70th Anniversary of the founding of the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster

Polishing brass on a sinking ship

Two headlines in local newspapers today brought to my mind a wonderful sermon title used by an old-time preacher. It was Dr J R Rice I believe, though I could be wrong! The title was ‘Polishing brass on a sinking ship.’

I believe that is just what the DUP is engaged in at present for Stormont and more regretfully, Northern Ireland, is sinking! Read more…

Biden Blames The Brits!!

Joe Biden, that superannuated buffoon of Irish lineage, whose election as President of the United States loudly declares the moral waning of that land, has opened his stupid mouth again to give proof of his bigoted ignorance!

Some of his comments, made at his first press conference since his inauguration back in January (it does take him awhile to get ready to speak), have been reported in the press under the headline: “US President Joe Biden has blamed ‘the Brits’ for leaving his great grandfather with no other option but to leave Ireland.”

Just who he means by ‘Brits’ it would be hard to say. Did he mean the British government or was he referring to the Protestant people of Ireland for that is the term long used of them by Sinn Fein/IRA and their fellows? But if he was referring to that which was the cause of his great grandfather’s emigration to the USA, then really he is speaking of the ‘potato blight’!

The repeated failure of the potato crop brought famine to Ireland and many, both Roman Catholic and Protestant, left for America because of that. Read more…

The thinking and logic of the Christian who justifies taking a covid vaccine developed using cells from an aborted baby!

“Then gathered the chief priests and the Pharisees a council, and said, What do we? for this man doeth many miracles. If we let him thus alone, all men will believe on him: and the Romans shall come and take away both our place and nation. And one of them, named Caiaphas, being the high priest that same year, said unto them, Ye know nothing at all, Nor consider that it is expedient for us, that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not,” John 11:47-50.

I read these verses today as part of my daily reading – (I follow the Robert Murray McCheyne Bible reading calendar). As I read them I heard echoes of the logic I have observed in the arguments put forth by Christians who wrongly justify the receiving of Covid vaccines which were developed through the use of cells from an aborted baby back in the 1970s.

I know that many have decided that the cells used, originating from an abortion some 50 years ago, have because of the passage of time, ceased to really have any relationship with that murdered unborn baby.

Just a few days ago I discovered the truth about this in a response to a question that I had posed to one qualified to answer my question. My question was: Is the DNA of the aborted baby and the DNA of the cells used in the production of the most common Covid vaccines presently on offer by our NHS, one and the same? Read more…

Westminster decides to have the NI Secretary of State direct the N.I. Minister of Health to commission unlimited abortion services

A crisis is looming which will test the mettle of every professing Christian in Stormont.

The Westminster government is taking on the role of a dictator and emulating China in its imposing of immoral laws upon us here in what to many is an unlawful action.

Abortion: DUP criticises Westminster intervention

Statement by TUV leader Jim Allister

Rev. Foster’s letter to NI Secretary of State regarding Westminster’s plan to impose unlimited abortion on Northern Ireland

Dear Sir,

Doubtless others will take up the issue of the lawfulness or otherwise of you acting as Westminster would have you act on this matter.

I wish to state that which is much more clearly defined than man’s laws on this subject. I refer to what the Lord says about abortion. Aborting of the unborn is murder in God’s eyes. Read more…

Contact the Secretary of State here.

Should Christians accept vaccines which used fetal cell lines?

The video is very informative in many ways and we commend it to our readers. I know nothing of the individuals taking part other than the information given and I therefore do not offer a wholesale endorsement of them.

One participant, Dave Brennan opposes the use of vaccines manufactured/tested by the use of cell-lines and I believe that his arguments are very sound.

The other participant, Professor John Wyatt, who is a professing Christian but who believes that it is morally acceptable to take the vaccine, irrespective of the fact that it was developed from the cells of an aborted baby.

I find his arguments morally flawed.

Basically he says that for the greater good it is acceptable to do wrong! Old Dr Bob Jones, founder of Bob Jones University, once said: “It is never right to do wrong to do right!!”

If his view is acceptable, it was wrong of the martyrs to have chosen death rather than compromise with evil. Furthermore, Peter was correct when he chided with the Lord for going up to Jerusalem where the Saviour had said “he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day,” Matthew 16:21.

Better it would have been, Peter was saying, if Christ should avoid death and continue to do good!

However, death was the Father’s will for Christ.

Professor Wyatt used as support for his position the fact that Christ went to the home of Zacchaeus, a man who was a collaborator with the oppressive Roman Empire, an extortioner and thief, and partook of his food!

This is a very sad show of ignorance of God’s Word. The gospel record shows us that Zacchaeus was a ‘saved’ man when Christ went into his home and also, he had repented of his corrupt ways and promised to repay monies unlawfully obtained. “And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up, and saw him, and said unto him, Zacchaeus, make haste, and come down; for to day I must abide at thy house. And he made haste, and came down, and received him joyfully. And when they saw it, they all murmured, saying, That he was gone to be guest with a man that is a sinner. And Zacchaeus stood, and said unto the Lord; Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken any thing from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold. And Jesus said unto him, This day is salvation come to this house, forsomuch as he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost,” Luke 19:5-10.

I feel the video, despite its ‘wordiness’, something inevitable in debate, sets forth the issues clearly.

Again no refutal of our claim about the Covid vaccine

I return to a topic that I have written about many times of late. It is my response to a prominent article in one of the main daily newspapers in the UK. The whole response of those in authority has been less than honest! They have resorted to evasiveness and prevarication. That is indication enough of the validity of our objections if the evidence we have already presented was deemed insufficient! In his article, this ‘doctor’ deals with what he terms the ‘vaccine myths’. Below is an extract in which he gives the list of myths he deals with.

Why I went a bit wild after my Covid jab: Dr. Michael Mosley says he forgot the rules in his excitement… but whatever you do, don’t be put off by the vaccine myths – they’re not true

By Dr Michael Mosley for the Daily Mail

❝For the 20 per cent in the UK who aren’t sure, here are some of the common myths I’ve come across — and why I think you shouldn’t be worried . . .

Myth 1: The vaccine will give you Covid.

Myth 2: The vaccine will alter your DNA.

Myth 3: The vaccine will make you sterile.

Myth 4: Covid-19 is no big deal for the young.

Myth 5: The jabs were developed too quickly.❞

This ‘expert’ makes no mention of the objection that many, like myself, have raised against the most common vaccines, presently proffered by the NHS — that they were developed from or tested by, or both, with the use of foetal material! That view has been blithely ‘classified’ as a myth but I have yet to see any denial that what is said about the use of foetal material is true! This ‘speaking out of the side of the mouth’ is to be utterly denounced and makes one deeply suspicious of the whole government immunisation programme! As already stated, the response is riddled with prevarication and evasiveness!

The voice of the devil heard in Westminster

“Act now on LGBT+ conversion therapy, ministers urged”Thus reads a BBC News headline and so another chapter in the degradation of the United Kingdom and its rejection of God’s Word advances!

