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The following report appeared in today’s ‘Belfast Newsletter’, Friday 6th December.

In it, the ‘Christian Institute’ indicates the dangers that will arise from the legislation which the Alliance Party deputy leader, Eoin Tennyson revealed his proposals on Thursday. 

Tennyson professes openly that he is a sodomite!

Here is the report by Philip Bradfield.

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Alliance Party proposals to criminalise conversion therapy could see parents jailed for up to seven years “when they discourage their child from gender transition or sexual experimentation” a Christian charity has warned.

Anyone convicted is also liable to a fine of up to £5,000.

Alliance Deputy leader Eoin Tennyson revealed his proposals on Thursday, saying he was frustrated by delays at Stormont and Westminster to outlaw the practice.

Mr Tennyson proposes two new criminal offences – engaging in conversion practice and removing a person from NI for conversion practice.

He proposes that convictions must m eet four tests;- provision of a service; intent to change someone’s orientation or gender identity; targeted at an individual; harm must be caused.

The only defence would be that the accused’s conduct “was reasonable in the circumstances”.

Anyone convicted would face up to seven years in jail and / or a fine of up to £5000.

See his proposals in full HERE

But James Kennedy, NI Policy Officer with the Christian Institute, now says the Scottish Government gave up on similar legislation this year due to risk of legal challenge, asking Westminster to legislate instead.

He said Alliance has published a flow chart for the bill almost identical to Scottish proposals.

Mr Kennedy said: “Thankfully, abusive practices are already outlawed in Northern Ireland. Christians oppose verbal and physical abuse.”

He added: “Mr Tennyson has copied the threshold from the Scottish plans. The broad definition of ‘harm’ would mean a parent could be prosecuted when they discourage their child from gender transition or sexual experimentation. Even saying ‘you might regret it’ could be seen as causing fear and thus be illegal. (more…)

“Then said he, Unto what is the kingdom of God like? and whereunto shall I resemble it? It is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and cast into his garden; and it grew, and waxed a great tree; and the fowls of the air lodged in the branches of it,” Luke 13:18-19.

I will never forget brother Jordan Khan preaching on the above brief parable in Lisbellaw Free Presbyterian Church back in 1970. Brother Khan was a visitor to Ulster from India and preached in various congregations of our denomination. He “was a good man, and full of the Holy Ghost and of faith.” I recall his telling us that his father was a prayer partner to ‘Praying Hyde’, John Nelson Hyde (November 9, 1865 – February 17, 1912) an American missionary who preached in the Punjab state in India.

Jordan Khan’s exposition was an early warning of what, some 30-40 years later began to take place within the Free Presbyterian Church.

Please note from this parable:

I. THE TRUE WORK OF GOD HAS VERY SMALL AND HUMBLE BEGINNINGS!

“Unto what is the kingdom of God like? and whereunto shall I resemble it? It is like a grain of mustard seed.”

1. The greatest period of blessing and expansion in this New Testament age began with a small group of men and women meeting in prayer. “And when they were come in, they went up into an upper room, where abode both Peter, and James, and John, and Andrew, Philip, and Thomas, Bartholomew, and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon Zelotes, and Judas the brother of James. These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren,” Acts 1:13-14. We are told that earlier when they gathered in this same room: “Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews,” John 20:19.

The early days of the apostolic church were indeed days of humble and trembling beginnings.

They were days of clinging to the Lord for mercy and help in the face of the opposition of men stirred up by the devil.

2. Some are still alive within the ranks of the Free Presbyterian Church who will recall the early days in the 1950s when the opposition of our ecumenical opponents was most vicious. I wonder how many know that a godly founding member of Ballymoney Free Presbyterian Church was assaulted and beaten by an ecumenical Presbyterian minister and some of his henchmen?

This spirit was still very much alive in the 1960s. My late wife, Ann, a graduate from Queen’s University, Belfast, was unable to obtain a teaching position because she was a Free Presbyterian. Often times, once it was known that she was a Free Presbyterian, the interview was abruptly ended. (more…)

“They hate him that rebuketh in the gate, and they abhor him that speaketh uprightly,” Amos 5:10.

I was not long converted when I heard an endearing word about Amos the prophet. Dr Paisley quoted from his book in response to criticism that was being heaped upon his head by ecumenical ministers, whose folly and defiance of God’s Word he had condemned. The verses he quoted are found in Amos 7:14-15.

“Then answered Amos, and said to Amaziah, I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet’s son; but I was an herdman, and a gatherer of sycomore fruit: And the LORD took me as I followed the flock, and the LORD said unto me, Go, prophesy unto my people Israel.”

I instantly learned that the Lord was pleased to call into His service those whom some might consider as being utterly unsuitable!

I later learned that the Lord had earlier displayed the same mercy and sovereign grace in the calling of that great prophet Elisha, anointed to that holy office by his great predecessor, Elijah.

“So he departed thence, and found Elisha the son of Shaphat, who was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen before him, and he with the twelfth: and Elijah passed by him, and cast his mantle upon him. And he left the oxen, and ran after Elijah, and said, Let me, I pray thee, kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow thee. And he said unto him, Go back again: for what have I done to thee? And he returned back from him, and took a yoke of oxen, and slew them, and boiled their flesh with the instruments of the oxen, and gave unto the people, and they did eat. Then he arose, and went after Elijah, and ministered unto him,” 1 Kings 19:19-21.

I can say as did Amos, but even more unquestionably: “I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet’s son” but the Lord called me into His service, and in a faint likeness, I ministered to an ‘Elijah’. For shortly after I began my studies as student  for the ministry in January 1965, Dr Paisley took me to live with his family for about six months and in a small way I ministered unto him, driving him around the province to gatherings and to gospel meetings and all the time gaining a knowledge of what it was to preach.

In our text, you have the prophet’s observation regarding the attitude of those intent on following their own devices and who detested the rebukes that the prophet addressed to them.

I. THIS IS AN ALL TOO COMMON ATTITUDE TODAY

This is a day of backsliding. Even the most unobservant Christian knows that this so. Worldly attitudes and notions have invaded the ‘church’! Sadly, many fail to recognise them for what they are. Ministers know at least something of what is happening BUT, sadly, are reluctant to address the issues because of the response that may be forthcoming. Amos encountered ‘hate’ and ‘abhorrence’!

1. There was defiance outburst against authority in the prophet’s day. “They hate him that rebuketh in the gate”. This is a reference to those who hold a God-appointed position of authority. ‘The Gate’ is where the judges sat and administered justice. (more…)