November 2024
Audio sermons
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KICS assembly talks. Current series: “KICS Studies – Children in the Gospels who met the Lord Jesus”
Recently Featured Sermons
Spiritual warfare pt 14preached by Rev. Ivan Foster on Sun Aug 1, 2004
featured on Sun Nov 3, 2024
Spiritual warfare Pt 13
preached by Rev. Ivan Foster on Sun Jun 20, 2004
featured on Sun Oct 27, 2024
Spiritual warfare Pt 12.
preached by Rev. Ivan Foster on Sun Jun 13, 2004
featured on Sun Oct 20, 2024
Spiritual warfare Pt 11
preached by Rev. Ivan Foster on Sun Jun 6, 2004
featured on Sun Oct 13, 2024
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Recently Preached Sermons
Straightened out, lifted up and set freepreached by Rev. Ivan Foster on Sun Nov 3, 2024
The folly of men and the mercy of God
preached by Rev. Ivan Foster on Wed Oct 23, 2024
The Encouragement of Christ's Return
preached by Mr. Samuel Fitton on Sun Sep 15, 2024
View all recently preached sermons
Older Sermons Recently Added
Aaron, the Bad Example of a Godly Leader Gone Astraypreached by John Pittman Hey on Sun Sep 16, 2007
A defense of Christian education
preached by Mrs. Ann Foster on Sat Feb 25, 1984
Testimony of Mrs. Ann Foster
preached by Mrs. Ann Foster on Sun Apr 19, 2009
View all recently added sermons
Watch Kilskeery Free Presbyterian services live online here
Message preached yesterday evening in Coragarry
Yesterday I preached at the Sabbath services in Coragarry Free Presbyterian Church in Co. Monaghan.
When I arrived home after the evening service I contrasted my weariness with how I felt in 1971 when I first travelled there to conduct a gospel mission in the old Orange Hall, beside which now stands the Free Presbyterian Church.
Back then, three meetings per Sabbath and very occasionally, four meetings as well as five meetings during the week, was a usual occurrence. That I was able to do without the least weariness.
But I was only 27 years old!
I enjoy yesterday’s visit and I am attaching a copy of our evening message. You may have listened to it before for I preached the same text on at least one other occasion.
Read sermon notes here
We pray that the folk in Coragarry will experience the Lord’s blessing as they welcome Mr Gregory Gibson, who is to be ordained and installed as their new minister at the end of this month. We wish Mr Gibson and his family every blessing.
Sincerely in Christ’s name,
Ivan Foster
Posted on 2024-11-04 a 4:52 pm
Further update re RBL 'sodomite poppy'
Here is an a further update on the ‘pro-sodomite poppy’ promoted by RBL this year.
Jo Bartosch is a journalist who has taken issue with the ‘SodomitePoppy’.
The Royal British Legion’s day to forget — The “Pride poppy” demeans what should be a dignified occasion
I do not endorse all the views of this woman but what she says on the issue of the ‘SodomitePoppy’ is of note!
The RBL states that it has ‘‘Worked with them (Stonewall) in the past’! ‘Stonewall’ says of itself: “At Stonewall, we stand for lesbian, gay, bi, trans, queer, questioning and ace (LGBTQ+) people everywhere. We imagine a world where all LGBTQ+ people are free to be themselves and we can live our lives to the full.”
In other words, this organisation is in open rebellion against God and His Law and seeks to promote everything God calls ‘ABOMINABLE’ and which will damn those who engage in such practices to ‘everlasting hell’!
“For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient,” Romans 1:26-28.
“But we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against them which commit such things . . . . But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God; Who will render to every man according to his deeds,” Romans 2:2, 5-6.
“And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly,” 2 Peter 2:6.
“Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire,” Jude 1:7.
Irrespective of RBL’s present relationship with ‘Stonewall’, it has obviously left its mark on the RBL as is seen in the sodomite badge that it is flouting and promoting this year!
I have no doubt that this will greatly hit the ‘Poppy Appeal’, for no person, who has any regard for God’s truth and common decency, will wish to be associated with an organisation which promotes the views and objectives of ‘Stonewall’!!
Churches should especially take note of this evil innovation by the RBL!
Sincere regards,
Rev Ivan Foster (Rtd)
Posted on 2024-11-02 a 4:08 pm
Another reason to hesitate before supporting the RBL ‘Poppy Appeal’
Yet another reason to hesitate before supporting the Royal British Legion ‘Poppy Appeal’!
This fact should be announced in every church!
Sincere regards,
Rev Ivan Foster
Posted on 2024-11-01 a 4:49 pm
God's purpose in the recent distressing revelations about political deceptions
“For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil,” Ecclesiastes 12:14.
News reporters notoriously seek out the most lurid headlines in order to intrigue the reader and encourage further reading or viewing. Selling their product is of the utmost importance and all other considerations, such as concern for the person or persons being featured in the article, the impact of the article upon friends and family or even truth itself, take second place.
There is an important place for the news media in society. There is a need for information on a whole range of matters which impact our lives and about which we need to be informed in order to make appropriate decisions, whether they be moral, political or financial.
Governments desire to control the ‘news’! Even in the freest of societies that takes place. There are many means used to accomplish this ‘control’. The issuing of false reports — ‘kite-flying’, simply ‘buying’ a reporter to set forth what the government wants the people to hear or conceal what they do not want the electorate to know.
Here is Ulster, there has been much of that over the last 50+ years! Elements within the government, the civil service and the various media outlets have been most keen to hide from the public the truth with respect to the long-term objectives of government, regarding the activities of Irish Republican terrorism.
Ever since William Gladstone introduced the ‘First Home Rule Bill’ in 1886, Ulster Protestants have been deeply suspicious of London’s intentions. The Home Rule Bill, and the successive attempts that followed would have placed Ulster’s Protestant majority under a Roman Catholic, Dublin based regime! Our forefathers back then adopted the slogan, ‘Home Rule is Rome Rule’ and they would have none of it. Indeed, when it appeared that London was prepared to use the British Army to force Protestants under Rome rule, our forefathers formed the Ulster Defence Force and prepared to resist such treachery by our own British government.
Members of the British Army prepared to Defy Orders
Providentially, there took place what was termed, ‘The Curragh Mutiny’. Wikipedia comments on the incident as follows.
“The Curragh incident of 20 March 1914, sometimes known as the Curragh mutiny, occurred in the Curragh, County Kildare, Ireland. The Curragh Camp was then the main base for the British Army in Ireland, which at the time still formed part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Ireland was scheduled to receive a measure of devolved government, which included Ulster, later in the year. The incident is important in 20th-century Irish history, and is notable for being one of the few occasions since the English Civil War in which elements of the British military openly intervened in politics. It is widely thought of as a mutiny, though no orders actually given were disobeyed.
With Irish Home Rule due to become law in 1914, the British Cabinet contemplated some kind of military action against the unionist Ulster Volunteers who threatened to rebel against it. Many officers, especially those with Irish Protestant connections, of whom the most prominent was Hubert Gough, threatened to resign or accept dismissal rather than obey orders to conduct military operations against the unionists, and were privately encouraged from London by senior officers including Henry Wilson.
Although the Cabinet issued a document claiming that the issue had been a misunderstanding, Secretary of State for War J. E. B. Seely and Chief of the Imperial General Staff (CIGS) Field Marshal Sir John French were forced to resign after amending it to promise that the British Army would not be used against the Ulster loyalists.”
‘The Curragh Mutiny’
Abiding Animosity!
It is a long time ago that in a press conference in December 1971, the then British Home Secretary, Reginald Maudling, made reference to an ‘acceptable level’ of violence in Northern Ireland. It was deemed a ‘political gaffe’ on his part but I have no doubt it revealed the animosity that abides still within the hearts of many mainland politicians toward the Protestants of Ulster and the sympathy those politicians have for Irish republicanism. Click to read more…
Posted on 2024-11-01 a 6:00 am
October 2024
Audio sermons
Click here to listen to all the sermons on this website!
KICS assembly talks. Current series: “KICS Studies – Children in the Gospels who met the Lord Jesus”
- Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8
- See all the talks in this series here.
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Recently Featured Sermons
Spiritual warfare Pt 13preached by Rev. Ivan Foster on Sun Jun 20, 2004
featured on Sun Oct 27, 2024
Spiritual warfare Pt 12.
preached by Rev. Ivan Foster on Sun Jun 13, 2004
featured on Sun Oct 20, 2024
Spiritual warfare Pt 11
preached by Rev. Ivan Foster on Sun Jun 6, 2004
featured on Sun Oct 13, 2024
Spiritual warfare pt 10
preached by Rev. Ivan Foster on Sun May 23, 2004
featured on Sun Oct 6, 2024
Click here to view previous featured sermons
Recently Preached Sermons
The folly of men and the mercy of Godpreached by Rev. Ivan Foster on Wed Oct 23, 2024
The Encouragement of Christ's Return
preached by Mr. Samuel Fitton on Sun Sep 15, 2024
An Exhortation to Christians or 'Progressing for God by Standing Still'
preached by Rev. Ivan Foster on Sun Sep 15, 2024
View all recently preached sermons
Older Sermons Recently Added
Aaron, the Bad Example of a Godly Leader Gone Astraypreached by John Pittman Hey on Sun Sep 16, 2007
A defense of Christian education
preached by Mrs. Ann Foster on Sat Feb 25, 1984
Testimony of Mrs. Ann Foster
preached by Mrs. Ann Foster on Sun Apr 19, 2009
View all recently added sermons
Watch Kilskeery Free Presbyterian services live online here
Telling the Lord the time to work!
