December 2023

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KICS assembly talks. Current series: “KICS Studies – Faith, Mighty Faith”

• Part 2, Part 3, Part 4
• See all the talks in this series here.
• See all the KICS assembly talks listed here.

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Recently Featured Sermons

Husband's love pt 3
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Recently Preached Sermons

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Older Sermons Recently Added

Funeral service for Miss Edna Weir
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preached by Rev. Ivan Foster on Sun Jan 15, 1995

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Watch Kilskeery Free Presbyterian services live online here

Chapter 5: Enniskillen and the battling rector of Kilskeery

I have to say immediately that the resistance to James II that centred in Enniskillen was by no means mounted by Enniskillen men only.

The Inniskilleners (the old name for Enniskillen) were made up of Protestant men from the counties Sligo, Mayo, Leitrim, Roscommon, Cavan, Monaghan, Donegal, West Tyrone and Fermanagh. The Protestant community combined into a disciplined and regimented force which not merely withstood the best of James’ military leaders but repeatedly defeated them most decidedly.

The actions of the “Inniskilleners” were sparked off, as was all Protestant resistance, by the actions of Lying Dick Talbot, the Earl of Tyrconnel, James II’s Viceroy in Ireland. Tyrconnel had turned 6,200 Protestants out of the army and had thrust Roman Catholics into positions of public trust, most of whom were totally unfitted for the positions they occupied.

The French Ambassador, Avaux, said of Tyrconnel’s actions in Ireland, “…the man who served the King of France as Tyrconnel served James II … would have lost his head…”. Tyrconnel’s bigoted actions raised the ire of the Protestant people and ultimately cost James II his throne.

Click here to read more . . .

Posted on 2023-12-28 a 8:00 am

Why was the world so hostile to the coming of the Son of God? Pt 1

Click here for part 2: Why was the world so hostile to the coming of the Son of God? Pt 2

Posted on 2023-12-23 a 7:53 pm

Posted on 2023-12-22 a 10:32 pm

Samuel Morrison: Perhaps this Christmas some of us will reflect on how Northern Ireland has been embraced by spirit of King Herod

​On Monday people across the globe will meet with friends and family to celebrate Christmas.

Anti-abortion protesters march to Craigavon Area Hospital in September. They challenged the outrageous overreach of ‘Safe access zones’ outside places where abortions are performed, in which no-one is permitted even to engage in an entirely silent protest. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye

Anti-abortion protesters march to Craigavon Area Hospital in September. They challenged the outrageous overreach of ‘Safe access zones’ outside places where abortions are performed, in which no-one is permitted even to engage in an entirely silent protest. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye

Many have already attended carol services and nativity plays which, in spite of the increasing secularisation of society, remain an important part of the celebrations they associate with this time of year.

While there are aspects of Christmas which make some Christians uncomfortable – greed, gluttony and covetousness are hardly virtues – there can be no denying that people think more about the birth of a Baby in the final weeks of December than at any other time of the year.

I don’t know if that’s what prompted the BBC to choose this week to run online, radio and TV reports about the effectiveness of misnamed ‘safe access zones’ which have been established outside premises which perform abortions in Northern Ireland but I couldn’t help thinking that their timing was somewhat ironic. Click to read more…

Posted on 2023-12-22 a 5:55 pm

Such a report as this, copied from the BBC, Northern Ireland news website, we have seen all too often in recent years.

What is to be noted is: “The priest was accused of a long campaign of child sexual abuse but was never prosecuted or questioned by police about claims made against him.” And also, the priest is not named.

Both of which indicate the ‘hands off’ policy many in ‘high places’ of authority adopted regarding the Roman Catholic Church. Its name and reputation was considered more important than the wellbeing of a youngster!

Praise God for that day when “the Lord . . . will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts,”1 Corinthians 4:5.

It is a day when not only Romanism and its evil ways shall be brought to justice but also all those who have happily linked themselves with it, as will be the case when a joint statement with be issued by the heads of all the churches in the next day or so!!!

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Priest abuse survivor gets £500,000 settlement

The hearing centred on alleged sexual and physical abuse over a five-year period in the 1980s.

A man who said he was abused by a priest at a County Down school will receive £500,000 in damages.

