The following article is in essence, my answer to a Christian who politely requested that I answer some questions that were puzzling him and some Christian friends.
The questions that were posed were very helpful to me in that they sent me back to my Bible to find the answers and also to thus reaffirm my views as a Free Presbyterian.
I hope you all find the article helpful.
Sincerely in Christ’s name,
Ivan Foster
My answer to questions that perplex some Christians UNNECESSARILY!
Dear brother,
I always welcome questions like those you have posed, for the simple reason that they send me back to the Bible for answers!
Ignoring them would be a certain sign of resting upon one’s own opinion and an unwillingness to face the possibility, dreadful as it would be, that one is teaching the ‘commandments of men’ instead of God’s Word.
‘Separation’ is a vital truth throughout Holy Scripture and is an essential mark of grace in the life of the true believer.
There are no arguments in the Bible against separation! The separation commanded by the Lord most certainly requires ’secession’. There must be a withdrawing from that and those which are an offence to the Lord.
“Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful,” Psalm 1:1.
Let me come to the suppositions you set down.
* The Old Testament Church. Yes, there were times of most serious backsliding which resulted in the Lord WITHDRAWING from His people for a time. His withdrawing of His blessing was a means of provoking repentance and a return unto the Lord in obedience.
“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 Israel was greatly impoverished because of the Midianites; and the children of Israel cried unto the LORD. 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,” Judges 6:1, 6-8.
The sending of the prophet indicated that the Lord was ‘communing’ once again with His people.
That is perfectly in accord with the Lord’s dealing with His people in these days. Backsliding is not a bait for the Lord turning His back completely and forever upon those guilty of such.
Did not Peter backslide terribly? – Matthew 26:74 BUT there was no utter rejecting of him by the Saviour.
“And Peter said, Man, I know not what thou sayest. And immediately, while he yet spake, the cock crew. And the Lord turned, and looked upon Peter. And Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said unto him, Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice. And Peter went out, and wept bitterly,” Luke 22:60-62.
Remember Israel dwelt under a ’Theocracy’ – God ruled His people directly. The nation was ‘the visible church’ in those times. He often chastened them for their backsliding and thus restored them
BUT, when such chastening and rebuking did not bring about repentance and a return to obedience, the Lord SECEDED from their midst!
That happened for a time in the days of Samuel. “And she said, The glory is departed from Israel: for the ark of God is taken,” 1 Samuel 4:22.
It happened again, for a longer period, in the days of Jeremiah. Ezekiel 10, 11:22-23, reveals the departure of the glory of God from the temple and from Jerusalem, because of the continuing apostasy from the Lord and the rejection of the admonitions of Jeremiah.
That period of the Lord’s departure continued for 70 years and only ended when there was a spirit of repentance granted to them by God in His sovereign grace. Daniel’s prayer in Daniel chapter 9, was one prayed by many faithful souls in those days and which led to the return of the remnant to Israel.
Yes, the Lord most certainly SPLIT His faithful ones from the apostasy that other Israelites engaged in.
* With regards the Corinthian Church, I have often pointed out to folk what is stated in 1st Corinthians.
“Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother, 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 1:1-2.
Please note that despite the great sin among SOME in Corinth, they were still termed ‘the church of God’ by the Holy Spirit Who inspired Paul to so address them.
Had they not separated themselves from the sin in their midst, as commanded in verse 17 of 2 Corinthians; “Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you”, then the Lord would have abandoned them.
This procedure by the Lord is set down for us in the letters to the seven churches in Asia. There you find threats of that happening if they persisted in the backswing.
“Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent,” Revelation 2:5.
“Repent; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth,” Revelation 2:16.
“I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. . . . “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me,” Revelation 3:15, 20
In the Laodicean church, the withdrawal has started but an opportunity for the Lord to COME BACK IN amongst them is granted, as verse 20 shows.
There is no change in the Lord’s response to those who reject His calls to repentance and persist in rebellion. Please read the book of Jeremiah and there you will find the prophet’s long denunciation of Judah’s rebellion and warnings of what it would bring.
* Dr Henry Cooke. Here again there is an example of what I am saying. The sin that entered the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, ‘Unitarianism’, was rejected and purged from its ranks under the protesting ministry of Dr Cooke. It is a clear example of the procedure Paul followed in Corinth and which the Saviour was urging upon the churches in Asia!
