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“Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen: and if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not. For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised: and if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable,” 1 Corinthians 15:12-19.

These verses came before me while Rev Samuel Fitton was preaching a really excellent message on the resurrection of Christ yesterday morning — ‘Proofs of the resurrection’  from 1 Corinthians 15:4. I would encourage everyone to listen to it.

In various forms across the world many have sought to witness to the truth of Christ’s resurrection from the dead on the third day as stated by the angel to “Mary Magdalene and the other Mary” was they came “to see the sepulchre”.

“And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. And go quickly, and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead; and, behold, he goeth before you into Galilee; there shall ye see him: lo, I have told you,” Matthew 28:5-7.

Many of these events smack of superstition  and man-inspired notions of how we should remember the Lord’s death and resurrection.

We have been told how we should do that in the simple gathering around the `table of the Lord’ of which Paul sets down God’s will in 1 Corinthians 11:23-34. It is thus we show “the Lord’s death till he come.”

In 1st Corinthians 15, Paul is rehearsing the truths of the gospel. “Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; by which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain,” 1 Corinthians 15:1-2.

Ministers ought to note that they need to often repeat the simple, central truths of the gospel, especially when error has enter the congregation.

GOSPEL TRUTH is God’s antidote to SATAN’S LIES!

In considering the verses of our text, please note:

I. THE TRUTH OF THE RESURRECTION HAS ALWAYS BEEN ATTACKED.

There have been many which have said, like these foolish people in Corinth, “there is no resurrection of the dead”.

1. It is a hated truth because it declares the defeat of the devil. So said Peter. “Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil,” Hebrews 2:14.

Likewise, Paul spoke of the triumph of the cross. “Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross; And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it,”  Colossians 2:14-15. (more…)

The Irish Language and the Sinn Fein/IRA campaign to extort more money from the public purse to finance their ‘Gaelitising’ Ulster!

Today’s BBC Northern Ireland news website had the following article prominently (naturally) displayed!

Free Presbyterian Church holds Irish language event

Two pictures adorned the news report.

They are of Rev Paul Thompson (left) and Rev Kyle Paisley.

The report was all about a meeting entitled: ‘Preispitéirigh agus an Ghaeilge’, and was held at Farranshane House in Antrim’s Rathenraw estate. It was organised by the Pastor of Antrim Free Presbyterian Church, the Reverend Paul Thompson.

Rev Kyle Paisley is reported as saying: “Languages, including Irish, are “a gift of God to communicate and to make connections with people.”

He must never had have read or understood the Genesis account of why God, as a judgement rather than a blessing, confounded the languages of mankind because of the rebellion instigated at Babel.

“Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech. So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city. Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth,”  Genesis 11:7-9.

The report say that Rev Thompson stated that the event was the fruit of a lot of work that’s been going on behind the scenes in our community. ‘There’s a deep intersection between Presbyterianism and the Irish language,’ Mr Thompson told BBC News NI. ‘I think there’s a great ignorance over the role of Presbyterians. From a Christian Pastor, we’re seeing young people embrace this as something that’s part of their past, their heritage. It’s creating that environment for people to look back at their history,’ he said. (more…)

Many ministers, including Free Presbyterian Church ministers, may well have received this morning an email from Caroline Bradley, national representative of ‘Care for the Family’.

It is an invitation to become involved is a series of meetings, convened by organisations prepared to cooperate with error, and which are held in ecumenical churches or those sympathetic to Ecumenism.

The invitation is to be rejected and that for the following reasons.

1. The observations and objectives they set out to achieve are in and of themselves commendable but the methods employed are unscriptural.

These organisations claim to be opposed to the ‘secularisation’ within society, which is to the detriment to Bible principles. However, they are ill-informed as to God’s ordained means of accomplishing these objectives. They fail to see who and what is responsible for the digression away from the Bible, not just by society generally but by the mainline church in particular!

It was not the ‘Communist Party’ or the ‘Atheistic Society’ which initiated the modern trends that have taken the churches on a path back to Romanism and away from the fundamental truths of the Bible!

No, such trends began most openly within ‘Christendom’, as far back as the early years of the 20th century! (more…)