The text that I wish to bring to your attention is one that indicates that God works to a timetable.
Nothing proves this better than these verses.
“But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons,” Galatians 4:4-5.
In like fashion, we are told that that the Lord, “Hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation,” Acts 17:26.
God having timetable, which He most certainly will keep to, is a source of encouragement for us to live holy lives as Paul taught. “And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not,” Galatians 6:9.
Above all, do we not long for that time, unknown in its preciseness to us but absolutely certain nevertheless! “Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead,” Acts 17:31. We are to, “Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh,” Matthew 25:13.
There have been many great days in the calendar of God’s mercy. Few greater than that of 31st October 1517! According to Philip Melanchthon, 31 October 1517 was the day Martin Luther nailed his Ninety-five Theses on the door of the All Saints’ Church in Wittenberg, Electorate of Saxony, in the Holy Roman Empire.
Have we not much to rejoice in and be thankful for on this the 507th anniversary of that glorious day!
I trust you benefit from this study.
Sincerely in Christ’s name,
Ivan Foster
“It is time for thee, LORD, to work: for they have made void thy law,” Psalm 119:126.
The above verse is part of the scheduled Bible reading (McCheyne’s Bible Reading Calendar) for 30th October. The time to tell the Lord to work has arrived when there has been a making ‘void’, or ‘disannulling or causing to cease’ God’s Law.
It has been that time in the British Isles for a long time now!
In very recent days, that ‘Arch-apostate’, Justin Welby, the leader of the Church of England, that religious organisation of which British monarchs have long held an honorary ‘headship’, and which has given a lead to the rebellion against God and His Word for a very long time now, has descended to depths he had not heretofore gone! Click to read more…
Posted on 2024-10-31 a 6:00 am
A warning to godly leaders
Kilskeery Christian school is on holidays this week so there is no Assembly study for me to send out.
However, I have obtained a wonderful recording from 2007 of a sermon preached by my good friend and brother, John Pittman Hey from the USA.
Read sermon notes here
Mr. Hey is a graduate of Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina, and earned his Ph.D. in chemistry at the University of Chicago. He preaches every Lord’s Day at Grace Bible Church, a small congregation in Greenwood, Mississippi.
A long-time reader of the Burning Bush, he has taken an interest in the troubles in Ulster, and prayed for courage to obey the Lord’s voice in these matters.
He has been a great help to me in maintaining the witness of the Burning Bush website, being an expert in such matters and it is to him I owe the professional appearance of the website.
He gives a lot of time freely to updating my articles and for this I sincerely thank him.
His message, though from some seventeen years ago, is very much up to date and instructive. I know that you will enjoy and benefit from listening to it.
Sincerely in Christ’s name,
Ivan Foster
Posted on 2024-10-29 a 8:04 pm
The gullibility found amongst God's people
“Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints,” Jude 1:3.
This is a verse with which I have beeb acquainted from my earliest days as a Christian. It was frequently quoted and expounded from the pulpit of Ravenhill Free Presbyterian Church but the minister, Ian R K Paisley.
I have often employed it to expose the dangers facing the people of God from the agents of the devil who creep in to the assembly of the saints surreptitiously in order to destroy the gospel and wreck the work of God.
In recent days I have seen that there is another implication set forth by these words and it is that the people to whom Jude was writing were in need of being warned for they obviously were unaware of the dangers these ‘creepers’ presented! It was not just the wickedness of the creepers that concerned Jude, but the naivety of the saints!
I suppose we can all recall responding to the revelation of a deception wrought upon someone who believed a fraudster with the words, ‘How did they not see that it was a deception?’
We likely have reacted to some newspaper story of how a swindler had obtained from some person a large sum of money by using deceitful words that ought to have been obvious to the one deceived! That has happened and will continue to happen despite the warnings issued and the reports of others being duped!
Why is that so?
Christians, for it is them we want to think of in particular, are likened unto sheep and rightly so for they are easily deceived and led astray. They are in constant need of guidance and guarding.
“But made his own people to go forth like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock,” Psalm 78:52.
Being sheep and gullible, God’s people have often been brought into captivity. “But if ye will not hear it, my soul shall weep in secret places for your pride; and mine eye shall weep sore, and run down with tears, because the LORD’S flock is carried away captive,” Jeremiah 13:17. Click to read more…
Posted on 2024-10-28 a 6:00 am
Shame on the Royal British Legion
A Christian can no longer wear a Poppy with pride.
It no longer is a symbol of the courage of those who fought and died for the wellbeing of the nation.
Rather it has been identified with the perversion of Sodom after being usurped by perverts.
There will be a price to pay for such God-dishonouring folly!
Rev Ivan Foster
Posted on 2024-10-26 a 10:01 pm
DUP-SF talks took place long before 2007 deal, despite years of denials
DUP-SF talks took place long before 2007 deal, despite years of denials
Today’s ‘Belfast Newsletter’ provides yet further evidence of the spirit of deception that has long been at work within the ranks of the DUP.
What a contrast these revelations show existed between those engaged in this chicanery and the holy standards the Lord requires of leaders!
“Moreover thou shalt provide out of all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such over them, to be rulers of thousands, and rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens:,” Exodus 18:21.
Today’s DUP members must recognise that the present political foundation and course of their party is one comprised of liars and deceit and CANNOT therefore succeed.
It will be brought down by the God of Truth.
No person who professes to love and obey the One Who called Himself, “the way, the truth, and the life,” (John 14:6) and of Whom it is said: “The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth,” John 1:14, can continue in membership of the DUP without forfeiting the blessing of God!
All these revelations must be seen as the Lord informing His people of the wickedness that has been wrought in the past and which many professing Christians were eager deny, cover up and conceal and the Lord is thereby requiring His people to act and to “come out from among them” (2 Corinthians 6:17) and be separated from such ungodliness.
Sincerely in Christ’s name,
Ivan Foster
Posted on 2024-10-26 a 9:56 pm
Noah's Ark
The discovery of a boat-shaped mound close to the border between Turkey and Iran has prompted theories that ‘Noah’s Ark’ may be buried beneath.
Archaeology breakthrough as Noah’s Ark’s final location may have just been discovered
A group of archaeologists and scientists called the Mount Ararat and Noah’s Ark Research Team carried out research on the Durupinar formation, which is located two miles from the border in eastern Turkey.
The geological formation in the Doğubayazıt district of Ağrı has been a source of intrigue since its gaining wider public attention in the 1950s.
Marine materials were also discovered in the soil, suggesting that it had once been submerged in deep water, and also encouraging the idea that it could be the famous vessel described in Genesis. Click to read more…
Posted on 2024-10-25 a 6:20 pm
The lies and deception of the past - they haven't gone away y'know
With lurid headlines, the “Belfast Telegraph’ joyfully exposed the chicanery of the DUP when it entered talks with Sinn Fein/IRA, all the while strenuously denying that such were taking place. Amongst those who made the deceitful and wicked denials were those within the ranks of the DUP who professed faith in Christ!
This but made their betrayal immeasurably worse and undoubtedly offended the Lord and made certain their downfall as a result of this deviousness.
If they are capable of it, the DUP ought to be ashamed of their past. This revelation offers an explanation of the DUP’s increasing decline and helplessness in the face of Sinn Féin’s rise!
It also maps out their future continued demise, if there is no acknowledgment of the evil course they embarked upon in order to obtain the trivial and fragile trappings of power!
It should be noted that the man who now makes public the DUP’s double-dealing and treacherous betrayal of their supporters and voters, was a renowned ‘traitor’, who was already guilty of his abandoning historic Methodism for the evil modernistic and Bible-denials of ‘Ecumenism’ with its openly acknowledged programme of the reunion of Protestantism with Roman Catholicism. He is laughably described in the article as a man with ‘unimpeachable integrity’!
What a term to use of a man who broke his ministerial oath and turned his back on the stance of John Wesley!
The ‘Belfast Telegraph’ is an expert in ‘white-washing’!!
Dear Christian this is the explanation for our present perilous spiritual and political circumstances. It is as Daniel said in his prayer of confession of the sins of his nation, which I have just finished reading!
