Archives for

Article

Letter to the ‘Belfast Newsletter’

I have just sent this letter into the ‘Belfast Newsletter’ in response to one recently published. When I first read it I was troubled by some of the statements in it but I believed that the writer’s intentions were good and so I hesitated to comment.

However, it troubled me that perhaps inadvertently, error was being stated so, as gently as I could, I sought to correct one of the improperly worded statements and thus register the need for great care when writing about the Lord and His purpose.

I can but hope that my motives are understood.

Sincerely in Christ’s name,
Ivan Foster

Dear Editor,

The study of the character and nature of God, revealed to us in the inspired Word of God, is the most exact of all ‘sciences’!

Inaccuracies in definition of terms have eternal consequences.

“He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him,” John 3:36.

It is for this reason I wish to make a comment on the letter titled: ‘Irish Christianity that has existed for nearly 2,000 years is dying and in desperate need of reform’ (28/1/26).

I am largely in agreement with the thesis of the letter.

I am, however, concerned about the wording of some of the statements in the letter. I have lived to set forth the teaching of the Bible in the fear of the Lord for over 60 years. Any inaccurate declaration of what the Bible teaches or bordering on such, I will correct and oppose as best I can.

In this letter there are statements which need more careful elucidation.

This is not necessarily a criticism of the writer but my reaction to the possibility of a misunderstanding of God’s Word.

I will but mention one example. The writer says: ‘The Judeo-Christian foundations that held the world together are starting to crumble and the old certainties are showing cracks.’

If he means, ‘That faith and trust in the foundation of Bible religion, the Word of God, is declining world-wide today’, then I agree with him.

BUT the FOUNDATION of true Bible religion cannot ‘crumble’ or be thought of as ‘showing cracks’!

“For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ,” 1 Corinthians 3:11.

Christ, our foundation and His Holy Word, CANNOT crumble or crack. But there can be a rejecting of this foundation. That is what has happened under the modernistic and ecumenical ‘ministers’ of today!

I am sure that is what the writer is seeking to set forth.

“If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?” Psalm 11:3. Dr John Gill explains these words to mean: ‘The doctrines and principles of religion are derided and subverted.’

The Bible teaches that this shall happen in the latter days of this age. The Bible is today generally rejected as the foundation of true faith and the teaching of the Gospel is ‘destroyed’ (Hebrew – thrown down).

Paul warned: “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils,” 1 Timothy 4:1.

The ‘new foundation’ set forth in the majority of pulpits as ‘the hope for eternity’ is the “doctrines of devils”.

I understand this to be what your writer was objecting to and on that basis I support him.

I trust that no offence is caused by this sincere attempt to make clear the lies and deceit that are abroad today and which are the root and origin of today’s increasing anarchy and apostasy.

Rev Ivan Foster (Rtd)
30th January 2026

Teacher uses 40-year-old law to withdraw from teaching religion

This headline appeared on the local BBC news website on Wednesday 28th January. It serves to remind Christian parents, Free Presbyterians in particular, that there are teachers in the state system who do not necessary believe the Bible but who nevertheless teach pupils ‘about’ Christianity!

View the BBC news article here.

This teacher freely acknowledged that “he was not ‘anti-Christian,’ and did not “have a problem teaching children about Christianity.”

Problem

His problem with the state system is stated as: “He said there was currently a system where ‘one worldview is dominant’.

‘I just think it places a burden on a six-year-old or a seven year-old to understand where Christianity sits in relation to other religions or no religion,’ he said.”

There are many in the teaching profession who would share his view. Indeed, out there in the ‘religious world’ there many clerics in the ecumenical denominations who have long taught that there is more than ‘one world view’!

After all, King Charles III desires to be known as the ‘Defender of Faith’, rather than the title, ‘Defender of the Faith’, which is a reference to Protestantism, when the title was later defined!

It was originally bestowed on Henry VIII by Pope Leo X in 1521 for defending Roman Catholic doctrine, but it was later reaffirmed by the English Parliament to signify the monarch’s duty to defend of the Reformed faith. A duty most monarch’s failed in most dismally!

Luther

But the nation, indeed, nations, have moved on from the 16th century Protestant Reformation. That ‘religious movement’ was in essence, a return to Bible truth after centuries of practising the superstitions and perversions of Roman Catholicism.

It is generally agreed that one of the first steps back to the Word of God was Martin Luther’s nailing up his 95 theses on the church door in Wittenberg, Germany in 1517. (more…)

A little boy answers the question of the apostles

“Then there arose a reasoning among them, which of them should be greatest. And Jesus, perceiving the thought of their heart, took a child, and set him by him, And said unto them, Whosoever shall receive this child in my name receiveth me: and whosoever shall receive me receiveth him that sent me: for he that is least among you all, the same shall be great,” Luke 9:46-48.

This reasoning as to who would be greatest amongst the apostles was one born of the sinful heart of man. Even we believers today are subject to such carnal thoughts as those that then prompted the discussion amongst the apostles as they followed the Lord to Capernaum.

We should note that they not merely ‘reasoned’ which of them would be the ‘greatest’ (the highest, the most important) in the kingdom of heaven. But the subject was a matter of dispute as Mark tells us, (Mark 9:33).

They were giving most serious thought to this subject.

The word translated ‘reasoning’ or ‘disputed’ first appears in Mark 2:6 and refers to the ‘reasoning’ within the hearts of certain scribes who were bothered by the Saviour’s claim to forgive sins.

“When Jesus saw their faith, he said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee. But there were certain of the scribes sitting there, and reasoning in their hearts, Why doth this man thus speak blasphemies? who can forgive sins but God only? And immediately when Jesus perceived in his spirit that they so reasoned within themselves, he said unto them, Why reason ye these things in your hearts?” Mark 2:5-8.

Church disputes

There likely have been more divisions and disagreements within the assemblies of God’s people about this matter than any other! Self-importance and the perceived failure of others to see our ‘importance’ has been at the heart of many a conflict among Christians.

John the Apostle encountered this desire for ‘preeminence’! (more…)