To mark the anniversary of the cruelty experienced by the Jewish people under Adolf Hitler, when 6 millions were murdered, I republish this article from 2016. It is the substance of what was taught to the pupils of Kilskeery Independent Christian School back then.
Ivan Foster.
Why we should love the Jewish people
As the introduction to this article states, it is the substance of two school assembly talks, in Kilskeery Independent Christian School, I gave to the children back in 2016 to mark ‘Holocaust Memorial Day’, January 27th.
It states some truths that are very relevant in the light of the upsurge of hatred toward the Jewish people, not just on the borders of Israel but reports of anti-semitism are coming in from many lands where there is an ignorance of what modern society owes to the Jewish race.
Why we should love the Jewish people(Holocaust Memorial Day 2016.)
The substance of two school morning assembly messages given in Kilskeery Independent Christian School, by retired minister and school administrator, Rev Ivan Foster, on 27th and 28th January.
“Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee: and I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: and I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed,” Genesis 12:1-3.
It is clear from the first words spoken to Abraham, from whom sprang the Jewish people, that he and his descendants would be those about whom there would a division of opinions. There would be those that would “bless” them and there would be those who would “curse” them!
Those that “bless” them would be blessed of God and those that “cursed” them would be cursed of God. They were, in heaven’s eyes, a very special people. Click to read more…
The ludicrous, utterly ridiculous and perverted notion, promoted today by all too many organisations and public figures, that there are more than two genders, flies in the face of the declaration of God at the creation of man.
“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them,”Genesis 1:27.
Mankind bears the ‘image’ of God, not His divine nature but likeness to God principally consists and most eminently appears in man’s soul.
In its nature and substance it is like God, spiritual, invisible, immortal. (Matthew Poole)
Man was, at the first, pure and holy. Today, man is a fallen creature as a result of Adam’s failure to obey God as our representative in the Covenant of Works and thus bringing upon all mankind guilt and condemnation.
In this age of the final apostasy, man has dived to the depths of depraved folly by permitting the notion of many genders to be embraced and incorporated in law.
While I am aghast at the pride and arrogance manifested by Donald Trump in his inaugural speech, I am happy to hear his comments on the ‘multiplicity of genders’ so promoted today!
I must offset his views, however, with the fact that he has endorsed sodomy by appointing sodomites to positions in his government.
Here is the link to the service of ordination and installation of Rev Samuel Fitton as minister of Kilskeery Free Presbytery Church this afternoon.
Taking Part in the service: Rev James Porter (officiating), Rev Brian McClung (Opening Prayer), Rev Ivan Foster (Scripture Reading). Prescribed Questions (Rev John Greer), Sermon (Rev Samuel Murray) and Presbytery Greetings (Rev John Armstrong).
I trust that you are blessed as you watch the video.
“And some days after Paul said unto Barnabas, Let us go again and visit our brethren in every city where we have preached the word of the Lord, and see how they do. And Barnabas determined to take with them John, whose surname was Mark. But Paul thought not good to take him with them, who departed from them from Pamphylia, and went not with them to the work. And the contention was so sharp between them, that they departed asunder one from the other: and so Barnabas took Mark, and sailed unto Cyprus; and Paul chose Silas, and departed, being recommended by the brethren unto the grace of God. And he went through Syria and Cilicia, confirming the churches,” Acts 15:36-41.
(Robert Murray M‘Cheyne’s Bible Reading Calendar-15th January 2025)
Even in the halcyon days of the Holy Ghost empowered apostolic age, there were disputes amongst the brethren. Faithfulness to God and His will brings one into conflict with those less inclined to seek to rigidly abide by the plain Word of God.
Compromise is ever suggested to us by the flesh when we find ourselves caught between God’s will and that which is more pleasing to ourselves and those whom we would seek to please.
The incident before us here in Acts chapter 15 records that which has been repeated ‘ad nauseam’ throughout the ages!
Paul, moved by a concern for recent converts, suggests to his hitherto faithful companion in the service of God that they retrace their steps and visit those they had been the means of leading to Christ and ‘ see how they do’.
It immediately becomes obvious that poor Barnabas was harbouring some resentment regarding a sad incident which took place during their first missionary journey. It was a journey initiated by the Lord.
“Now there were in the church that was at Antioch certain prophets and teachers; as Barnabas, and Simeon that was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen, which had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them. And when they had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on them, they sent them away,” Acts 13:1-3.
I. IT WAS ON THIS JOURNEY THAT LEADERSHIP AND GOD-GIVEN AUTHORITY OF PAUL WAS MANIFESTED.
1. It is to be noted that Saul at the first is given a lesser prominence than Barnabas. Verse 1 has Barnabas mentioned first and Saul last! Again, in verse 2 the Lord refers to Barnabas before Saul. This order is repeated in verse 7.
Whenever the supporters of AI begin to pontificate on the topic of their latest fantasy, they sound like a recital from a science fiction comic!
It is the ‘be all and end all’ of man’s fondest dream! Supporters of AI would have us believe that it will usher in a utopian era, BUT will it??
BBC commentators, Liv McMahon, Zoe Kleinman & Charlotte Edwards had some words of warning for the Prime Minister!
“But the government faces questions over how much time and money will be needed to make its vision a reality, amid concerns over borrowing costs and the falling value of the pound.”
“The government tasked AI adviser Matt Clifford with creating a UK action plan for supporting the growth of artificial intelligence and its use in public services.
He came back with 50 recommendations which are now being implemented.
Among these is for the UK to invest in a new supercomputer to boost computing power – marking a change in strategy after the Labour government ditched the previous government’s plans for a supercomputer at Edinburgh University.
Sir Keir said AI ‘will drive incredible change’ in the country and ‘has the potential to transform the lives of working people’.
‘We’re going to make AI work for everyone in our country,” he added, saying the “battle for the jobs of tomorrow is happening today’.
“Sir Keir said the UK would become one of the AI “superpowers” – mirroring former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s drive to boost the UK sector so it could rival that of the US and China.”
The article goes on to set out: _
How the AI plan could affect you
Among the government’s proposals are:
AI will be used by the public sector to enable its workers to spend less time doing admin and more time delivering services. Click to read more…
I recall once, in the late 1970s, when preaching in the Bedford, England area and staying with my dear friend, Dr Stephen Scott-Pearson and his family, I paid a visit a small museum there which was dedicated to the memory of John ‘the Tinker’ Bunyan, a native of that area.
The lady who supervised the little establishment asked me to sign the visitors book and excitedly informed me that Prince Charles had visited the museum and signed the visitors’ book but a short time before. She spoke excitedly of him and asked me what I thought of him, doubtless expecting me to endorse her opinion.
In reply I said, ‘King Charles I was a rascal, King Charles II was a greater rascal and I expect King Charles III to be an even greater rascal!’
This greatly astonished the dear lady but if she is alive, still she has had ample evidence that my assertion was in fact very true!
The latest evidence of Charles III’s ‘rascality’ has been announced in the press in recent days. One news website, GB news, heralded forth:
It is about the discovery of fossilised footprints of large dinosaurs. Of course you have the ‘evolutionist’s folly’ displayed in that they dated at some 166 million years ago.
The report details how they were uncovered. “The tracks were first spotted by Gary Johnson, a worker at Dewars Farm Quarry, while he was driving a digger.
I was basically clearing the clay, and I hit a hump, and I thought it’s just an abnormality in the ground,” he said, pointing to a ridge where some mud has been pushed up as a dinosaur’s foot pressed down into the earth. But then it got to another, 3m along, and it was a hump again. And then it went another 3m – hump again. Another trackway site had been found nearby in the 1990s, so he realised the regular bumps and dips could be dinosaur footprints.
“I thought I’m the first person to see them. And it was so surreal – a bit of a tingling moment, really,” he told BBC News.
The footprints uncovered
The Evolutionist — ‘So near yet so far away from God’s truth’!
This was offered by way of explanation for the wonderful preservation of the very old footprints: “Something must have happened to preserve these in the fossil record,” said Prof Richard Butler, a palaeobiologist from the University of Birmingham. We don’t know exactly what, but it might be that there was a storm event that came in, deposited a load of sediments on top of the footprints, and meant that they were preserved rather than just being washed away.” Click to read more…
“And Uzziah . . . when he was strong, his heart was lifted up to his destruction: for he transgressed against the LORD his God, and went into the temple of the LORD to burn incense upon the altar of incense. And Azariah the priest went in after him, and with him fourscore priests of the LORD, that were valiant men: And they withstood Uzziah the king, and said unto him, It appertaineth not unto thee, Uzziah, to burn incense unto the LORD, but to the priests the sons of Aaron, that are consecrated to burn incense: go out of the sanctuary; for thou hast trespassed; neither shall it be for thine honour from the LORD God. Then Uzziah was wroth, and had a censer in his hand to burn incense: and while he was wroth with the priests, the leprosy even rose up in his forehead before the priests in the house of the LORD, from beside the incense altar. And Azariah the chief priest, and all the priests, looked upon him, and, behold, he was leprous in his forehead, and they thrust him out from thence; yea, himself hasted also to go out, because the LORD had smitten him,” 2 Chronicles 26:14, 16-20.
Paul wrote, “For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning,” Romans 15:4. There is much to be learned from the verses from 2 Chronicles 26 which I have quoted above. I read them on the Lord’s Day, 22nd December.
How very relevant they are for the Free Presbyterian Church today!
The first thing I would have you notice in the verses is that:
I. GOOD MEN CAN MAKE VERY SERIOUS MISTAKES!
1. Without a shadow of doubt, Uzziah was a good man, a great man! We can take God’s word on that!
“Sixteen years old was Uzziah when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty and two years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name also was Jecoliah of Jerusalem. And he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his father Amaziah did. And he sought God in the days of Zechariah, who had understanding in the visions of God: and as long as he sought the LORD, God made him to prosper,” 2 Chronicles 26:3-5.
