An open letter to all Free Presbyterians from Rev Ivan Foster (Rtd)
Free Presbyterian Church ministers have publicly associated themselves with ‘Logos Ministries International’ and three of them have stated their approval of what it was Mr Danny Roberts (who is, I understand, a member of Ballynahinch Free Presbyterian Church) said in response to my setting out the fellowship and cooperation with ecumenical churches here and abroad and also the organisations that promote and endorse Roman Catholic doctrines, that he and the LMI are openly engaged with.
In his response to my article on the LMI, Mr Roberts at no point denied that he and LMI are involved with ‘ecumenical churches’ here in Northern Ireland or in many other places.
He did, however, attack me stating that I am engaged in tearing down ‘the church and God’s people’ and ‘spreading false information’. I am a liar in other words.
He clearly insinuated that I spread hate and false information, as well as being unbiblical in my dealing with him and blasting other believers online for the world to see.
He also indicated that he would have nothing to do with ‘mixing with Catholics’ and that I was therefore accusing him falsely.
I set out in detail in a further article, just how false these denials were and that the internet is full of clear documentary evidence that Mr Roberts and the LMI organisation have very close links with and are in a working relationship with ecumenical churches and those who promote Roman Catholic doctrine.
Mr Roberts has put on record that he is not going to reply to my third article: ‘Logos Ministries International attack answered!’
Now why is that?
Might I suggest that it is because HE CANNOT TRUTHFULLY ANSWER THE ARTICLE.
The facts of his unscriptural associations and activities are displayed repeatedly on the internet – put there by him and his associates!
Since I mounted on the ‘Burning Bush’ my third article, many Christians, who did their own research, sent me links of the unorthodox religious alliances that Mr Roberts and the LMI have formed!
You do not need to be an ‘internet whizz kid’ to uncover these truths. But you do have to be a blind and dumb donkey to fail to see them and give your support to such latter-day errors and attacks upon the tenets of Holy Scripture!
Regarding this matter, a serious question arises!
Has it become lawful for a Free Presbyterian minister, in good standing within the Presbytery of the Free Presbyterian Church, to be maligned by a member of the Free Presbyterian Church, as I have been by Danny Roberts, and that maligning to be publicly endorsed by three Free Presbyterian ministers.
One said : “Some people don’t like the truth to get in the way of what they think is a good story Danny… Keep serving Christ and spreading the word. One short life. Let’s not waste it. People need the Saviour.”
Another said: “Keep labouring and working for the Lord, Danny. The Lord will bless your work for the Master.”
The third said: “Not surprising behaviour Danny from these quarters, sad you and others have to put up with this. Choose encouragement and keep your head up and press on regardless for the kingdom’s sake!”
In truth, I care little about such comments since, before God I merely set down the truth in my articles. I have no doubt that the Lord will take an interest in such support for slander. Whether Presbytery will, is a matter for it, for this is very obviously wrong and a breach of God’s Word and, if I am not mistaken, contrary to Presbytery rules.
I would like to copy the following from a document on the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster’s position on ecclesiastical separation.
This information was published and distributed to Free Presbyterian congregations in 2013.
Please note particularly the underlined sections for they are especially relevant regarding the links between Logos Ministries International and some Free Presbyterian congregations and ministers.
“Our Stand on Separation
9. Thus, God’s call to separate means that a particular church is to separate from all participation or co-operation in worship or ministry with churches, organisations or individuals that have apostasised through denial of the fundamental truths of the Christian faith, (see 2 Cor 6: 14-18, Eph 5: 11, 1 Tim 6: 3-5).
10. They are also called to separate from brethren who maintain fellowship with those who deny the faith, (2 Thess 3: 6, 14-15); to repudiate unscriptural ecumenism and ecumenical evangelism; and to refuse to compromise any essential truth of the gospel in an effort to pursue and gain visible church union with degenerate churches, (see Prov 23: 23, Amos 3: 3, 2 John 9-11).
11. In the light of this Biblical teaching on the Doctrine of Separation, this Commission recommends the following:
(a) that in a time of deepening apostasy from the faith and an increasing unscriptural ecumenical agenda, the Presbytery publicly reaffirms that the historic separatist stand of the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster is according to the Scriptures, (2 Cor 6: 14-18); and that this Presbytery repudiates any association with the World Council of Churches or with any national or local arm of this body as well as any association with the Charismatic/Pentecostal delusion; and calls on God’s people to separate from these unscriptural bodies and movements.