“O Lord, to us belongeth confusion of face, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against thee. . . . Yea, all Israel have transgressed thy law, even by departing, that they might not obey thy voice; therefore the curse is poured upon us, and the oath that is written in the law of Moses the servant of God, because we have sinned against him. And he hath confirmed his words, which he spake against us, and against our judges that judged us, by bringing upon us a great evil: for under the whole heaven hath not been done as hath been done upon Jerusalem. As it is written in the law of Moses, all this evil is come upon us: yet made we not our prayer before the LORD our God, that we might turn from our iniquities, and understand thy truth,” Daniel 9:8, 11-13.
I do not expect any repentance or confession of wrong-doing by the DUP leadership. Pride and political ambition hinder politicians doing that! Click to read more…
Posted on 2024-10-24 a 6:07 pm
Hillsborough Free Presbyterian Church marks the fiftieth anniversary of the opening of its first church building
Hillsborough congregation, under the leadership of its minister, Rev Ian Kenny, organised special gospel meetings to mark the occasion and nothing could be more appropriate since the whole purpose of the existence of the Free Presbyterian witness is to preach and defend the message of Christ.
I was invited to take part in the marking of the anniversary by preaching last night (Wednesday, 23rd October). My invitation resulted from my links with the congregation from its earliest day and particularly because of a mission I conducted back in October 1978.
Read sermon notes here
I cannot really describe the precious thoughts that arose in my heart and mind as I took part in the prayer meeting before the service and heard men pray and speak in thanksgiving of having attended the mission and the prayer meetings that took place each evening back 46 years earlier.
A video was shown during the service of one of those saved in the mission and who became a beloved elder in the congregation, Mr Harold McKibben. It was most moving to hear him tell of how he got saved and how, shortly afterwards, he led his young son to the Saviour. That son made himself known to after the service! He is actively involved in the witness of the congregation.
After the meeting, as I stood at the door and bade farewell to the folk who attended the service, it was indescribably blessed to have some tell me how they had been saved in the mission or how a father or loved now in glory was saved as a result of the mission.
I said in my first remarks that the anniversary service was to a degree what heaven would like be for believers. There will be infinitely more perfect remembering and praising of God for His kindness and mercy and love.
I trust this recording will prove a blessing as you listen.
Rev Ivan Foster
24th October, 2024
Posted on 2024-10-24 a 5:22 pm
“The coming of the Lord draweth nigh”
“The coming of the Lord draweth nigh”, James 5:8
(Extracts from the Editor’s book, ‘The Shadow of the Antichrist’ – Part 1)
This is a time when natural phenomena are manifested all around, with ‘disasters’ of every form hitting nations and causing death and destruction at levels that are most uncommon.
These events have aroused a world-wide campaign, led by the likes of David Attenborough, based upon the premise that mankind’s actions in more recent times have so damaged the earth’s environment as to bring about its utter demise!
There is no doubt that man is the author of his own destruction but it is not so much his selfish and greedy abuse of earth’s natural resources that is bringing disaster upon this world but rather his defiance of the moral standards that God has instituted for mankind and epitomised in the Ten Commandments. That is the reason behind what are the mere ‘firstfruits’ of a coming judgment!
Mr Attenborough, far from being the ‘saviour’ he would have people think of him as, is one of the leading proponents of what is bringing this world into collision with its Creator. He is an atheistic evolutionist, whose view dismisses the existence of a Creator and replaces Him with the absolutely ludicrous notions of invented by his fellow-evolutionists. Their notions are not only ludicrous but forever changing with disagreements aplenty within their ranks!
The rejection of the Bible’s revelation of God and the origin of all things, always a factor in human thinking since the fall of Adam, but which in these lasts days is becoming the dominant view of humanity, is the source of the lawlessness and moral mayhem we see daily reported on the various news outlets.
That in turn, will bring God’s final judgment upon mankind. The Bible’s warnings of this are despised and mocked but the reality of it is manifested before our eyes! The ‘perilous times’ prophesied in Holy Scripture (2 Tim 3:1) are breaking forth all around!
The Lord has clearly revealed events that will take place as a display of Heaven’s displeasure at the moral direction humanity is taking. There are many place where these signs are warned of, none more so than the last book of the Bible, the Book of the Revelation.
The opening words of that book are significant.
“The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass,” Revelation 1:1.
The meaning of the words may be expressed in this fashion: “The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must come to pass in a short time.”
The Bible clearly bears out this rendition of the words by repeatedly indicating that the end of the age will reach a swift climax in a brief period of three and a half years of unparalleled defiance of God and rebellion against Him and His people. That period is underscored by being referred to under three different definitions of the length of it.
- A thousand two hundred and threescore days, Revelation 11:3, 12:6.
- A time, and times, and half a time. Revelation 12:14.
- Forty and two months. Revelation 11:2, 13:5.
The Lord has underscored the duration of the ‘tribulation’ of the final days of this age by defining it in three different ways so that there can be no misunderstanding of what it is He is saying! Or perhaps I should say, that there can be no EXCUSE for anyone misunderstanding the duration of time stated!
That time of atheistic defiance of God and all that is of Him, the hatred of every mention of Him and any acknowledging of His existence, no matter how mixed with falsehood that acknowledgement may be, is drawing near. We can see its approach daily reported in the news with legislation in this country obliquely designed to hinder any acknowledgement of Him. A recent headline in our local press stated: DUP MP says the UK ‘losing its freedom of religion and expression’ after man ordered to pay over £9,000 for praying near an abortion clinic.
There is none who can really disagree with that assessment, even though the incident referred to was not in keeping with Scriptural behaviour. Protesting against abortion by the unscriptural practice of praying for the dead, is near enough a witness to the existence of God for the government to ban it!
In the light of this approach of the end of this age and the signs which the Lord will send upon this earth to indicate that approach, I wish to publish in a series of articles, part of my expositional commentary on the ‘Book of the Revelation’ which I entitled: ‘The Shadow of the Antichrist’.
Here is the first extract from the chapter entitled, ‘The Opening of the Seals’. I have mounted the book in PDF form on ‘The Burning Bush’ website. — ‘The Shadow of the Antichrist’.
THE OPENING OF THE SEALS.
Chapter 6.
The explanation of the significance of the sealed book was seen in our consideration of Jeremiah, chapter 32. The Church of Christ is a purchased Church. Its members are a redeemed people awaiting the day of their entering into the full experience of their redemption.
That day will dawn with the return of Christ to this earth in glory.
For that day we watch. The phrase Come and see is repeated by one of the four living creatures or angelic beings, as the seals are opened, verses 1, 3, 5, 7. It is God’s will that we know something of the events that will take place before the coming of the Son of Man.
The believer should observe the times and seasons in order to mark the approach of that day. When the signs, that the Saviour has told us will herald His return, begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh, Luke 21:28.
The Holy Ghost’s work is to seal us in Christ and our partaking of His grace is the earnest, or the down-payment, of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, Ephesians 1:14. Click to read more…
Posted on 2024-10-21 a 6:00 am
An urgent matter for prayer
Here is a matter for earnest prayer, remembering the Word of God:—
“The king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will,” Proverbs 21:1.
Sincerely in Christ’s name,
Ivan Foster
Benn meets Free Presbyterian Church on school fees
The NIO said Hilary Benn had given serious consideration to the points raised
Robbie Meredith
BBC News NI education correpondent
Representatives from the Free Presbyterian Church have met Northern Ireland Secretary Hilary Benn over Labour’s plans to tax school fees.
Independent Christian schools in Northern Ireland are among those set to be affected by the VAT changes.
VAT at the standard rate of 20% will be added to private school fees from 1 January 2025.
In Northern Ireland, grammar school preps and Christian and other independent schools charge fees.
Many have expressed concerns that they will have to charge parents more if the change comes into effect.
Benn met members of the Education Board of the Free Presbyterian Church at Brownlow House in Lurgan, County Armagh. Click to read more…
Posted on 2024-10-18 a 7:36 pm
The unchanging folly taught to the Roman Catholic people!
‘A beautiful day to have saint’s relics in our parish’
The BBC Northern Ireland news site has been carrying the story of the touring of the bones of a Roman Catholic ‘saint’, French farm girl, Bernadette Soubirous. She claimed back in 1858 that she had seen the ‘Immaculate Conception’. This happened between 11 February and 16 July 1858, and Bernadette claim that the young lady who appeared to her identified herself as ‘the Immaculate Conception’.
The term, ‘the Immaculate Conception’ is explained as meaning: ‘The Immaculate Conception is the belief that the Virgin Mary was free of original sin from the moment of her conception. It is one of the four Marian dogmas of the Catholic Church.’
I find it strange that what the young French girl claimed she saw was not ‘the Virgin Mary’ but ‘the Immaculate Conception’, which is the title of a doctrine of Rome and not a person!
Of course ‘logic’ has no place in this or any of the other notions that Rome puts forth as a ‘doctrine’ to be believed!
What is a truth, however, is that Mary never claimed for herself that she was free from sin. Rather she praised the Lord as the One Who was her ‘Saviour’.