2. Yet despite his undoubted regeneration by the grace of God, he committed a dreadful sin. We are told the ‘source’ of his sin. “And his name spread far abroad; for he was marvellously helped, till he was strong. When he was strong, his heart was lifted up to his destruction,” verses 15-16. That phrase simply means that when his kingdom became wonderfully strong for the Lord “marvellously helped” him, he became proud and haughty, and that to his “destruction”. Click to read more…
Sincere good wishes to all our readers for a happy 2025 and my grateful thanks for your support and prayers for the witness of ‘The Burning Bush’ during the last year.
“For Godis not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which ye have shewed toward his name,” Hebrews 6:10.
Kilskeery Independent Christian School being on holiday and there being no Assembly, I am sending out two studies which I conducted with the school 4 years ago.
They are entitled: ‘CHRISTMAS — why we should distance ourselves from the celebrations, parts one and two.
It is the Christian’s duty to keep themselves “unspotted (Greek – aspilos) from the world,” James 1:27. Peter uses the same word, “unspotted” when he wrote of how we must be “diligent” we must be in maintianing our purity while awaiting the return of the Saviour. “Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, (Greek – aspilos) and blameless, 2 Peter 3:13-14.
Here is the second study.
I would like to consider with you my second part of my talk on how the birth of Christ should be celebrated.
I. I BELIEVE THAT CHRIST WAS BORN IN AND AROUND THE MIDDLE TO THE END OF SEPTEMBER.
The Bible does give us information about the time of His birth. We can work out from Luke 1:5, (8th in the schedule of priestly week long duties in the temple.) 8, 23-24. These duties began at the Passover, is around March/April on our calanedar. Passover in 2025 begins on April 12th. From these verses in Luke 1, we can conclude that John the Baptist was born about the middle of the month of March. Six months later the Saviour was born “And, behold, thy cousin Elisabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age: and this is the sixth month with her, who was called barren,” Luke 1:36.
In agreement with this is the fact that sheep were in the fields, verse 8, which would not be the case in mid-winter!
II. SEE HOW THE ANGELS CELEBRATED HIS BIRTH.
(A). They revealed the story of His birth unto men in great detail, 9-12.
(B). They burst into song, v 13.
III. CONSIDER HOW THE SHEPHERDS CELEBRATED HIS BIRTH.
(A). They recognised the divine nature of the news they had just heard, v 15.
(B). They heeded the good news, v 15.
(C). They acted immediately, v 16.
(D). They focused their attention on the Saviour, v 16-17.
(E). They shared the news with others, v 17.
(F). Their celebrations left them refreshed and glad.
That will not be the case with the ‘Christmas’ celebrations that men engage in!!! Wickedness and excess of every form is what will mark ‘Christmas’. We should avoid where possible all the sinful and superstitios and pagan-originated activies of this time of the year and witness rather of what the Bible tell us of the ‘coming of the Son of Man’ to save sinners.
Extracts from a ‘Belfast Telegraph’ article on the deposing of Rev David DiCanio, Saturday 28th December.
The sacking of a Free Presbyterian minister has unsettled a church which is changing faster than some of its clerics would like
Tiny Protestant denomination has had a disproportionate political and societal influence – but after years protesting against others, now some of its ministers are protesting against it
Rev Ian Paisley preaches to the 12,000 strong congregation at the Kings Hall in Belfast on the 40th anniversary of the Free Presbyterian Church’s formation. Inset: Members of the Church protest after Fr Edward O’Donnell was installed as an Ecumenical Canon of St Anne’s Cathedral; the first time a Catholic priest was chosen to serve on the Cathedral Chapter
The Free Presbyterian Church — Northern Ireland’s most hardline Protestant denomination — has just ejected a minister for being too hardline.
It’s an episode which in other circumstances might mean little, but which relates to a far deeper shift within the church founded by Ian Paisley in 1951.
Even that might be of little relevance beyond the few thousand members of this institution. Yet Free Presbyterianism has never simply been about God; it’s always been closely linked to developments in secular power.
Once that was about denouncing the powerful; these days, there’s a good chance that the powerful are in a Free Presbyterian pew on a Sunday morning.
Free Presbyterianism has never been a mass movement akin to the Presbyterian Church or the Anglican Church, let alone the Catholic Church. It’s smaller than the Baptist or Pentecostal churches, yet far better known because of the high profile of many of its members and its outspoken public protests which often attract media coverage. Click to read more…
There is a more substantial link between heaven and earth than we Christians can perceive. There is much of heaven’s activity on earth of which we are not aware. The Bible clearly indicates that. For instance, the Saviour said on one occasion: “Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven,” Matthew 18:10. Again, we are told by Paul of the angels, “Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?” Hebrews 1:14.
I have been made to wonder, as a result of personal experiences in recent times, just what the redeemed in glory know of events that are taking place here on earth. As I pondered this matter, the first thing that occurred to me was:
I. WHATEVER THEY KNOW CANNOT IN ANY WAY DEPRIVE THEM OF THE JOY AND PEACE OF THE HEAVEN WHICH THEY HAVE ENTERED!
1. Heaven is a place of perfect, uninterrupted peace and happiness for the redeemed. It is spoken of as a place of rest. “There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God,” Hebrews 4:9. The word ‘rest’ carries the meaning of ‘a keeping of the Sabbath’. As the Lord rested after He had created the universe, so the believer enters a similar rest when they die and go to heaven. This is emphasised in that heavenly announcement in Revelation 14:13. “And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them.” Blessed rest is the portion of the redeemed throughout eternity when they depart this world!
That being so, if they know anything of this world’s activities, it is a knowledge ‘sanctified’, or ‘filtered’, if I may use that term, so that nothing of the wickedness of this world is conveyed to them that would disturb their peace. I cannot really understand how this may be but I feel it is a logical conclusion we must draw if we do understand that the saints of God in heaven know something of events taking place in the world.
2. Perhaps I can draw a parallel with the knowledge the Lord has of events on earth but which do not defile Him or deprive Him of the perfect peace that is the eternal disposition of the eternal God. Here on earth, the saved sinner knows something of the ‘peace of God’. “And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus,” Philippians 4:7. “And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful,” Colossians 3:15. The peace spoken of here is that peace which comes from the knowledge that “being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,” Romans 5:1. Click to read more…
Kilskeery Independent Christian School being on holiday and there being no Assembly, I am sending out two studies which I conducted with the school 4 years ago.
They are entitled: ‘CHRISTMAS — why we should distance ourselves from the celebrations, parts one and two.
It is the Christian’s duty to keep themselves “unspotted (Greek – aspilos) from the world,” James 1:27. Peter uses the same word, “unspotted” when he wrote of how we must be “diligent” we must be in maintaining our purity while awaiting the return of the Saviour. “Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, (Greek – aspilos) and blameless, 2 Peter 3:13-14.
Here is the first study.
I. ‘CHRISTMAS’ WAS UNHEARD OF AMONGST CHRISTIANS FOR SOME 300 YEARS AFTER CHRIST’S ASCENSION.
‘Christmas’ is but a ‘christianising’ of a pagan mid-winter feast by the ‘church’ that had already largely departed from simple Bible religion. Like a farmer dresses up a few old sticks as a ‘scarecrow’, a make-believe man. That is what ‘Christmas’ is. A mere make-believe celebration of the birth of Christ. It was the 1300s before the very name ‘Christmas’ appeared. The ‘Saturnalia’, a Roman pagan feast, began on 19 December and lasted for the best part of a week. Morality and restraint were abandoned. We can easily see that is what takes place at this time of the year in the name of celebrating the birth of Christ.
II. THE CHIEF CENTRES OF THESE CELEBRATIONS ARE NOT WHERE CHRIST IS HONOURED.
Pubs, dance halls, parties etc., are places where the name of the Lord is blasphemed and the Law of God despised and rejected! That is how it is in such places 12 months of the year and it does not change at this time of the year!
III. LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCIES ARE REQUIRED TO TAKE SPECIAL ACTION TO RESTRAIN LAWLESSNESS DURING THESE CELEBRATIONS.
Drunk driving, disorder and fighting on the streets, shop-lifting and stealing are rampant. This cannot be of God! This is very different from the scene we read of in Luke chapter 2. There we have heavenly and earthly praise to God. “And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men. . . . And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them,” verses 13-14, 20.
Nothing contrasts more with the modern ‘Christmas’ scene than this!
On two nights Keith and Kristyn Getty brought their ‘Home For Christmas’ show (that surely is a significant definition of the event that is used in their announcement of it) to the SSE Arena, Belfast. on 19th and 20th December!
We are told in the ‘blurb’ announcing the affair that — ‘The Grammy-Nominated duo will be performing well-known carols and hymns along with new songs to fill everyone with holiday cheer’.
Considering the booze-induced ‘cheer’ that permeates society at this time of the year this is hardly a prospect that should encourage a true Christian to attend their ‘show’.
A brief examination of the event highlights yet again that the whole ‘Contemporary Christian Music’ is marked and corrupted with the spirit of the world and is therefore an offence to the Lord and ought to be offensive to the devout Christian.
The Lord says: “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever. Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time,” 1 John 2:15-18.
There was every mark of the world upon this ‘show’ and Christians are left with no excuse for embracing CCM and believing it is of God.
I. THE FIRST THING TO BE NOTED IS THAT ALCOHOL WAS ON SALE AT THIS ‘CHRISTIAN’ AFFAIR!
Here is an official reply to a question sent by a Christian bother to the Odyssey Complex regarding the sale of alcohol during the Getty event. Click to read more…
This an article penned by my son, Rev Andy Foster, minister of Penticton Free Presbyterian Church, Canada.