In the light of Mark 3:14-15, which reads: “And he ordained twelve, that they should be with him, and that he might send them forth to preach, and to have power to heal sicknesses, and to cast out devils,” I believe that the Lord Jesus would still have His servants oppose the devil as much as in them lies. For that reason we pen this article.

What is being campaigned for by the enemies of the gospel in the LGBT camp, has rightly been opposed by Rev Gordon Dane. In a statement he issued as Convenor of the Government and Morals Committee of the Free Presbyterian Presbytery, he said: “There are many questionable things that have gone under the banner of “conversion therapy” but what should concern us is that this debate is probably going to be used as a vehicle to attempt to ban the legitimate preaching of the gospel and the call that men repent and be converted. There could be a move to count praying with someone who has asked for prayer on these matters as “conversion therapy”. It is certainly the agenda of many in the LGBT lobby to confuse Christian conversion with “conversion therapy””. Read more…

Someone is telling lies!!

Leo Varadkar left red faced after wrongly claiming Sinn Fein has no Protestant TDs

The colour of Leo Varadkar’s face is of no concern of mine but in actual fact he was correct in what he said, even though he was contradicted by a professedly ‘Protestant’ Sinn Feiner, Violet-Anne Wynne.

The Belfast Newsletter article states that Varadkar said of Sinn Fein: “They are sectarian, still very anti-British and they have no Protestant TDs, MLAs and Senators,” he added.

Sinn Fein TD and Protestant, Violet-Anne Wynne, responded immediately. Read more…

Loudly saying it . . . and later meekly being snivelingly sorry!!

There have been a number of news items featuring what are termed ‘prominent’ people, who have stated something they profess to believe to be true and then when challenged on social media, apologise most profusely, giving the impression that they never really believed what it was they said and are most sorry for ever saying it!

I think of the Ballymena councillor whose comments were thus headlined in a newspaper last year. “Coronavirus is God’s judgement for legalising abortion and same-sex marriage, DUP councillor claims.” Almost in the next breath he seems to have changed his mind for the matter was very soon given a new headline! “DUP councillor sorry after saying coronavirus pandemic on (sic) ‘God’s judgment’ for legalising abortion.” Read more…

The First Word After A Long Silence

I am sending out this article on this the first day back for Free Presbyterians from a Covid lockdown which started back on 10th January. See Newsletter report.

In Kilskeery, we had a very good morning meeting with Mr Samuel Fitton, a second-year Theological student, preaching on the text, Judges 21:25, “In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes.”

This article is the result of my wife and I considering and talking yesterday morning about the restart of the services.

I trust that it is a benefit and blessing to you all. Read more…

How Long Until They Ban The Bible??

The following is an extract from an article which appeared in yesterday’s ‘Daily Mail’. I felt that I had to comment on it because the publicity given to this Jewish mother’s complaint is an indication of the gross ignorance of the Bible that there is in this so-called ‘Christian land’!

A generation ago there would not have been given such prominence to such a foolish allegation as that made by this lady and her friends and supporters, nor would the stupid statements, made by the author of the articles the lady is railing against, have been given space in a newspaper.

Of course the Jewish nation is guilty of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ!

That is not an anti-Semitic statement but a doctrine of the Bible, the inspirited Word of God.

The guilt of the Jewish people is a fact declared by Heaven and the consequences of it divinely manifested throughout the intervening years! Read more…

Feotal material is used in vaccine production!!

Below is a statement, issued in the USA by Roman Catholic clerics in St. Louis and New Orleans which is of great interest to all concerned about the nature of the vaccines commonly offered by the NHS.

It deals with the latest vaccine that has become available from the company, ‘Johnson & Johnson’.

The statement contains a quote from that company, and it reads: ”While not disputing the church officials’ contention that an abortion-derived cell line is used in the production, Johnson & Johnson issued a statement Tuesday stressing that there is no fetal tissue in its vaccine.”

That final phrase, ”there is no fetal tissue in its vaccine”, is often stated by those who seek to refute our position on this matter. At NO TIME have I stated that foetal material is CONTAINED in the final product.

This is mere deviousness on their part as an attempt to mislead the public and appear to contradict what I and others are alleging! Read more…

Coronavirus: False vaccine claims debunked

I sent a link to the above BBC news article to a local newspaper Editor who has apparently avoided printing any of my comments which allege that the abortion of babies is endorsed and sanctioned by the manufacturers of the most common of the Coronavirus vaccines presently offered by the NHS.

The BBC article is supposed to ‘debunk’ the reasons why some, especially Bible Christians, reject the vaccine BUT it in fact confirms what we have been saying for quite some time.

The BBC says that foetal material was used in the manufacture/testing of vaccines but nothing of that material is contained in the final product, though it does surround the admission with somewhat mystifying ‘gobbledygook’!!

However, the central acknowledgement of the use of foetal material  is exactly what we have repeatedly said on The Burning Bush website!!

The removing all elements of foetal material from the final product does not absolve or remit the pharmaceutical companies from the awful crime of being involved in that morally dreadful process whereby the abortion of the unborn is sanitised and legitimised and made to appear as an acceptable means of benefitting mankind.

I will stress again that we are not against the use of vaccines which are ethically produced nor do we agree with the foolish notions of some who allege that micro-chips etc are in the vaccines. Those who do are mere ‘loonies’ belonging to that growing ‘conspiracy theory’ fatuous bunch led by the likes of Piers Corbyn and David Icke.

We protest against the slaughter of the ‘unborn’ which is carried out now by governments world-wide and that for the feeblest of reasons put forth by a society which considers the merest excuse sufficient grounds for the murder of an unborn child.

We cannot procure our own physical wellbeing by murder. Such will endanger our spiritual wellbeing and ensure our condemnation!

The Dup — Slow Learners!

I send out this BBC report as evidence of how slow the DUP is to learn the lesson that when Dr Ian Paisley and Peter Robinson led them into power-sharing with Sinn Fein/IRA back in 2007, they entered self-imposed submission and subjection to the political purposes of violent Irish Republicanism!

Time and again we all have witnessed the humiliation and thwarting of the DUP’s feeble attempts to wriggle out from this bondage. All have ended in failure.

Mr Lyons was not in the 2007 Assembly but he is learning the limits of the ‘freedom’ he has under power-sharing with the traditional enemies of Ulster. “Slow learners” is perhaps too polite a title to place upon the DUPers!!

The latest debacle over the Larne port (report below) and the pathetic attempt by the DUP to appear to be doing something about the situation whereby Northern Ireland is effectively excluded from the rest of the UK as a result of their half-witted co-operation with Boris Johnson in the erecting of the ‘NI Protocol’.

Such follies will achieve nothing. Rather it only gives Sinn Fein/IRA yet another opportunity to humiliate, chastise and expose them as incompetent clowns!! Read more…

How I Found Peace in Israel

by Antony Simon

I was born in Manchester (England) of Jewish parents and so attended Jewish schools where I learned about God from an early age. I was taught that He was omnipresent (everywhere). Jonah thought he could escape from God but found that it was impossible. The Psalmist says, ‘If I ascend into heaven, Thou art there; if I make my bed in hell, behold, Thou art there’ (Psalm 139:8). God is also holy and He hates sin, but I did not know this.

