It is my reaction to the scandalous statement by a former Irish Presbyterian Moderator who claims to be an ‘evangelical’. His words have no place in the vocabulary of a true follower of the Lord Jesus Christ!
This article is an addendum to my recent article: “Pope and Protestant leaders denounce God as ‘unjust’”.
Sincerely in Christ’s name,
Ivan Foster
A former Presbyterian moderator has stressed that the Bible sets out “a pretty demanding lifestyle” for its followers, as a trio of major church leaders joined together to voice God’s love for gay people.
‘Belfast Newsletter’
The following is the response of Dr Norman Hamilton, former Irish Presbyterian moderator, to the recent statements by the Pope and Archbishop Welby and Scottish moderator, Greenshields, as reported in the ‘Belfast Newsletter’ of February 6th.
I have deemed his response an ungodly endorsement of sodomy.
“Rev Norman Hamilton was reacting to comments from current Scottish moderator Rev Iain Greenshields and Archbishop Justin Welby, in which they sought to echo recent remarks from the Pope about homosexuality.
‘But as the Moderator knows well, being loved by God is not the same as being a follower of Christ. If that were so, everyone in the world would automatically be a Christian. The fact Christ loves and died for President Putin doesn’t make him a follower of Jesus.
“Christ in fact demands that our money, our time, our gifts, our whole being (including our sexuality) is offered to Him unconditionally. He calls us to a pretty demanding lifestyle – but also promises his enabling for it.’
The Presbyterian Church in Ireland, and the Evangelical Alliance, were both asked to comment; neither did.”
These words are words of compromise and appeasement. Norman Hamilton, because his church has adopted an ambiguous position on the whole issue of the perversion that is rampant in the world, even as the Saviour said would be the case, Luke 17:28-30.
The Presbyterian Church in Ireland’s acquiescence in the evil trends of today is seen in his words. Let no one think that he is adopting a Biblical stance on this issue for he is not. He is just seeking to put a small ‘gap’ between himself, a professed evangelical’ and the outrageous apostasy of the Pope and his fellow religious miscreants, Welby of the Church of England and Greenshields of the Scottish Presbyterian Church.
However, he doesn’t want that gap to be too large since he wishes to remain in cahoots with ecumenists and their objectives!
He is very wrong when he says ‘Yes – God loves gay and straight alike . . .’ That is a blatant and blasphemous lie. The ‘sodomite’ lifestyle is an ‘abomination’ in God’s eyes, Leviticus 18:22. You cannot get further from loving something than by abominating it!
The consequences of committing that which is an abomination is seen in these verses.
“Ye shall therefore keep my statutes and my judgments, and shall not commit any of these abominations; neither any of your own nation, nor any stranger that sojourneth among you: (For all these abominations have the men of the land done, which were before you, and the land is defiled;) That the land spue not you out also, when ye defile it, as it spued out the nations that were before you. For whosoever shall commit any of these abominations, even the souls that commit them shall be cut off from among their people. Therefore shall ye keep mine ordinance, that ye commit not any one of these abominable customs, which were committed before you, and that ye defile not yourselves therein: I am the LORD your God,” Leviticus 18:26-30.
The judgment that fell upon the Canaanite nations is the direct consequence of their abominable practices, which included sodomy, as the following verse demonstrates. “And there were also sodomites in the land: and they did according to all the abominations of the nations which the LORD cast out before the children of Israel,” 1 Kings 14:24.
He is also wrong when he implies that the whole world ‘loves’ God and Christ died for all. He says: “But as the (Scottish) Moderator knows well, being loved by God is not the same as being a follower of Christ. If that were so, everyone in the world would automatically be a Christian. The fact Christ loves and died for President Putin doesn’t make him a follower of Jesus.”
This is nonsensical ‘theological rubbish’! Nothing is more clearly stated in the Bible than the fact that there are those who love the Lord, a remnant, and those who hate the Lord, the vast majority. “And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness,” 1 John 5:19. Those familiar words of the Saviour clearly teach what I am stating. “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.
Had the Saviour ‘died for President Putin’ then that man will be in heaven! It is Arminian nonsense to say what Hamilton claims regarding the Russian President. It is true that God “maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust,” Matthew 5:45. That is ‘Common Grace’ at work but it does not denote a redemptive love for the ‘evil and the unjust’!
Christ did not die for everyone. He tells us plainly who He died for. “Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many,” Matthew 20:28. Note, ‘for many’, not for all!
“So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many,” Hebrews 9:28.
“And he said unto them, This is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many,” Mark 14:24.
“I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine. As the Father knoweth me, even o know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep,” John 10:14-15. The sheep He refers to He clearly identifies. “But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand,” John 10:26-29. There were those to whom the Lord was speaking at this time who WERE NOT HIS SHEEP AND FOR WHOM HE DID NOT DIE!
Christ died for an elect people. As the ‘Shorter Catechism’, with which Mr Hamilton ought to be familiar since he swore to teach its doctrines, states in the question and answer, 21.
“Who is the Redeemer of God’s elect?”
“The only Redeemer of Gods elect is the Lord Jesus Christ, who, being the eternal Son of God, became man, and so was, and continueth to be, God and man in two distinct natures, and one person, for ever.”
That is what the Bible teaches and what Norman Hamilton publicly swore to teach. His statement re the Pope’s blasphemies indicates that he does not stand by that oath!
It is interesting that the ’Newsletter’ report states: “The Presbyterian Church in Ireland, and the Evangelical Alliance, were both asked to comment; neither did.”
That is the standard silence of the ‘evanjellyfish’ which is their response to the devil’s attacks today upon the cause of the Lord Jesus Christ today.
Rev Ivan Foster (Rtd)
7th February 2023