It sets out the Biblical principles which govern our worship of God, including how it is we are required by Him to offer praise.
In the light of the present controversy within our denomination, this is an important source of reference for us all.
I trust that you will print it out and peruse it carefully and prayerfully.
Sincerely in Christ’s name,
Ivan Foster
Rev. Andrew Foster
Principles of Biblical worship which affect praise and music
“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord,” Colossians 3:16
To most Christians today the words “worship” and “praise” are synonymous. Yet the Scripture makes it very clear worship involves much more than the use of song to glorify God. However, praise and singing is an important constituent part of Biblical worship.
From the beginning of time to the extent of all eternity to come, singing the praises of God will be a feature. The Lord speaks to Job of the angels singing as the earth is created, Job 38:6-7: and Revelation 15:2-4 gives an insight into the singing of the saints in Heaven.
God’s people are commanded to sing the praises of God. It is an important part of their duty and work here on earth. But—like every other aspect of our duty—that praise is regulated by Scripture! The general principles of what God requires of men apply to our praise. We are not to suppose that we can sing whatever we wish and however we like! There is praise that is acceptable to God as worship because it conforms to what He requires, and there is praise that, because it does not so conform, is an abomination and idolatrous in His eyes.
I. THE ORIGIN OF PRAISE THAT PLEASES GOD.
1. The Scriptures. The primary and instructive role of the word of God in worship is seen in these words. This means that:
a. Biblical revelation is the sole source of our praise. It is to shape and inform every part of our singing! Praise is to be Biblical as far as its content is concerned. The theology of our praise is not to be sacrificed to the claims of poetic licence or musical appeal. Click to read more…
There is a need for a more expansive consideration of that problem which has arisen to distress devout believers within the Free Presbyterian Church and vex the unity of God’s people.
I do not have any ‘musical skill or technical knowledge’, but such is not needed to draw a right conclusion regarding the new style of praise that some are anxious to have embraced. A consideration of its origins and the settings in which these ‘praises’ are often sung — one day in a church assembly and also in what can only be termed a ‘religious disco’ — indicates that such are not suitable for the true and holy worship of God! Rev David DiCanio’s video vividly exposed this evil sham. Discovering this truth will surely aid the discerning Christian in coming to a right conclusion in this matter.
This is a CCM ‘hymn’ being sung in a ’religious nightclub’ setting. Who is it will say that the use of such material is in keeping with the teaching of Holy Scripture?
Here are the words of a hymn by Keith & Kristyn Getty, leading exponants of ‘Contemporary Christian Music’, which has been sung in at least one of our churches. It has terms and phrases and words that are definitely linked to the gospel message and might easily be embraced and accepted.
What is our hope in life and death?
Christ alone, Christ alone
What is our only confidence?
That our souls to Him belong
Who holds our days within His hand?
What comes, apart from His command
And what will keep us to the end?
The love of Christ in which we stand
Oh, sing hallelujah Our hope springs eternal Oh, sing hallelujah Now and ever we confess Christ, our hope in life and death
What truth can calm the troubled soul?
God is good, God is good
Where is His grace and goodness known?
In our great Redeemer’s blood
Who holds our faith when fears arise?
Who stands above the stormy trial?
Who sends the waves that bring us nigh
Unto the shore? The rock of Christ
Oh, sing hallelujah Our hope springs eternal Oh, sing hallelujah Now and ever we confess Christ, our hope in life and death
Unto the grave, what will we sing?
“Christ, He lives, Christ, He lives!”
And what reward will Heaven bring?
Everlasting life with Him
There we will rise to meet the Lord
Then sin and death will be destroyed
And we will feast in endless joy
When Christ is ours forevermore (forevermore)
Oh, sing hallelujah Our hope springs eternal Oh, sing hallelujah Now and ever we confess Christ, our hope in life and death (oh, sing)
Oh, sing hallelujah Our hope springs eternal Oh, sing hallelujah Now and ever we confess Christ, our hope in life and death
Now and ever we confess Christ, our hope in life and death
However, compare its words with this well known hymn by Augustus Toplady. Click to read more…
What Rev Greer says in this video clip is very true. Any attempt to introduce ‘modern, jazzed up music’ or ‘Contemporary Christian Music’ MUST indeed be opposed and stopped.
Rev John Greer, Clerk of Presbytery, preaching at the ordination and installation of his son, Stephen, as minister of Coleraine Free Presbyterian Church, 4th December 2024.
How?
But how is that to be done? There seems to be a great reluctance on the part of some senior Free Presbyterian ministers to recognise this evil and speak out against the very evident introduction of CCM that has already taken place. Its introduction is not merely a possibility to be opposed but a tragic thing that has already happened.
There have been public denunciations of CCM and the threat which it poses to traditionally scriptural worship. It has been stated on numerous occasions that any attempt to introduce it must be condemned. However, when evidence is produced that CCM is ALREADY within the ranks of Free Presbyterian congregations, the response is not concern and alarm, but rather abuse directed at the one producing the evidence!
The type of music which Rev. Greer objects to IS ALREADY IN THE DENOMINATION!
A look at a number of congregational websites will show that to be so. But despite many warning articles being published, no action has been taken by our Presbytery oversight. Action should have been taken by it since, as Rev Greer states, such a sin must be resisted.
So what is to be done?
One response would be to compile some examples of the music which Rev. Greer objects to, actually being used in Free Presbyterian congregations, and then publish it in a video as a means of exposing just how this infiltration has taken place.
If one were to do that, however, he may be accused by some, who ought to know better, of violating the command of Christ in Matthew 18:15. “Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother.” Click to read more…
Here is further evidence of the wrong that has been done to Rev David DiCanio and the far-reaching implications for the work of God in Liberia.
This young Liberian Christian’s words make sad reading though we salute him for his courage in standing up for the truth of God. I have not included his name though it is known to me for the simple reason that I do not wish to place him in the way of any retaliation.
Sincerely in Christ’s name,
Ivan Foster
This protest was posted on Facebook and sent to me by Rev Stephen Hamilton.
The the name of the brother who posted it was displayed but I am not disclosing his name – The Editor.
“I want to take this time to publicly react to the statement released by the Executive of the FPCNA informing the Free Presbyterian Mission Church in Liberia of the disposition of the Rev Dicanio.
I am a convert saved in the FPMCL through the ministry of Dr. Alan Cairns, whose sermons were broadcast on the radio. I began attending the FPMCL under the ministry of Rev. Dicanio, under whose guidance I was baptized and began faithfully walking with the Lord as he shepherded us.
As a servant of the Lord who had to separate from friends, family, and even churches that adhere to this brand of so-called ‘gospel music,’ a worldly movement from which I was saved, I do not in any way take the slightest delight in supporting such sin.
Although I am grieved by the proceedings of the FPCNA against Rev. Dicanio, I am also encouraged and in total agreement with and supportive of faithful men like Rev. Andy Foster, Rev. Stephen Hamilton, and Rev. Milos Solc, who strongly opposed such proceedings against the faithful minister Rev. Dicanio.
I couldn’t believe my ears when I heard the first letter read in October 2024 from the LPCNA presbytery to our church. I heard nothing about addressing the sin that a faithful minister exposed but instead about his ‘methodology,’ which seemed absurd to me. Rev. Milos Solc made a heartfelt statement: ‘I wish we would be in sackcloth and ashes, praying, fasting, and weeping over how far we have fallen, rather than being so dissectible about the methodology of the messenger—sin is in the midst, not the messenger.’
As a servant of the gospel of Jesus Christ, one who is seeking to be a gospel minister and who has to contend with this type of music, which is so prevalent in many churches in my own country and is destroying the lives of young people, I wholeheartedly oppose the sin of the CWM movement with my whole being. I am committed to faithfully separating from every form of such a trend, whether it be in any church, organization, or elsewhere.
I stand with Rev. DiCanio because I believe his actions were biblical. He did what Paul would have done when he withstood Peter publicly (Galatians 2:11). As a minister of the gospel, it is his duty to rebuke sin, just as Elijah did (1 Kings 18:17-18). He must act as one who will give an account to God for the souls entrusted to him (Luke 16:2; Acts 20:28).
How do we need to heed these words today!
Rev 2:3 And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name’s sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted.
Rev 2:4 Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.
Rev 2:5 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.
Rev 2:6 But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.
Rev 2:7 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.
CCM is worldliness dressed up in religion and, therefore, must be abhorred! We need no other ‘methodology’ to address worldliness if our ‘methodology’ is grounded in Scripture.”
This is an article by Rev Miloš Šolc of the Free Presbyterian Church in the Czech Republic.
Rev Šolc has been a long time opponent of the evils of “Contemporary Christian Music”. He is a member of the Presbytery of the Free Presbyterian Church of North America.
In this article he expresses his utter opposition to what the North American Presbytery has decided with regards Rev David DiCanio’s protest against ‘CCM’!
He along with Rev Stephen Hamilton and Rev Andy Foster opposed its decision to depose Rev DiCanio for his protest against ‘CCM’.
His article is a most welcome testimony to the very wrong decision of the NAFPC.
Rev Ivan Foster
I take this opportunity to publicly react to the statement released by the Executive Committee of the FPCNA, informing the churches of the deposition of the Rev DiCanio. After the release of an article by the Rev I Foster under the heading The Free Presbyterian Church at a decisive crossroad, I called the Rev Foster to express my regret that he did not include my name along with the Revs A Foster and S Hamilton, as the third minister who from the outset strongly opposed the proceedings of the FPCNA Presbytery against the Rev D DiCanio.