The High Court hearing centred on alleged sexual and physical abuse over a five-year period in the 1980s, when the man was a pupil.

According to court papers, the plaintiff was sexually assaulted in a series of locations. Click to read more…

Posted on 2023-12-22 a 5:40 pm

“For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind,” Hosea 8:7.

These words were quoted by the Commander of RAF Bomber Command in 1942.

“Arthur Travers Harris, known as “Bomber”Harris, became commander of RAF Bomber Command in early 1942. Until then, Bomber Command hadn’t done much, but the energetic and controversial Harris soon changed all that. He became the architect and chief proponent of night-time “area bombing” of major German cities. He developed tactics, techniques, and training for the task.

In March he struck Lubeck. In April he bombed Rostock. Then, on the night of May 30-31 1942, he launched a devastating, 1,000-bomber attack on Cologne. A few days later, Harris went before RAF film cameras and delivered a chilling, two-minute message, shown on newsreels nationwide. He was unleashing a whirlwind on Germany, he said. ‘They sowed the wind,’ he warned, ‘and now they are going to reap the whirlwind.’ They did.

The verse in Hosea are words directed at the northern kingdom of Israel by the Lord. He has charged them with idolatry and other sins. The first verses of the chapter explain to us what the actual words of our text mean.

“Set the trumpet to thy mouth. He shall come as an eagle against the house of the LORD, because they have transgressed my covenant, and trespassed against my law. Israel shall cry unto me, My God, we know thee. Israel hath cast off the thing that is good: the enemy shall pursue him. They have set up kings, but not by me: they have made princes, and I knew it not: of their silver and their gold have they made them idols, that they may be cut off. Thy calf, O Samaria, hath cast thee off; mine anger is kindled against them: how long will it be ere they attain to innocency? For from Israel was it also: the workman made it; therefore it is not God: but the calf of Samaria shall be broken in pieces,” Hosea 8:1-6.

The ‘wind’ that Israel sowed consisted of a breaking of God’s Law, acting in defiance of Him, idolatry and a presumptuous assumption of God coming to their aid, all of which kindled God’s anger against them until it was a destroying ‘whirlwind’!

I thought of this verse on a number of occasions of late as I have listened to the reports of Israel’s campaign in Gaza against the murderous terrorism of Hamas. Click to read more…

Posted on 2023-12-20 a 5:25 pm

This is our final study in response to a request from one of our readers to set down the Bible’s teaching on HOLINESS.

I will attach to this article a PDF file of a wonderful book on ‘Holiness’, written by JC Ryle. I thoroughly commend it to you all.

Holiness, by J. C. Ryle

I have been using the Shorter Catechism’s definition of SANCTIFICATION or holiness. Let me quote the answer to question 35.

“Sanctification is the work of God’s free grace, whereby we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God, and are enabled more and more to die unto sin, and live unto righteousness.”

In this our final study, I would like to consider how that:

SANCTIFICATION ENTAILS A ‘DYING’!

1. THAT IS WHAT DETERS MANY CHRISTIANS FROM FULLY YIELDING TO THE MIND AND WILL OF GOD IN THIS MATTER.

I recall that in the days following my conversion, our pulpits seemed to all echo with a call to ‘go through with God’. That was a phrase denoting a total surrender and a total yielding unto the Lord and the entering upon that blessing of the infilling of the Holy Spirit which awaited those who did thus yield.

The widow woman in 1 Kings 4:1-7, was supplied of God in her poverty by obeying the instructions of Elisha, which resulted in her meagre supply of oil being wonderfully made to fill many vessels, so that she was able to sell it off and provide for herself and her two sons. But before that could happen she had to gather ‘empty vessels’ that could be miraculously filled with the oil. There must be an emptying before there can be a filling!

Oh how that was preached back in the 60s! How commonly were the words of the old hymn, written by Ulsterman, Noel Grant,  brokenly sung in prayer meetings! Click to read more…

Posted on 2023-12-19 a 1:12 am

Here is another milestone on the road to hell that the Church of England has chosen to tread!

Blessing for gay priest couple as Church of England starts new chapter

‘Two reverends will be among the first LGBT couples blessed in a church service on Sunday’

This article from ‘The Times’ newspaper, of 9th December, was sent to me by a friend. It includes a photograph of the two perverts, the caption of which reads: ‘The Reverends Jane Pearse, left, and Catherine Bond will be among the first gay couples to have a priest “ask for God’s blessing” on their relationship’.

