Church at 1:00pm on Wednesday 19th February 2025 following a family burial in Lisburn New Cemetery at 11:00am.

Wake on Friday at his daughter Louise’s house 42 Ballymoughan Road Magherafelt BT45 6HN from 3.00 – 10.00 and at his son Phillip’s house 5 Glebe Hill Road Tandragee BT62 2DP on Saturday from 3.00-10.00.

Family flowers only please. Donations in lieu, if desired, to Edgard Traboulsi, Lebanon Baptist Church Trust c/o Melville Morgan Funeral Directors 257 Lisburn Road Belfast BT9 7EN.

Will be greatly missed by his loving wife and family.

At home with the Lord, “with Christ which is far better,” Philippians 1 v 23.

We would wish to convey our sympathies to his wife Sally, and his son Phillip and his daughter Louise and their respective spouses and children.

---

“Absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord,” 2 Corinthians 5:8.

“For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God,” Hebrews 11:10.

---

Rev. Ivan Foster (Rtd)

Posted on 2025-02-14 a 6:38 pm

“And the Lord said, Whereunto then shall I liken the men of this generation? and to what are they like? They are like unto children sitting in the marketplace, and calling one to another, and saying, We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced; we have mourned to you, and ye have not wept. For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine; and ye say, He hath a devil. 

The Son of man is come eating and drinking; and ye say, Behold a gluttonous man, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners! But wisdom is justified of all her children,”  Luke 7:31-35.

Matthew Henry’s comment on these words of the Saviour is as follows:

‘By this it appears that the ministers of Christ may be of very different tempers and dispositions, very different ways of preaching and living, and yet all good and useful; diversity of gifts, but each given to profit withal. 

Therefore none must make themselves a standard to all others, nor judge hardly of those that do not do just as they do. 

John Baptist bore witness to Christ, and Christ applauded John Baptist, though they were the reverse of each other in their way of living. 

But the common enemies of them both reproached them both. The very same men that had represented John as crazed in his intellects, because he came neither eating nor drinking, represented our Lord Jesus as corrupt in his morals, because he came eating and drinking;  he is a gluttonous man, and a wine-bibber. 

Ill-will never speaks well. See . . . how they put the worst construction upon every thing they meet with in the gospel, and in the preachers and professors of it; and hereby they think to depreciate them, but really destroy themselves.’

---

John the Baptist differed from the Saviour and vice versa though not in core spirituality and holiness. They differed in demeanour and bearing. But their enemies found grounds for criticising them to the extent that what was present in one was deemed a fault but its absence in the other was likewise deemed a fault.

There is something of that spirit abroad today in that the bold protests in past decades are hailed as most praiseworthy but such actions carried out today are considered sinful and to be condemned!

That may be so because the protests of the past were aimed at those OUTSIDE the Free Presbyterian Church who were guilty of transgressing the Word of God. Now, however, protests of a similar nature are deemed wrong and worthy of sanction when they are directed against some WITHIN the Free Presbyterian Church who are in transgression of God’s Word. There ought to be no distinction drawn. Both protests are proper and warranted by Scripture.

I would have every Free Presbyterian know and understand that Rev David DiCanio, who has been deposed from the ministry of the Free Presbyterian Church of North America, in essence, if truth be told, for exposing the sin of ‘Contemporary Christian Music’ within the Free Presbyterian Church, acted in total concord with Holy Scripture and in agreement with the FPCNA’s own statement on the sinfulness of such music. Click to read more…

Posted on 2025-02-12 a 7:31 pm

“The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose. It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing: the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon, they shall see the glory of the LORD, and the excellency of our God,” Isaiah 35:1-2.

I was prompted to consider this subject by the foolish boasting of the recently inaugurated president of the United States, Mr Donald Trump. He is a man renowned for his swank and swagger and vain-glorious self-promotion. But even he ‘outstrips’ himself when he claims that his election is an indication that America’s ‘Golden Age’ has begun.

Time will tell the truth or otherwise of this assertion which is a mere repeating of what presumptuous and imperious politicians have promised the gullible since the fall of man! It is a fictitious myth, a ‘pipe dream’, an ‘El Dorado’ comprised of the empty imaginings of what man considers to be the answer to all his needs.

Men will cling to this empty hope, proffered by a man whose lifestyle comprehensively demonstrates his total unreliability, rather than heed the promise of the God, “ that cannot lie,” (Titus 1:2) and who has “the words of eternal life,” (John 6:68).

We grieve for those whose folly causes them to embrace this end-time ‘political flim-flam’. No good can come of any administration built upon such a dubious foundation! Click to read more…

Posted on 2025-02-03 a 2:37 am

This sermon by Dr Paisley in his heyday, the Sabbath morning of 25th May 1969, was sent to me by Rev Stephen Hamilton a few days ago. I felt that there was no better way to start a new month than by sharing it with you all.

Brother Hamilton says that he was ten-years old when it was preached and that he would have been at the service with his parents. What a privilege was enjoyed by those present to hear such preaching.

As I listened to the sermon from almost 56 years ago, I rejoiced to hear again the setting forth of the doctrines of ‘the whole counsel of God’, rarely heard today.

I was especially touched by his mention in his closing prayer of his planned visit to ‘Trillick’, that Sabbath afternoon. I can remember well that gathering in a field belonging to the Wilson family, just over a mile from the church that is now here in Kilskeery, for I took part in the meeting.

I solemnly listened with thanksgiving to the boldness and knowledge and discernment, evidenced in the message, that was so common amongst us back in those days.

But as I listened to what I can rightly term ‘prophetic’ utterances by the servant of God long ago, regarding the consequences of unfaithfulness and departures from ‘the old paths’, my heart trembled for the Free Presbyterian Church today.

The picture that Dr Paisley paints of the repercussions that follow drifting and retreat from the ‘good way’, is evidenced before the eyes of those prepared to honestly assess our present spiritual condition.

But the essence of what the sermon sets forth is the means by which we can recover our former faithfulness and power and blessing.

Dear Christian, listen prayerfully and humbly to this sermon, preached under the blessing and power of God.

 

Ivan Foster

Posted on 2025-02-01 a 10:17 am