We celebrated all the festivals, such as Passover, the Day of Atonement, etc. We were going along with everything but the question I repeatedly asked myself was ‘Where is God?’ God says ‘Forasmuch as this people draw near with their mouth, and with their lips do honour Me, but have removed their heart far from Me, and their fear toward Me is taught by the precept of men’ (Isaiah 29: 13).  Read more…

The Penultimate Judgment

“And the LORD said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, even darkness which may be felt,“ Exodus 10:21

I read this verse in my reading on Saturday morning past. I follow ‘Robert Murray M‘Cheyne’s Bible Reading Calendar’.

As I read it, certain matters were immediately suggested to me. As with all Holy Scripture, there is prophetic teaching to be observed. The verse is set in the midst of that time when the terrible period of Israel’s trial under the cruelty of Pharaoh is coming to an end. God is intervening in answer to the cries of His people as Exodus 2:23-25 tells us. “And it came to pass in process of time, that the king of Egypt died: and the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up unto God by reason of the bondage. And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God had respect unto them.” Read more…

Sorry Your Majesty, but you are very wrong!

I could not ignore this headline!! The Queen says Covid vaccine hesitant people ‘ought to think about others rather than themselves’

I know that HM The Queen, does not initiate such ‘interventions’, but rather they are engineered by he ‘entourage of government advisors’.

Nevertheless, it is rather disappointing that she should have been so foolish as to issue this statement. There are those, BECAUSE they are thinking of others, refuse the vaccines presently offered by her government. They are thinking of the aborted unborn child whose cells were used in the manufacturing/testing of the vaccine.

As far as I am concerned, to take the vaccine constitutes an acceptance of abortion and the use of foetal material by pharmaceutical companies. That I can never do.

All mankind is required to look beyond today and tomorrow when considering such issues. All are required to bear in mind that day that Satan and his minions would have all to forget – the day mentioned many times in God’s Word: “But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned,” Matthew 12:36-37.

How much better our lives would be if we ALL were to live in the light and knowledge of that ‘day of judgment’!

Letter to the Queen

A prophetically interesting event

A supporter of The Burning Bush witness sent me the following link to a ‘Reuters’ report. Pope’s visit to Iraqi Ziggurat to bring together several faiths – and hopefully lure more visitors.

For those who know that the Bible teaches the rise of the ancient city of Babylon and the role that region will play in the closing years of this age when the final Antichrist will centre his empire there, this link to a report of a planned visit by the pope to that area will be of great interest.

A ‘Ziggurat’ is basically what the ancient ’Tower of Babel’ was (Genesis 11:1-9). The spirit of rebellion recorded in Genesis 11 is what is emerging all around today and will finally ‘blossom’ into the full-blown ‘Antichristianity’ prophesied in the book of the Revelation and throughout the Bible.

Do have a look at the Sovereign Grace Advent Tesimony book shop for literature on the subject. Click on any author’s name for a list of articles/book written by that author.

Not telling the truth!

Since sending out my article – “Why is the FPC silent . . . .”, it has become evident that some FPs believe that I am not speaking the truth on this matter and that I am wrong when I say that the most common vaccines presently being offered by the NHS are derived from the cells of an aborted baby.

Sadly, even the pope acknowledges the truth of the origin of the vaccines which some Free Presbyterians seem happy to deny.
The pope, in his own ‘infallible’ way,  dismisses all guilt in availing oneself of that which came about as the result of the murder of an unborn baby. See – Covid: Vatican says coronavirus vaccines ‘morally acceptable’ 

It appears some Christians have adopted a different way of absolving themselves from all guilt, though one equally as morally reprehensible – they simply deny the truth of this matter and ‘shoot the messenger’ (1 Kings 22:24-28)!

Another indication of how the truth of God is dismissed today and the ’normalising’ of utter error is given in a report in today’s ‘Belfast Telegraph’. A headline reads: “Police probe after man delivers ‘hate speech’ on City Hall’s steps”. The story continues: “Belfast City Council is investigating how a man was able to deliver a hate speech at City Hall, it has emerged. The preacher provoked fury by branding abortion “murder” and homosexuality “sin” in God’s eyes, using the steps in front of the iconic building in the city centre as a podium. The PSNI is also probing the matter.”

I would say that the police will show greater ‘efficiency’ in this investigation than they did when looking into Sinn Fein/IRA’s defiance of ‘Covid regulations’ at the funeral of the late IRA man, Bobby Storey. That, it would appear,  took some 5-6 months before it even got underway and more time before any decision was arrived at! The last news report on the matter that I can find was back in mid-December last year. I do not know where the matter stands at present. But I am sure that we can safely leave it in the hands of the ‘powers that be’ to see that Stormont ‘boat is not rocked in the least by any honest or properly lawful conclusions!!!!

It is to be noted that to repeat the Bible’s condemnation of sodomy and abortion is now deemed a ‘hate speech’ and therefore a ‘hate crime’!

Was there ever a more clear demonstration of Ulster’s rejection of the Bible than the language employed by this newspaper in its report of what would have been the normal content of a sermon on this subject in the vast majority of pulpits but a short time ago?

Why is the Free Presbyterian Church silent on the matter of the use of cells from an aborted baby in the preparation of the vaccines currently being urged upon our members??

“So thou, O son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel; therefore thou shalt hear the word at my mouth, and warn them from me,” Ezekiel 33:7.

I will start by apologising to the editors of any of our church magazines who may have carried a warning about the vaccines offered in their publications and any minister who has likewise publicly spoken out against them.

I have not read or heard any such warnings but I could be mistaken as are those whom I have asked if they are acquainted with any such warnings issued in print or in sermon.

If, as I believe, there has been no denomination-wide warning issued to our people, that is a most distressing matter for anyone nurtured up in the message God gave the Free Presbyterian Church to proclaim back at its beginning and which was faithfully maintained for many years. It was raised to ’sound an alarm’ against the errors and the compromises of the day. The FPC was to be a 20th century Ezekiel! Read more…

Signs of the approaching harvest

“And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to him that sat on the cloud, Thrust in thy sickle, and reap: for the time is come for thee to reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe,” Revelation 14:15.

My mind turned to this verse when I recently saw the increasing number of statements from government sources regarding ‘vaccination passports’. One such headline said: “Covid: Vaccine passport talks ongoing with foreign nations as hopes rise for domestic holidays”.

These headlines give us some idea just where society is heading. Business men are already trying to introduce it for new employees. “UK companies look to make Covid-19 vaccinations mandatory”. Read more…

A worthwhile petition to support

I received notice of the following petition which I would urge you all who live in the UK to consider signing as soon as possible and praying that there might be a sympathetic response from the government to it.

PETITION: The UK Government must offer ethical Covid-19 vaccines.

