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“Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek in the broad places thereof, if ye can find a man, if there be any that executeth judgment, that seeketh the truth; and I will pardon it. . . A wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the land; he prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so: and what will ye do in the end thereof?” Jeremiah 5:1, 30-31.

So begins and ends a chapter from which I recall preaching in Lisbellaw Free Presbyterian Church, some 59 years ago.

Back then, the application of these words were not as pertinent as it is today.

The wickedness which brought judgment upon the nation to which Jeremiah ministers, was on the horizon of Ulster, as it were, but the terrible forebodings set forth by the prophets are on our doorstep now!

The other 28 verses of this chapter set forth the sins of the nation and the consequences of ignoring God’s merciful warnings.

I. THERE WAS A PUBLIC ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF THE LORD BUT THE LORD DECLARED IT FALSE.

“And though they say, The LORD liveth; surely they swear falsely,” verse 2.

There is a like deceit abroad today among God’s people. “Jehovah lives” is the confession of many but His law is increasingly set aside.

We in the Free Presbyterian Church are NOT in the place or following the path of our forefathers seventy five years ago.

The ecclesiastical separation established back then is no longer adhered to and such breaches are sanctioned by our Presbytery! (more…)

Some photographs from that time of contending for the Gospel

The protest took place at the installation of Richard Hanson as Bishop of Clogher, on March 17th, 1970.

The protest brought about the ejecting of us from of a local Orange Hall, Andrews Wood hall, where I was conducting a Gospel mission. The mission continued however, and by the end of April a Free Presbyterian hall had been erected and some months later that year, Clogher valley Free Presbyterian Church was constituted in the hall.

Despite the efforts of local ecumenists and their roping in of some Tyrone County Council officials to aid them, their demand that the hall be taken down and removed, failed.

It can be seen that a hall had been erected and was in use for regular services by June. Many years ago, the hall was replaced by a beautiful permanent building.

The Gospel outreach in the Spring of 1970 in Clogher Valley was the first of a number of missions undertaken by Lisbellaw Free Presbyterian Church that resulted in a permanent Gospel witness in the area.

AN ANSWER TO FOUR LECTURES DELIVERED IN ENNISKILLEN CATHEDRAL BY THE BISHOP OF CLOGHER RICHARD HANSON

by

REV. IVAN FOSTER

Minister of Lisbellaw Free Presbyterian Church

Published as a booklet in 1970

The rage of the Bishop against the rock of Holy Scripture

Chapter V

The Second Coming of Christ – Were the early Christians mistaken?

To further his claim that Christianity has changed, the Bishop tries to imbue his audience with the idea that the early Christians and apostolic writers believed that the Lord Jesus Christ was going to return at a very early date. When this did not happen he says that there was a change of thinking concerning the Second Coming of Christ. To knock this argument down all we have to do is pour a little of the “water of the Word” upon the Bishop’s sandy foundation and his little house of false reasoning will sink out of view. The question then is this: Did the early Christians believe that Christ was to return in their day and were they encouraged to believe this by the writers of the New Testament? Our answer is “No”, but of course the Bishop’s would be “Yes”.

In his second lecture he states: “But the greatest difference of all facing the Church of the 2nd century has yet to be mentioned. By the year 150 it had become unmistakably clear to everybody that the Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ was not likely to take place in the immediate future . . . St. Paul’s letters are, of course, the earliest books of the New Testament. From every one of the letters which we can with confidence attribute to him (he never misses a chance to spread doubt, does he?) we gain a strong impression that he expects the arrival of Christ in his lifetime or immediately afterward. The earliest of the Gospels, that of Mark, shows the same intense expectation of an almost immediate arrival of Christ. It is only in Mark that we find the words attributed to Jesus: “There be some of those standing by who shall not taste of death till they see the kingdom of God coming in power” (Mark 9 : 1). (more…)