“And Mary said, My soul doth magnify the Lord, And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour,” Luke 1:46-47.
If she was not a sinner she had no need of a ‘Saviour’ and would not have then referred to the Lord as such! Click to read more…
Posted on 2024-10-17 a 6:00 am
RSE review condemned
This article from today’s ‘Belfast Newsletter’ has just been sent to me by a watchful friend and I am passing it on.
I believe that it highlights the devious workings of those determined to introduce the morally polluting corruptions of the sex education reforms, proposed in the ‘Relationship and Sex Education’ scheme, into the classrooms of the state schools here in Northern Ireland.
The nature of the ‘online survey’ of parents, launched by the Stormont Education Committee, is so designed as to make it nigh on impossible to reject this scheme. The state school hierarchy are determined to impose this evil teaching upon children.
Christians must take note of this and recognise the danger facing their offspring in the state school and take the ONLY effective step to safeguard their children — that of sending them to a Bible-based school!
Sincerely in Christ’s name,
Ivan Foster
Posted on 2024-10-16 a 11:07 pm
The duty of pastors, past, present and future!
“And they shall teach my people the difference between the holy and profane, and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean,” Ezekiel 44:23.
I have been reading my way through the book of Ezekiel of late as I follow ‘Robert Murray McCheyne’s Bible Reading Calendar’, a very useful guide to systematically reading one’s Bible.
Since chapter 40, I have been reading about the future temple that will occupy its place in Jerusalem in the days of the Saviour’s Millennial Reign (Revelation 20:4-6).
The details of the temple structure given to us are really beyond our comprehension today but one day, as will be the case in many matters, we will with ease fully understand the significance of the details given. However, we may observe now that the details of the temple suggest that which creation generally declares, “the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard,” Psalm 19:1-3, so it will be with the details of the temple. That spoken of by Ezekiel will reveal features of the ‘great and glorious Architect’ of the splendid edifice.
SERVANTS
The ministering of God’s servants within the temple are also detailed for us in these chapters. The text I wish to draw attention to encapsulates the essence of their service.
I. THE PRIEST WAS EVER TEACHING GOD’S PEOPLE
What a wealth of knowledge concerning the truth of God is to be found in a consideration of the details of the garments the priest wore, the sacrifices he offered and his general conduct in the tabernacle and later in the temple?
1. The holy garments that the priest was required to wear sets forth the state we must be in as we come before the Lord. As the Old Testament saints were told: “Sanctify yourselves therefore, and be ye holy: for I am the LORD your God,” Leviticus 20:7, even so are we in the New Testament era required to observe just such a command. “But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy,” 1 Peter 1:15-16. Holiness of thought, word and deed is likened onto a garment to be donned. Click to read more…
Posted on 2024-10-14 a 6:00 am
The churches’ “hypocrisy and half-heartedness” exposed!
“Church claims pupils called ‘bullies’ over homosexuality views”, so ran a headline of a BBC online news report here in Northern Ireland. It was a report on a meeting between representatives of the ‘Transferor Representatives’ Council (TRC)’ and MLAs on Stormont’s Education Committee. The chair of the education committee is Alliance MLA, Nick Mathison.
In the ‘Belfast Newsletter’, the report on the same matter was headlined: “Presbyterian and Methodist churches defend sex education (RSE) in Northern Ireland controlled schools to Sinn Fein and Alliance Party MLAs”.
The ‘Transferor Representatives’ Council’ (TRC) represents the three largest Protestant denominations, which handed some 500 schools into state care from the 1920s-50s, thus creating the controlled sector.
Dr Andrew Brown and Dr Rebecca Stevenson represented the Presbyterian Church in Ireland and Dr Anita Gracie the Methodist Church in Ireland.
The BBC news report served to highlight the depths of the acceptance of the corruptions of false doctrine within ecumenical denominations here, while the ‘Belfast Newsletter’ emphasised, ‘Sinn Fein and Alliance MLAs have pressed Protestant church representatives to justify why a Christian perspective should be valid in sex education in controlled schools.’
Both Sinn Fein and Alliance parties would be most happy to see every last remnant of Bible truth removed from state school classrooms.
Stormont’s Education Committee
The representatives from the TRC were there at Stormont to give evidence about Relationships and Sexuality Education (RSE) before Stormont’s Education Committee.
If the Government has its way, it will soon be compulsory for all post-primary schools in Northern Ireland to teach pupils about access to abortion and prevention of early pregnancy. Such is the result of former Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris laying regulations on RSE in Parliament in 2023. Click to read more…
Posted on 2024-10-11 a 6:00 am
‘Belfast Telegraph’ again gives a platform to a pathetic attempt to deny the clear teaching of the Bible.
Under the headline: ‘Why I’m glad my Christian beliefs shifted before my wonderful granda passed away’ a journalist, Gareth Hanna, who makes no secret of his rejection of the Bible, rejoices in his casting away of the truth of the word of God. An alternative title for the article seems to be ‘Traditional Christian beliefs are throwing grieving families into needless despair’.
I think he has been told to change the title so that the blasphemous point he is trying to make is even more clear to ‘BT’ readers!
Although I have already sent out an article today, I must answer this wicked man’s deceptions!
Gareth Hanna is one whose writings I have challenged before and contradicted from the Word of God. It is to the shame of the ‘Belfast Telegraph’ that they have given space yet again to such blasphemies but I suppose, having embraced that position decades ago, that newspaper is unlikely to change.
As for the writer, Gareth Hanna, as a Christian one must sense with sorrow, something of the horror that the Bible reveals awaits someone of his opinion!
Hanna’s article ends with this self-evidently stupidly defiant statement:
I say, ‘self-evidently stupidly defiant statement’, for the simple reason that while he employs the word ‘unsaved’, the opposite of the word that is used of God to describe those who have been redeemed by the blood of Christ’s sacrifice at Calvary and who are thus assured of heaven’s peace and joy for all eternity, he then deliberately misleads his readers by stating that those who come under this term, ‘unsaved’ are not to be considered eternally lost! To be concerned about being ‘unsaved’ is needless. Hanna says! He would have his readers blindly follow his reasoning and reject the plain Word of God! Click to read more…
Posted on 2024-10-09 a 5:05 pm
Michelle O’Neill, Conor Murphy and the web of lies surrounding Michael McMonagle, self-confessed sex offender!
Stormont is the capital of lies and prevarication in Northern Ireland, the very seat of betrayal!
The whole regime, sited in a building that was once the political ‘Zion’ of Ulster Protestants, is now structured on lies and it pursues a perverse and fraudulent agenda which but faintly masks the true agenda of its Irish Republican majority — a united Ireland under a popish dominated Dublin!
There are few who occupy its seats who have not been caught out in deceit and falsehood in recent times.
There was a time when a person in public office who lied would immediately have resigned in shame. But with a record of public support for and glorying in terror, murder, thieving and treachery, it is not surprising that Sinn Fein does not step up and acknowledge their duplicity with regards the case of Michael McMonagle, a Sinn Fein employee, indeed a Sinn Fein press officer.
Michael McMonagle was arrested by police investigating sexual offences while working as a Sinn Féin press officer and the party was informed in August 2021.
We are told in the press that two other Sinn Fein employees, former press office colleagues, provided McMonagle with references before he was hired as an events and communication manager with the British Heart Foundation in September 2022.
Michelle O’Neill says she knew nothing about the references.
Michelle O’Neill has also said at the time, the party “took decisive action” and, in line with their policies, immediately suspended McMonagle as a party member and as press officer.
From then on, the First Minister says, she had “no further contact with him”.
McMonagle accompanies the family of Dáithí Mac Gabhann at a British Heart Foundation event in Stormont in February 2023 which was also attended by the First Minister. Click to read more…
Posted on 2024-10-09 a 4:45 pm
The arrogance of Iran's 'Supreme Leader' considered in the light of God's holy and infallible Word!!
A recent newspaper headline stated:
Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei holds a rifle by his side for sermon as he rants that Israel ‘will not last long’ and hails October 7 massacre
There are few false religions that are more bombastic and arrogant in their blasphemies than Islam.
Just this morning, I read in my Bible one of God’s many pronouncements concerning Israel: “Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them: and I will place them, and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore. My tabernacle also shall be with them: yea, I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And the heathen shall know that I the LORD do sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for evermore,” Ezekiel 37:26-28.
Despite Islam’s professed regard for the Bible, the Muslim unhesitatingly blasphemies against God’s Word and would seek to trample its truth underfoot!
This outrageous rant by the Iranian leader is in direct conflict with that which the Lord solemnly repeats on many occasions throughout the ages.
Here are just some of God’s declarations regarding His purpose for the people and the land of Israel.