Click here to sign. I trust you will support this call.

A ‘damp squib’ financed by greed!

So another week begins and that with the ‘blaring trumpets’ of another example of the blind stupidity of a people misled and deceived as this Belfast Newsletter article demonstrates.

It is a case of what the Saviour said, all over again: “Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch,” Matthew 15:14.

It was the businessmen of Ulster largely who campaigned for ’no border’ between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, despite the existence of an international border there already. They did not want any difficulties for them trading their goods with the Irish Republic, which was in the EU, and themselves once Brexit happened and the UK left the EU!

Now it appears that some, at least, of these same businessmen, still acting behind the scenes, ‘cloak-and-dagger like’, are alarmed at the ’new border’ that they by their earlier complaining helped to erect between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK. The ’new border’ means that goods going to and from one part of the UK must be treated as goods going to and from a foreign country! Read more…

DUP proposes to change NI abortion law

The news of the attempt by the DUP to roll back the abortion law that was imposed upon us here in Northern Ireland by Westminster MPs in 2019 is to be welcomed.

I would, however, that it was an attempt to ban abortion altogether. As it is, ‘fatal fetal abnormalities’ are to be exempt from this proposed new law.

Of course, it is a fallible human being who declares that a woman is carrying a child with ‘fatal fetal abnormalities’! Doctors may and have got the matter wrong and babies that did not suffer ‘fatal fetal abnormalities’ have been aborted.

Better it would be surely if the child was carried to termination and born naturally, as long as the life of the mother was not threatened, and then the duration of the little one’s life be decided by the Lord, ’the Giver of life’.

Job rightly said: “The LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD,” Job 1:21. Read more…

A bumbling but dangerous fool!

At the risk of wearying you I send out this news report from the Belfast Live news website (February 12th, 2021) which I must say rejoiced my heart.

Like many I have squirmed in vexation to near ‘bursting point’ as I have heard the various reports on the incident referred to in this item.

Here in Ulster, we have had some ‘dodos’ hold the office of Chief Constable Like everything else in our sinking society, things sank really low when this man was appointed.

He came here after a far from illustrious time in England and upon his arrival he has maintained his aforesaid record.

Simon Byrne is an English man with little or no understanding of the situation here in Ulster and it is clear that he cares little about anything other than ‘keeping in’ with those, Sinn Fein/IRA, most likely to challenge his authority! Read more…

Blindness that blights society

I have copied in full an article from the Belfast Telegraph (February 11th, 2021) regarding the murder by ‘dissident republicans’ of a man widely known as a gangster in Belfast.

A case is being taken against the police by his family, alleging that the police are to blame for not warning him of their suspicions that he was in danger from ‘dissident IRA gunmen’!

As the headline states, the family are accusing the police of failing to prevent his murder. Upon reading the headline I immediately thought that there was one person more guilty than any of failure in preventing this murder. Jim Donegan himself!!!!

Had he not been involved in the murky world of crime it is more than likely he would not have been a target.

The court case highlights the perverted thinking of society today. No one takes any responsibility for the dire consequences that their own folly brings upon them. Read more…

IRA murders 5 BBC workers near Kilskeery

Many horrific murders have taken place over the last 50 years but for some of us of the older generation who live in the neighbourhood of Kilskeery, one of the earliest atrocities lives on in our memories.

It took place 50 years ago yesterday, just 5 miles from Kilskeery on the top of Brougher Mountain, clearly seen by all living in and around Kilskeery.

On 9 February 1971, five men working for the BBC were killed by an IRA landmine as they drove up a mountain to repair a transmitter.It happened on Brougher Mountain on the border between Fermanagh and Tyrone.

It is believed the booby-trap device at the road was meant

for an Army patrol and was triggered by a tripwire.

The Impartial Reporter newspaper called it “the most savage and callous outrage ever committed by terrorists in either County Fermanagh or Tyrone”.

Local journalist Mervyn Dane described “a saddening, grim scene on which the afternoon sun shone down and there was the acrid pungent smell of burning and explosives hanging over all”.

Time has exposed the falsehood of the ecumenical ‘gospel’

Below is my response to an article in Saturday’s (February 6th) edition of the Belfast Newsletter.

It more or less was an honouring of the ‘words’ of a leading Ecumenist from some 40 years ago. I felt that the ‘proof of the puddings’ cooked up by ecumenical chefs was all around us and that the newspaper had missed that fact by an Irish mile!

How can intelligent people fail to see the utter worthlessness, the eternal costliness, of the preaching of the false prophets of today’s liberal and apostate age?

In the Belfast Newsletter of Saturday 6th February 2021, as part of a series of articles from its archives entitled Stepping Back In Time, there was a report of a Church of Ireland Bishop’s address at his ordination as Bishop of Connor in Lisburn Cathedral. Read more…

Liars and their lies exposed!

There are two very informative articles available on the internet this morning, Saturday Feb 6th.

One is a BBC NI report on the ‘Irish Sea border’ which has been denied by our Secretary of State and which rather belatedly, the DUP leadership have woken up to!

The other is in the Belfast Newsletter and highlights the utter deceitfulness of our Secretary of State, Brandon Lewis! Sadly, it also shows the utter incompetence of our Unionist leaders. Despite the evidence of what was happening they went along with the fraud until they finally tripped over it and fell on their faces into the pit Westminster had dug!

That tends to waken up the most obtuse sleepwalker!! Read more…

The evil harvest of power sharing

The following news story in the Belfast Newsletter of Feb 5th highlights how that Unionists entering a power-sharing deal with Sinn Fein/IRA has sanitised those guilty of the most brutal acts of terrorism and made them acceptable as honoured and respected citizens in today’s Ulster.

Every warning that was issued to Dr Ian Paisley and the DUP back in 2006/7, regarding the step they were contemplating, has been justified and more in the years that have followed their utter folly, spurred by greed for political power.

It is to the shame of the DUP that such a rascal as Paul Kavanagh should now be ‘legitimately’ appointed to a role of authority in the educating of today’s youth. Such is the society that ‘power-sharing’ with terrorism has created!

Ulster has an old saying: “If you lie down with the dogs you will rise with the fleas!” Today, there is a plague of ‘fleas’ in our land thanks to the DUP lying down with the dogs of Irish Republican terrorism! Read more…

UK signs deal for 50million doses of CureVac Covid vaccine

The following is taken from a Daily Mail news article published on Feb 5th.

“The UK today rubber-stamped a deal for 50million doses of tweaked coronavirus vaccines, as it steps up efforts to fight off jab-resistant variants. Newly-emerged strains have sparked concerns across the world, after tests revealed some may be able to dodge immunity triggered by the current crop of vaccines. But the deal signed between No10 and German biotech firm CureVac today seeks to bolster the UK’s arsenal against these emerging threats, and keep the nation one step ahead of the virus.”

‘CureVac’ is one the few companies which I understand did not use foetal tissue in any stage of its developing the vaccine.

If this true, then this is good news for Christians concerned about using the vaccines presently offer by the NHS.