They ask in vain, instead God’s curse will rest upon them for their blatant act of defiance of God and His Law.

Part of the article reads: ‘They have asked their colleague, the Rev Andrew Dotchin, the priest-in-charge, to ask for God’s blessing upon them as a couple at the start of the Sunday morning Eucharist tomorrow.

“We’re very excited about it. It’s something we’ve wanted to happen for years,” Bond said.

It marks the first time that the Church of England has formally permitted the acknowledgement of gay relationships in church. No priest will be obliged to offer the blessings, with many traditionalist parishes planning not to opt in.

For many gay rights campaigners, the move does not go far enough as gay people remain barred from marrying in church. Gay couples may only request a blessing if it takes place during a regular service of worship, with standalone ceremonies still forbidden.

For many traditionalists, the move goes too far, and some bishops argue it violates the church’s teaching that sex and marriage should be reserved for heterosexual couples.’

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That these two deluded and evil women, and the many like them, think that God sanctions and will bless what they do shows the gross ignorance of God and His Word they are in. The Church of England has been running round in circles debating this issue and stoutly refusing to acknowledge what the Bible has to say on this matter.

WHAT THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND ONCE BELIEVED!

Article 6 of ‘The Articles of Religion’, states: “Of the Sufficiency of the Holy Scriptures for Salvation.

Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation: so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man, that it should be believed as an article of the Faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation. In the name of the Holy Scripture we do understand those canonical Books of the Old and New Testament, of whose authority was never any doubt in the Church.” Click to read more…

Posted on 2023-12-16 a 8:12 pm

“When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory,” Colossians 3:4.

‘Tiocfaidh ár lá’, Gaelic phrase, is translated as ‘Our Day Will Come’! It has often fallen from the lips of the likes of Gerry Adams, leader of Sinn Fein for many years and alleged instigator of many of the IRA’s foulest acts of terrorism, murder and intimidation.

The phrase is pronounced in a mocking, supercilious and gloating tone, indicating the Irish Republicans’ confident expectation that they will reap a rich harvest from the sowing of years of Satanic crimes. They proudly expect to enter into a glorious triumph over all things Protestant and British!

In truth, there is only one people that ever have had the right to claim in triumphant expectancy that ‘Our Day Will Come’.

That people have ever been at the centre of Irish Republican hatred and loathing and of all of their ilk throughout the ages.

I am referring to those “that are Christ’s” who “live in the Spirit” and who “also walk in the Spirit,” Galatians 5:24-25.

Our text teaches most plainly that there is a glorious day coming for the true Christian, the one born again of the Holy Spirit and who have given proof of their new birth by obeying the Word of God and keep His commandments.

1. LET ME FIRST OF ALL INDICATE THAT SUCH A HOPE IS NOT ‘PIE IN THE SKY’!

Gerry Adams and his like have been fondly repeating this ‘catch phrase’ for many years. Many of those who repeated it on Irish Republican platforms are dead. They have gone out into eternity to reap the consequences of their engaging in the politics of terror. They may well have been buried in ‘the sure and certain hope’ of heaven by false prophets but that is not where unrepentant murderers go! Why? Because the Bible says so!

“But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death,” Revelation 21:8.

“Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city. For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie,” Revelation 22:14-15. Here is where murderers go and here is where they do not go! Click to read more…

Posted on 2023-12-15 a 6:53 pm

Below is an article — “Yet More Prophecy Being Fulfilled”. It is a comment from God’s Word on a recent news report which is a revelation of one of the latest developments in man’s depraved departure from God.

I read in my Bible this morning: “Then came Shemaiah the prophet to Rehoboam, and to the princes of Judah, that were gathered together to Jerusalem because of Shishak, and said unto them, Thus saith the LORD, Ye have forsaken me, and therefore have I also left you in the hand of Shishak. Whereupon the princes of Israel and the king humbled themselves; and they said, The LORD is righteous. And when the LORD saw that they humbled themselves, the word of the LORD came to Shemaiah, saying, They have humbled themselves; therefore I will not destroy them, but I will grant them some deliverance; and my wrath shall not be poured out upon Jerusalem by the hand of Shishak. Nevertheless they shall be his servants; that they may know my service, and the service of the kingdoms of the countries,” 2 Chronicles 12:5-8.