* You say: ‘Today I believe there is still a faithful sizeable and vocal chunk of PCI who want to see reform and are praying and calling for it, despite suffering personal abuse and reputational damage.’ I would agree somewhat with that statement, with the exception of the word ‘sizeable’!
Throughout history, there have been good people, genuinely saved people, who have been caught up in the rebellion within the church and because of their failure to obey the direct call of God to separate, have suffered something of the fate of the ‘apostate’.
Many true believers, back in the days of Jeremiah, knew him to be speaking the truth but they did not respond as they should and so ended up in Babylon and there had to endure the privations of captivity.
Daniel and his friends were carried away to Babylon.
“And the king spake unto Ashpenaz the master of his eunuchs, that he should bring certain of the children of Israel, and of the king’s seed, and of the princes; children in whom was no blemish, but well favoured, and skilful in all wisdom, and cunning in knowledge, and understanding science, and such as had ability in them to stand in the king’s palace, and whom they might teach the learning and the tongue of the Chaldeans. And the king appointed them a daily provision of the king’s meat, and of the wine which he drank: so nourishing them three years, that at the end thereof they might stand before the king. Now among these were of the children of Judah, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah,” Daniel 1:3-6.
I believe the word ‘children’, which indicates they were but young, tells us that they were not yet mature and of an age to act independently of their parents and so were carried away with the guilty.
In 1927, when Prof Davey was exonerated by the Presbyterian Church in Ireland of his heresy, for heretic he was most certainly was and that of the most heinous kind, I have no doubt that there were many ‘evangelicals’ carried away by his oratory, etc! Good people can get ‘carried away’, for one reason or another. Galatians 2:11-13, shows this to be so!
For some 25 years, those evangelicals had opportunity to do what GOD COMMANDED and separate from the body which had blatantly endorsed rebellion.
The heresy of Davey was repeatedly upheld and he was elevated within the ranks of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland. It became one of the foundation members of the World Council of Churches, which pioneered the ongoing process of reunion with Rome. Davey was further honoured by the Presbyterian Church in Ireland in 1953, 2 years after the formation of the Free Presbyterian Church, by being made Moderator!
As indicated, I believe, the utter repudiation of the teaching of the Bible took place back in 1927, and there was a failure by evangelicals, to separate from apostasy by the Presbyterian Church in Ireland back then.
Those who profess faith in Christ within its ranks today do so without the blessing of God upon their witness for they have utterly failed to make an impression upon their church or in any degree turns it from its ‘pro-ecumenical’ path!
In the 1980s , the Presbyterian Church in Ireland voted to leave the WCC. BUT it remains within the local structures of that evil organisations – THE IRISH COUNCIL OF CHURCHES – where it is in fellowship with a “hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird,” Revelation 18:2.
Have a look at this link to see within that ‘cage’!
The members of the Irish Council of Churches
Whatever those evangelicals within the Presbyterian Church in Ireland are doing, it is not according to the will of God (Revelation 18:1) and there is not upon their witness any sign of God’s blessing or approval.
I could, I believe truthfully and fairly, write of the weakness of their witness but I won’t. The impact of it is obvious to all!
*My question is: in light of scripture, and indeed recent church history, when do you see it right to stay, pray and contend for the true faith within a denomination in danger of falling into or already blighted by error, and when is it right to secede?
The answer to that is simple. It is right to GO when the Lord GOES.
“Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate. Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach.,” Hebrews 13:12-13.
Christ was crucified ‘without the camp’ and His people have ever assembled around Him ‘without the camp’!
The Presbyterian Church in Ireland, officially and undeniably and repeatedly declared itself the ‘camp of apostasy’ in 1927 until 1953 and every year since by it her ever strengthening ties with ecumenism and the perversion of today.
Yes, there may be heard on occasions, a feeble plea, like that of Lot to the Sodomites — “And said, I pray you, brethren, do not so wickedly,” Genesis 19:7. He was most unsuccessful and in the end had to be dragged out by the angels in order to escape the wrath of God.
Like Job’s escape his, was by the “skin of his teeth”. His failures and folly costing nearly all his family.
“My bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh, and I am escaped with the skin of my teeth,” Job 19:20.
I think that I have covered the matter for you. I may use this as the basis of an article in the future (after it’s fully checked for ‘typos’ etc) but I can assure you that there will be no revealing of your name.
Thank you for your email. It has been a blessing to me and a means of reaffirming, for my own comfort and joy, the position I have sought to follow in obedience to the call of the Lord.
Sincere regards,
IF
3rd April 2026