“Sold To Be Destroyed“

I have just put together these thoughts regarding the ‘Northern Ireland Protocol’ controversy.

For those of you who live outside of Northern Ireland, (and maybe some living within it) let me briefly explain that the issue is all about the arrangements which the UK Government made with the EU whereby Northern Ireland would be treated as no longer an economic part of the UK but would be dealt with as being still part of the EU!
All this was done under the banner: “All of the uk out of the EU’!

It was a deception as great as is to be found anywhere in the annals of the history of the United Kingdom! Read more…

I turned down the present covid vaccine

I thought that I would share with you this little bit of information. I trust that it proves helpful in the midst of the welter of confusion and the lack of any real guidance regarding the Covid-19 vaccines and the use of foetal tissue in the manufacture and/or testing of some of them. See my earlier article for details.

I had a phone call from my local doctors’ clinic offering me the Covid jab. I explained to the nurse my reasons for rejecting the three vaccines presently being used but indicated that I thought that soon non-foetal tissue jabs would be available and if that happens I may seek vaccination.

I explained that I could not seek to safeguard my health by a means that involved the abortion of an unborn child! She was very polite and sympathetic and said that she would enter my comments on my records and that should I wish a vaccination later I had but to ask.

I am thankful that I live in a part of the United Kingdom where such views as mine are treated with sympathy and respect. I am sure in other parts of the UK, such views would provoke abuse and ridicule, even from medical staff!

I noticed an interesting article in today’s “Daily Mirror” which indicates that two vaccine manufacturers which did not make use of foetal tissue when producing their product –  GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and Sanofi Pasteur and Valneva – are likely to be available to the British public soon.

When that happens, I (classified as ‘vulnerable’) will likely seek vaccination.

Ready and waiting

“For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing,” 2 Timothy 4:6-8.

‘Readiness’ to depart this life is something that, in a general sense, true Christians would gladly acknowledge.

However, few live with any real and daily awareness of that event drawing near.

That ought not to be! Read more…

The betrayal continues

The following article taken from the BBC Northern Ireland news site, highlights the betrayal of Northern Ireland’s Unionists by the deceitful, lying British Government.

The British Army does not now have the freedom to move between Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales) and Northern Ireland. If anything underscores the treacherous impact of the ‘Brexit’ arrangement our British Government made with the EU, in order to placate the Irish Government, Sinn Fein and the stupidity of the DUP when it called, at the behest of money-grabbing merchants, for a ’soft border’, this is it!

Christians need to recognise the gradual shifting of our Province out of the United Kingdom into a United Ireland.
As such, it is a fulfilment of prophecy. Neither Scotland nor the whole of Ireland were part of the old Roman Empire which will, by God’s decree, form the territory of the future Antichristian empire.

Christian – God is on the throne! “…for every purpose of the LORD shall be performed against Babylon, to make the land of Babylon a desolation without an inhabitant,” Jeremiah 51:29.

• Brexit: NI Protocol ‘obstructs free movement of military’
• See also our article: “Northern Ireland – effectively dispelled from the UK!‘

Ian Paisley criticised over ‘Catholic IRA’ comment

(UTV news report) A DUP MP has faced criticism from parliamentary counterparts after linking the IRA with Catholicism.

Ian Paisley’s reference to the sectarian murder campaign by the “Catholic IRA” drew critical responses from fellow members of the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee.
Mr Paisley was questioning Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis on legacy issues and was asking him if he was going to push the Irish Government to do more to secure justice for IRA killings in border areas during the Troubles.

“Today is Holocaust Memorial Day where we remember victims of Holocaust and also other genocide around the world and in Northern Ireland of course we remember the border campaign and the genocide of sectarian murder where the IRA, the Catholic IRA, murdered Protestants at the border,” said North Antrim MP Mr Paisley. Read more…

Abortion and the new vaccine for Covid-19.

Here is a link to an article on the issue of the use of tissue from aborted babies in the process of manufacturing the Covid-19 vaccine by the leading pharmaceutical companies, presently supplying the UK with the vaccine.

It is written by Dr John Piper, pastor of a Baptist Church in the USA. Sadly, while agreeing with what he writes on this matter, I cannot endorse the general stance of him on most issues. He is what is termed a ’New Calvinist’. As such, he is very much NOT a Biblical Calvinist of the old school. His theology is of the modern kind, embracing elements of ecumenism, new-evangelicalism etc.

(Here is a critique of his views, taken from the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland magazine)

I issued a warning regarding the man’s spiritual folly back in 2013. Here is a link to that article.

Having said all that, what he says regarding the Covid-19 vaccine is correct and should be noted by Christians.

Republican defiance and disregard for others!

On the day that it was announced that another 16 people had died from Covid-19, pictures have emerged of an IRA funeral in Londonderry where hundreds defied the pandemic regulations and assembled and marched en mass to the burial of Eamon McCourt, 62, who reportedly died with Covid-19 and was buried yesterday. McCourt is believed to have shot and killed one of his own compatriots.

The BBC, The Belfast Newsletter, Ulster Television News and other news sites carried pictures of the funeral and the comments of those who condemned republicans, including members of Sinn Fein, one of the parties at Stormont which brought in the regulations so blatantly defied!

The police have announced an investigation but since we are still waiting for them to act in the wake of the much more blatant violation of the Covid funeral regulations last August which involved Sinn Fein leaders Mary Lou McDonald and Michele O’Neill, along with other notorious figureheads from the days of IRA terror and murder, we do not hold out much hope of action.

It is one thing to impose heavy fines on ‘party goers’ but a very different thing to bring Sinn Fein members to justice!

• Late IRA man Eamonn McCourt ‘killed one of his own comrades by mistake’
• Covid-19: ‘Two or three’ Sinn Féin councillors at republican funeral
• Large crowds at republican funeral ‘abandoned Covid-19 duty to our community’ says Colum Eastwood (SDLP leader and MP)
• Police probe after crowds gather at republican funeral

No friend of Ulster!

The headline on today’s “BBC Northern Ireland” news site says it all!! Michelle O’Neill: Joe Biden ‘will be a good friend to us’

Biden will be no friend of Ulster. Of that we can be sure. O’Neill’s assertion is proof enough of that fact!This supporter of all things ‘Irish Republican’, who once responded to a

BBC reporter’s request for a quick word by retorting that he was Irish to the BBC’s New York correspondent Nick Bryant. Bryant requested ‘a quick word for the BBC’.  “The BBC?” Biden retorted: “I’m Irish.”

The fact that such a response immediately sprang to his lips is an indication of what lies at the very surface of this man’s feelings toward all things British. Smiles cannot disguise his animosity! Read more…

The utter apostasy of the Church of Ireland

The substance of this article was drawn to my attention by an anonymous letter received yesterday. I felt that its contents were worth examining and enlarging upon.
Hence this article. What an unbelievably evil time we live in!

The measure of a person’s spirituality may often be gauged by what it is they tolerate!