(b) that Presbytery requires all ministers and sessions to uphold and maintain this separatist position in the public ministry of each local Free Presbyterian congregation through expounding the Scripture on the Doctrine of Separation and by ensuring that this separatist position is upheld by the communicant membership; and to recognise that this requirement is in obedience to Scripture and is in keeping with the particular Presbytery ordination vow that reads and is subscribed by every minister and elder – “I vow to maintain the truly scriptural separatist position of the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster…”
(c) this Presbytery rules that no Free Presbyterian minister, elder and communicant member should be in attendance at religious services sponsored and promoted by ecumenists whose agenda is to promote the goal of the false ecumenical movement; namely the further establishment of ‘the one-world church’.
(d) that, believing the Church of Rome to be the apostate system of antichristianity under the headship of the Pope within the visible church (WCF ch.25 Section 6), and therefore believing that, on the basis of their blasphemous doctrines no member of the Roman Catholic clergy can be recognised as a minister of the New Testament, this Presbytery requires that no Free Presbyterian minister, elder or communicant member should ever be in attendance at the Mass and must also exercise due diligence so as not to become entangled with, participate in or attend any service of worship in which any member of the Roman Catholic clergy or orders is taking part;
(e) that members of the Free Presbyterian Church who, because of public office, are invited to attend civic services should enquire beforehand as to the format of and participants in such services, and should not attend those civic services that are billed as ecumenical/cross-community services, thereby ensuring that they will not be perceived to compromise the separatist position of this denomination;
(f) where there is an alleged breach of the separatist position of the Free Presbyterian Church on the part of any minister the Presbytery will appoint an investigative/judicial Commission to deal with the case; and the allegation of such a breach by an elder or communicant member will be investigated by the local session; and according to the findings of each body appropriate discipline will be administered;
(g) that, in keeping with our former practice, liberty of conscience should be granted to ministers with respect to participation with ministers of other Protestant denominations at funerals and weddings.
Let every Free Presbyterian read and study these statements which are foundational to our witness and ask if they have been upheld over recent years by those whose duty it is to do so!
Had these rules been adhered to the likes of Mr Danny Roberts would have been disciplined for a breach of them along, it must be said, with those ministers and elders who have supported him and LMI!
HISTORY!
Ever since the time I opposed Dr Paisley’s entering into an alliance with the murderous Sinn Fein political party, I have been ostracised by many ministers and quite a number of congregations have closed their doors against me because, at first, many in the church supported Dr Paisley’s actions out of a mistaken sense of loyalty to a man who had done so much in the cause of Christ. It was unthinkable for many to accept that he could do wrong.
Had they but listened to his many requests for prayer in his earlier years of political involvement, they would have shared his concern that the Lord would keep him from political folly. He used to say that he was a prime target of the devil for his fall would impact very much on the cause of God.
How right he was!
How little many Christians seemed to know of God’s record of the Davids, the Solomons, the Peters, the Marks, who throughout history were guilty of great failures in the service of God. A little knowledge of their own hearts’ susceptibility to sin and failure would have prevented such an unwarranted acceptance and support for the action Dr Paisley took. It was, after all, a step in utter defiance of his years of opposition to Sinn Fein/IRA.
He had blasted the Ulster Unionist Party leader who had entered a power-sharing arrangement with the Social Democratic and Labour Party in 1998. Indeed, the Free Presbyterian Church had inserted a large advert in the local newspapers setting forth the Bible’s reasons why such a deal was wrong. Dr Paisley seemed to be of the same mind when he had promised that he would not enter power-sharing with the murder-supporting organisation that Sinn Fein/IRA was! It would only happen over his dead body, he had declared in the summer of 2006, only about four months before the press started reporting that a power-sharing deal between Sinn Fein/IRA and the Democratic Unionist Party was very close.
At a Presbytery in Portadown in the Spring of 2007, when the minutes of the previous Presbytery recorded that Dr Paisley would give an answer to the question of whether or not he was going to accept the post of ‘First Minister’ in the Stormont administration alongside IRA man, Martin McGuinness, I asked under the terms of ‘Business arising from the Minutes’, if Dr Paisley would give an answer as he promised in the previous Presbytery meeting.
I was immediately told by Rev Ron Johnston, who was acting as Clerk that night, that I would need to put down a ‘notice of motion’ in order to ask such a question. I put him straight on that matter and showed that it was the practice of the Presbytery to discuss matters arising from the minutes at the beginning of every Presbytery meeting!
I then returned to further questioning Dr Paisley on the record of his promise to inform the Presbytery of his decision regarding the Office of the First Minister, which had just been read out from the minutes of the last Presbytery meeting. Dr Paisley angrily said he would not answer my question.
I immediately said to him that I must therefore withdraw from that Presbytery meeting as I could not give my consent to such behaviour.