1. GOD’S PROMISE TO ABRAHAM, SOME 4000 YEARS AGO.
“And the LORD appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the LORD, who appeared unto him,” Genesis 12:7. Click to read more…
Posted on 2024-10-05 a 6:00 am
“The UK is entering its first atheist age”
(Queen’s University Belfast-Report)
The ‘Belfast Newsletter’ carries an article headed:
“UK has more atheists than people who believe in God, says new report from Queen’s University Belfast”
This is the fruit of the falsehoods of ecumenism, liberal theology and the spread of such by the infiltration of Christian churches and organisations by the devil and his agents, particularly over the last 100+ years.
“Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it,” John 8:44.
“And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season,” Revelation 20:1-3.
It is also the outworking of the events that God, in His Word, has foretold would happen!
“For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. 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. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows. Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake. And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved,” Matthew 24:5-13. Click to read more…
Posted on 2024-10-03 a 6:00 am
A glimpse into the future of Jerusalem
«A Psalm of Asaph.»
“O God, the heathen are come into thine inheritance; thy holy temple have they defiled; they have laid Jerusalem on heaps. The dead bodies of thy servants have they given to be meat unto the fowls of the heaven, the flesh of thy saints unto the beasts of the earth. Their blood have they shed like water round about Jerusalem; and there was none to bury them. We are become a reproach to our neighbours, a scorn and derision to them that are round about us. How long, LORD? wilt thou be angry for ever? shall thy jealousy burn like fire? Pour out thy wrath upon the heathen that have not known thee, and upon the kingdoms that have not called upon thy name. For they have devoured Jacob, and laid waste his dwelling place. O remember not against us former iniquities: let thy tender mercies speedily prevent us: for we are brought very low. Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of thy name: and deliver us, and purge away our sins, for thy name’s sake. Wherefore should the heathen say, Where is their God? let him be known among the heathen in our sight by the revenging of the blood of thy servants which is shed. Let the sighing of the prisoner come before thee; according to the greatness of thy power preserve thou those that are appointed to die; And render unto our neighbours sevenfold into their bosom their reproach, wherewith they have reproached thee, O Lord. So we thy people and sheep of thy pasture will give thee thanks for ever: we will shew forth thy praise to all generations,” Psalm 79:1-13.
Once again Israel and Jerusalem are in the news and those who love God’s ancient nation, with dread see a terrible day approaching. That Israel can take care of itself as did David when faced by Goliath, has been demonstrated on many occasions, yet an alliance of enemies is being forged at this present time and it speaks of a day of cruel persecution for Israel in the near future.
Iran, Iraq and Syria are currently active against Israel through their ‘surrogate’ terrorist organisations, Hezbollah, the terrorist arm of Iran, being presently the most active. They occupy large areas in Lebanon, Israel’s northern neighbour and are thus well situated to bombard Israel by artillery and rockets. It has a sizeable body of armed guerrillas under its command. It was announced to the world on Saturday, September 28th, that Israel had killed its infamous leader, by an air strike on his headquarters in Beirut. The BBC headline ran as follows: Hezbollah confirms death of leader Hassan Nasrallah after Israeli strikes on Beirut. Nasrallah, who had not been seen in public for years because of fears of being assassinated by Israel, was considered by many as one of the most influential figures in the Middle East.
Terrorism tends to elevate those guilty of it as it did Gerry Adams, a former barman, whose links with the murderous IRA promoted him to the status of that of a ‘statesman’, at least in the eyes of some ‘eejits’, such as former USA President, Bill Clinton, an openly acknowledged moral deviant!
The Psalm 79 describes scenes that some believe are of Jerusalem in the days of Jeremiah, following its overthrow and devastation by the Babylonians. Others see it as a report of a later overthrowing of the city by Antiochus IV Epiphanes, who ruled the Seleucid Empire from 175 BC until his death in 164 BC. Click to read more…
Posted on 2024-10-01 a 6:00 am
September 2024
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Posted on 2024-09-30 a 9:15 pm
Lessons from the Book of Lamentations - Part 5
(The final study)
The cry of the believer in a day of distress.
“Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith the LORD hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger,” Lamentations 1:12.
This is a verse which has often been used by preachers to illustrate the attitude of the world toward the Saviour on the cross. He was a spectacle of woe and many passed by showing little sympathy but rather mocking and deriding Him.
Such an application is very acceptable and proper. Paul the apostle used the command of God with regards the muzzling of an ox as it trampled on corn as a means of threshing it — “Thou shalt not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn,” Deuteronomy 25:4 — to illustrate the duty of the believer to help in the supply of a gospel minister’s needs, 1 Corinthians 9:9 and 1 Timothy 5:18.
But the primary application of this verse is of that to which it firstly is referring to – the lamentation of the city of Jerusalem in grief over its fate.
I. THE SUFFERINGS OF THE PEOPLE OF GOD ARE OF NO CONCERN TO THE WORLD
“Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by?” The expression is that of a person occupied by the business they are engaged in, so occupied as to have neither interest nor time to consider the vision of woe they are passing.
1. The world has a spirit of enmity toward the people of God. “Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be,” Romans 8:7. The sight of the people of God in adversity provokes no sorrow or sympathy but rather gladness. That is seen in the attitude that the Lord condemned in the men of Edom at the destruction of Jerusalem mentioned in our text. Click to read more…
Posted on 2024-09-28 a 6:00 am
A fool once again uses his pen to assault the truth of God
Once again John Coulter gives the Belfast Newsletter (25th September) readers the benefit of his bottomless folly! He writes under the title: ‘How should Christians really unwind on the Sabbath?’
In the article he seeks to muddy the clear waters of the Bible’s clear teaching on the Sabbath Day and lend support to and offer excuses on behalf of those who would see God’s commands regarding this essential element of Christianity defied and abandoned.
I might first of all state that God ordained the seventh day as the Sabbath in the Old Testament era in order to commemorate the finishing the work of creating all things in six days and resting the seventh day. The word ‘Sabbath’ means ‘rest’.
In the New Testament age, the end of which I believe is approaching fast, the Lord changed the seventh day to the first day of the week as the day of ‘rest’ in order to commemorate His rising from the dead and thus demonstrating that He had finished His great work of the redemption of His elect.
John Coulter would have us believe that there is confusion surrounding how a Christian should behave on the Sabbath. Click to read more…
Posted on 2024-09-26 a 6:00 am
New approach promised -- same aspirations promoted!!!
The BBC headlines on Saturday, September 21st 2024, indicated that in truth it is ‘NO CHANGE’ at DUP HQ!
DUP leader pledges new approach in conference speech
There can be no change within the DUP if it does not acknowledge that it has been promoting the wrong policies, evil polices, and pursuing them by deceitful and devious ways!
The DUP leader may now be claiming that the ‘approach’ will be different, but the DUP under him is still going to seek to promote that which is utterly in opposition to the mind and will of God for nations, great and small, as set forth in His Word!
This is mere chicanery!
Gavin Robinson opened his speech with an undertaking to serve his people. He claims that he will ‘chart a path for a stronger tomorrow’! He says he is ‘optimistic’ for the future. Given the recent events within the ranks of the DUP, hoping for anything short of WW III, would show optimism!
He refers to the last six months as ‘difficult, challenging’. That is rather a euphemistic way in which to refer to the recent past! Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, his predecessor, resigned at Easter after being charged with historical sex offences, and the DUP lost three seats in the Westminster election.
For the DUP leader to acknowledge the last six months as being merely “difficult and challenging” is an evidence of the degree of ‘self-delusion’ within the DUP ranks!
‘Charting a new path’ cannot be accomplished by sticking to a path which involves embracing the devil’s lies and depravities and rejecting God’s truth. That is what is entailed in the present political ‘menu’ the DUP offers to Ulster.
That ‘menu’ includes:
(1) support for government in partnership with IRA-terrorist honouring Sinn Fein.
(2) the embracing and endorsing of sodomy and its allied corruptions.
(3) ignoring the deceitful claims of deliverance from Westminster’s ‘Brexit ‘sham’ and then a lying cover-up and denial when that double-dealing is exposed! Click to read more…
Posted on 2024-09-25 a 5:27 pm
Petitions of a pensioner
“Cast me not off in the time of old age; forsake me not when my strength faileth. . . . Now also when I am old and grayheaded, O God, forsake me not; until I have shewed thy strength unto this generation, and thy power to every one that is to come,” Psalm 71:9, 18.
In my School Assembly studies with the girls and boys of Kilskeery Independent Christian School, I have been urging upon them the wonderful truth that in the Bible, the Lord speaks directly to young people.
Here in this Psalm 71, we can observe words that are particularly directed toward those at the other end of the age spectrum!
What a wonderful book the Bible is! Everyone who believingly reads it can clutch it to their hearts as a personal word from the Lord to them!
While the Psalmist was not one who had access to a ‘pension’ in the manner we have come to accept here in the United Kingdom, he was certainly of that age at which pensions become available to us here. I must say, however, that the Lord undoubtedly provides a ‘pension’ to those who trust Him! These words from Psalm 92 surely indicate that!
“They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing; to shew that the LORD is upright: he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him,” verses 14-15.