Lot, the nephew of Abraham, is deemed a miserable backslider who would not even be deemed that, were it not for what is written of God in 2 Peter 2:7, where it is stated regarding him: “ . . . . just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked.” Here he is called ‘just Lot’ or ‘justified’ Lot. A man who, despited his shameful backsliding, was ‘justified by his (Christ’s) blood,’ Romans 5:9. Proof of his regeneration is seen in that he was “vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked.” The word means ‘to be afflicted, to suffer’. The word is translated “oppressed” in Acts 7:24. This is the only other place the Greek word kataponeo appears in the New Testament. Read more…

“The Testimony of Abraham” – a Study in Prophesy

No place for dissent

In John 6:15 we read: “When Jesus therefore perceived that they would come and take him by force, to make him a king, he departed again into a mountain himself alone.”

The Lord Jesus was very much aware of the thoughts of men and acted so as to deter their ill-advised plans. We may learn from Him and, as much as in us is, be acquainted with the thoughts of men and act accordingly.

I was made to think along these lines when I noticed the headline I quote in the following article. I sincerely trust you find these few thoughts helpful.

“And he (the False Prophet) causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: and that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name,” Revelation 13:16-17. Read more…

Martin McGuinness a ruthless torturer who personally shot victims

There was nothing ‘new’ about McGuinness in his latter days, despite the efforts of the DUP to whitewash him in order to justify their entering into a ‘power-sharing’ arrangement with the terrorist organisation, Sinn Fein/IRA, that he led.

To the end of his days he was an unapologetic IRA terrorist and was buried as such!

The ‘Irish’ wording declares him to have been buried as an IRA ‘volunteer’! The word Oglach is Irish for ‘volunteer’ while Oglaigh na hEireaan means ‘Volunteers of Ireland’, the name the IRA called itself. Read more…

The old paths

“Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein,” Jeremiah 6:16.

I sent this verse to some friends earlier today as we were recalling former times.

Later I found my heart pondering just what the verse said and decided to share with you the following few thoughts. I trust that you find them helpful.

These words were uttered by Jeremiah when the populace, under the guidance of false prophets, were suffering the consequences of their folly. These evil prophets offered what appeared to be a good way but it brought nothing but a terrible harvest.

“They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace,” Verse 14. Read more…

His hand is not removed from off the nations

I am pressed in my spirit to send out this article.

The nation is astir again as an even more severe lockdown is imposed in England, Scotland and Wales, and here in Northern Ireland we await similar restrictions to be imposed. Yet in truth, there is no real understanding of what is taking place. There is no seeing that the Lord is at work.
As long as that pertains, there CAN be no easing of the present distress.

Please consider the few thoughts we have put together.

“ . . . His hand is not removed from you,” 1 Samuel 6:3.

The Covid-19 virus is proving to be more than merely similar to the ‘common ‘flu’ as some, even Christians, would have us all to believe! Read more…

Runaways, Rebels, Redemption and Revival blessing

This recently published book by Mrs. Ann Foster is now available for download as a PDF.

Why is it that men are so prone to run away from God? One has only to read the Bible to see the great and continual hostility of man to God and His Word.

We need look no further than our own hearts to discover a natural hostility to Christ and the Gospel. Believers must acknowledge to a man that we all held out, some for longer than others, against the strivings of the Holy Spirit until at last He overcame and won our hearts.

What is the reason for man’s deep inborn hostility to God, to His Word and to His Son that fills the hearts and imbues the actions of every human being, born of natural generation into this world? We must trace it to its source, the sin of our first parents, Adam and Eve. There we find the wellspring, the fountainhead of the iniquity of man and his aggressive antagonism to ‘all that is called God, or that is worshipped’ (2 Thess. 2:4). That antagonism will, of course, reach its fulness and climax in the person of the Antichrist. (Excerpt from the Introduction).

Northern Ireland – effectively dispelled from the UK!

Here is a most important article, based upon a speech in the Stormont Assembly by Mr. Jim Allister, TUV leader, on Wednesday 30th December, 2020.

It brings out the betrayal of our heritage of which the DUP are guilty by their nefarious kowtowing to Boris Johnston and their surrender of a proper establishing of the border between Northern Ireland and the EU along the legal and historic border separating Northern Ireland from the Irish Republic.

They joined with republicans in not wanting a ‘hard border’ and this at the behest of greedy businessmen who baulked at the possibility of increased expenses which the establishing of the legitimate border might mean. Added to this, the DUP supported the cries of the Irish republicans against an establishing of the traditional border as the line of demarkation because it would set back their plans to remove that border and thus further their aim of a United Ireland. Read more…

This is the Finger of God

An article from the pen of J C Ryle, the first Protestant Bishop of Liverpool, at the time of an outbreak of a cattle plague in England in 1865. It makes timely and interesting reading in the light of the Coronavirus plague and provides us with much godly counsel.

Look at the words which form the title of this article, and consider them well. They were spoken by heathen men more than three thousand years ago. They fell from the lips of Egyptian magicians when one of the famous plagues came on the land of Egypt. Then the magicians said unto Pharaoh, This is the finger of God: and Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he hearkened not unto them; as the LORD had said, Exodus 8:19.

It would be well if Englishmen were as wise as these Egyptians. There is an evil amongst us that demands our serious attention. It forces itself on our notice, whether we like it or not. It has seized the nation by the throat, and will have a hearing. That evil is the cattle plague. Read more…

Covid-19 vaccination

I am re-issuing the two articles below, first mounted at the beginning of December, highlighting the use of foetal tissue in the development and testing of the vaccines being issued by our Government at present.This surely must be of particular concern to Christians.

The second article,“Some facts about Covid-19 vaccines and foetal tissue” is very helpful in the present controversy. The short article is produced by a ‘Pro-Life, anti-abortion’ organisation called: NI Voiceless. They say of themselves: ‘we are people of all religious convictions and none.’ I share it with you for I know that Christians are most anxious to obtain facts about the manufacture and make-up of the ‘vaccines’ that will soon be offered to them.  I think that this article may be a help. I found one particular paragraph of great interest:

“Foetal cell lines can be used in two ways in bringing vaccines to market. They can be used in the production of the vaccine or it can be produced in a different kind of cell line but then tested on foetal cell lines after production. Of the eight vaccines ordered by the EU and UK, five were either developed in foetal cell lines or tested using them, including the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine that has been approved by the UK. The table that follows, based on data collected by the Charlotte Lozier Institute, summarises the facts about foetal cell line use for these eight vaccines. It also demonstrates that it is possible to make vaccinations against this awful virus without using cell lines. That is what CureVac, GlaxoSmithKline and Sanofi Pasteur, and Valneva have done. We congratulate their approach.”

I am gratified that it appears that there are companies which do not use foetal tissue in the manufacture of a vaccine.  On the basis of this information, a Christian may insist that they will only accept a vaccine from one of the above named companies which do not use foetal tissue in the manufacture of their vaccine.  I trust that the whole article is a benefit and guide to you all.