I was accompanied by a number of elders as I withdrew. As I was leaving, ministers who still sit in today’s Presbytery, stood at the rail of the balcony in the Bethany Church and most vociferously called me a ‘divider of the brethren’ and told me to get out!
I was as guilty of that charge as was Elijah of the false accusation thrown against him by Ahab! “Art thou he that troubleth Israel?”
Elijah’s answer was, in essence, my response to the many unfair and unjust accusations that have been ‘whispered’ about me.
“I have not troubled Israel; but thou, and thy father’s house, in that ye have forsaken the commandments of the LORD, and thou hast followed Baalim,” 1 Kings 18:17-18.
Entering a union with Sinn Fein by a Christian in order to advance one’s political status, was indeed a ‘forsaking the commands of God’. That was made plain in the Free Presbyterian Church Covenant many of us signed back on 28th February, 1988. We had then covenanted to be ‘for’ all that Christ was for and ‘against’ all that Christ was against.
I have no hesitation in saying that the Bible makes clear that God is against any agreement and cooperation with terrorists!
I was one of a delegation of Presbytery representatives who met the DUP leadership in November 2006. At that meeting I asked Dr Paisley if he was not doing that which was akin to what Jehoshaphat was guilty of. I had sent this question to him some days before just to show that I was not trying to ‘trip him up’ or anything of that kind.
Here is what was said to Jehoshaphat by a servant of God, Jehu. “And Jehu the son of Hanani the seer went out to meet him, and said to king Jehoshaphat, Shouldest thou help the ungodly, and love them that hate the LORD? therefore is wrath upon thee from before the LORD,” 2 Chronicles 19:2.
Dr Paisley denied that there was any link between his actions and those of Jehoshaphat. However, I have no doubt that his entering into a power-sharing arrangement with Sinn Fein/IRA and sharing the office of ‘First Minister’ with Martin McGuinness was on a par with Jehoshaphat’s political union with the evil murderer of God’s saints, Ahab.
I have written many articles and preached sermons about the matter, denouncing that shameful decision, as the true nature of the deal became ever more clear.
NEVER ONCE HAS ANY MEMBER OF PRESBYTERY SOUGHT PUBLICLY TO CHALLENGE ME AND PUT ME RIGHT, WHICH THEY SHOULD HAVE DONE IF I WAS WRONG!
I believe that we can trace an increasing decline in the numbers of those who would still support Dr Paisley’s decision to enter power-sharing with Sinn Fein/IRA. In fact, that support began to rapidly dwindle as the impact of it emerged and the full implications of the arrangement with Sinn Fein/IRA began to be revealed.
It was finally concluded by the Democratic Unionist Party that things were not working out as they had hoped they would. Dr Paisley was forced to resign from the office of First Minister by his own party members in under a year of him taking office. The party was greatly embarrassed by the public behaviour of Dr Paisley and Martin McGuinness for they were termed by a mocking press as ‘the chuckle bothers’!
Following his resignation, it was also conceded by the party leadership that during Dr Paisley’s time as First Minister, funds were channeled through his office to sodomite organisations. See these two articles:
(The truth concerning funding of sodomites through the Office of the First Minister finally revealed)
(A little more honesty from the First minister but…!)
The administering of such funds by the DUP continued, however. Mr. Jim Allister, the then leader of the Traditional Unionist Party in Stormont, claimed that the office of a DUP man who was then a minister in the Stormont Executive, passed on funds. See these two articles on the continuing compromise by the DUP: (Can Mervyn Storey’s actions in heading a Stormont Department which funds sodomy and blasphemy be defended or excused?)
Mr Storey also wished “the Corrymeela Community well for its upcoming 50th anniversary celebrations.” Principles abandoned – God’s Truth Betrayed! The man congratulated by Mr Storey, Pádraig Ó Tuama, as reported on wikipedia “is gay, and has been a vocal supporter of the legalisation of same-sex marriage.” See Pádraig Ó Tuama
Mr Storey still sits as an elder in our Presbytery!
There have been attempts to raise these matters in Presbytery by concerned ministers and elders when once the truth was known. Any votes that were taken indicated that the majority of Presbytery members were not prepared to acknowledge the wrong that was committed nor have it denounced and those guilty of such disobedience of the Bible dealt with as they should.
I published an article on my website in June 2008 (A word to the distressed amongst God’s flock today) in which I said the following:
“This awakened spirit of concern amongst Christians quickly grew as the new regime got into its stride. Indeed, it has become ever more evident that the manifestation of the spirit which was casting aside the views of what hitherto has been orthodox political unionist
thinking in the spring and summer of 2007 is the same spirit which is rampant amongst some young people who are rebelling against orthodox Christian views on music, the conducting of young people’s meetings, attendance at cinemas and theatres and much more.
