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There is hardly an opening prayer offered in a Bible-believing Sabbath service that does NOT contain an offering of thanks for the freedom we enjoy here in Northern Ireland to gather in God’s house to worship Him in accordance with His Word.

However, I suggest that few give thought to the sad truth that that freedom and others, which the Gospel of Christ has brought to our land, are slipping away under the corruption and error promoted by wicked men in an ever more increasingly rebellious world.

A recent article in the ‘Belfast Newsletter’ highlighted one of the latest evidences of the threat to the Gospel in today’s society.

PSNI does not deny cleric’s claims that openly carrying a Bible in Northern Ireland hospitals could be criminal

It comes from the Government’s measures to protect those who wish to kill the unborn by abortion.

An Independent Methodist minister, Pastor Jonathan Campbell of Newbuildings Independent Methodist Church, in Co. Londonderry, has raised the question of the possibility of a minister committing a criminal offence by openly carrying a Bible in any hospital covered by an abortion protest buffer zone.

That is a zone which surrounds any hospital where abortions are carried out and within which any action that can be construed as a Christian protest against abortion – such as carrying a Bible – is deemed a criminal act!

Pastor Campbell said he is deeply concerned about the possibility.

The response of the Police Service of Northern Ireland ought to concern every Christian.

The ‘Newsletter’ reports: ‘The issue arose after police gave the Policing Board guidance on how the Safe Access Zone legislation applies at hospitals with abortion clinics.’

‘At a recent Policing Board meeting, member Patrick Nelson asked police how the legislation affected routine chaplaincy work, including praying with patients, reading scripture with them, carrying Bibles, pastoral ministry and visible religious practice. (more…)

“Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up a cry or prayer for them: for I will not hear them in the time that they cry unto me for their trouble,” Jeremiah 11:14. (BC 608)

“Then said the LORD unto me, Pray not for this people for their good,” Jeremiah 14:11. (BC 601)

“Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me: for I will not hear thee,” Jeremiah 7:16. (BC 600)

A few days ago I read the last of these verses as part of my daily reading. As I read them I remembered that this was not the first time that Jeremiah had received this command from the Lord. According to Ussher’s chronology, what is written in  chapter 7 is dated about 600 BC, chapter 11, 608 BC and chapter 14 is likely dated about 601 BC.

I have listed them above in chronological order. As is the case in many places in Holy Scripture, the chapters do not always appear in chronological order.

First command

In chapter 11:14, the events of which came first in these series of verses, Jeremiah is given  his first command to stop praying for the people. “Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up a cry or prayer for them: for I will not hear them in the time that they cry unto me for their trouble.”

I believe, as is ever the case with the Lord, His tone is somewhat gentler in this the earliest issuing of the warning against Judah, of that which He would bring upon them for their sin.

The next command is given some seven years after, again according to Ussher’s chronology. This time there is a specific forbidding to pray for the “good” of the people.

“Thus saith the LORD unto this people, Thus have they loved to wander, they have not refrained their feet, therefore the LORD doth not accept them; he will now remember their iniquity, and visit their sins. Then said the LORD unto me, Pray not for this people for their good,” 14:10-11. (more…)

This message was preached in June 1985, 41 years ago. It is a reminder of the chicanery of the British Government and the authorities here in Northern Ireland and the betrayal of our Protestant and constitutional heritage that has long been at work.

I might point out that in the message recorded here I mention Revelation 17 and the identify of the ‘woman’, that features in that chapter, as ‘Roman Catholicism’. Since preaching that message, through further studies of God’s Word, I have come to believe that Romanism is indeed the main ‘present-day’ embodiment of the evils personified in the ‘woman’, but I believe that the final manifestation of all things evil will be, as the Bible repeatedly says, a resurgent ‘Babylonianism ’.

Sincerely in Christ’s name,

Ivan Foster

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“Shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship with thee, which frameth mischief by a law?”  Psalm 94:20.

The annual band parade in Castlewellan was banned because of a hastily arranged mass in the chapel, made so as to clash with the parade and thus give an excuse to the authorities to ban that parade. The parade was rearranged for last Thursday, June 27th. At no time did the local police wish to ban the parade. The banning was a political decision. The announcement of the ban was made in the early hours of Thursday morning in order to create the greatest possible confusion and to hinder the making of any alternative plans.

I issued a call for men to come to Castlewellan and that call was responded to despite the cancellation of buses that had been booked to carry supporters and bands to the parade and extensive police roadblocks stopping any approach to Castlewellan.

When I made to approach Castlewellan from Newcastle, just over one mile, I was told by the police that I could neither drive nor walk there. I insisted that I had a right to walk to Castlewellan and was arrested for ‘disorderly conduct’. I was released from police custody in Newcastle RUC police barracks at about 12:15 am on Friday morning.

During the evening the police were defied and Castlewellan was paraded.

The blame lies entirely with those who made the decision — Hermon, head of the RUC and Hurd, the Secretary of State for NI! (more…)