• The covid vaccine – To have or not to have??
• Some facts about Covid-19 vaccines and foetal tissue

The above scene reminds me of the words of an old hymn:

The mercies of God What a theme for my song
Oh I never could number them o’er
They’re more than the stars in the heavenly dome
Or the sands of the wavebeaten shore

Chorus

For mercies so great, What return can I make
For mercies so constant and sure
I’ll love him, I’ll serve Him with all that I have
As long as my life shall endure.

The year that is drawing to a close bears testimony to the Lord’s great mercy to us amidst the trials and sorrows that many encountered. May the new year which is opening before us bring to yet further manifestations of His love and may we say as the hymn writer puts it: I’ll Love him and serve Him with all that I have, As long as my life shall endure.

KILSKEERY FREE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

Sabbath Day January 3rd, 2021 (DV)

Service times: 11.30 am & 7.00 pm

Preacher: Rev Ivan Foster.

Subject: “Where are we in God’s Calendar?”

Part 1 – Morning Service.

Part 2 – Evening Service

All are welcome to attend or visit via video here

Nuns in German children’s home rented boys to abusers

We have ever felt it to be our duty to highlight the utter corruption and wickedness of the ‘Church of Rome’!

Here is but another example of that, the report of which has just been sent to me. I just do not understand how Roman Catholics can ignore such crimes and continue within this system!

What a mercy to be a redeemed Protestant, delivered from the darkness of this Satanic organisation.

This report was sent to me and I wish to distribute it out to our BB readers. Read more…

An article worth considering

I hardly need say that I am not a ‘fan’ of the general run of Mr Alex Kane’s articles. Mr Kane is an atheist. Nevertheless there is an awful lot of common sense in what he says in the article which follows. It is from today’s ‘Belfast Newsletter’.

I am not a ‘fan’ of Balaam the false prophet but I wholehearted agree with him when he is reported by the Holy Ghost as saying:

“How shall I curse, whom God hath not cursed? or how shall I defy, whom the LORD hath not defied? For from the top of the rocks I see him, and from the hills I behold him: lo, the people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations. Who can count the dust of Jacob, and the number of the fourth part of Israel? Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his!” Numbers 23:8-10.

I am surely not wrong in finding common ground on this matter with Balaam. Read more…

Answer to letter in today’s ‘Belfast Newsletter’ (Dec 21, 2020)

The week has got underway with another attack upon us.
This letter appears in the ‘Belfast Newsletter’ of today. A friend sent me the screenshot of it. Here is my reply.

Dear Editor,

I thank Mr Maxwell of Bleary for his kind words regarding my former witness. I wish to assure him that I strive to maintain that ‘faithfulness’ of which he speaks. Read more…

Christ takes precautions!

I read my prescribed chapters this morning (I follow Murray McCheyne’s Bible reading calendar which I commend to you) and I noticed the first verse of John chapter 7.

I could not but share with you a few thoughts on this verse. “After these things Jesus walked in Galilee: for he would not walk in Jewry, because the Jews sought to kill him.” Read more…

My response to a deluded detractor

Below is my response to a detractor’s attempted rebuttal to my earlier comments on John 7:1.

The following is the substance of what I had to send to one who, upon receiving my email containing my comments on John 7:1, sent out this morning, replied in a most vexing manner. That person indicated what they thought of me and my attempts to serve the Lord. The email opened with the words: “Rev Foster, you are not applying the Scripture correctly…again!”

I replied as follows to the writer:

“You are the perfect example of the little axiom: ‘There is none so blind as he who will not see!’ Read more…

Letter in reply to L Barker

I want to share this hasty response to the rather lengthy rebuke, just discovered, addressed to me by Mr Luke Barker in today’s ‘Belfast Newsletter’.

Dear Editor,

Mr Luke Barker’s letter in today’s ‘News letter’ is long in verbiage but not correspondingly overflowing with logic or indeed with Biblical exegesis!

In the past I have supported him in protests he has mounted but now I find that I am the target of his vociferous rebukes!

His is too long a letter to answer line by line but perhaps I could blow a hole or two in this apparently formidable edifice and thus show it is not quite as impressive as it might at first appear but rather is somewhat ‘full of sound and fury’ and to a large degree, ‘signifying nothing’ other than a few ‘woof, woofs! Read more…

An important truth to be considered by those hoping for revival

“The word of the LORD which came unto Zephaniah the son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hizkiah, in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah. I will utterly consume all things from off the land, saith the LORD. I will consume man and beast; I will consume the fowls of the heaven, and the fishes of the sea, and the stumblingblocks with the wicked; and I will cut off man from off the land, saith the LORD. I will also stretch out mine hand upon Judah, and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem,” Zephaniah 1:1-4.

As the year progresses from season to season we may inform ourselves as to the weather we are likely to encounter by simply looking back to what the same season brought in former years. There is a vital lesson there for the Christian. It is a truth found in the Bible. “The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun,” Ecclesiastes 1:9. Read more…

Letter to Belfast Newsletter

Dear Sir,

I really should not be amazed at the failure of people to read what one writes before taking up their pen to ‘profoundly disagree’ with what they imagine your views to be.

Mr Stephen Richards of Ballymena says in a letter printed today: “Mr Foster is entitled to believe that video link church services are an adequate substitute for physical gatherings, but most of us know that he’s wrong about this. As for meeting in the open air, I don’t think that would have been such a good idea on that freezing day.”

I don’t think that is what I said but I would certainly believe that video links or standing in the freezing cold may well be a ’substitute’ for gathering in a building when the medical guides to whose directives we submit  for our general health from day to day, inform us that such a gathering is likely to spread infections that could very well kill many, and indeed, have.

I can well imagine that countless thousands of persecuted believers throughout the past centuries or even those today in many lands would be glad if they were able to gather so and count such a gathering as adequate.
How welcome would have been a video link to our Covenanting forefathers in Scotland! They would have welcomed such ‘inadequacies’ at times!

My reason for replying to Pastor Patterson’s article was that I and the majority of Bible-believing Christians in Northern Ireland, including the majority of Baptists it would appear, were being accused of cowardly submission to an ungodly decree issued by the Stormont executive.
Pastor Patterson said in his defence of his actions: “Church leaders were quick to close the doors of the meeting house, without any Scriptural warrant, and thereby preventing God’s people from gathering to worship Him as He has commanded.”
Such an accusation had to be replied to, especially in the light that it would appear Tandragee Baptists readily and to my knowledge, uncomplainingly, complied with the restrictions placed upon church building opening earlier this year!

I would direct readers to my webpage (ivanfoster.org) where they will see all that I have said on the issue as I do not intend replying to any more misrepresentations of my views.

Sincerely, Rev Ivan Foster (Rtd), Kilskeery.

My answer to Pastor Patterson’s rather pathetic response to my public comments on his defying of the anti-covidvirus regulations and his opening of his church for worship

Below is my answer to Pastor Patterson’s response to my comments on his stance on the Covid -19 virus which were published in the ‘Belfast Newsletter’ some days ago.

