Deceitful words in defence and the dupes who support it!!
In my article, ‘Paul’s announcement that his course was finished’, posted on the 8th August, I indicated that I would be setting aside the ‘sword of contending’. I did not say I was throwing it away. Because of age and declines in health and strength I fully intended that I would be ending that element of my witness on the ‘Burning Bush’ website, but I did keep the sword close at hand in case I ever needed it again!
Well, I have a need of it and have gripped it once again to respond to a concealed and secretive attack upon what I have recently said about ‘Logos Ministries International’!
The devil is a master at concealing his evil machinations, even from those he uses to carry them out!
The labyrinth of links and associations that LMI has established with ecumenism and apostasy is bewildering and difficult to unravel, even for those who wish to get to the truth.
I am prepared to believe that some of those who have publicly rejoiced in the pronouncements of this organisation, do so with little or no understanding of what it is they are embracing and endorsing.
Even Free Presbyterian ministers may be guilty of such gullibility!
Attack
I was not told by Mr Roberts himself of anything he said about me and my article. I have, however, been informed that he, who is prominently involved in ‘Logos Ministries International’, has attacked me and my articles on the ecumenical involvement of LMI. He has been supported in his attack by Free Presbyterians ministers, who give their names on his ‘Facebook’ page.
At no point in his statement does he deny that LMI is involved with ‘ecumenical churches’ here in Northern Ireland or in many other places.
He states that I am engaged in tearing down ‘the church and God’s people’. He faults me for not having spoken to him about LMI. He further says:
‘But to be called out from someone I have never had a conversation with saddens me, especially when that person is an ex-minister spreading false information.’
He may have failed to notice that I never even mentioned his name in anything I wrote, just the activities of LMI.
But every little distortion aids in the spread of falsehood!
I presume that the false information that I am supposed to have spread is that LMI has links with Roman Catholicism. He denies any such links. He says that the link that I provided is to an organisation called ‘Crown Jesus Ministries’, which, in my second article, I showed to be involved in promoting the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church.
That same organisation has a notice on its website which states:
‘Reach out to Stee from Crown Jesus steven@crownjesus.org or Danny from LMI danny@lmi-org.net or Saz from SUNI sarah@suni.co.uk’
So, Mr Danny Roberts is in close cooperation with those who promote the blasphemous, soul-damning errors of Roman Catholicism!
Another arm of this ‘ecumenical octopus’ is ‘Shine’ which explains itself as follows:
Who is SHINE?
SHINE is a partnership between Crown Jesus Ministries, Scripture Union NI, Logos Ministries International, Scripture Union England and Wales, Scripture Union Ireland and Scripture Union Scotland.
Further evidence of this link between ’Shine’ and ‘LMI’ may be seen in this screen shot from the ‘Shine’ website.
So, LMI is in ‘partnership’ with an organisation, which he stated in his response to my LMI articles, that he ‘had nothing to do with, nor would we’!
Furthermore, LMI members engage in ‘prayer’ meeting with their ‘Shine’ ‘partners’, as this Facebook page shows.
The picture is accompanied by the following statement.
“It was great for the staff at Crown Jesus Ministries, Scripture Union Northern Ireland and Logos Ministries International to gather together this week to pray for the work of SHINE across the UK and Ireland. We are so thankful for partnerships in the gospel and for those at Scripture Union England and Wales, Scripture Union Scotland and Scripture Union Ireland who help lead this work. Let’s be praying for young people involved as they seek to be an influence for God where has placed them.” (Prayer meeting link)
That is Mr Roberts in the middle I understand. Just who is spreading falsehoods???
Here is another Facebook reference to ‘prayer’ involving ‘Shine’ and Mr Roberts.
This photo was accompanied by the following statement.
“The annual @shineinschools prayer meeting took place this morning, when staff members from LMI joined with our friends from Crown Jesus Ministries and Scripture Union NI.
We entrusted SHINE 2018 to the Lord in prayer, and hope that as the project unfolds in 188 schools across the UK throughout November, God is glorified and His Kingdom extended ”
This is taken from a LMI Facebook page. That is Mr Roberts top left.
Now just who is telling falsehoods about the involvement of LMI with ecumenical and Roman Catholic organisations?
CROWN JESUS MINISTRIES
This ‘Crown Jesus Ministries’ organisation, which is promoted along with LMI by ‘Shine’, is but amongst many other religious groups with which the LMI are in fellowship.