The words of Isaiah the prophet endorse this truth. “Hearken unto me, O house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house of Israel, which are borne by me from the belly, which are carried from the womb: And even to your old age I am he; and even to hoar hairs will I carry you: I have made, and I will bear; even I will carry, and will deliver you,” Isaiah 46:3-4.
To these words, I may add Paul’s thoughts. “And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom: to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen,” 2 Timothy 4:18.
Here in Psalm 71, is revealed to us by divine inspiration, the very proper concerns of the aged and a proper setting forth of those concerns before the Lord in prayer. Click to read more…
Posted on 2024-09-25 a 6:00 am
A defense of Christian education
Mrs Ann Foster BA, founding principal of Kilskeery Independent Christian School, speaking at a Sunday School Teachers’ Conference in Mourne Free Presbyterian Church in 1984.
She “being dead yet speaketh,” Hebrews 11:4.
Posted on 2024-09-23 a 6:00 am
Lessons from the Book of Lamentations - Part 4
AFFLICTION – a great aid to remembering!
“Jerusalem remembered in the days of her affliction and of her miseries all her pleasant things that she had in the days of old, when her people fell into the hand of the enemy, and none did help her: the adversaries saw her, and did mock at her sabbaths,” Lamentations 1:7.
That which Jerusalem stout-heartedly refused to believe when warned by Jeremiah, she has forced upon her by the afflictions that followed her rebellion and defiance of God and His Word!
Jeremiah had repeatedly warned in vain.
“My bowels, my bowels! I am pained at my very heart; my heart maketh a noise in me; I cannot hold my peace, because thou hast heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war. Destruction upon destruction is cried; for the whole land is spoiled: suddenly are my tents spoiled, and my curtains in a moment. How long shall I see the standard, and hear the sound of the trumpet? For my people is foolish, they have not known me; they are sottish children, and they have none understanding: they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge,” Jeremiah 4:19-22.
“Hear now this, O foolish people, and without understanding; which have eyes, and see not; which have ears, and hear not: Fear ye not me? saith the LORD: will ye not tremble at my presence, which have placed the sand for the bound of the sea by a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass it: and though the waves thereof toss themselves, yet can they not prevail; though they roar, yet can they not pass over it? But this people hath a revolting and a rebellious heart; they are revolted and gone. Neither say they in their heart, Let us now fear the LORD our God, that giveth rain, both the former and the latter, in his season: he reserveth unto us the appointed weeks of the harvest. Your iniquities have turned away these things, and your sins have withholden good things from you. For among my people are found wicked men: they lay wait, as he that setteth snares; they set a trap, they catch men. As a cage is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit: therefore they are become great, and waxen rich. They are waxen fat, they shine: yea, they overpass the deeds of the wicked: they judge not the cause, the cause of the fatherless, yet they prosper; and the right of the needy do they not judge. Shall I not visit for these things? saith the LORD: shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this? A wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the land; the prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so: and what will ye do in the end thereof?” Jeremiah 5:21-31.
However, what was refused from the lips of Jeremiah by the vast majority, is now ‘force-fed’ to the stubbornly stupid people of Jerusalem by the cruel hand of accumulated afflictions.
I. THAT WHICH HAD BEEN PRESSED UPON THE PEOPLE IS VIVIDLY RECALLED IN THEIR AFFLICTION
The word ‘remembered’ means ‘to recall to mind’. The warnings of Jeremiah had been heard but rejected but nevertheless, his words remained in their minds, unobserved and unheeded, until ‘affliction’ caused them to be ‘recalled’ and pondered. Click to read more…
Posted on 2024-09-21 a 6:00 am
A stark reminder that the whole earth was indeed once flooded
“For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment; And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly,” 2 Peter 2:4-5.
I was reminded of the almost universal scoffing that has greeted the Bible’s account of the flood of Noah as I read such headlines as:
Polish city urged to evacuate as floods batter central Europe
and saw the extensive region affected, covering areas in a number of countries in Europe.
The floods have been caused by a number of factors according to scientists.
The BBC reported the following: ‘The record rainfall seen in central Europe has been caused by a number of factors, including climate change.
Different weather elements came together to create a “perfect storm” in which very cold air from the Arctic met warm air from the Mediterranean.
A pattern of atmospheric pressure also meant that Storm Boris was stuck in one place for a long time.
Scientists say that a warmer atmosphere holds more moisture, leading to more intense rainfall. Warmer oceans also lead to more evaporation, feeding storm systems.’
So say the scientists, who, despite all their learning and knowledge, know not the Lord or anything of His divine superintendence of all that happens in the world.
Pharaoh had to learn this truth the hard way.
“And the LORD said unto Moses, Rise up early in the morning, and stand before Pharaoh; lo, he cometh forth to the water; and say unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Let my people go, that they may serve me. Else, if thou wilt not let my people go, behold, I will send swarms of flies upon thee, and upon thy servants, and upon thy people, and into thy houses: and the houses of the Egyptians shall be full of swarms of flies, and also the ground whereon they are. And I will sever in that day the land of Goshen, in which my people dwell, that no swarms of flies shall be there; to the end thou mayest know that I am the LORD in the midst of the earth. And I will put a division between my people and thy people: to morrow shall this sign be. And the LORD did so; and there came a grievous swarm of flies into the house of Pharaoh, and into his servants’ houses, and into all the land of Egypt: the land was corrupted by reason of the swarm of flies,”Exodus 8:20-24.
Last Days
At the close of this age, because of the nations’ increasing rebellion against the Lord, in a manner reminiscent of the defiance shown by Pharaoh, there will be manifestations of God’s power in judgment against wicked nations. Click to read more…
Posted on 2024-09-20 a 6:00 am
Moral perversion in Ulster -- will it get worse??
“And there came two angels to Sodom at even; and Lot sat in the gate of Sodom: and Lot seeing them rose up to meet them; and he bowed himself with his face toward the ground; and he said, Behold now, my lords, turn in, I pray you, into your servant’s house, and tarry all night, and wash your feet, and ye shall rise up early, and go on your ways. And they said, Nay; but we will abide in the street all night. And he pressed upon them greatly; and they turned in unto him, and entered into his house; and he made them a feast, and did bake unleavened bread, and they did eat. But before they lay down, the men of the city, even the men of Sodom, compassed the house round, both old and young, all the people from every quarter: And they called unto Lot, and said unto him, Where are the men which came in to thee this night? bring them out unto us, that we may know them. And Lot went out at the door unto them, and shut the door after him, And said, I pray you, brethren, do not so wickedly. Behold now, I have two daughters which have not known man; let me, I pray you, bring them out unto you, and do ye to them as is good in your eyes: only unto these men do nothing; for therefore came they under the shadow of my roof.
And they said, Stand back. And they said again, This one fellow came in to sojourn, and he will needs be a judge: now will we deal worse with thee, than with them. And they pressed sore upon the man, even Lot, and came near to break the door. But the men put forth their hand, and pulled Lot into the house to them, and shut to the door. And they smote the men that were at the door of the house with blindness, both small and great: so that they wearied themselves to find the door,” Genesis 19:1-11.
“And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked: (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;),” 2 Peter 2:7-8.
“Then the LORD rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the LORD out of heaven; And he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground,” Genesis 19:24-25.
“And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day. Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire,” Jude 1:6-7.
Throughout the ages, the Lord in mercy has graphically pictured for mankind what lies ahead for those who defy Him and His law.
There is no clearer example of this than the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah and the fate that followed their detestable wickedness. The Lord Jesus informs us that mankind, unchanging and unchangeable in its defiance of God, will plunge itself back into the inquiry of the cities, whose ashes serve as a reminder of the wrath of God. Click to read more…
Posted on 2024-09-17 a 5:53 pm
An exhortation to Christians or ‘Progressing for God by Standing Still’
Kilskeery Conference – Morning Meeting, September 15th 2024
Preacher: Rev. Ivan Foster
“Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.” 1 Corinthians 15:58.
This chapter begins with a glorious definition and exposition of the heart of the gospel message, verses 1-4. It ends with an exhortation to us all how it is we ought to live out our days because of the victory given us by Christ and revealed in the gospel. The word “therefore”, which begins the verse, links what is said to the verse 57.
This exhortation is all the more applicable to us today for, as a generation, we are living nearer the return of Christ and all that will mean for believers, than has any other generation! If time was ‘short’ in Paul’s day (1 Cors 7:29), it is much shorter today! The word ‘short’ carries the meaning of ‘winding up’! I recall from my days in Ulster television that the studio floor manager, if he wished an interview to come to an end as the time for the programme was nearly up, he could use one of two gestures. He could draw his finger across his throat meaning ‘cut the interview off’ or a winding motion with his hand meaning, ‘wind the interview up, bring it to a close.’
The latter is basically what Paul was indicating. The word translated ‘short’ appears in only one other place. “And the young men arose, wound him up, and carried him out, and buried him,” Acts 5:6. Here it is linked with the end of the life of Ananias.
