“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 2:5.
I believe I may respectfully and reverently paraphrase the Saviour’s words in this manner:
“If you do not face up to the fact that you have backslidden and departed from what you once believed and practiced and return to your former ways, I will swiftly cast you off for you are on the doorstep of apostasy.”
We should remember that these words are addressed by the Saviour to a church which before was spoken of by Paul the Apostle in these words.
Ephesians 2:12-22
“That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: but now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace; and that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby: and came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh. For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father. Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God; and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: in whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.”
It was a church of those gathered out of the darkness and ignorance of idolatry, a people without God, without hope and afar off. But they experienced reconciliation with God through the blood of the Lord Jesus and were now resting upon the foundation of the Holy Scriptures and enjoyed Holy Ghost fellowship with God the Father and were His holy habitation.
But see where they are just some thirty years later! They had “fallen”, no longer engaging in their first zealous works of holiness.
I. THE SAVIOUR CALLS UPON THEM TO REMEMBER FROM WHENCE THEY HAD FALLEN.
In this seventy fifth year of our existence as a denomination, just how much REMEMBERING of the stand taken by our founders and the generation that followed, has truly taken place?
I would claim there has really been very little.
Historical data
Oh yes, the details of the actions in Crossgar back in 1951, of Dr Paisley and the elders in the Lissara congregation of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, have been repeated in a number of gatherings. The details of how the Presbytery of Down refused to allow a Gospel mission, at which Dr Paisley was the invited evangelist, to take place in church property, have been rehearsed.
But just how much of the ‘spirit of separation’ that our founders possessed and lived out, exists today amongst us?
There is not that much, in truth, when Free Presbyterian ministers can share meetings with ministers within the apostate denominations and our Presbytery has sanctioned such an ‘undoing’ of that step taken in Crossgar seventy-five years ago!
We are in grave danger of repeating the folly of Judah for which the Lord chided them by His servant Jeremiah.
“Go and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the LORD; I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, when thou wentest after me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown. Israel was holiness unto the LORD, and the firstfruits of his increase: all that devour him shall offend; evil shall come upon them, saith the LORD. Hear ye the word of the LORD, O house of Jacob, and all the families of the house of Israel: Thus saith the LORD, What iniquity have your fathers found in me, that they are gone far from me, and have walked after vanity, and are become vain? Neither said they, Where is the LORD that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, that led us through the wilderness, through a land of deserts and of pits, through a land of drought, and of the shadow of death, through a land that no man passed through, and where no man dwelt? And I brought you into a plentiful country, to eat the fruit thereof and the goodness thereof; but when ye entered, ye defiled my land, and made mine heritage an abomination,” Jeremiah 2:2-7.
Furthermore, ‘few there are that seem to CARE and fewer still to PRAY’ about this abandoning of the spirit of separation manifested by our founders. Few seem to have even noticed that we are not what we were and it is the main purpose of all too many ministers to stop the people observing this sad decline.
Why so?
Because if it was noticed then there would arise a groundswell of opinion, demanding that our pulpits echo again with the old-fashioned truths of God, preached in the power of the Holy Ghost!
Such prayers that do lament the decline from what we were, are not welcome in most congregations by many of the present ministers. Not necessarily because they all would disagree with such sentiments, but because they are frightened of a minority within their congregation who might object to such prayers and so cause a ‘split’ which might result in some might go elsewhere!
Important things first!!!!
Above all we must defend and maintain the amount on the collection plate and not let anything like ‘standing up for God’s truth in these days of apostasy’, interfere with that!
I know that, founding elders, Hugh James Adams and Cecil Harvey, from personal acquaintance, would not have supported the present position of Presbytery, where fellowshipping with those in disobedience of God’s plain Word and who are living in complete compromise with ecumenical apostasy, is permitted and readily engaged in by some of our ministers!
Rather, it was the desire of those who wished to cross the line of separation and reunite with the disobedient and defiant compromising ‘evangelicals’ within the apostasy, that prompted the adoption of the present Presbytery position.
Furthermore, having been enthusiastically thanked by the two founder fathers just mentioned for standing with Dr Paisley in his protests back in the 1960s, while I was a student, I know assuredly that they would not be amongst the ranks of those Free Presbyterians who today happily snipe, sneer and seek to belittle me from the sidelines whenever I protest against the departures and compromising within our ranks today!