‘Crown Jesus Ministries’ endorses the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church which are condemned by the subordinate documents of faith, subscribed to by the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster. The Westminster Confession of Faith states this:
Chapter XXV, section VI:
“There is no other head of the Church but the Lord Jesus Christ: nor can the Pope of Rome in any sense be head thereof; but is that antichrist, that man of sin, and son of perdition, that exalteth himself in the Church against Christ, and all that is called God.”
CHAPTER XXIX, Paragraph II:
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.
Paragraph VI.
That doctrine which maintains a change of the substance of bread and wine into the substance of Christ’s body and blood (commonly called transubstantiation) by consecration of a priest, or by any other way, is repugnant, not to Scripture alone, but even to common sense and reason; overthroweth the nature of the Sacrament; and hath been, and is the cause of manifold superstitions, yea, of gross idolatries.
These are but some of the the gospel truths to which every Free Presbyterian minister and elder has sworn fidelity, including those who have signed their names to Mr Roberts’ defence of his ties with ecumenism and popery.
ORDINATION AFFIRMATIONS
Here are some of the questions to which they responded affirmatively, otherwise they would not now occupy a Free Presbyterian pulpit and draw Free Presbyterian wages:
Do you sincerely receive and believe the Westminster Standards and the Articles of Faith of the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster as containing the system of doctrine taught in the Holy Scriptures?
Will you subscribe the said Confessions and Articles as a confession of your own faith?
Do you promise to be zealous and faithful in maintaining the truths of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in working for the purity and peace of the church, whatever persecution or opposition may arise unto you on that account?
Will you maintain with all the strength God shall give you the position on Biblical separation from apostasy as taken by the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster in 1951 at the time of its secession from the Presbyterian Church in Ireland?
As God helps you will you expose and resist the continued apostasy from Christ manifested within Irish Presbyterianism, Methodism, Episcopalianism and other visible church bodies; exhorting God’s people to obey the teaching and commandment of 1 Timothy 6: 3-5?
Now the question may be asked of these ministers, whose names are known to me for they are available on Mr Roberts’ Facebook page:
‘Is support for LMI and its links to ecumenism and popery, and the calling of me a liar and spreader of falsehoods when I exposed this network of deception, a faithful carrying out of the oaths you took before God and in the presence of the Presbytery and the congregation where you presently minister?’
I might also ask the ministers who support LMI, if those Christians who stepped out of ecumenism in 1951, and on many occasions thereafter, to form churches which ‘zealously and faithfully sought to maintain with all the strength God gave them’, the Bible truth of separation from those who taught and practised error and also from those who were prepared to fellowship with such defiers of God’s Word. were wrong and in error (2 Corinthians 6:14-18, 2 Thessalonians 3:6, 14-16)?
Are Sandown and Lisburn Free Presbyterian congregations founded on error and sin and should they cease forthwith opposing ecumenism and join LMI in fellowshipping with, sharing in worship with, those ecumenical churches which endorse sodomy, same-sex marriage and other latter-day abominations?
I will be very interested in see the response of the Free Presbyterian minsters who have supported Mr Roberts in his attack upon me.
Indeed, if they wish, I will happily mount any submission in defence of their support of LMI and its links with ecumenism and popery on my ‘Burning Bush’ website, reserving the right to answer such of course!
Time for action!
The members of the Free Presbyterian Church and its ministers would need to declare just where they stand on these issues. Remaining quietly ‘discontent’ with developments within our ranks is not God’s Way. As Dr Paisley used to say, it is time to ‘Stand up and Speak out’.
I suspect that it would almost choke some members of Presbytery to acknowledge that what I have been saying about compromise and backsliding within our denomination is absolutely true and should have been heeded by them. Beginning to do right always entails a humble and unambiguous acknowledgement of having done wrong!
This verse has been engrained in the hearts and minds of older Free Presbyterians, because of its frequent use by Dr Paisley in past times of blessing.
“If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land,” 2 Chronicles 7:14.
That humility is demanded of us all in these days if we are to see a recovery of our church and an averting of impending disaster!
Presbytery must be asked to declare where it stands on this matter, otherwise its members are merely presiding over the demise of the witness brought into existence in 1951 and for which, under God, they have the responsibility to see a faithful carrying out of the oath to uphold God’s truth in these days of apostasy.
This is a time, once again, to answer the challenge of God from the lips of Moses:
“Then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, Who is on the LORD’S side? let him come unto me,” Exodus 32:26.
Rev Ivan Foster (Rtd and a little maligned!)