My words to the Presbytery from the very beginning of the proceedings expressed my grief over where we find ourselves as a denomination. I stated that if we truly understood the gravity of the issue of Contemporary Christian Music that has permeated many of the Free Presbyterian churches in Ulster and most of the young generation, we would be in sackcloth and ashes, praying and fasting, and weeping over how we have fallen; certainly not dissecting the ‘methodology’ of the messenger. We would deal with the grievous message – sin in our midst, and not the messenger. We would understand the issue at hand.
As stated by the Rev I Foster in the above mentioned article, Dr Paisley was often criticised for his ‘methodology’ (as was my grandfather the Rev M Šolc Sr, a mighty servant of the Lord in this land, the Czech Republic; and as I have been). But interestingly enough, the one unifying feature of these critics is that they have no perfect method of their own to offer, since they don’t actually do anything, just as is the case here with the issue of Contemporary Christian Music in our Free Presbyterian churches in Ulster, hence the spread of this carnal, sinful music. And now, when a minister exposes this sin, we condemn him instead. You couldn’t make this up. By doing so, we have accelerated and encouraged the sin, and everything that it brings.
In no way whatsoever do I delight in dealing with this matter, nor do I delight in controversy. Nor do I have any other agenda. I believe that for all those who have stood against these proceedings, it has been a great grief and burden – for me, very personally. My separation from my family church and Baptist denomination for four generations–both my father and grandfather being leading ministers, and I an elder–was on the very issue of Contemporary Christian Music and compromised associations. Here is a very pertinent excerpt from my March 2, 2002, resignation letter:
This is not a rash decision, but something that has been a process for the last number of years. It was just this past Friday that our young people attended a youth rally at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre called Missionfest 2002. There we heard a ‘Christian’ rock band entertain hundreds of youth…If that is what we have to offer to young people who are seeking the Lord or who are trying to “grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18), we have NOTHING at all! It is secular, it is carnal, it is of the lusts of the flesh, it is irreverent and unholy – it is blasphemous! The Word of God says to “worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness” (Psalm 29:2), and what I witnessed at the above event…to that the Lord could only say as He said by the prophet Amos: “Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs” (Amos 5:23). There is little surprise that our young people are so spiritually weak and unstable, when this is what they are fed. We have all failed in guiding them in purity and truth.
How true these words ring today in the situation we find ourselves in, in the Free Presbyterian Church, some 23 years later! Who would have believed it?
If I have taken a hard stand at a great cost, against my own father, family, former church and denomination, other New Evangelical ministries, on this very matter of Contemporary Christian Music, how could I tolerate or excuse the same sin in my own denomination. What sort of a witness would that be? What sort of a witness would that be to my own wife, sons, and daughter? What sort of a witness would that be to the church here in the Czech Republic to which the Lord sent me to be a watchman to give them warning from Him (Ezekiel 3:17) and to lead them in the faith of the “old paths” (Jeremiah 6:16)? What sort of a witness would that be to those that I admonished for this sin? In this context, it really is a very straightforward matter. Tolerating or excusing this sin would be a betrayal of my calling. It would be the end of this separated ministry. It would be the end of the Lord working in our midst. It would be shameful hypocrisy. A double standard. A respecting of persons. A falsehood. Unrighteousness. “The time is come that judgement must begin at the house of God” (1 Peter 4:17). “How are the mighty fallen” (2 Samuel 1:27).
I wholeheartedly, before God, agree with the response to the FPCNA Presbytery statement on the deposition of the Rev D DiCanio of the Rev A Foster, as published in the aforementioned article by the Rev I Foster. It is an accurate, careful, and biblical summation of these shameful proceedings against the Rev DiCanio, highlighting two key issues: one, the biblical duty of a preacher to publicly expose public sin; and two, the sinfulness of Contemporary Worship Music – an outflow of Contemporary Christian Music. Indeed, the Presbytery of the FPCNA has acted very shamefully, foolishly, wrongfully, and cowardly in this matter, and I fundamentally and completely reject its ratification of the guilty verdicts of both Judicial Commissions and its deposition of a faithful minister of the Gospel. This must come as no surprise to the Presbytery, as the Presbytery itself is my witness, as well as the documentation of the proceedings, that I most firmly opposed it in this matter from the very beginning, both in word and deed. Here I stand, I can do no other. God help me.
Before God, the only Righteous Judge of all things,
In Christ our Lord,
Rev Miloš Šolc
Free Presbyterian Church in the Czech Republic
Lamentation of Christ – Joseph of Arimathea, Pietro Perugino (1448–1523) – oil on panel
“And they began to enquire among themselves, which of them it was that should do this thing. And there was also a strife among them, which of them should be accounted the greatest,” Luke 22:23-24.
I read Luke 22 on the Lord’s Day passed. It deals with issues that took place in a day when the cause of Christ is in the midst of a crisis. It provides us with an insight to events impacting upon the whole Free Presbyterian Church.
I am referring to the dismissal of Rev David DiCanio from the ministry of the gospel. David DiCanio’s ‘sin’ was to fearlessly denounce that which is already denounced in God’s Word, ‘Contemporary Christian Music’, and which is specifically denounced in the standards of the Free Presbyterian Church.
However, there are those ministers and elders who defy the Bible’s denunciation and encourage the use of such unscriptural music in the worship of the Lord.
David DiCanio I believe, offended those whose minds were set, like the minds of the apostles in our text, upon self-importance and self aggrandisement rather than upon the information given them by the Saviour regarding the climax of His earthly ministry.
In considering these verses I was struck by the fact that:
I. THE MIND OF GOD’S SERVANTS, EVEN AS THEY STILL SAT AT THE TABLE WHERE THE SAVIOUR HAD JUST INDICATED HIS APPROACHING DEATH, SEEMED INDIFFERENT TO THAT REVALED TO THEM IN THE SAVIOUR’S WORDS!
1. How could those men be occupied with self esteem and self importance in the aftermath of the Last Supper? Had they heard nothing of what He had said?
“And when the hour was come, he sat down, and the twelve apostles with him. And he said unto them, With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer: For I say unto you, I will not any more eat thereof, until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God. And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and said, Take this, and divide it among yourselves: For I say unto you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine, until the kingdom of God shall come. And he took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them, saying, This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me. Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you,” Luke 22:14-20.
The Saviour had just announced that He was to be taken “by wicked hands” and “crucified and slain,” Acts 2:23. But the apostles were occupied by thoughts of vain glory!
2. Is it not sadly so today? The Free Presbyterian Church was brought into being to engage in the battle for truth and the honour and glory of the Saviour as His enemies crowded around to overthrow all that was His.
That battle rages still today BUT there are few in our church who engage the enemy as that enemy was engaged by Dr Ian Paisley in those early days. I submit that there are men more interested in who will hold office and flaunt their ‘authority’ than in the shameful treatment of the Saviour both within and without of the ranks of professing Christians!
I doubtless will offend some by saying this BUT what I say is the mind of many ministers if they would but say it publicly rather than just privately amongst themselves! Click to read more…
Many Free Presbyterians will be shocked to learn that Rev David DiCanio has been ‘deposed from the ministry of the Free Presbyterian Church of North America for the sin of contumacy.’ The sin he is charged with is a ‘stubborn refusal to obey or comply with authority.’
Below is a statement which my son, Rev Andy Foster, read to his congregation in Penticton in response to the decision of the Presbytery of FPCNA, which we have also included.
I am most happy to be in total agreement with what my son says and to follow his lead and that of Rev Stephen Hamilton, both of whom have been to the fore in opposing the utter folly of the leadership of the FPCNA in this matter. This decision is the result of a ‘pandering’ by leaders of the FPCNA to the demands of some prominent ministers here in the Ulster Presbytery.
The exposure by Rev DiCanio of the use of ‘Contemporary Christian Music’ within some of our congregations here in Ulster, in the video he sent out, referred to by Rev Andy Foster in his statement, stirred the ire of the ministers and those involved in this sin.
However, the FPCNA has in its statement on worship a clear denunciation of CCW music. The relevant portion is quoted in Rev Andy Foster’s statement below.
The Ulster Presbytery, being in union with the FPCNA, is in agreement with that position on this worldly and unscriptural form of worship.
Yet prominent members of our Ulster Presbytery sided with the users of CCM within our congregations and ‘secretly’ demanded that the FPCNA act against Rev David DiCanio.
The result of that pressure has been the unscriptural and unjust dismissal of a man of God who has faithfully laboured to establish a thriving missionary witness in Liberia on the contrived basis that he refused to repent of that which in essence is but his obedience to God’s Word.
Rev David DiCanio and a group of young men whom he was helping to prepare for the Lord’s service in their native Liberia.
His ‘sin’ is denouncing that which is considered a sin in the stated standards of the Free Presbyterian Church in a fashion displeasing to his accusers. Click to read more…
The following report appeared in today’s ‘Belfast Newsletter’, Friday 6th December.
In it, the ‘Christian Institute’ indicates the dangers that will arise from the legislation which the Alliance Party deputy leader, Eoin Tennyson revealed his proposals on Thursday.
Tennyson professes openly that he is a sodomite!
Here is the report by Philip Bradfield.
Alliance Party proposals to criminalise conversion therapy could see parents jailed for up to seven years “when they discourage their child from gender transition or sexual experimentation” a Christian charity has warned.
Anyone convicted is also liable to a fine of up to £5,000.
Alliance Deputy leader Eoin Tennyson revealed his proposals on Thursday, saying he was frustrated by delays at Stormont and Westminster to outlaw the practice.
Mr Tennyson proposes two new criminal offences – engaging in conversion practice and removing a person from NI for conversion practice.
He proposes that convictions must m eet four tests;- provision of a service; intent to change someone’s orientation or gender identity; targeted at an individual; harm must be caused.