I noted how God’s servant was ready to give God’s Word in the midst of a national crisis. Preachers today would need to realise that God expects them to pronounce His mind and will in a day of confusion and calamity. Silent pulpits are not God’s will!

This article is an applying of God’s Word to events of today.

I trust it is a blessing.

Sincerely in Christ’s name,

Ivan Foster

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Yet More Prophecy Being Fulfilled

“And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all. And the voice of harpers, and musicians, and of pipers, and trumpeters, shall be heard no more at all in thee; and no craftsman, of whatsoever craft he be, shall be found any more in thee; and the sound of a millstone shall be heard no more at all in thee; and the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee: for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived. And in her was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth,” Revelation 18:21-24.

The following headline appeared in a newspaper just a few days ago. Little did the reporter, or indeed the people she wrote about, realise that they were fulfilling just what the Bible tells us will be a feature of the final lawless days of this age!

Troubling rise of the ‘silver snorters’: Treatment for over 60s cocaine users has shot up in the last year. Patients as old as 90 have been going to hospital after using the class-A drug.

What the headlines tell us is that drug-taking has become endemic, encroaching even upon the ranks of the elderly!

The general public, certainly the city dwellers, have become used to the miserable sight of the wretched drug-addict, usually lying helpless, under the miserable influence of that taken in pursuit of escaping life’s miseries!

That it should now involve that section of society which one would expect to be above such a destructive indulgence is alarming. It will add to the incidents of crime and to the financial burden on the NHS.

Above all, it denotes the demise of any fear of God and regard for His Word amongst a section of society where it might have been expected! Click to read more…

Posted on 2023-12-12 a 5:36 pm

This is our third study in response to a request from one of our readers to set forth the Bible’s teaching on HOLINESS.

Let me quote again the Shorter Catechism’s definition of Sanctification or HOLINESS, for I am using its statement as the basis of this study.

“Sanctification is the work of God’s free grace, whereby we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God, and are enabled more and more to die unto sin, and live unto righteousness.”

In our third study we will concentrate upon the fact that:

SANCTIFICATION ENTAILS OUR BEING RENEWED IN THE WHOLE MAN AFTER THE IMAGE OF GOD

This is a very important TRUTH.

Let me begin by commending to you a sermon I preached many years ago on the subject of ‘Imitating God.’

It is found on the main page of ’The Burning Bush’ and study number 57 of my series of studies entitled: “Unsearchable riches of Christ in Ephesians.” Here is a link to that sermon: “Imitating God, Pt 1”

ALL TOO MANY CHRISTIANS HAVE A CONCEPT OF ‘HOLINESS’ THAT IS NOT THAT OF THE BIBLE! 

Paul said: “For we dare not make ourselves of the number, or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves: but they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise,” 2 Corinthians 10:12. Dr John Gill said of these words: “They only consulted themselves, and measured and compared themselves with themselves; which was acting just such a foolish part, as if a dwarf was to measure himself not with any kind of measure, or with another person, but with himself; only surveys himself, and his own dimensions, and fancies himself a giant.”

It is easy to set up a rule, born of what we think is right and measuring ourselves by that rule, form a very high but very wrong notion of ourselves.

We are to measure ourselves against the revelation of the Lord, given us in the Bible. He is the rule of perfect holiness. Click to read more…

Posted on 2023-12-11 a 5:09 pm

“And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh. Then let them which are in Judaea flee to the mountains; and let them which are in the midst of it depart out; and let not them that are in the countries enter thereinto. For these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled. But woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck, in those days! for there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people. And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken. And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh,” Luke 21:20-28.

On Thursday past (7th), I read Luke chapter 21 as part of my regular daily devotions. It is a portion familiar to me and I know that many seek to use it to deny the position I take in eschatology, namely Historic Pre-Millennialism.

However, that requires those who seek to deny Historic Pre-Millennialism from this passage, to deliberately avoid what it is the Saviour plainly says!

