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Dr. Cooke has gone to glory

The passing of ‘Mr. Valiant-for-truth’

Dr S B Cooke (1929 — 2025)

Rev Dr S. B. Cooke

Dr Cooke was a dear friend of mine and we last talked together on Monday past at the nursing home in Kilkeel where he and his dear wife have been. He went to heaven this afternoon.

I wish to express my sincere condolences to his wife Agnes, also a dear friend, his brother Ronald and his family in the USA, his two sisters Nancy and Audrey, and Agnes’s loved ones.

Bertie Cooke was a man esteemed amongst his brethren for his wisdom and tenacious stand for the principles of Free Presbyterianism.

We praise God for his lasting witness and testimony.

“‭And‭ one‭ of‭ the elders‭ answered‭‭, saying‭‭ unto me‭, What‭ are‭‭ these‭ which‭ are arrayed in‭‭ white‭ robes‭? and‭ whence‭ came they‭‭?‭ ‭And‭ I said‭‭ unto him‭, Sir‭, thou‭ knowest‭‭. And‭ he said‭‭ to me‭, These‭ are they‭‭ which came‭‭ out of‭ great‭ tribulation‭, and‭ have washed‭‭ their‭ robes‭, and‭ made‭‭ them‭‭ white‭‭ in‭ the blood‭ of the Lamb‭,” Revelation 7:13-14.

Funeral Service in Moneyslane Free Presbyterian Church
Monday 8th December at 12 noon, followed by burial
in the Ballygowan Free Presbyterian graveyard

(Full details here)

Dr Cooke (front right) and Rev Ivan Foster (left), a second year ministerial student at the Free Presbyterian Church protest against the ecumenical apostasy of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, June 1967.

Educated eejits spout more baloney!

Religious Education ‘not suitable’ for NI society, study suggests

We will acknowledge one unintended grain of truth in the above BBC headline, and it is this. What passes for ‘Religious Education’ in Northern Ireland, is not suitable for anywhere in the world, never mind here!

The Core Syllabus for Religious Education in Northern Ireland is jointly defined by the Department of Education (DE) and the representatives of the four main Christian churches in Northern Ireland (Roman Catholic, Presbyterian, Anglican, and Methodist).

Thus it is an evil ‘homogenisation’ of modernistic and liberal theology and idolatrous superstition and man-made traditions!

I always find it utterly unreasonable that those who feel that they had to leave, or even flee, from their homeland, for one reason or another and seek refuge in the United Kingdom, feel it necessary to immediately begin to try and transform our land into that from which they felt they had to get out of.

That to me is very strange indeed!

However, that said, there is a great need for educating Northern Ireland on matters religious from the Word of God, the ‘only rule of faith and practice’. Martin Luther is quoted as saying: ‘The true rule is this: God’s Word shall establish articles of faith, and no one else, not even an angel can do so.’ (more…)

A letter to the ‘Belfast Newsletter’

Sir,

A letter from James Hardy was published in your newspaper on 3rd December 2025.

It had the heading:

‘Following the debate over the teaching of Religious Education in schools, are Bible basics best explained at home?’

It most certainly is a clear command of the Lord that the ‘home’ is to be a place of Scriptural Instruction for children.

“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: and thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.,” Deuteronomy 6:4-9.

There can be no disputing the place given to Biblical instruction of the young within the home in the purpose of God. It is emphasised a little further on in Deuteronomy. (more…)