The only defence would be that the accused’s conduct “was reasonable in the circumstances”.
Anyone convicted would face up to seven years in jail and / or a fine of up to £5000.
Alliance Deputy leader Eoin Tennyson MLA revealed his proposals on BBC ‘Talkback’ on Thursday, saying that he was frustrated by delays at Stormont and Westminster to outlaw conversion therapy.
But James Kennedy, NI Policy Officer with the Christian Institute, now says the Scottish Government gave up on similar legislation this year due to risk of legal challenge, asking Westminster to legislate instead.
He said Alliance has published a flow chart for the bill almost identical to Scottish proposals.
Mr Kennedy said: “Thankfully, abusive practices are already outlawed in Northern Ireland. Christians oppose verbal and physical abuse.”
He added: “Mr Tennyson has copied the threshold from the Scottish plans. The broad definition of ‘harm’ would mean a parent could be prosecuted when they discourage their child from gender transition or sexual experimentation. Even saying ‘you might regret it’ could be seen as causing fear and thus be illegal. Click to read more…
“Then said he, Unto what is the kingdom of God like? and whereunto shall I resemble it? It is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and cast into his garden; and it grew, and waxed a great tree; and the fowls of the air lodged in the branches of it,” Luke 13:18-19.
I will never forget brother Jordan Khan preaching on the above brief parable in Lisbellaw Free Presbyterian Church back in 1970. Brother Khan was a visitor to Ulster from India and preached in various congregations of our denomination. He “was a good man, and full of the Holy Ghost and of faith.” I recall his telling us that his father was a prayer partner to ‘Praying Hyde’, John Nelson Hyde (November 9, 1865 – February 17, 1912) an American missionary who preached in the Punjab state in India.
Jordan Khan’s exposition was an early warning of what, some 30-40 years later began to take place within the Free Presbyterian Church.
Please note from this parable:
I. THE TRUE WORK OF GOD HAS VERY SMALL AND HUMBLE BEGINNINGS!
“Unto what is the kingdom of God like? and whereunto shall I resemble it? It is like a grain of mustard seed.”
1. The greatest period of blessing and expansion in this New Testament age began with a small group of men and women meeting in prayer. “And when they were come in, they went up into an upper room, where abode both Peter, and James, and John, and Andrew, Philip, and Thomas, Bartholomew, and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon Zelotes, and Judas the brother of James. These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren,” Acts 1:13-14. We are told that earlier when they gathered in this same room: “Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews,” John 20:19.
The early days of the apostolic church were indeed days of humble and trembling beginnings.
They were days of clinging to the Lord for mercy and help in the face of the opposition of men stirred up by the devil.
2. Some are still alive within the ranks of the Free Presbyterian Church who will recall the early days in the 1950s when the opposition of our ecumenical opponents was most vicious. I wonder how many know that a godly founding member of Ballymoney Free Presbyterian Church was assaulted and beaten by an ecumenical Presbyterian minister and some of his henchmen?
This spirit was still very much alive in the 1960s. My late wife, Ann, a graduate from Queen’s University, Belfast, was unable to obtain a teaching position because she was a Free Presbyterian. Often times, once it was known that she was a Free Presbyterian, the interview was abruptly ended. Click to read more…
“They hate him that rebuketh in the gate, and they abhor him that speaketh uprightly,” Amos 5:10.
I was not long converted when I heard an endearing word about Amos the prophet. Dr Paisley quoted from his book in response to criticism that was being heaped upon his head by ecumenical ministers, whose folly and defiance of God’s Word he had condemned. The verses he quoted are found in Amos 7:14-15.
“Then answered Amos, and said to Amaziah, I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet’s son; but I was an herdman, and a gatherer of sycomore fruit: And the LORD took me as I followed the flock, and the LORD said unto me, Go, prophesy unto my people Israel.”
I instantly learned that the Lord was pleased to call into His service those whom some might consider as being utterly unsuitable!
I later learned that the Lord had earlier displayed the same mercy and sovereign grace in the calling of that great prophet Elisha, anointed to that holy office by his great predecessor, Elijah.
“So he departed thence, and found Elisha the son of Shaphat, who was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen before him, and he with the twelfth: and Elijah passed by him, and cast his mantle upon him. And he left the oxen, and ran after Elijah, and said, Let me, I pray thee, kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow thee. And he said unto him, Go back again: for what have I done to thee? And he returned back from him, and took a yoke of oxen, and slew them, and boiled their flesh with the instruments of the oxen, and gave unto the people, and they did eat. Then he arose, and went after Elijah, and ministered unto him,” 1 Kings 19:19-21.
I can say as did Amos, but even more unquestionably: “I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet’s son” but the Lord called me into His service, and in a faint likeness, I ministered to an ‘Elijah’. For shortly after I began my studies as student for the ministry in January 1965, Dr Paisley took me to live with his family for about six months and in a small way I ministered unto him, driving him around the province to gatherings and to gospel meetings and all the time gaining a knowledge of what it was to preach.
In our text, you have the prophet’s observation regarding the attitude of those intent on following their own devices and who detested the rebukes that the prophet addressed to them.
I. THIS IS AN ALL TOO COMMON ATTITUDE TODAY
This is a day of backsliding. Even the most unobservant Christian knows that this so. Worldly attitudes and notions have invaded the ‘church’! Sadly, many fail to recognise them for what they are. Ministers know at least something of what is happening BUT, sadly, are reluctant to address the issues because of the response that may be forthcoming. Amos encountered ‘hate’ and ‘abhorrence’!
1. There was defiance outburst against authority in the prophet’s day. “They hate him that rebuketh in the gate”. This is a reference to those who hold a God-appointed position of authority. ‘The Gate’ is where the judges sat and administered justice. Click to read more…
“In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old: that they may possess the remnant of Edom, and of all the heathen, which are called by my name, saith the LORD that doeth this. Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed; and the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt. And I will bring again the captivity of my people of Israel, and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them. And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, saith the LORD thy God,” Amos 9:11-15.
What a happy future prospect for his fellow Israelites Amos, a contemporary of Isaiah and Hosea, is inspired to predict as his final words. His book begins with judgment pronounced upon nations surrounding Israel and on Israel itself.
“Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they sold the righteous for silver, and the poor for a pair of shoes,” Amos 2:6.
Dark times
The days during which he prophesied were dark times indeed. Isaiah, his fellow prophet, reveals that to us.
“The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the LORD hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider. Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward. Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment. Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire: your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers,” Isaiah 1:1-7.
Yet despite the dreadfulness of the days in which he lived, Amos could look forward to a future day of blessing for his nation!
There are those who would believe that the blessings referred to in our text are blessings that will fall upon the ‘Church of Christ’ and not upon the nation of Israel. They believe that because it is their view that God has finished with Israel as a nation and they have been cast away by Him forever and that being so, these blessings belong to those, ‘spiritually’ referred to as ‘Israel’, to whom the Lord turned when He rejected Israel following the crucifixion of the Saviour by Israel. In other words Gentile believers!
I do not believe that to be so, and that for a number of simple reasons. Click to read more…
Kilskeery Independent Christian School and Kilskeery Free Presbyterian Church
Friday evening, 22nd November was the 45th annual prizing of Kilskeery Independent Christian School and also the annual prize-giving of Kilskeery Free Presbyterian Church Sabbath School.
Here is the audio recording of the sermon preached by guest preacher, Rev Daniel Henderson of Moneyslane Free Presbyterian Church.
I say sincerely to our readers that his message was one of the best messages ever preached in Kilskeery. He spoke from Psalm 78:1-11. It was a powerful exposition of God’s interest in children. I just wish every Free Presbyterian could hear it, especially those who foolishly send their children to state schools.
I would urge you all to share the message with those you know and love, for it is a message from the Lord.
This article, which is the substance of a sermon I preached on ‘EUTHANASIA’ quite some years ago. On 14th May 2006, I again dealt with the subject from the text: “And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them,” Revelation 14:13. It first appeared in the ‘Burning Bush’ back then. I am attaching a recording of that message.
The subject that prompted it has come up again, though under a slightly different title!
The title may have changed but the Christian’s response to this subject has not. It is, as it was in the past, ‘Thus saith the Lord’!
Kim Leadbeater MP. She announced on 3 October 2024 that she would introduce a bill on assisted dying.
Here is what the BBC reported on November 12th, 2024.
A proposed law to legalise assisted dying, external for terminally ill adults in England and Wales has been formally introduced in the House of Commons.
MPs are due to debate and vote on the bill on 29 November – further debates and votes would be needed before the bill becomes law.
The bill – called the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill – would make it legal for over-18s who are terminally ill to be given assistance to end their own life.
‘Assisted dying’ simply means helping a person to commit suicide. If those who would take their own lives only knew what lay after death they would not for one moment act so.
For those who are trusting in Christ for salvation from the consequences of their sin — eternal damnation — there is no inclination to end their life by their own hand, no matter what suffering they are enduring. Such a Christian may well pray that the Lord would intervene and take them to heaven and ask loved ones to likewise pray for them, but they know that self-murder is a great sin and they would not wish their last act on earth to be one so heinous!
For a government to contemplate legalising such a wickedness is but further evidence of the depths of the nation’s apostasy from God that is ever increasing around us.
Having been rejected in the past and now once more being pursued by blind and deluded leaders, is proof of the determined spirit of those who would cast aside every statute of God!
We have slightly revised the original article but have not in any way altered the main thesis of it.
Sincerely in Christ’s name,
Rev Ivan Foster (Rtd)
EUTHANASIA OR ASSISTED SUICIDE — WHAT SAITH THE SCRIPTURES?