Regrettably, it is not unusual for the Saviour’s words to be misunderstood and misapplied by men. Here is one example. “Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days? But he spake of the temple of his body,” John 2:19-21.

But it was not only His opponents who misunderstood what the Saviour meant. His disciples likewise formed false opinions of what the Saviour said to them. Here is one example of that: “These things said he: and after that he saith unto them, Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep. Then said his disciples, Lord, if he sleep, he shall do well. Howbeit Jesus spake of his death: but they thought that he had spoken of taking of rest in sleep,” John 11:11-13.

‘They thought’! Herein lies the problem. Back in the days of Isaiah the Lord had said: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts,” Isaiah 55:8-9.

We do not naturally think on the same plane as does the Lord. His thoughts are on a very much higher plane! When the Saviour refers to death as a ‘sleep’, that was easy for Him to Whom belongeth all power. However, we, living as we do within our very limited perspective, cannot imagine being awakened from death as something as easy as awakening from sleep! Therefore, a very limited understanding of Christ’s words is arrived at.

1. Sadly, though it is understandable that men make this mistake, it is a mistake which robs them of much! Our earthly minds fail to grasp the wonderful and heavenly import of His words and, in so doing, we deprive ourselves of that which He desires to impart to us by His words. A receiving of Christ’s words, without limiting them, brings great benefits. “If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you,” John 15:7. Click to read more…

Posted on 2023-12-09 a 8:00 am

“‭For thus saith‭‭ the LORD‭, Thy bruise‭ ‭is‭ incurable‭‭, ‭and‭ thy wound‭ ‭is‭ grievous‭‭.‭ ‭There is‭ none to plead‭‭ thy cause‭, that thou mayest be bound up‭: thou hast no healing‭ medicines‭.‭ ‭All thy lovers‭‭ have forgotten‭‭ thee; they seek‭‭ thee not; for I have wounded‭‭ thee with the wound‭ of an enemy‭‭, with the chastisement‭ of a cruel one‭, for the multitude‭ of thine iniquity‭; ‭because‭ thy sins‭ were increased‭‭,‭”‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬ Jeremiah 30:12-14.

A BBC news report (Bowen: US sets clearer red lines for Israel as ceasefire ends), which has been mounted on its website for some days, has reported in its comments, warnings given to Israel about the limits of the support the USA will give to it in its battle with Hamas.

Biden’s chief diplomat, Antony Blinken, is referred to at length.

“On the evening before the fighting resumed, he repeated America’s support for Israel’s right to defend itself, and once again condemned Hamas. Mr Blinken repeated his insistence ‘that Israel act in accordance with international humanitarian law and the laws of war, even when confronting a terrorist group that respects neither’. Then Mr Blinken made his starkest public statement yet about how Israel should fight the war. Mr Blinken said that it meant ‘taking more effective steps to protect the lives of civilians, including by clearly and precisely designating areas and places in southern and central Gaza where they can be safe and out of the line of fire’. ‘It means avoiding further significant displacement of civilians inside of Gaza. It means avoiding damage to life-critical infrastructure, like hospitals, like power stations, like water facilities.’ ‘And it means giving civilians who’ve been displaced to southern Gaza the choice to return to the north as soon as conditions permit. There must be no enduring internal displacement.’ . . . Antony Blinken, has spoken clearly, in public, about the way the US wants Israel to fight Hamas. If Israel kills anything like as many Palestinian civilians as it did in the north, in defiance of the stated will of Joe Biden, the US president will have to decide whether he can continue to give Israel so much support, not just on the battlefield but also in the United Nations Security Council, where the US has used its veto many times to protect Israel.”

There certainly is a limit to the support Israel may expect from those, who in the past, may have shown sympathy.

In the verses from Jeremiah, I have quoted above, it is clear that a time will come when Israel will be ABANDONED by her former allies to her fate at the hands of her historic enemies and haters!

1. The Bible identifies the enemies who will be in a confederacy against Israel at the close of this age. “‭The tabernacles‭ of Edom‭, and the Ishmaelites‭; of Moab‭, and the Hagarenes‭;‭ ‭Gebal‭, and Ammon‭, and Amalek‭; the Philistines‭ with the inhabitants‭‭ of Tyre‭;‭ ‭Assur‭ also is joined‭‭ with them: they have holpen‭ the children‭ of Lot‭. Selah‭,‭”‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬ Psalm 83:6-8. Click to read more…

Posted on 2023-12-07 a 9:25 pm

The sodomite leader of the Irish Republic demonstrates the sanctimonious humbug of Irish republican politics.

