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The following article has appeared in today’s Belfast Newsletter.

This decision by the ‘Parades Commission’ indicates the sympathy with which everything linked to the ‘LGBT lifestyle’ is held by those in power. All that the ‘LGBTites’ do and desire is held to be ‘sacrosanct’ by those who come under the umbrella of the ‘status quo’!

Increasingly, over the last decade in particular, the perverted campaign mounted by those who would live in utter defiance of all things decent and that ordered by the God of Heaven, have been given carte blanche regarding all they wish to see the rest of society, the vast majority of society, concede to them.

Their views and evil practices have been enshrouded in legal protections and sanctions.

Basically, it is deemed a ‘hate crime’ to say of them and to them what the Lord, the Judge of all the earth, Who alone can only do right? (Genesis 18:25), has said is the unalterable and eternal consequences for those who give themselves to this wickedness.

In truth, though the ‘Pride’ organisers would never believe this, it is the greatest kindness that could be shown to these defiers of God when thy are plainly told from God’s Word of the harvest that awaits them for their rebellion!

Little do the ‘Parades Commission’ realise that they are denying, not the Christians who wish to witness against this wicked event, but a merciful warning from those who are wrongly deemed disturbers of the peace and potential instigators of disorder, to those parading and flaunting God’s Law!

What is happening bears out the recent headline in the ‘Times’ newspaper.

Civil servants are losing faith in Christianity 

August 17 2023, 7.00pm.

We have become a nation of fools!

“The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good,”  Psalm 14:1. (more…)

“‭‭‭‭‭‭The heavens‭ declare‭‭ 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.‭ ‭Their line‭ is gone out‭‭ through all the earth‭, and their words‭ to the end‭ of the world‭‭‭‭‭,‭”‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬ Psalm 19:1-4.

Before Charles Darwin, or any of his unwise predecessors, opened his mouth to spout the utter folly of the notion of ‘evolution’ — the idea that there was a spontaneous coming into existence of the basic elements of all life and matter and their development by stages over countless millions of years to what we may observe today — there was the clear and universal testimony of the silent lips of that created of their origins at the hands of the Lord.

Psalm 19, quoted above, has long declared this truth, even before the creation of man.

Evolution, in whatever form it is presented, for there are as many variations of this ever ‘evolving’ notion as there are fish in the sea, is essentially nothing more than another attempt by fallen man to deny the existence of the Lord, his Creator! “‭‭‭‭‭‭‭The fool‭ hath said‭‭ in his heart‭, ‭There is‭ no God‭ . . . ,‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭”‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬ Psalm 14:1. It is man’s attempt to contradict the testimony of the skies above and the earth beneath of the handiwork of God.

Such attempts at denial are indeed, as David says, the actions of the fool. So foolish is the ’theory’ of evolution that it has to be altered and corrected and updated almost as soon as it is articulated! It has more varieties than the famous ‘Heinz 57 Varieties’ of food products! The superfluity of variations of man’s notions of the origin of all things is testimony to the simple fact that man does not know the truth of how this world and the immensity of the heavens came about.

It is a self-inflicted ignorance for there is ever before his eyes the glorious witness of which our text speaks. But man is a creature in rebellion against God. He is the disciple of sin and will not admit the existence of the God of the Bible. I say, ‘the God of the Bible’, for man is not in truth an ‘atheist’! He happily invents for himself a ‘god’ of his own liking. Even those who profess Christianity are in truth in this camp. That is why the pulpits and the pews of most churches are occupied by those who reject the testimony of the Holy Scriptures given us of God and seek to amend and edit them to present a ‘god’ with whom they are content! Thus today’s ‘Bible’ bookshops are filled with a large variety of so-called ‘versions’ of the Word of God. They are in truth, ‘perversions’.

Please consider the testimony as old as time itself and projecting its witness since that first day spoken of in Genesis 1. (more…)

“As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness,” Psalm 17:15.

I read Psalm 17 on the Lord’s Day morning past and then began a study of the verse 15. When time for the morning prayer meeting came round, I walked the few yards down to the church. The prayer meeting was opened by the singing of this psalm, which would indicate that the elder leading the prayer meeting also follows Robert Murray M‘Cheyne’s Bible Reading Calendar, something I recommend to all.

This psalm comes from the pen of David. God has been pleased to pass on to ensuing generations much blessed instruction through  the psalms and songs of the King of Israel of old.

Every one of the inspired psalms abounds with divine instruction on all things spiritual and related to the experiences of the saints of God. For this reason they have been a favourite portion of God’s Word to consult in times of perplexity, trouble and fear.

As one who holds to the Presbyterian form of church government and polity, I know how much the Psalms have meant to my forefathers in times of tribulation and distress. We sing still with joy the metrical form of the Psalms as compiled and arranged by our 17th century forefathers.

Today’s generation of Free Presbyterians need to make sure that this holy practice does not diminish or die!

In our verse there is given to the people of God a wonderful picture of the happy prospect that is theirs through the grace of God. What the future holds for the believer has ever been revealed by the Lord to His people. Thus Job, who had no written record of God’s Word, was able to say with assurance: “For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me,” Job 19:25-27. There is so much in these words that it would take many sermons to expound them all!

Job was acquainted with the truth of the Redeemer and His then present existence. He knew of His second coming to this earth (which indicates he knew of His first coming) to rise up in power to rule the earth for that is implied in the Hebrew word translated ‘he shall stand’. (more…)