“If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept,” 1 Corinthians 15:19-20.
These verses formed part of my daily Bible reading today, Thursday 10th September. They show the folly of those who denied that there was a resurrection!
In the margin of my Bible, beside verse 12 of this chapter, I wrote these words quite some time ago: ‘Another error in the church at Corinth’ for it states there: “Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?”
There were many errors circulating in that church both in the form of erroneous doctrines taught and believed by some and practices which were altogether improper and unholy and condemned by Paul.
There was division and infighting (1:10-13); there was the highly improper relationship between a man and his step-mother, which even the heathen would find abhorrent (5:1-7); there was a bringing of members to court by other members over issues that should have been settled by the elders (6:1-7) ; there was gross misuse of the sacrament of the Lord’s Table, even drunkenness (11:20-22) — and here in Chapter 15, there is another instance of a departure from the Word of God, a most serious one indeed for it appears that some asserted “that there is no resurrection of the dead”.
It must be noted in the light of these evils found amongst the Corinthian Christians that:
I. THE HOLY GHOST STILL CALLS THEM ‘THE CHURCH OF GOD WHICH IS AT CORINTH’!
“Unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours,” 1 Corinthians 1:2.
I dare say that such was the spiritual state of the Corinthian church — and I have listed only some of the errors Paul deals with in his epistles to the church — that there are many amongst us that would call for separation from that body!
I too would have felt that the membership had gone ‘beyond the pale’ in its departures from the Word of God.
I would have felt that until I noted how the Holy Ghost termed that people and also how Paul did not command those who sought to be faithful to God, to break off fellowship with the erring ones and form a separated witness!
Those two matters indicate that bad as the situation was in the church, it DID NOT WARRANT SEPARATION!
II. JUST WHAT IS THE ‘APOSTASY’ FROM WHICH WE ARE COMMANDED BY GOD TO SEPARATE?
Here is one secular definition of apostasy. ‘Apostasy; (Ancient Greek: ἀποστασία, apostasía, lit. ’defection, revolt’) is the formal disaffiliation from, abandonment of, or renunciation of a religion by a person — Wikipedia.’
That sets forth the meaning of the term, but it is what the Bible says of it that is our rule.
The Greek word ἀποστασία is translated in 2 Thessalonians as “a falling away”, 2:3. It appears in one other place and there it is translated as “forsake”, Acts 21:21.
Those two translations and the context in which they appear tell us just what ‘apostasy’ is.
Acts 21:21 refers to Paul seeking to teach that the Levitical laws no longer were in force since the death of the promised Christ.
Dr Gill comments: ‘That he taught the Gentiles not to regard the rituals of the law of Moses gave them no uneasiness; but that he should teach the Jews that were scattered among the Gentiles, and as many of them that believed in Christ, to disregard and drop the observance of them, who had been always brought up in them, this they could not bear.’
Accused
Thus they accused Paul of promoting ‘apostasy’!
Then in the only other place the word appears, Paul teaches us that the ‘Day of the Lord’ would not come until first there was a great “falling away” from the truth of God, an apostasy, and “that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God,” 2 Thessalonians 3-4.
This was not a reference to incidents of backsliding or the embracing of an error BUT rather a total repudiating of all belief in the Person and the revealed Word of God.
III. THERE IS A PATTERN PROVIDED FOR US TO OBSERVE AND FOLLOW WITH REGARDS WHEN WE OUGHT TO SEPARATE.
I will quote a few verses to give the context in which this pattern is set.
“And it came to pass, that, while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul having passed through the upper coasts came to Ephesus: and finding certain disciples, he said unto them, Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed? And they said unto him, We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost. And he said unto them, Unto what then were ye baptized? And they said, Unto John’s baptism. Then said Paul, John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people, that they should believe on him which should come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus. When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them; and they spake with tongues, and prophesied. And all the men were about twelve. And he went into the synagogue, and spake boldly for the space of three months, disputing and persuading the things concerning the kingdom of God. But when divers were hardened, and believed not, but spake evil of that way before the multitude, he departed from them, and separated the disciples, disputing daily in the school of one Tyrannus. And this continued by the space of two years; so that all they which dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks,” Acts 19:1-10.
1. What happened here in Ephesus was under the blessing of the Holy Ghost. The disciples had just been granted an experience akin to that of the upper room experience in Acts 2. This blessing continued after the separation from the synagogue. That is to be noted. “All they which dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks.” This is very evidently the Holy Ghost at work and blessing this separated witness.
2. The separation took place as a result of particular actions of the Jews in the synagogue. Paul had preached “boldly”, that is freely and confidently for three months. Note how he preached. “Disputing and persuading the things concerning the kingdom of God.” There can be no preaching of the ‘whole counsel of God’ without ‘disputing’ and ‘persuading’. Paul challenged what they did believe, which was false, and then sought to persuade them to embrace the truth of God as set forth in the Gospel!
Real
That is true preaching, even though it has been set aside by all too many today and replaced by a simpering presentation, designed to upset none, no matter what foolishness they have embraced!
I recently heard how that one who regularly sets forth the Gospel in state schools, was asked not to pray at the end of their address.
Why? Well one may presume that there were those amongst the pupils who believed in ‘gods’ other than the true God, the Lord Jesus Christ, and who might be offended by the addressing of the Saviour as the true and only God!
