Here is an email I received on Wednesday morning, 20th April. I have not altered it but publish it as I received it, including misspellings!
Good Morning Ivan,
I am emailing you having watched your sermon which you preached for the 75th anniversary service at Kilskeery.
Where I must say the message of the gospel was totally overshadowed by your personal views which for the most part are not grounded in scripture.
To me, the subject matter steemed from a place of personal resentment rather than any desire to promote the gospel. The FP church has seen a solid uptick in young folk which is crucial to the survival of the demonination and should be lauded. The atittude that ‘coffee mornings’ are a signpost on the way to damnation is not only sad but at the roof of it an inditement of where you feel the problems lie within the Church.
I think that if your ministry was more rooted in preaching of the true gospel and caring for your congregation rather than these personal rants you would have had more success in seeing members of your flock (and indeed family) comming to faith instead of falling by the wayside.
I prayfully hope that you take time to reconsider this attitude which most certainly drives true believers from Faith.
(The sermon under criticism may be seen or heard here: “Going Forward by Turning Back”)
Well Mr D,
It has obviously escaped your notice that there are times when a ‘defending’ the Gospel must take precedence over the proclaiming of it!
Paul said: “I am set for the defence of the gospel,” Philippians 1:17. Those words have been my motto text since I started preaching in 1964.
It only takes a cursory reading of Holy Scripture to see that God’s servants often gave priority to the rebuking of error and defending the truth!
I have had some sixty two years to consider my ‘attitude’ and further more, I have found my views to be encouraged and supported by men whose service for the Lord was greatly blessed over many years.
However, the chief source of assurance that my attitude is pleasing to the Lord is the fact that I am reflecting what is taught in the Bible.
It would be true to say that I am resentful of those who seeking to introduce doctrines and notions that are not grounded on Holy Scripture. I think that it can be said that Paul was ‘resentful’ regarding those who engaged in such tactics in Galatia.
“I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed,” Galatians 1:6-9.
His repeating of his denunciation is to be noted. He was REALLY resentful of the evil actions of these corrupters of God’s truth.
Likewise the Saviour resented the preaching of lies and deceits. I cannot see how anyone could miss that fact when reading the Gospels!
You claim that, ‘this attitude’ of mine, ‘most certainly drives true believers from Faith’.
I take it that you would claim to be a ‘true believer’ and therefore I must presume that you have been driven from believing the Bible as a result of listening to my sermon.
If you have not, then you can see the stupidity of your claim!
I am happy to say that I do indeed preach my personal views for, like Paul, I can call the message of Christ ‘my gospel’! (Romans 2:16, 16:25, 2 Tim 2:8).
When I was saved I was given God’s Word and thereafter I have sought to keep it, John 17:6,14 and have sought to preach it, Acts 4:29.
With regards ‘Coffee mornings’, like Dr Paisley of old and our founding fathers, I believe it is an insult to the Lord that foolish men think that the Gospel needs ‘sugar-coated’, as it were, by ‘enticements’ such as an offering of free coffee!
Just where in the Bible do you find Christ or His servants resorting to such inducements to ‘lure’ people in under the Word of God!
Where you find such methods, it is invariably true that you find a weakened message preached, with the topics that men do not like to hear removed from the preaching!
You will not hear a message such as that preached by John the Baptist in such gatherings.
“But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance,” Matthew 3:7-8.
Nor indeed, the message preached by Christ as it is recorded in Matthew 23.
Whenever men seek to add their ‘attractions’ to the Gospel message it always leads to ‘subtractions’ and consequently, less than “all the counsel of God” (Acts 20:27) is presented to the sinner.
That such is the inevitable outcome of such a tactic, you have but to look at the ecumenical denominations, where ‘coffee mornings’ etc, have been the norm for many years, to see this is so.
The ‘Gospel message’ that is preached within the apostasy, happily exists alongside the embracing of the errors of Romanism, the embracing of the vileness of sodomy and transgenderism and many other corruptions, such as the denial of the Bible’s teaching on the person of Christ and the means of salvation.
You, in your spiritual naivety, may not think that tactics such as the introduction of ‘coffee mornings etc’ could ever result in apostasy. That is because you have not examined, in the light of God’s Word, the state of the main denominations.
In like manner you have failed to examine my preaching in the light of Holy Scripture. You say, my ‘personal views . . . for the most part are not grounded in scripture.’
Perhaps you could show from the Bible how you came by this conclusion!
I would be very much interested to have your response, since I have spent many years seeking to preach God’s Word and not error. If you can truly show me, from Scripture, where I am not preaching the Word of God, I will immediately cease to do so!
Sincerely,
Ivan Foster
PS. I may well publish your email (without identifying you) and my reply on my website and any response to this email you may make.
As of today, (24/4/26) I have not received any reply.