A BBC report on a recent spat sparked by a Sinn Fein motion of no confidence in the Irish Justice Minister, had this headline.

Sinn Féin unfit to lead due to IRA past – Varadkar

The report states:

“Mr Varadkar called for a sense of proportion, balance and unity in times of crisis.

“The Sinn Féin motion of no confidence was a political stunt. Unnecessary and counterproductive,” he said.

“Sinn Féin has talked a lot about the horrific events unfolding in the Middle East and rightly so. But they will not acknowledge war crimes that may have happened in this country,” he continued.

“Crimes committed in our name by terrorists the Irish people always rejected. Crimes like the Enniskillen and Warrington bombings in which children were killed.” The taoiseach also noted the IRA murders of Garda Jerry McCabe, Patrick Kelly and Brian Stack.

“That’s why we cannot have a Sinn Féin taoiseach, why we cannot have a Sinn Féin justice minister and why we cannot have a Sinn Féin defence minister in the next government or any government,” he added.”

The old adage is, ‘What is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander’. That is considered fair and proper but that is not so with Irish politics. What is enforced upon Ulster by the London government at the insistence of Dublin, is here utterly rejected by the Irish Republic’s government.

It must be stated that Sinn Fein/IRA is indeed totally unfitted for government but WHY does Dublin then insist that it be given such a position over those it had terrorised for a generation?

It is simply a case of bitter hatred overriding common sense, a refusing to accept what it seeks to enforce on others!

Rev Ivan Foster (Rtd)
6th December 2023

Posted on 2023-12-07 a 9:19 pm

Posted on 2023-12-05 a 10:03 pm

“Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins,” Isaiah 58:1.

TO SHEW GOD’S PEOPLE THEIR TRANSGRESSIONS IS A VITAL PART OF THE FAITHFUL MINISTER’S DUTIES!

1. Here is the supreme directive to preachers. It overrules all attempts to suppress the exposure of sin amongst God’s People, be those attempts made by councils, parliaments, presbyteries, synods or any other body that thinks that they can overrule the only King and Head of the Church, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul said to Timothy: “I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables,”  2 Timothy 4:1-4.

There are few, if indeed any, Free Presbyterian ministers have been ordained without these words being read to them!

God is on the side of any who, like Elijah of old, “have been very jealous for the LORD God of hosts,” and that because, “the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant,” 1 Kings 19:10.

This command was given to Isaiah, and divinely recorded for it is a directive for ALL servants of God who find themselves in the circumstances in which Isaiah found himself.

The day in which Isaiah ministered is described for us from the very beginning of his book.

“The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the LORD hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider. Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward. Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment. Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire: your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers. And the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city. Except the LORD of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah,” Isaiah 1:1-9.

Any who cannot see the parallel to the situation here in Ulster and much further abroad, is suffering from a stupidity that exceeds the mentality of the donkey and bovine stupidity, to quote the Lord as he rebukes those He was angry with back some 2800 years ago!! Click to read more…

Posted on 2023-12-04 a 4:52 pm

Here is a most distressing example of the blind folly that grips many regarding what is a true Christian and the requirements of God for entrance to heaven.

I was grieved at the report of the death of a notorious ‘singer’ and the most awful and empty hope entertained by his family as to where he will be throughout eternity. Th person in question is Shane MacGowan, someone I really knew nothing of until his death.

MacGowan was a Roman Catholic, calling himself ‘a free-thinking religious fanatic’ who also prayed to the Buddha. As an adolescent, he considered the priesthood.

Having grown up in an Irish republican family, MacGowan said in 2015 that he regretted not joining the IRA. In a filmed interview he said, ‘I was ashamed I didn’t have the guts to join the IRA . . .’

MacGowan began drinking alcohol at age five, when his family gave him Guinness to help him sleep. His father frequently took him to the local pub while he drank with his friends. He suffered physically from years of binge drinking. He often performed onstage and gave interviews while drunk. In 2004, on the BBC TV political magazine programme This Week, he gave incoherent and slurred answers to questions from Janet Street-Porter about the public smoking ban in Ireland.