He mounted his response on his own church webpage without ever informing me – a strange way indeed to ‘earnestly contend for the faith’!

The whole thrust of the pastor and his supporters’ argument seems to be that the virus is of no real significance and that those who take precautions are a lot of fools and weaklings!

I cannot imagine that this attitude engenders much comfort to the hundreds of families who have lost loved ones to the virus. I just hope that he does not have to explain just where his notions were wrong, should there be an outbreak of infections in Tandragee! Read more…

Wise words from 100 years ago

Rev Stephen Hamiliton sent me the link and the quote from the sermon reproduced below. I am most grateful to brother Stephen for finding this ‘treasure’!

I am not familiar with all that Rev Grimke may have said or written so I cannot endorse him without reservation but on this topic he spoke the truth and it is good to have his witness from over 100 years ago.

Please read the sermon and see that things have not changed to any great degree, especially the foolish ‘grumblings’ of some!

“Another thing that has impressed me, in connection with this epidemic, is the fact that conditions may arise in a community which justify the extraordinary exercise of powers that would not be tolerated under ordinary circumstances. This extraordinary exercise of power was resorted to by the Commissioners in closing up the theaters, schools, and churches, in forbidding all gatherings of any considerable number of people indoors and outdoors, and in restricting the numbers who should be present even at funerals. The ground of the exercise of this extraordinary power was found in the imperative duty of the officials to safeguard, as far as possible, the health of the community by preventing the spread of the disease from which we were suffering. There has been considerable grumbling, I know, on the part of some, particularly in regard to the closing of the churches. It seems to me, however, in a matter like this it is always wise to submit to such restrictions for the time being. If, as a matter of fact, it was dangerous to meet in theaters and in the schools, it certainly was no less dangerous to meet in churches…” Read more…

Were Tandragee Baptists right to defy the anti-virus regulations and assemble together on the Sabbath Day past?

Much has been made by a few evangelicals of the issue of closing churches in an effort to avoid further spreading the covid virus. They would say that to do so is a contravention of God’s command to worship Him.

Tandragee Baptists have featured in that protest by refusing to obey the directive and opened their premises for worship on the Lord’s Day past. I do not know if they have maintained that position throughout the earlier periods of lockdown that began back in March or whether this is a newly discovered ‘conviction’!

However, I believe that they are wrong and this article sets forth my reasons.

I write this because I know there are Christians troubled about the matter and I am anxious to set forth what I believe is the Word of God. I trust that all find the article helpful. Read more…

Some facts about Covid-19 vaccines and foetal tissue

A dear member of our family sent me the following article having found it very helpful in the present controversy

The short article is produced by a ‘Pro-Life, anti-abortion’ organisation called: NI Voiceless. They say of themselves: ‘we are people of all religious convictions and none.’

I share it with you for I know that Christians are most anxious to obtain facts about the manufacture and make-up of the ‘vaccines’ that will soon be offered to them.  I think that this article may be a help. I found one particular paragraph of great interest:

“Foetal cell lines can be used in two ways in bringing vaccines to market. They can be used in the production of the vaccine or it can be produced in a different kind of cell line but then tested on foetal cell lines after production. Of the eight vaccines ordered by the EU and UK, five were either developed in foetal cell lines or tested using them, including the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine that has been approved by the UK. The table that follows, based on data collected by the Charlotte Lozier Institute, summarises the facts about foetal cell line use for these eight vaccines. It also demonstrates that it is possible to make vaccinations against this awful virus without using cell lines. That is what CureVac, GlaxoSmithKline and Sanofi Pasteur, and Valneva have done. We congratulate their approach.”

I am gratified that it appears that there are companies which do not use foetal tissue in the manufacture of a vaccine.  On the basis of this information, a Christian may insist that they will only accept a vaccine from one of the above named companies which do not use foetal tissue in the manufacture of their vaccine.  I trust that the whole article is a benefit and guide to you all. Read more…

IRA still armed and active!

If there was one ounce, indeed a fraction of an ounce, of decency and integrity within the ranks of the DUP it would immediately break all links with Sinn Fein and bring the unutterably shameful Stormont Executive down in ignominy.

The following report, taken from the Belfast Newsletter of 2nd December 2020, gives cause enough to DUP members to act so!

Of course, we have been here before! Decency and integrity were mutilated and cast aside in 2007 by the DUP when it went into partnership with Sinn Fein/IRA and that for mere party and personal political and monetary gain. Read more…

The covid vaccine – To have or not to have??

“Thou shalt not kill,” Exodus 20:13.

“Coronavirus: First NI vaccinations ‘to happen next week’ ” – so ran the headline on a news site this morning. But in the light of this, what is the Christian’s attitude to the vaccine to be?

The word ‘kill’ in the 6th Commandment is equivalent to ‘murder’. The Hebrew word is translated in Numbers 35:16 as ‘murderer’ twice. There are instances when it is quite proper and legitimate to kill but it is never right to murder. Cain was a murderer and suffers even now as a result (1 John 3:12) whereas Samuel killed Agag the Amalekite king quite properly, 1 Samuel 15:33.

I believe it must be seen as an especially heinous crime to kill a child and how much more to slaughter an unborn child in the womb! Read more…

Pat Finucane was in the IRA

Yesterday, Northern Ireland Secretary of State, Brandon Lewis, told the House of Commons that there would not be at this time, a public inquiry into the murder of Pat Finucane, the Belfast Republican lawyer shot by Loyalist paramilitaries back in 1989.

Immediately after yesterday’s announcement, Pat Finucane’s son John, the Sinn Féin MP for North Belfast, said he and his family would continue to campaign for an inquiry and that he may look for support from United States President-elect Joe Biden. “When he was then Senator Biden, as chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, he supported our calls for an inquiry,” Mr Finucane said on the BBC’s Good Morning Ulster programme. “But President-elect Biden has already shown a clear interest in Irish affairs, he has history in supporting our campaign and I think that America has always had a significant role to play in our peace process, certainly in our campaign.”

Irish Americans like Biden have ever shown sympathy for the cause of Irish Republicanism while turning a blind eye to the murderous campaign of the IRA. The year Finucane was murdered, twenty-six soldiers and nine policemen were murdered by the IRA. There has been no public inquiry for them or their families!!!

Here, republicans and their bedfellows gave vent to the usual howls at the announcement by the Secretary of State. The BBC reported: “Sinn Féin, the SDLP, Alliance and the Green Party have shown their support for the family’s calls for a public inquiry in a letter to Mr Lewis. In the letter, sent to the NI secretary on Tuesday evening, party representatives described Mr Lewis’ position as ‘neither credible nor tenable’, and said it was an “insult” to the Finucane family.”

I am republishing an article from “The Burning Bush“ of May 2003 which contains statements from a former prominent IRA man, Sean O’Callaghan, who has publicly stated that Pat Finucane was a prominent IRA member and not the ‘peace campaigner’ he is made out to be!

I for one fervently look forward to that day when “ . . . . all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death,” Revelation 21:8. Read more…