At least that appears to be the thinking of the teacher who made the request of the evangelist!
Conversions
Doubtless Paul saw conversions during his three months of preaching in the synagogue. But then opposition mounted, maybe even because of the conversions, for there is nothing the devil and his crowd hate more!
“When divers were hardened (became obstinate), and believed not (robustly refused to believe), but spake evil (reviled, abused, to cursed) of that way before the multitude, he departed from them, and separated the disciples.”
Here then are the only grounds for separating and seeking to establish a distinct and unrelated witness.
It is not because all the Jews did not immediately embrace or show indifference toward his message, but there arose amongst the worshippers in the synagogue a spirit of blasphemous defiance and profane abuse and derision of the truth of God!
When that happens, which is clearly the devil inspiring his dupes to blasphemously defy God’s Word, it is time to get out.
Peter
The Lord Jesus indicated that Peter’s foolish objections to Him after He had revealed to his disciples that he would soon be crucified, (Matthew 16:21-23) was but Peter uttering the words of the devil.
However, on that occasion, Peter acted out of a misguided desire for the Saviour not to so die, for he understood not the eternal purpose of God!
The rebuke Peter received and the ensuing instructions he was given, delivered him from going any further down that road! That is evident in that the next verses reveal to us Peter being favoured with a view of the Saviour’s glory revealed to him and James and John.
IV. I BELIEVE THAT I CAN SAY WITHOUT FEAR OF CONTRADICTION, THAT WHATEVER ILLS HAVE BROKEN OUT AMONGST US IN THE FREE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, THERE IS NO EVIDENCE OF WRONG-DOING OF THE CHARACTER OF THOSE OF THE JEWS IN THE SYNAGOGUE IN EPHESUS!
That being true there is no basis for separation from our denomination.
Yes, there are sins in our ‘camp’. That is known by some of our leaders but sadly, they seem unwilling to offend the ‘wrong-doers’ and obey God and rebuke the sins that are an offence to the Lord and also a means of encouraging others to likewise depart from God’s truth.
My articles
It has to be said, and this is my main concern and the reason for my articles and statements, condemning the words and actions of some in our denomination, if the current wrongs are not faced up to by our Presbytery, then the present ‘mingling’ with those ‘evanjellyfish’ (to give them the title Dr Paisley coined) who are in disobedience to God, will become out and out fellowship with those still in the apostasy, in contravention of 2 Corinthians 6:14.
“Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?”
Also
I have likewise criticised and condemned the membership of the Democratic Unionist Party by those who are members, and who hold office in our church.
The DUP once was opposed to sodomy and the like evils. Now however, they have endorsed such to be elected representatives of the party, not to mention the welcoming of moral perverts into membership.
There were those faithful to God who withdrew from the DUP when this became evident back in 2019. But others have remained in support of the DUP, despite things having become even worse over the last seven years!
Sinful tolerance
Such tolerating and free association with that which God abominates can have only one end — a repudiation of those who are unwilling to separate from that which the Lord repudiates!
Please remember the extent of God’s repudiation of sodomy and its related wickednesses.
“ Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God,” 1 Corinthians 6:9-10.
Deliverance
Oh yes, Paul goes on to show that there is salvation for those who have engaged in such wickedness BUT that resulted in them separating from it.
“And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified (SEPARATED), but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God,” verse 11.
There are other ills and follies that have been ignored as far as any public condemnation from our Presbytery is concerned. Though, their alacrity has been shown in response to the unsubstantiated and baseless complaints against the likes of Rev David DeCanio, Rev David Linden and myself.
The voicing of the complaints against Rev Linden and myself was accommodated by the Presbytery officers, even though it meant setting aside the rules which govern our Presbytery’s conduct, for the complainants to address the whole Presbytery, without informing we who were the subjects of the ill-founded complaints!
Many
There are many in our church, indeed, in our Presbytery, who do not know just why David DiCanio was removed as a Free Presbyterian missionary after years of faithful and God-blessed labours in Liberia. The secretive workings of his removal are likewise not fully understood by many Free Presbyterians, nor how it resulted in another faithful fellow-missionary, one from Northern Ireland, having to forfeit their membership in our church in order to pursue their calling by the Saviour to labour for the Lord in Liberia in the re-established Gospel work after David DeCanio was most sinfully removed.
Very wrong
These things are not right and our complaints about them cannot be buried by seeking to charge us with wrong doing, and that at the whim of those given to pride and self promotion.
The attempts to remove me from the Free Presbyterian Church, of which I have been a member for sixty two years and actively preaching in for sixty one years, may succeed.
Judging by the fiasco of a vote in the Presbytery meeting of September 4th past, when it is claimed that a motion denouncing Rev Alan Dunlop’s book, ‘Remembering Former Days’, was passed ‘unanimously’ before all of those voting could have read the publication, never mind truly evaluated its contents, it is more than likely it will succeed.
However, that will not remove the real problem which is not my complaining about sin in the camp but the sin in the camp about which I have been complaining!
Killing Stephen did not stop the judgment which fell upon the Jews in AD 70, but rather it magnified it!
I appeal to every Free Presbyterian in Ulster who receives or reads this article to share it, to engage in prayer for the overthrow of the complacency that dominates our Presbytery and encourage others to join you in such prayers.
Rev Ivan Foster (Rtd)
11th September 2026