The Lord is ‘winding up His purpose’ amongst men in this age!
We surely understand therefore what Paul was indicating. The last days of this age were approaching back then, nearly 2000 years ago! How much closer the end is today.
In the light of the ever nearing return of Christ our duty is set down here.
I. A SETTLED ADHERENCE TO THE TRUTHS OF THE GOSPEL IS EXPECTED OF US
1. The words “stedfast, unmoveable” tell us what is expected of us. The essence of the meaning of the words may be seen in one of the other places where the word translated “stedfast” appears. “If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister,” Colossians 1:23. There is what is meant by being “stedfast”. We are to be “grounded” and not “moving away from the hope of the gospel”! Click to read more…
Posted on 2024-09-16 a 6:00 am
Lessons from the Book of Lamentations - Part 3
Jeremiah conducts a spiritual post-mortem on the ‘Ways of Zion’!
“The ways of Zion do mourn, because none come to the solemn feasts: all her gates are desolate: her priests sigh, her virgins are afflicted, and she is in bitterness. Her adversaries are the chief, her enemies prosper; for the LORD hath afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions: her children are gone into captivity before the enemy. And from the daughter of Zion all her beauty is departed: her princes are become like harts that find no pasture, and they are gone without strength before the pursuer” Lamentations 1:4-6.
Such shop windows signs are often seen when recession hits the economy and depression sets in.
Such may take place as a result of incompetence on the part of a nation’s political leaders, though I believe that there is always an element of God’s judgement against the sins of His people involved in such downturns!
I read on the day I wrote this, in the book of Ezekiel, the following: “The word of the LORD came again to me, saying, Son of man, when the land sinneth against me by trespassing grievously, then will I stretch out mine hand upon it, and will break the staff of the bread thereof, and will send famine upon it, and will cut off man and beast from it: Though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they should deliver but their own souls by their righteousness, saith the Lord GOD,” Ezekiel 14:12-14.
But God’s judgment against a people who desert His Word and embrace error, despite the repeated warnings the Lord sends them via His prophets, can be more extensive than economic hardship.
Our study verses speak of:
(1) The dreadful decline of true worship and the despair that such caused.
(2) The dominance of the enemy.
(3) The ‘beauty of holiness’ has departed from Zion.
These features still mark a people under God’s judgment and I say that they may be seen here in Ulster today. Click to read more…
Posted on 2024-09-14 a 6:00 am
“Pat Finucane murder inquiry - Labour Party prostrates itself before Sinn Fein, the party of IRA terrorism”
It must ever be remembered that the man whose murder is at the centre of this controversy, Pat Finucane, was a man who was alleged to be a member of the IRA by former members of that terrorist organisation. He represented terrorists and murderers as a solicitor and his three brothers, John, Dermot and Seamus – were connected with republican activities. The first was an IRA man killed in a car crash, the second was one of the Maze 1983 escapees, and the third was a former prisoner, who was arrested alongside Bobby Sands after an IRA bombing and gunfight (Belfast Newsletter 30/10/20).
No matter how the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Hilary Benn, dresses up his decision to grant that which is utterly denied to the thousands of other victims of terrorism, he cannot hide his shameful subservience to murderous Irish Republicanism behind a cloak of legal gobbledygook!
Jim Allister MP told the News Letter:
“The double standards here are appalling. As I pointed out to the Secretary of State yesterday, not only are the Finucane family being treated differently from everyone else they are again being offered something which they had previously rejected.
“It is a gross insult to the thousands of innocent victims in Northern Ireland that Mr Benn should describe this murder and this one alone as ‘unique’.
“That the new government should do this at such an early stage sends entirely the wrong message to innocent victims.
“As the excellent editorial in Thursday’s News Letter highlighted, Lord Trimble had previously made the point that any inquiry into the murder of Pat Finucane should also involve a probe into the activities of Mr Finucane.
“Wicked and evil as this murder was, it was no more wicked and evil than the murders of Resident Magistrate William Staunton (who was shot by the IRA in front of his young daughter and her school friends), Judge Rory Conaghan (another judge shot in front of his daughter), Resident Magistrate Martin McBirney (shot again in his home in front of his family), Judge William Doyle (murdered as he left mass), Lord and Lady Gibson or law lecturer Edgar Graham. One also thinks of attack on the family of Judge Tom Travers in which young Mary Travers was murdered.
“For all the lectures about truth and justice, the truth is that the party John Finucane now represents not only defended and justified those wicked murders at the time but continues to do so right up to and including the present day.”
Rev Ivan Foster (Rtd)
13th September 2024
Posted on 2024-09-13 a 5:56 pm
A further tribute to the labours of Mrs Ann Foster (27/10/1946 — 8/6/2024)
In this the beginning of the 46th year of Kilskeery Independent Christian School, we wish to mount some articles that will bear witness to the labours of the founding principal of the school.
Here is a recording of her giving her testimony in Newtownabbey Free Presbyterian Church, back in 2009, at the Soul Winner’s Conference. She had just retired from teaching the year before.
May you find a blessing as she “being dead yet speaketh,” Hebrews 11:4.
Posted on 2024-09-13 a 6:00 am
An Irishman exposes Rome’s crimes against children!
The following article appeared in ‘The Times’ newspaper and was shared with me by a friend.
The writer of the article is called ‘Gary Murphy’. One could be forgiven for believing him to have roots in Ireland!
That makes the article all the more compelling. I would sincerely and earnestly ask Irish Roman Catholics, indeed Roman Catholics everywhere, to consider the picture that is painted here of the Roman Catholic institution.
Any professing Christian may fall into sin. That is very obvious from the Bible’s record of David and Peter for example.
But if again and again it is reported that wickedness is uncovered within the life of an individual who claims to be a Christian, then it would be justifiable to say of that person that they are ‘false professors’ and not true believers!
Paul writes concerning the true Christian and what it is Christ has done for them: “Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works,” Titus 2:14.
When within the ranks of an organisation which professes to be the ‘church of Jesus Christ’, there are universal instances of repeated perversions of the most unspeakable kind and these are covered over and lied about again and again by those who hold the highest positions of authority within that organisation, what is one to think of it?
Reformers
There is only one conclusion that can be drawn. It is that of the Protestant Reformers in the 16th century whose eyes were opened by the grace and mercy of God — “We are in an organisation that is not what it claims to be and its teachings are entirely in opposition to the Holy Scriptures! We must immediately remove ourselves from it and seek to walk in obedience to God’s Holy Word.”
That has ever been the will of God for any who seek to obey Him. Click to read more…
Posted on 2024-09-09 a 4:33 pm
An apology of an apology!
The following notice appeared in the latest edition of the Free Presbyterian Church magazine, F P Vision.
What is referred to here by this oblique statement is an article by Jonathan Storey, minister of Mt Merrion Free Presbyterian Church, in which he recommends that we adopt the prayer of the Romanist ‘saint’ Thomas Aquinas, an Italian Dominican friar and priest.
I challenged the publishing of this article in an article entitled:
Is encouraging the adoption of papist prayers official policy of the Free Presbyterian Church?
In the article I wrote:
‘I consider this a most serious and unacceptable breach in our denomination’s adherence to the Word of God and to the Reformed Faith and it is time to call a halt to such violations of our God-ordained stand and witness and deal with those guilty of such.
If the sentiments of this article are not the official position of the Free Presbyterian Church, then how was it sanctioned for publication in an official magazine?’
In a response to my protest at the article, I was told the matter would be addressed in the next edition of the Free Presbyterian Vision. Click to read more…
Posted on 2024-09-09 a 6:00 am
Lessons from the Book of Lamentations - Part 2
Questions demanding an answer! — Part 1
“How doth the city sit solitary, that was full of people! how is she become as a widow! she that was great among the nations, and princess among the provinces, how is she become tributary!” Lamentations 1:1.
As Matthew Poole in his commentary says: ‘This book . . . hath its name from the subject matter of it, which is lamentation.’ It was written by Jeremiah, who afresh earns the title of ‘the weeping prophet’.
These questions in the opening verse denote the astonishing consequences of God’s judgment on an erring, stubborn, self-willed people! Their miseries can be dated I believe to after the defeat of the city by the Babylonians in BC 588.
We may see that the conquest of Jerusalem has passed from these words.
“The yoke of my transgressions is bound by his hand: they are wreathed, and come up upon my neck: he hath made my strength to fall, the Lord hath delivered me into their hands, from whom I am not able to rise up. The Lord hath trodden under foot all my mighty men in the midst of me: he hath called an assembly against me to crush my young men: the Lord hath trodden the virgin, the daughter of Judah, as in a winepress. For these things I weep; mine eye, mine eye runneth down with water, because the comforter that should relieve my soul is far from me: my children are desolate, because the enemy prevailed,” Lamentations 1:14-16.
‘The whole book lets us see from what a height of dignity to what a depth of misery sin may bring nations, how much soever interested in God; and likewise directs us to our duty in such states of affliction and misery if we would obtain mercy,’ Matthew Poole (1624–1679).