II. A REFUSAL TO REMEMBER HOW THEY HAVE FALLEN, TO REPENT AND RETURN TO THEIR FIRST WORKS, WOULD BRING A SWIFT AND TERRIBLE JUDGMENT UPON THE EPHESIANS!
“I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.”
I believe that the Free Presbyterian Church is in a situation dangerously like that of Ephesus.
It is not today or yesterday that warning notes have been sounded regarding the slide within the Free Presbyterian Church.
Some evidence
There is evidence that there has been a heeding of the warning by some. However, few pulpits have openly joined in the sounding of the alarm needed.
I would remind my brethren of a verse of Holy Scripture that has a special place in my memory and has been an incentive to me from when I first heard it set forth by Dr Paisley as a reason for ever identifying ourselves as being on the Lord’s side in the midst of controversy.
“In the day that thou stoodest on the other side, in the day that the strangers carried away captive his forces, and foreigners entered into his gates, and cast lots upon Jerusalem, even thou wast as one of them,” Obadiah 1:11.
Brethren, we ought not to stand aloof as mere spectators while the name and honour of the Lord is attacked! The old saying should ever be remembered — ‘Silence gives consent’!
Elders
There has been a number of elders that have indicated that they share the sense of concern for the future of the witness.
However, it is the occupants of the pews who have indicated the greatest measure of agreement and distress about the direction taken by our church, chiefly in the last twenty years.
Just the other evening, I received a text which informed me that a Christian lady attended my meeting in Markethill Free Presbyterian Church on 17th April, when I preached on the subject:
Going forward by turning back!
It was encouraging to hear that the dear lady had said that she had heard things that she never heard before and she and her husband were both greatly blessed.
I responded in the following fashion.
‘Sadly, there are things being said that were never heard before, but they are the lies of the devil!
In all my recent controversies, not one verse from God’s Word has been offered in defence of the follies being promoted!
I think the problem is not so much that the whole counsel of God is NOT being preached but that the few that are preaching it are doing it too softly and without the unction of the Holy Ghost!!
Thanks for letting me know.’
Like the church in Ephesus, we face a very serious situation if there is not an obeying of the call to remember, repent, and do our first works.
Threat
The Saviour’s threat was most terrible. Its terribleness is an indication of how wicked are those enticements which cause us to abandon obedience to God’s Word. They are enticements that foolish men today extoll, defend and rejoice in!
Though, I must repeat, that those who promote enticing innovations, when challenged, are utterly unable to present a defence of their notions from God’s Word.
They are not short of abusive adjectives and what they likely consider clever responses but they are short of Scriptural authentication for their piffle!
Candlestick
As I have said, the Saviour’s threat ought to strike fear into every truly converted child of God! Failure to obey will result in the Lord Jesus coming to us quickly and He will “remove” our candlestick out of its place, except we repent!
What was the ‘Candlestick’? We are told exactly what that term means in chapter 1.
“The mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches: and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches,” verse 20.
“Ye are the light of the world”
The Churches of Asia are represented by these lamps. They hold the oil and the fire, and give out the light of the Gospel. A lamp is not light in itself, it is only the instrument of dispensing light, and it must receive both oil and fire before it can dispense any.
No Church can function of itself. It must ever be refuelled by Christ its Head, He Who is the TRUE LIGHT. It can of itself dispense neither light nor life.
So if Christ removes the ‘Candlestick’ the church ceases to be an instrument of God.
Such are the three main denominations in Northern Ireland at the present time. I make no reference to Roman Catholicism for it never possessed the candlestick of Christ and was no church.
But the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, the Church of Ireland and the Methodist churches once did possess the light of God to varying degrees.
Now they are but empty shells, mere ecclesiastic skeletons, mere empty wizened chrysalises, given over to the corruptions of apostasy !
Dear friends, with all my heart I would that what I say be considered and neither dismissed nor ignored.
I truly believe that we are STANDING on the DOORSTEP and within a mere stride of loosing out with God and forfeiting the heritage passed down to us by our courageous forebears at Crossgar.
Rev Ivan Foster (Rtd)
1st May 2026