There is a common link and it is being recognised more and more to be the case by those who now realise that they were perhaps too slow to see that link and give their voice against this tide of backsliding, designed to undermine the foundations and standards of old-fashioned Christianity in today’s society when it first was manifested.”
It is thus not surprising that the path of compromise that the DUP and its Free Presbyterian supporters went down made legitimate a departure by some within the ranks of the Free Presbyterian Church, especially amongst the young, and has also brought about the dominance of Sinn Fein/IRA that is seen clearly today.
This situation has developed as a result of God, acting in judgment, lifting His hand from off us and handing us over to our enemies as He has done many times in the past with His disobedient people.
In the time of the Judges in Israel this happened often! Here is one example of God acting in judgment.
“And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD: and the LORD delivered them into the hand of Midian seven years. And the hand of Midian prevailed against Israel: and because of the Midianites the children of Israel made them the dens which are in the mountains, and caves, and strong holds. And so it was, when Israel had sown, that the Midianites came up, and the Amalekites, and the children of the east, even they came up against them; And they encamped against them, and destroyed the increase of the earth, till thou come unto Gaza, and left no sustenance for Israel, neither sheep, nor ox, nor ass. For they came up with their cattle and their tents, and they came as grasshoppers for multitude; for both they and their camels were without number: and they entered into the land to destroy it,” Judges 6:1-5.
The Lord still deals with sin amongst His people for He is Jehovah, the unchanging One!
As the grave error of 2007 became obvious, the attitude of many altered toward me. Some of those who had been very angry with me changed and the ‘ice melted’ and friendly Christian relations were restored.
I can’t say that anyone who had denounced my stand in 2007 ever approached me and said ‘You were right, Foster, and I’m sorry for opposing you’. But I didn’t look for that and I was happy with friendlier relations developing.
However, our church has never dealt with the metaphorical ‘elephant in the room’! Indeed, there are those who, in order to save their own face, have done everything possible to stop any proper examination of the events of 2007 and the subsequent shameful developments that sprang from it.
Many will likely say, ‘This is all in the past. We must forget about it and move on!’ But Christian, is that God’s attitude to wrongdoing and sin? I think not.
When the Lord sent a prophet to deal with the issue of Israel’s sin in BC 1256, the prophet in his opening words traces the issue back to the days of the Exodus some 250 years earlier in BC 1491. I am referring to that portion from Judges 6, quoted above.
Note the words of the prophet.
“And it came to pass, when the children of Israel cried unto the LORD because of the Midianites, That the LORD sent a prophet unto the children of Israel, which said unto them, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, I brought you up from Egypt, and brought you forth out of the house of bondage; and I delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians, and out of the hand of all that oppressed you, and drave them out from before you, and gave you their land; and I said unto you, I am the LORD your God; fear not the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but ye have not obeyed my voice,” Judges 6:6-10.
There is NO ignoring and merely overlooking sin with God!
The Psalmist said: “If thou, LORD, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?” Psalm 130:3. Yes, “The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy,” Psalm 103:8. He is “the God of patience,” Romans 15:5.
BUT, Joshua said: “If ye forsake the LORD, and serve strange gods, then he will turn and do you hurt, and consume you, after that he hath done you good,” Joshua 24:20.
The matter must be dealt with and that in God’s way. I do not believe that it has been dealt with in the court of our Presbytery.
Further evidence of this truth is seen in the incident when the Lord sent a famine in the days of David, and in response David enquired as to the cause of the catastrophe. The Lord gave him an answer.
“Then there was a famine in the days of David three years, year after year; and David enquired of the LORD. And the LORD answered, It is for Saul, and for his bloody house, because he slew the Gibeonites,” 2 Samuel 21:1.
According to Bishop Ussher’s Chronology, Saul was dead some 35 years when this famine came and the incident regarding the Gibeonites was even longer ago than that, happening as it did while King Saul was alive and ruling over Israel.
I say this, that we will never know a restoring of the blessing we once enjoyed until we say ‘SORRY’ to the Lord out of genuinely humble, repentant hearts, for our disobedience of His Word, our forsaking of that purpose for which He called our church into existence and for taking our eyes off His purpose for us, which is that we seek “first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness,” Matthew 6:33.
Our Presbytery needs to face up to the declining state of affairs and recognise why it is so. What is required is not discussion in Presbytery or a new Presbytery Commission but rather those sweetly precious words of the Lord to Solomon acted upon.
“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.
This is the way, let us walk in it!
Rev Ivan Foster (Rtd)
Please read 1 Samuel 12, the chapter appointed for reading on 20th August in Robert Murray M‘Cheyne’s Bible Reading Calendar.
It is most relevant to our situation today!