In this first verse the prophet stands and speaks in awe and amazement at what has happened to the city of Jerusalem.
Three times the word “how” is uttered by Jeremiah
I. NO MATTER HOW SECURE OUR POSITION MAY BE, THE LORD CAN BRING US DOWN!
1. Jerusalem the city sat ‘solitary’. The word carries the meaning of ‘isolation’. The word first appears in Leviticus 13:43-46 and it refers to the imposed isolation of the many suspected of being a leper.
“Then the priest shall look upon it: and, behold, if the rising of the sore be white reddish in his bald head, or in his bald forehead, as the leprosy appeareth in the skin of the flesh; he is a leprous man, he is unclean: the priest shall pronounce him utterly unclean; his plague is in his head. And the leper in whom the plague is, his clothes shall be rent, and his head bare, and he shall put a covering upon his upper lip, and shall cry, Unclean, unclean. All the days wherein the plague shall be in him he shall be defiled; he is unclean: he shall dwell alone; without the camp shall his habitation be.”
The city once ‘full of people’ has been reduced to that loneliness and friendlessness of the leper forced without the camp! As Jeremiah looked upon Jerusalem in the aftermath of the Babylonian siege and conquest of the city, he marvelled that she that had been so secure, so prosperous and enjoyed such divine protection could be reduced to rubble!
This is what backsliding and sin will bring upon any people, irrespective of the privileges they rejoiced in and the enjoyment of God’s blessing they may have experienced in the past.
“For the wages of sin is death,” Romans 6:23. Click to read more…
Posted on 2024-09-07 a 6:00 am
You are Invited ...
Kilskeery Free Presbyterian Church
Annual Autumn Conference
Theme
‘The time is short!’
Friday September 13th at 8.00 pm
“A Warning to the Lost”
Preacher: Rev Brian McClung
(Newtownabbey Free Presbyterian Church)
Click here to listen to or view this sermon
Lord’s Day September 15th at 11.30 am & 3.30 pm
(There will be no 7.00 pm service)
Morning service
“An Exhortation to Christians”
Preacher: Rev Ivan Foster
(Former minister of Kilskeery Free Presbyterian Church, now retired)
Click here to listen to or view this sermon
Afternoon service
“The Encouragement of Christ’s Return”
Preacher: Mr Samuel Fitton
(Licentiate minister in Kilskeery Free Presbyterian Church)
Click here to listen to or view this sermon
ALL ARE WELCOME TO JOIN US AROUND GOD’S WORD AT THESE SERVICES
or to join in via Facebook
“But this I say, brethren, the time is short: it remaineth, that both they that have wives be as though they had none; And they that weep, as though they wept not; and they that rejoice, as though they rejoiced not; and they that buy, as though they possessed not; And they that use this world, as not abusing it: for the fashion of this world passeth away,” 1 Corinthians 7:29-31.
Posted on 2024-09-06 a 6:30 pm
A tribute to the labours of Mrs Ann Foster (27/10/1946 — 8/6/2024)
The following is an article printed in the Times Educational Supplement on 9th October 1998.
It is based upon an interview with the late Mrs Ann Foster BA, founding principal of Kilskeery Independent Christian School.
We reproduce it as a tribute to her many years of devoted labour within the school and her efforts to advance the cause of Christian education throughout the Free Presbyterian Church.
This week saw the commencement of the 46th year of our school’s existence.
Mrs Foster went into the presence of her Saviour and Lord in the earlier hours of June 8th, this year.
We would ask you to remember that the statements in the article which were purported to be made by Mrs Foster are what a female journalist wrote and would not really be a verbatim report! She obviously unsympathetic to the objectives of Christian education, as is seen in her derogatory description of the interior of the school.
Mrs Foster’s answers were not reported in full and they were not the complete answers she would have given. She was a woman who was very well acquainted with the Bible and would have readily included many quotations from it in her responses to any questions she was asked.
“Battle to teach God’s own law”
Times Educational Supplement
9th October 1998
“WHEN we have a teacher recruitment crisis we don’t advertise, we get down on our knees and pray to God for help,” says Ann Foster, head of the 52-pupil Kilskeery Independent Christian school in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland.
She agrees most heads would find that rather an odd method of recruiting staff, but then she is looking for a very particular kind of teacher.
First, they have to be willing to take a 75 per cent salary cut; second — and most importantly — they must share the doctrines of the Free Presbyterian faith, that they alone are God’s true servants in an immoral world, that the theory of evolution is wrong and that all children are natural sinners who must be taught to conform to God’s law. Click to read more…
Posted on 2024-09-06 a 6:00 am
These articles will tell you about the true nature of Roman Catholicism!
Its utter depravity.
Its shameless deceit.
The cruel indifference to the sufferings of the victims of its criminal priests and nuns.
The repeated uncovering of its total ungodliness and denial of all things Christian!
I will leave readers of ‘The Burning Bush’ to check out these articles the ‘links’ to which are below.
Former Christian Brother accused of repeated sexual abuse by former pupil
‘Shocking’ abuse in Ireland’s religious schools
2,400 claims of historical sexual abuse at 308 schools run by religious orders
Ireland to set up inquiry into sexual abuse at schools run by religious orders
Whatever the outcome of the ‘inquiry’, we can be sure that Romanism, despite the numerous and repeated exposures of the evil that go on behind its walls, will be excused and whitewashed and the hypocritical bleatings of its ‘sheep in wolves clothing’ accepted by its people and the Irish government!
There is coming a day when its crimes will be justly and fully dealt with. That is the DAY when God will judge that system of iniquity of which Romanism is today its chief manifestation on the earth. The final manifestation of unclean and false religion, latter-day Babylonism, and its judgment is pictured for us in Revelation 17. Click to read more…
Posted on 2024-09-05 a 5:00 am
The man who claims he ‘Kept the Faith’ while rejecting the Gospel!
Alf McCreary began as a journalist in the ‘Belfast Telegraph’ the same year as I was converted to Christ and became a Christian — 1964.
He was 24 years old while I was coming 21!
The very month he began his career in the ‘Belfast Telegraph’, September, I met my dear Ann, who was to become my wife in 1968 and who laboured alongside me in the gospel for 56 years.
Thankfully, the parallel ended in September 1964. McCreary became a chief spokesman for all that was ‘Ecumenical’ and anti-Bible and I laboured to do the very opposite!
He has been reported as being an elder in the apostate Presbyterian Church in Ireland. As such he may have signed the Westminster Confession of Faith as a profession of what he believed and would uphold. Irrespective of whether he did or did not, all that is stated in that Confession he set himself against.
O’Neillism
He was a prominent defender of the ecumenically inspired policies of the late, unlamented, Terence O’Neill, (1914-1990). O’Neill was the Ulster Unionist prime minister in Northern Ireland from 1963-1969.
It was during his premiership that the IRA terrorist campaign had its beginnings. Click to read more…
Posted on 2024-09-04 a 6:00 am
Another sign of the blind ignorance of many
A ‘Belfast Telegraph’ article (29/8/24) bore the headline:
‘Sign of the Cross should no longer be regarded as a purely Catholic gesture’
I do not have access to the article for I am not willing to pay to read drivel and balderdash! This article is but another example of the stupid ‘scribblers’ the ‘Belfast Telegraph’ is prepared to pay to pour out thoroughgoing nonsense to deceive and promote the errors of Romanism. The writer on this occasion is John Laverty.
The ‘sign of the cross’ was never the practice of true believers. Rather it was the invention of those ‘church fathers’ who ushered the professing church into ever-deepening apostasy from the latter part of the second century AD onward until the blessed awakening and return to primitive first century Bible Christianity in the days of the Protestant Reformation in the sixteenth century. Of course, the error continued within the confines of Romanism and the apostatising, so-called Protestant denominations which are involved in the ecumenical movement!
Here is what one such false shepherd said on the matter as put forth in the defence of this practice by Rome.
“Basil (ca. 329 – 79 A.D) said that the Apostles ‘taught us to mark with the sign of the cross those who put their hope in the Lord, that is, those who presented themselves for baptism. Initially the Sign of the Cross was made with the thumb, usually on the forehead but sometimes on the lips and chest.’ ”
What ‘old Basil’ did NOT say was, JUST WHERE IN THE WRITINGS OF THE APOSTLES THIS WAS TAUGHT BY THEM!
Let us observe some truths about this heathen practice.
1. Making the sign of the of the cross is an essential part of popery’s religion.
We can also see here how important it is to them, in fact, as I understand it, ‘crossing’ takes place some fifty-one times in the Mass at the beginning and end prayers. That surely suggests that prayers would be incomplete and therefore would not be answered without a crossing of oneself!
What the sign of the cross is claimed to be is the person’s way of asking God to bless them, or more accurately, they are blessing themselves by making the sign of the cross.
No ‘crossing’, no blessing! Click to read more…
Posted on 2024-09-02 a 6:00 am