(The ‘Belfast Newsletter’ Editor has requested a shorter version of the following letter which I submitted on July 4th. In the interest of getting out the truth, I have complied with his request and I trust that it will be published soon. IF)
Sir,
A great deal of ‘pernicious drivel’ has appeared in your newspaper ‘letters’ column concerning what is wrong religiously here in Northern Ireland.
There is a common theme in these letters: ‘Abandon the Biblical beliefs of the past and go with what the ‘modernists and liberals’ say is good.’
That is seen as the ‘cure-all’ for Ulster’s woes.
Sadly, nothing could be further from the truth!
That which God was pleased to bless in the past, with repeated seasons of revival blessing and thousands of conversions to personal faith in Christ and the enjoyment of peace with God, is what may be found in the ‘Old Confessions’ of the three main denominations and which has been repudiated by those denominations.
Therein lies the cause of our troubles!
A study of the Bible, particularly the Book of Judges, will show that what we have experienced, and will continue to experience, stems from a rejection of the truth of God, set forth in Holy Scripture.
‘Ecumenism’, man’s invented religion, has demanded the abandonment of the cardinal doctrines of the Word of God. That demand has been acceded to by the three main churches.
I hope your readers will consider these quotations from the historic doctrinal statements of the main churches, doctrines which God was pleased to endorse and prosper those who preached them!
39 Articles of Religion of the Church of Ireland.
Article 31.
‘Of the one Oblation of Christ finished upon the Cross.’
The Offering of Christ once made is that perfect redemption, propitiation, and satisfaction, for all the sins of the whole world, both original and actual; and there is none other satisfaction for sin, but that alone.
Wherefore the sacrifices of Masses, in the which it was commonly said, that the Priest did offer Christ for the quick and the dead, to have remission of pain or guilt, were blasphemous fables, and dangerous deceits.
Westminster Confession of Faith of Presbyterianism
Chapter 29
‘Of the Lord’s Supper’
In this Sacrament Christ is not offered up to his Father, nor any real sacrifice made at all for remission of sins of the quick or dead; but only a commemoration of that once offering up of himself, by himself, upon the cross, once for all; and a spiritual oblation of all possible praise unto God for the same: so that the Popish sacrifice of the mass, as they call it, is most abominably injurious to Christ’s one only sacrifice, the alone propitiation for all the sins of the elect.
John Wesley’s Notes on the Bible.
Note on 2 Thessalonians 2:3. (Required reading for Methodist Ministers)
But the man of sin, the son of perdition – Eminently so called, is not come yet. However, in many respects, the Pope has an indisputable claim to those titles. He is, in an emphatical sense, the man of sin, as he increases all manner of sin above measure. And he is, too, properly styled, the son of perdition, as he has caused the death of numberless multitudes, both of his opposers and followers, destroyed innumerable souls, and will himself perish everlastingly. He it is that opposeth himself to the emperor, once his rightful sovereign; and that exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped – Commanding angels, and putting kings under his feet, both of whom are called gods in scripture; claiming the highest power, the highest honour; suffering himself, not once only, to be styled God or vice – god. Indeed no less is implied in his ordinary title, “Most Holy Lord,” or, “Most Holy Father.” So that he sitteth – Enthroned. In the temple of God – Mentioned Rev 11:1. Declaring himself that he is God – Claiming the prerogatives which belong to God alone.
These statements are completely true to Holy Scriptures and the abandoning of them has brought upon those guilty of turning away, the fate suffered by many previous generations guilty of like folly.
That fate is set forth in Judges 2:11-15.
“And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, and served Baalim: and they forsook the LORD God of their fathers, which brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, of the gods of the people that were round about them, and bowed themselves unto them, and provoked the LORD to anger. And they forsook the LORD, and served Baal and Ashtaroth. And the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel, and he delivered them into the hands of spoilers that spoiled them, and he sold them into the hands of their enemies round about, so that they could not any longer stand before their enemies. Whithersoever they went out, the hand of the LORD was against them for evil, as the LORD had said, and as the LORD had sworn unto them: and they were greatly distressed.”
Sincerely,
Rev Ivan Foster (Rtd)
Kilskeery
4th July 2025