The word euthanasia is of Greek origin and comes from two words meaning ‘GOOD DEATH’. Click to read more…
“So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation,” Hebrews 9:28.
The religion of Christ is a religion of certainties! Daniel, upon revealing God’s future purpose to king Nebuchadnezzar underlined that the matter was settled and could not be altered.
“Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure,” Daniel 2:45.
The words ‘certain’ and ‘sure’ carry the meaning of ‘utterly reliable’!
BUT we live in a world of uncertainties because of our very limited perception of what lies beyond the ‘here and new’!
Thus James counsels us:
“Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that,” James 4:13-15.
The Word of God sets before us that of which we may be absolutely certain. Our text sets forth just such a most happy and thrilling certainty — the glorious return of Christ our Saviour!
Please consider some simple considerations set forth in this lovely verse.
I. HE IS SPECIAL BECAUSE HE IS THE ONE WHO BORE THE SINS OF MANY
“Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many.”
1. Let me underline that word ‘offered’. It is absolutely true that Christ offered Himself , as we read in Hebrews 9:14.
“How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?”
But it is also stated in that familiar and much loved verse, John 3:16, that the Father offered His Son at Calvary. Click to read more…
“Go ye, enquire of the LORD for me, and for the people, and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that is found: for great is the wrath of the LORD that is kindled against us, because our fathers have not hearkened unto the words of this book, to do according unto all that which is written concerning us,” 2 Kings 22:13.
I read the chapter 22 of 2 Kings this morning. I was made aware of the fact that the news brought to godly Josiah by Huldah the prophetess that fearful and final judgment would break upon Judah very soon, the king was stirred to do what he could to reform his kingdom, in the time that remained.
The prophetess had declared the Lord’s determined purpose in judgment.
“And she said unto them, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Tell the man that sent you to me, Thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, and upon the inhabitants thereof, even all the words of the book which the king of Judah hath read: because they have forsaken me, and have burned incense unto other gods, that they might provoke me to anger with all the works of their hands; therefore my wrath shall be kindled against this place, and shall not be quenched. But to the king of Judah which sent you to enquire of the LORD, thus shall ye say to him, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, As touching the words which thou hast heard; because thine heart was tender, and thou hast humbled thyself before the LORD, when thou heardest what I spake against this place, and against the inhabitants thereof, that they should become a desolation and a curse, and hast rent thy clothes, and wept before me; I also have heard thee, saith the LORD. Behold therefore, I will gather thee unto thy fathers, and thou shalt be gathered into thy grave in peace; and thine eyes shall not see all the evil which I will bring upon this place. And they brought the king word again,” 2 Kings 22:15-20.
Floods in Spain
There is a flood that has broken forth upon our nation like that which recently wrought such devastation, grieve and misery upon Spain, only it is even more destructive and catastrophic for it is the eternal wrath of God that will fall upon men for their defiance of Him.
King Josiah did much good and saw a turning in the nation but it was but temporary for the next generation reverted back to apostasy and rebellion as was seen in the lives of his sons.
I believe we had a ‘Josiah-like’ reformation here in Ulster in the 1960s to the early 1980s, but it is passing away and there is a reverting back to the evils that were rejected back in those glory days!
Despite the repeated warnings of the encroaching inroads of the falsehoods rejected by the Free Presbyterian Church so half a century ago:
‘Few there are who seem to care,
And fewer still to pray!’
I find myself unable to keep up with the torrent of shameful news reports which highlight the descent of the nation into the grossest of iniquity. Doubtless the weariness and the limiting of ability that comes with old age plays its part in that failure but I believe that chiefly it is that the tide of inquiry is mounting ever higher!
Here are some of the recent clear indications of the perversion, duplicity and sin that is endorsed and eulogised in our land!
Sincerely in Christ’s name,
Ivan Foster
CHURCH OF ENGLAND ACCUSED OF COVERING UP CRIMES AGAINST CHILDREN!
The ‘National Church’ in England, of whom the king is a titular head, is a cesspool of inquiry as is seen in this report from the ‘Family Education Trust’.
It is the manifestation of that same depraved corruption that Jude said had invaded the ‘church’ in his day.
“For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ,” Jude verse 4.
What hope is there for a nation when such behaviour is openly practised but little is really done in response to its exposure! Click to read more…
“Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle,” 2 Thessalonians 2:15.
(A message preached In Newtownabbey Free Presbyterian Church, Tuesday night, October 17th, 2017)
Jude was pressed in his soul to warn of the infiltration of the ranks of the Apostolic Church by those he called ‘creepers’! “There are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ,” Jude 1:4.
Jude makes very plain the character and the objective of these men.
1. They are ‘ungodly’, ordained of old to condemnation.
2. They are intent on altering the Bible’s definition of God’s grace. From holiness and purity to ‘lasciviousness’ or ‘wanton filthiness’!
3. They determined on promoting a refusal and rejection of God the Father and His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
An example of such a spirit was seen at Calvary. “But ye denied the Holy One and the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you,” Acts 3:14.
That which was evident in the 1st century amongst the people of God continues today, indeed is stronger than ever it was.
The Ecumenical Movement within the professing Christian Churches is but the League of Creepers and Infiltrators of which Jude spoke in his day. Infiltrators will ever change their appearance in order to advance their scheme. The robes of Ecumenism are one of today’s disguises of these ancient enemies of God and Truth.
I say ONE of the disguises for there are many. During W. W. II, the number of spies at work on both sides of the conflict were legion! They attained the highest positions in the ranks of the enemy and served the cause they espoused by advancing lies and misinformation.
So it is today. Ecumenism is a fountain of falsehood, duplicity and misinformation. It is a chief source of deceit amongst unsuspecting Protestants regarding what the Bible teaches and what is the character and objectives of the leading opponent of Bible truth, the Church of Rome. Click to read more…
“And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no man buyeth their merchandise any more: the merchandise of gold, and silver, and precious stones, and of pearls, and fine linen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet, and all thyine wood, and all manner vessels of ivory, and all manner vessels of most precious wood, and of brass, and iron, and marble, and cinnamon, and odours, and ointments, and frankincense, and wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat, and beasts, and sheep, and horses, and chariots, and slaves, and souls of men,” Revelation 18:11-13.
I was reminded of these words when I saw the following headline on a BBC news article.
“ . . . the women referred to the charity are done so by the Home Office. They are newcomers to Northern Ireland who tend to have been trafficked prior to their arrival here. But some others, she said, are brought to Northern Ireland specifically to be exploited – whether sexually or for domestic servitude. While others include women who are from Northern Ireland and who are exploited by people from here.”
These poor women are made ‘slaves’ for the most depraved reasons. The most severe punishment should be inflicted upon those engaged in this wickedness. That will not be the case of course!
It is a long time ago when I first read the verses quoted above. When I read the reference to trade in slaves I was puzzled how that such could ever be the case. Surely the days of slavery are over! Well, it was not too long afterwards, as I grew in a knowledge of God’s Word, that I learned that as this age advances toward its conclusion, sin and wickedness will greatly increase.
Antichrist’s empire
The rise of the Antichrist’s empire, particularly in the last seven years of this age, will see an empire of the most depraved activities established. The times of previous pagan and heathen practices will be revived and that to a degree above all that ever went before.
In the empires of Babylon, of Greece and of Rome, which was the empire of Antichrist in embryo (Daniel 2 and 7), slavery was a common thing. It was part of every day life. That is seen in the references to it in the days of the apostles. Even Christian homes had slaves. I would think that slavery was practiced in homes and then the gospel came and changed the home wonderfully. I am sure that those who before were slaves were then henceforth treated very differently. It would not have been a simple matter to release one who was a slave. They likely had no family nearby, being taken from some distant region of the Roman Empire. They would have no possessions, no home other than that of their master and likely no skill or trade to provide them with a living.
This was a problem encountered in more modern times, following America’s President Abraham Lincoln issuing the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863.
In apostolic times, I think it was the case that a slave owner who was converted thought it best for those he had formerly treated as slaves, that he continue to employ them within his own household but now on a voluntary basis and that for wages.
Papyrus 87 (Gregory-Aland), recto. The earliest known fragment of the Epistle to Philemon, believed to date to the late 2nd or early 3rd century.
Philemon
Paul’s epistle to his friend Philemon illustrates something of what I have just suggested as taking place under gospel influence.
Philemon was a good friend of Paul’s and highly regarded by him as a man of God. He was Paul’s “dearly beloved, and fellowlabourer,” verse 1. Furthermore, there was a “church” in his house, verse 2. That is, there was an assembling of Christians in his house for worship and fellowship.
Paul rejoiced in the witness and testimony that Philemon had. ““For we have great joy and consolation in thy love, because the bowels of the saints are refreshed by thee, brother,” verse 7.
However, Philemon was a slave owner. He had one at least, Onesimus. Onesimus had run away from his master and had arrived in Rome, where by the providence of God, he met with Paul and was converted.
The epistle of Paul to Philemon was a plea by the apostle to Philemon on behalf of Onesimus. Click to read more…
Coragarry Free Presbyterian Church, Co Monaghan, Republic of Ireland.
Yesterday I preached at the Sabbath services in Coragarry Free Presbyterian Church in Co. Monaghan.
When I arrived home after the evening service I contrasted my weariness with how I felt in 1971 when I first travelled there to conduct a gospel mission in the old Orange Hall, beside which now stands the Free Presbyterian Church.
Back then, three meetings per Sabbath and very occasionally, four meetings as well as five meetings during the week, was a usual occurrence. That I was able to do without the least weariness.
But I was only 27 years old!
I enjoy yesterday’s visit and I am attaching a copy of our evening message. You may have listened to it before for I preached the same text on at least one other occasion.
