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Letter to the editor: what is a true church?

This letter appeared in today’s “Irish News” and the screenshot of it was sent to me early this morning by a friend. I replied as followed and submitted my reply to that newspaper. Hopefully, they will print it.

Sincere regards,
Ivan Foster

Sir,

I wonder has your correspondent, Mr Brian O’Hare of Newry, (Letter – Catholic Church not a Christian Church) ever read the words of the Lord Jesus when He said:
“‭Enter ye in‭‭ at‭ the strait‭ gate‭: for‭ wide‭ [is] the gate‭, and‭ broad‭ [is] the way‭, that leadeth‭‭ to‭ destruction‭, and‭ many‭ there be‭‭ which‭ go in‭‭ thereat‭‭:‭ ‭because‭ strait‭ [is] the gate‭, and‭ narrow‭‭ [is] the way‭, which‭ leadeth‭‭ unto‭ life‭, and‭ few‭ there be‭‭ that find‭‭ it‭,‭” Matthew 7:13-14.

It is not popularity amongst mankind but conformity to the Word of God which identifies the true and false within Christendom.After all, Christ had very few to stand with Him at the cross!

It must never be forgotten that the Roman Catholic Church for centuries strictly forbade the possession of a Bible and pronounced an anathema against any who violated this decree. (Council of Valencia, 1229 and repeated in the Council of Trent, 1545-63 and in other authoritative later pronouncements.) The banning of the Bible was part of Rome’s response to the Protestant Reformation and the Reformers’ urging of the people to read the Word of God in their mother tongue.

What a contrast such a decree is to what the Lord COMMANDED Israel!

“‭Hear‭‭, O Israel‭: The LORD‭ our God‭ [is] one‭ LORD‭:‭ ‭And thou shalt love‭‭ the LORD‭ thy God‭ with all thine heart‭, and with all thy soul‭, and with all thy might‭.‭ ‭And these words‭, which I command‭‭ thee this day‭, shall be in thine heart‭:‭ ‭and thou shalt teach them diligently‭‭ unto thy children‭, and shalt talk‭‭ of them when thou sittest‭‭ in thine house‭, and when thou walkest‭‭ by the way‭, and when thou liest down‭‭, and when thou risest up‭‭.‭ ‭And thou shalt bind‭‭ them for a sign‭ upon thine hand‭, and they shall be as frontlets‭ between thine eyes‭.‭ ‭And thou shalt write‭‭ them upon the posts‭ of thy house‭, and on thy gates‭,‭” Deuteronomy 6:4-9. (more…)

Thoughts on the history of professing Christianity, Part 7

We continue with extracts from Benjamin Wills Newton’s book, Prospects of the Ten Kingdoms, the chapter 6 — THOUGHTS ON THE HISTORY OF PROFESSING CHRISTIANITY, AS GIVEN IN THE PARABLES OF MATTHEW XIII.

I would commend a close reading of these extracts for they deal with the very issue of ‘decay within Christendom’ that we see all around.

Here is Part 7, which covers pages 174-179.

Click here to see the other articles about this book.

It is plain from every sign around us, that we are living at a period of crisis, not only in the world’s but in the Church’s history. What then is to be done by those who fear God? Shall we forsake those blessed principles of Truth which Protestantism, under God’s own power, restored: or shall we rather cleave to them with ten-fold tenacity? Only, we must separate the precious from the vile. “If,” as was said to Jeremiah, who himself lived at a period when all things were out of course, “if thou wilt take forth the precious from the vile, thou shalt be as my mouth.” If Protestantism at the Reformation failed to judge the primeval corruptions of Christianity — if, thinking only of the Woman and her evil, it forgot the sin of the Church in forsaking her lowliness, and becoming like the fair-spreading Tree — if it neglected to search into the prophetic word, and consequently remained in ignorance of all that Israel is to be, and of all that the nations are, then have we to avoid these quicksands. We have to carry our thoughts back over the long train of corruptions, until we reach the Apostles of our Lord and Saviour. We have to remember that the kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship, but not we-that neither the condition of Israel under the Law, nor of Israel in millennial rest, is to be the condition of Christianity now; and that the nations, symbolised by evil monsters, are in God’s sight, contrasted in. every possible sense with her who is the Bride of Christ, and who once occupied in the earth a position worthy of being represented by “candlesticks of gold.” Attention to those things would not only materially affect our practical position, but would lead us also to a right ” division” of the Scriptures, without which they can neither be interpreted nor applied aright. (more…)

Hard times are coming!

This is a headline on today’s BBC news site: “Covid: Greece to fine over-60s who refuse Covid-19 vaccine”.

I was sent the link late (for me) last evening by a dear brother who is alive to these issues. His comment accompanying the link was: “Morally wrong. It is like the return of the Nazi regime trying to force experimental medicine on people.”

The three versions of the vaccine are indeed ‘experimental’. That is all too obvious in the ongoing updating of the ‘experts’ expectations of the effectiveness of the ‘jab’ and the ever increasing dosage required for it to work!

All pharmaceutical companies in the past have been vigorously regulated in order to ensure that only drugs that have been thoroughly tested were issued for public use. The Covid-19 ‘jabs’ however, have been marketed after a very short period of verification and I believe that the increasingly reported deaths and physical and mental repercussions that have followed vaccination, in the experience of some, suggest very clearly that the vaccines are indeed ‘experimental’! (more…)