With a ‘religious and chaotic pedigree’ as this and given his widely publicised ‘hell-raising’ lifestyle, his foul mouth, his prolific consumption of alcohol, it is illustrative of the dreadful ignorance of God’s truth that dominates the mind of the Irish Roman Catholic, that his wife is widely reported as saying after he died: ‘I don’t know how to say this so I am just going to say it. Shane… has gone to be with Jesus and Mary and his beautiful mother Therese.’

The notion that a life of blatant degeneracy can be instantly followed by an entrance into the presence of ‘Jesus of Nazareth . . . . the Holy One of God,’ (Mark 1:24); the very One whose name was repeatedly used in a most blasphemous manner, is utterly repulsive to a God-fearing, Bible-believer.

How evil is the system that promotes such a perverted notion of what the religion of Jesus Christ entails! That religion blights, among other places, the island of Ireland!

Posted on 2023-12-02 a 10:14 pm

This is our second study in response to a request from one of our readers to set down the Bible’s teaching on HOLINESS.

I was requested if I “would consider outlining in a series of email teachings, what it means to live a separated and holy life and what that looks like for the Christian in this day and age?”

This is the second part of my answer. Let me quote again the Shorter Catechism’s definition of Sanctification or HOLINESS.

“Sanctification is the work of God’s free grace, whereby we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God, and are enabled more and more to die unto sin, and live unto righteousness.”

Our second study will concentrate upon the truth:

SANCTIFICATION IS THE OUTWORKING OF GOD’S FREE GRACE

This takes us a little further than our first study.

1. All that the Lord does for us is something we do not deserve but is of God’s free, unmerited favour. We so often forget this simple truth. That is because ‘self-esteem’ is deeply embedded within us. We were very much opposed to accepting this truth before our regeneration and that reluctance remains within us as part of our ‘old nature’. We have a new nature now of which Peter said: “Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust,” 2 Peter 1:4. We have been made partakers of God’s holiness.

We now have two natures, the ‘old’ which is sinful and the ‘new’ which is holy. They are at war with each other. “For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would,” Galatians 5:17. Of this inward, ongoing struggle Paul said of his resulting quandary: “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do,” Romans 7:18-19.

We can surely find some comfort in the fact that Paul also struggled to resist the tendency to sin that sprang from his old nature. Click to read more…

Posted on 2023-12-02 a 10:10 pm

“But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not,” 2 Peter 2:1-3.

He who “is a liar, and the father of it”, the devil, has always had his lackeys at work in this world, especially mingling amongst the people of God, passing themselves off as servants of the Lord. Peter here tells us that the devil’s pattern of activity as seen in Old Testament times will continue in this New Testament era. Indeed, as Paul and many other of the prophets inform us, his activities will increase as this age draws to a close. “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.

His increased activity will be driven by his knowing “that he hath but a short time,” Revelation 12:12.

I think that we can have no doubt that in recent years we have witnessed this acceleration of Satanic action. Today, the world is awash with falsehoods of every form. When you think that you have just about heard every absurdity, along comes something even more outrageous!

Lies and deceits abound in every sphere of human activity.

There are scientific falsehoods and deceits. Chief amongst them is the ’Theory of Evolution’, which is presented by its disciples, not as a mere notion, but as FACT. School books, lecture halls, television nature programmes all echo to this self-contradicting folly!

There are medical falsehoods. Increasingly chief amongst them is the notion that man is moving toward the defeat of death and the beginning of physical longevity and a man-made Utopia.

There are historical lies, a perverting of the true record of past events. Chief amongst those lies are the denials of the divine creation of all things, of the accuracy of the Bible’s account of the life, death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ and, more recent denials, the wonderful mercy of God toward mankind in His intervention in the times of the 16th century Protestant Reformation.

But above all, there are THEOLOGICAL FALSEHOODS.

This has always been the chief end of the devil. He would blind mankind to its true state of sinfulness and the terrible fate which awaits those who die in that state and the TRUTH OF GOD, set forth in the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, whereby God’s remedy for man’s sinfulness is declared. “In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them,” 2 Corinthians 4:4. Click to read more…

Posted on 2023-12-01 a 8:00 am