We pray that the folk in Coragarry will experience the Lord’s blessing as they welcome Mr Gregory Gibson, who is to be ordained and installed as their new minister at the end of this month. We wish Mr Gibson and his family every blessing.
I do not endorse all the views of this woman but what she says on the issue of the ‘SodomitePoppy’ is of note!
The RBL states that it has ‘‘Worked with them (Stonewall) in the past’! ‘Stonewall’ says of itself: “At Stonewall, we stand for lesbian, gay, bi, trans, queer, questioning and ace (LGBTQ+) people everywhere. We imagine a world where all LGBTQ+ people are free to be themselves and we can live our lives to the full.”
In other words, this organisation is in open rebellion against God and His Law and seeks to promote everything God calls ‘ABOMINABLE’ and which will damn those who engage in such practices to ‘everlasting hell’!
“For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient,” Romans 1:26-28.
“But we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against them which commit such things . . . . But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God; Who will render to every man according to his deeds,” Romans 2:2, 5-6.
“And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly,” 2 Peter 2:6.
“Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire,” Jude 1:7.
Irrespective of RBL’s present relationship with ‘Stonewall’, it has obviously left its mark on the RBL as is seen in the sodomite badge that it is flouting and promoting this year!
I have no doubt that this will greatly hit the ‘Poppy Appeal’, for no person, who has any regard for God’s truth and common decency, will wish to be associated with an organisation which promotes the views and objectives of ‘Stonewall’!!
Churches should especially take note of this evil innovation by the RBL!
“For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil,” Ecclesiastes 12:14.
News reporters notoriously seek out the most lurid headlines in order to intrigue the reader and encourage further reading or viewing. Selling their product is of the utmost importance and all other considerations, such as concern for the person or persons being featured in the article, the impact of the article upon friends and family or even truth itself, take second place.
There is an important place for the news media in society. There is a need for information on a whole range of matters which impact our lives and about which we need to be informed in order to make appropriate decisions, whether they be moral, political or financial.
Governments desire to control the ‘news’! Even in the freest of societies that takes place. There are many means used to accomplish this ‘control’. The issuing of false reports — ‘kite-flying’, simply ‘buying’ a reporter to set forth what the government wants the people to hear or conceal what they do not want the electorate to know.
Here is Ulster, there has been much of that over the last 50+ years! Elements within the government, the civil service and the various media outlets have been most keen to hide from the public the truth with respect to the long-term objectives of government, regarding the activities of Irish Republican terrorism.
Ever since William Gladstone introduced the ‘First Home Rule Bill’ in 1886, Ulster Protestants have been deeply suspicious of London’s intentions. The Home Rule Bill, and the successive attempts that followed would have placed Ulster’s Protestant majority under a Roman Catholic, Dublin based regime! Our forefathers back then adopted the slogan, ‘Home Rule is Rome Rule’ and they would have none of it. Indeed, when it appeared that London was prepared to use the British Army to force Protestants under Rome rule, our forefathers formed the Ulster Defence Force and prepared to resist such treachery by our own British government.
Modern St. George and The Dragon, 1888. Lord Salisbury as St George spears the dragon Gladstone. This map satirizes the Irish Home Rule crisis of 1886 and appeared two years later in the Conservative St. Stephen’s Review.
Members of the British Army prepared to Defy Orders
Providentially, there took place what was termed, ‘The Curragh Mutiny’. Wikipedia comments on the incident as follows.
“The Curragh incident of 20 March 1914, sometimes known as the Curragh mutiny, occurred in the Curragh, County Kildare, Ireland. The Curragh Camp was then the main base for the British Army in Ireland, which at the time still formed part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Ireland was scheduled to receive a measure of devolved government, which included Ulster, later in the year. The incident is important in 20th-century Irish history, and is notable for being one of the few occasions since the English Civil War in which elements of the British military openly intervened in politics. It is widely thought of as a mutiny, though no orders actually given were disobeyed.
With Irish Home Rule due to become law in 1914, the British Cabinet contemplated some kind of military action against the unionist Ulster Volunteers who threatened to rebel against it. Many officers, especially those with Irish Protestant connections, of whom the most prominent was Hubert Gough, threatened to resign or accept dismissal rather than obey orders to conduct military operations against the unionists, and were privately encouraged from London by senior officers including Henry Wilson.
Although the Cabinet issued a document claiming that the issue had been a misunderstanding, Secretary of State for War J. E. B. Seely and Chief of the Imperial General Staff (CIGS) Field Marshal Sir John French were forced to resign after amending it to promise that the British Army would not be used against the Ulster loyalists.”
It is a long time ago that in a press conference in December 1971, the then British Home Secretary, Reginald Maudling, made reference to an ‘acceptable level’ of violence in Northern Ireland. It was deemed a ‘political gaffe’ on his part but I have no doubt it revealed the animosity that abides still within the hearts of many mainland politicians toward the Protestants of Ulster and the sympathy those politicians have for Irish republicanism. Click to read more…
The text that I wish to bring to your attention is one that indicates that God works to a timetable.
Nothing proves this better than these verses.
“But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons,” Galatians 4:4-5.
In like fashion, we are told that that the Lord, “Hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation,” Acts 17:26.
God having timetable, which He most certainly will keep to, is a source of encouragement for us to live holy lives as Paul taught. “And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not,” Galatians 6:9.
Above all, do we not long for that time, unknown in its preciseness to us but absolutely certain nevertheless! “Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead,” Acts 17:31. We are to, “Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh,” Matthew 25:13.
There have been many great days in the calendar of God’s mercy. Few greater than that of 31st October 1517! According to Philip Melanchthon, 31 October 1517 was the day Martin Luther nailed his Ninety-five Theses on the door of the All Saints’ Church in Wittenberg, Electorate of Saxony, in the Holy Roman Empire.
Have we not much to rejoice in and be thankful for on this the 507th anniversary of that glorious day!
I trust you benefit from this study.
Sincerely in Christ’s name,
Ivan Foster
“It is time for thee, LORD, to work: for they have made void thy law,” Psalm 119:126.
The above verse is part of the scheduled Bible reading (McCheyne’s Bible Reading Calendar) for 30th October. The time to tell the Lord to work has arrived when there has been a making ‘void’, or ‘disannulling or causing to cease’ God’s Law.
It has been that time in the British Isles for a long time now!
‘Arch-apostate’, Justin Welby
In very recent days, that ‘Arch-apostate’, Justin Welby, the leader of the Church of England, that religious organisation of which British monarchs have long held an honorary ‘headship’, and which has given a lead to the rebellion against God and His Word for a very long time now, has descended to depths he had not heretofore gone! Click to read more…
Mr. Hey is a graduate of Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina, and earned his Ph.D. in chemistry at the University of Chicago. He preaches every Lord’s Day at Grace Bible Church, a small congregation in Greenwood, Mississippi.
A long-time reader of the Burning Bush, he has taken an interest in the troubles in Ulster, and prayed for courage to obey the Lord’s voice in these matters.
He has been a great help to me in maintaining the witness of the Burning Bush website, being an expert in such matters and it is to him I owe the professional appearance of the website.
He gives a lot of time freely to updating my articles and for this I sincerely thank him.
His message, though from some seventeen years ago, is very much up to date and instructive. I know that you will enjoy and benefit from listening to it.
“Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints,” Jude 1:3.
This is a verse with which I have beeb acquainted from my earliest days as a Christian. It was frequently quoted and expounded from the pulpit of Ravenhill Free Presbyterian Church but the minister, Ian R K Paisley.
I have often employed it to expose the dangers facing the people of God from the agents of the devil who creep in to the assembly of the saints surreptitiously in order to destroy the gospel and wreck the work of God.
In recent days I have seen that there is another implication set forth by these words and it is that the people to whom Jude was writing were in need of being warned for they obviously were unaware of the dangers these ‘creepers’ presented! It was not just the wickedness of the creepers that concerned Jude, but the naivety of the saints!
I suppose we can all recall responding to the revelation of a deception wrought upon someone who believed a fraudster with the words, ‘How did they not see that it was a deception?’
We likely have reacted to some newspaper story of how a swindler had obtained from some person a large sum of money by using deceitful words that ought to have been obvious to the one deceived! That has happened and will continue to happen despite the warnings issued and the reports of others being duped!
Why is that so?
Christians, for it is them we want to think of in particular, are likened unto sheep and rightly so for they are easily deceived and led astray. They are in constant need of guidance and guarding.
“But made his own people to go forth like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock,” Psalm 78:52.
Being sheep and gullible, God’s people have often been brought into captivity. “But if ye will not hear it, my soul shall weep in secret places for your pride; and mine eye shall weep sore, and run down with tears, because the LORD’S flock is carried away captive,” Jeremiah 13:17. Click to read more…
Today’s ‘Belfast Newsletter’ provides yet further evidence of the spirit of deception that has long been at work within the ranks of the DUP.
What a contrast these revelations show existed between those engaged in this chicanery and the holy standards the Lord requires of leaders!
“Moreover thou shalt provide out of all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such over them, to be rulers of thousands, and rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens:,” Exodus 18:21.
Today’s DUP members must recognise that the present political foundation and course of their party is one comprised of liars and deceit and CANNOT therefore succeed.
It will be brought down by the God of Truth.
No person who professes to love and obey the One Who called Himself, “the way, the truth, and the life,” (John 14:6) and of Whom it is said: “The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth,” John 1:14, can continue in membership of the DUP without forfeiting the blessing of God!
All these revelations must be seen as the Lord informing His people of the wickedness that has been wrought in the past and which many professing Christians were eager deny, cover up and conceal and the Lord is thereby requiring His people to act and to “come out from among them” (2 Corinthians 6:17) and be separated from such ungodliness.
