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Deuteronomy chapter 13

This chapter was part of the Bible reading schedule for today as set down in Robert Murray M‘Cheyne’s Bible Reading Calendar.

The date of the warnings issued in this chapter is just prior to  Israel’s crossing of the Jordon and entering the ‘Promised Land’.

The Lord is frequently given to repeating Himself. He repeated the promise of His blessing upon them, reminding them of His mercy and grace toward their fathers and the generations which followed. They will be brought into the ‘land flowing with milk and honey’. He also repeats His warning about disobedience and straying from His Word. Both of these matters God’s people are prone to forget, especially the latter matter.

Of course, it was not just the Israelites who tended to forget the command that God has issued to us all: “Thou shalt have no other gods before me,” Exodus 20:3.

The history of the people of God in this New Testament era is just as marked by departure and spiritual delinquency as was any generation of the Old Testament saints.

The professing people of God in the Old Testament ended their era with a total rejection of the Lord Jesus Christ, their Messiah.

Peter made that plain to the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem.

“The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified his Son Jesus; whom ye delivered up, and denied him in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let him go. But ye denied the Holy One and the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you; and killed the Prince of life, whom God hath raised from the dead; whereof we are witnesses,” Acts 3:13-15.

That age ended in the same manner as will this present age! ‘Christendom’ as the body of professing Christians today are often labelled, will end up rejecting Christ to the same degree as did the Jewish race back in the early years of this epoch.

The spirit of apostasy that gripped and dominated Israel and resulted in the crucifixion of the Saviour, will in like manner grip the ‘professing church of Christ’ in the last days and the Lord Jesus, as He is revealed in Holy Scripture, will be utterly repudiated. (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

Chapter 1 – The Unchangeable Character of Christianity

Before examining the text of these lectures we shall examine the title:  “CHANGING CHRISTIANITY IN A CHANGING WORLD”. Its suggestion as before stated, is that Christianity must change with the times. But is this so? We say no.

I. My first reason for rejecting a changed Christianity is that the needs of the world (i.e. mankind) have not changed.

Solomon, the wise man, said: “There is no new thing under the sun”. The scoffer points to the men who recently walked on the moon and cries: “There is something new”. No doubt this is man in new surroundings and new circumstances, but—and this is what Solomon meant —it is old-fashioned man who is on the moon. Th men who trod the earth in the dawn of creation and those who trod the moon’s surface in recent times are exactly the same SPIRITUALLY and MORALLY. Six thousand years may have brought man many technological advances, but he has not advanced one inch toward God or holiness. The sins of the world today were those of the world at the time of the Roman Empire, and correspond with those of the Babylonian Empire. The awful virus of depravity can be traced to its source—Adam’s transgression. ‘By one man’s disobedience many were made sinners’ (Romans 5:19).

In his unrighteous state before God man has remained and will remain utterly alienated from God. However, the grace of God has decreed that this state of affairs can be remedied and that only by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. The preaching of the Gospel is the spreading of this good news. The resultant religion that stems from faith in the Gospel is Christianity. Christianity is the religion based upon and agreeable to the Holy Scriptures. The position of the reformed theologian can be summed up in the words of the statement which the Bishop swore he believed.

‘Are you persuaded that the Holy Scriptures contain sufficiently all doctrine required of necessity for eternal salvation through faith in Jesus Christ?’ (Consecration of a Bishop, Book of Common Prayer.)

In answer to this the Bishop should have been honest and said, ‘No’, since he believes that the Bible does not give us sufficient doctrine and we must add to and alter it. Of course the Bishop was posing as a reformed and Protestant Bishop, and since this is what the Reformers believed—namely that the Bible contains all the doctrines necessary for our salvation through Jesus Christ—he said, ‘I am persuaded…’ (more…)