A group of archaeologists and scientists called the Mount Ararat and Noah’s Ark Research Team carried out research on the Durupinar formation, which is located two miles from the border in eastern Turkey.
The Durupinar Formation in eastern Turkey
The geological formation in the Doğubayazıt district of Ağrı has been a source of intrigue since its gaining wider public attention in the 1950s.
Marine materials were also discovered in the soil, suggesting that it had once been submerged in deep water, and also encouraging the idea that it could be the famous vessel described in Genesis. Click to read more…
With lurid headlines, the “Belfast Telegraph’ joyfully exposed the chicanery of the DUP when it entered talks with Sinn Fein/IRA, all the while strenuously denying that such were taking place. Amongst those who made the deceitful and wicked denials were those within the ranks of the DUP who professed faith in Christ!
This but made their betrayal immeasurably worse and undoubtedly offended the Lord and made certain their downfall as a result of this deviousness.
If they are capable of it, the DUP ought to be ashamed of their past. This revelation offers an explanation of the DUP’s increasing decline and helplessness in the face of Sinn Féin’s rise!
It also maps out their future continued demise, if there is no acknowledgment of the evil course they embarked upon in order to obtain the trivial and fragile trappings of power!
It should be noted that the man who now makes public the DUP’s double-dealing and treacherous betrayal of their supporters and voters, was a renowned ‘traitor’, who was already guilty of his abandoning historic Methodism for the evil modernistic and Bible-denials of ‘Ecumenism’ with its openly acknowledged programme of the reunion of Protestantism with Roman Catholicism. He is laughably described in the article as a man with ‘unimpeachable integrity’!
What a term to use of a man who broke his ministerial oath and turned his back on the stance of John Wesley!
The ‘Belfast Telegraph’ is an expert in ‘white-washing’!!
Dear Christian this is the explanation for our present perilous spiritual and political circumstances. It is as Daniel said in his prayer of confession of the sins of his nation, which I have just finished reading!
“O Lord, to us belongeth confusion of face, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against thee. . . . Yea, all Israel have transgressed thy law, even by departing, that they might not obey thy voice; therefore the curse is poured upon us, and the oath that is written in the law of Moses the servant of God, because we have sinned against him. And he hath confirmed his words, which he spake against us, and against our judges that judged us, by bringing upon us a great evil: for under the whole heaven hath not been done as hath been done upon Jerusalem. As it is written in the law of Moses, all this evil is come upon us: yet made we not our prayer before the LORD our God, that we might turn from our iniquities, and understand thy truth,” Daniel 9:8, 11-13.
I do not expect any repentance or confession of wrong-doing by the DUP leadership. Pride and political ambition hinder politicians doing that! Click to read more…
Hillsborough congregation, under the leadership of its minister, Rev Ian Kenny, organised special gospel meetings to mark the occasion and nothing could be more appropriate since the whole purpose of the existence of the Free Presbyterian witness is to preach and defend the message of Christ.
I was invited to take part in the marking of the anniversary by preaching last night (Wednesday, 23rd October). My invitation resulted from my links with the congregation from its earliest day and particularly because of a mission I conducted back in October 1978.
I cannot really describe the precious thoughts that arose in my heart and mind as I took part in the prayer meeting before the service and heard men pray and speak in thanksgiving of having attended the mission and the prayer meetings that took place each evening back 46 years earlier.
Hillsborough Free Presbyterian Church
A video was shown during the service of one of those saved in the mission and who became a beloved elder in the congregation, Mr Harold McKibben. It was most moving to hear him tell of how he got saved and how, shortly afterwards, he led his young son to the Saviour. That son made himself known to after the service! He is actively involved in the witness of the congregation.
After the meeting, as I stood at the door and bade farewell to the folk who attended the service, it was indescribably blessed to have some tell me how they had been saved in the mission or how a father or loved now in glory was saved as a result of the mission.
I said in my first remarks that the anniversary service was to a degree what heaven would like be for believers. There will be infinitely more perfect remembering and praising of God for His kindness and mercy and love.
I trust this recording will prove a blessing as you listen.
Click here to check out the Editor’s book about the antichrist.
“The coming of the Lord draweth nigh”, James 5:8
(Extracts from the Editor’s book, ‘The Shadow of the Antichrist’ – Part 1)
This is a time when natural phenomena are manifested all around, with ‘disasters’ of every form hitting nations and causing death and destruction at levels that are most uncommon.
These events have aroused a world-wide campaign, led by the likes of David Attenborough, based upon the premise that mankind’s actions in more recent times have so damaged the earth’s environment as to bring about its utter demise!
There is no doubt that man is the author of his own destruction but it is not so much his selfish and greedy abuse of earth’s natural resources that is bringing disaster upon this world but rather his defiance of the moral standards that God has instituted for mankind and epitomised in the Ten Commandments. That is the reason behind what are the mere ‘firstfruits’ of a coming judgment!
Mr Attenborough, far from being the ‘saviour’ he would have people think of him as, is one of the leading proponents of what is bringing this world into collision with its Creator. He is an atheistic evolutionist, whose view dismisses the existence of a Creator and replaces Him with the absolutely ludicrous notions of invented by his fellow-evolutionists. Their notions are not only ludicrous but forever changing with disagreements aplenty within their ranks!
The rejection of the Bible’s revelation of God and the origin of all things, always a factor in human thinking since the fall of Adam, but which in these lasts days is becoming the dominant view of humanity, is the source of the lawlessness and moral mayhem we see daily reported on the various news outlets.
That in turn, will bring God’s final judgment upon mankind. The Bible’s warnings of this are despised and mocked but the reality of it is manifested before our eyes! The ‘perilous times’ prophesied in Holy Scripture (2 Tim 3:1) are breaking forth all around!
The Lord has clearly revealed events that will take place as a display of Heaven’s displeasure at the moral direction humanity is taking. There are many place where these signs are warned of, none more so than the last book of the Bible, the Book of the Revelation.
The opening words of that book are significant.
“The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass,” Revelation 1:1.
The meaning of the words may be expressed in this fashion: “The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must come to pass in a short time.”
The Bible clearly bears out this rendition of the words by repeatedly indicating that the end of the age will reach a swift climax in a brief period of three and a half years of unparalleled defiance of God and rebellion against Him and His people. That period is underscored by being referred to under three different definitions of the length of it.
A thousand two hundred and threescore days, Revelation 11:3, 12:6.
A time, and times, and half a time. Revelation 12:14.
Forty and two months. Revelation 11:2, 13:5.
The Lord has underscored the duration of the ‘tribulation’ of the final days of this age by defining it in three different ways so that there can be no misunderstanding of what it is He is saying! Or perhaps I should say, that there can be no EXCUSE for anyone misunderstanding the duration of time stated!
There is none who can really disagree with that assessment, even though the incident referred to was not in keeping with Scriptural behaviour. Protesting against abortion by the unscriptural practice of praying for the dead, is near enough a witness to the existence of God for the government to ban it!
In the light of this approach of the end of this age and the signs which the Lord will send upon this earth to indicate that approach, I wish to publish in a series of articles, part of my expositional commentary on the ‘Book of the Revelation’ which I entitled: ‘The Shadow of the Antichrist’.
Here is the first extract from the chapter entitled, ‘The Opening of the Seals’. I have mounted the book in PDF form on ‘The Burning Bush’ website. — ‘The Shadow of the Antichrist’.
THE OPENING OF THE SEALS.
Chapter 6.
The explanation of the significance of the sealed book was seen in our consideration of Jeremiah, chapter 32. The Church of Christ is a purchased Church. Its members are a redeemed people awaiting the day of their entering into the full experience of their redemption.
That day will dawn with the return of Christ to this earth in glory.
For that day we watch. The phrase Come and see is repeated by one of the four living creatures or angelic beings, as the seals are opened, verses 1, 3, 5, 7. It is God’s will that we know something of the events that will take place before the coming of the Son of Man.
The believer should observe the times and seasons in order to mark the approach of that day. When the signs, that the Saviour has told us will herald His return, begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh, Luke 21:28.
The Holy Ghost’s work is to seal us in Christ and our partaking of His grace is the earnest, or the down-payment, of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, Ephesians 1:14. Click to read more…
‘A beautiful day to have saint’s relics in our parish’ Honouring an alleged saint’s bones
The BBC Northern Ireland news site has been carrying the story of the touring of the bones of a Roman Catholic ‘saint’, French farm girl, Bernadette Soubirous. She claimed back in 1858 that she had seen the ‘Immaculate Conception’. This happened between 11 February and 16 July 1858, and Bernadette claim that the young lady who appeared to her identified herself as ‘the Immaculate Conception’.
Bernadette Soubirous
The term, ‘the Immaculate Conception’ is explained as meaning: ‘The Immaculate Conception is the belief that the Virgin Mary was free of original sin from the moment of her conception. It is one of the four Marian dogmas of the Catholic Church.’
I find it strange that what the young French girl claimed she saw was not ‘the Virgin Mary’ but ‘the Immaculate Conception’, which is the title of a doctrine of Rome and not a person!
Of course ‘logic’ has no place in this or any of the other notions that Rome puts forth as a ‘doctrine’ to be believed!
What is a truth, however, is that Mary never claimed for herself that she was free from sin. Rather she praised the Lord as the One Who was her ‘Saviour’.
“And Mary said, My soul doth magnify the Lord, And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour,” Luke 1:46-47.
If she was not a sinner she had no need of a ‘Saviour’ and would not have then referred to the Lord as such! Click to read more…
This article from today’s ‘Belfast Newsletter’ has just been sent to me by a watchful friend and I am passing it on.
I believe that it highlights the devious workings of those determined to introduce the morally polluting corruptions of the sex education reforms, proposed in the ‘Relationship and Sex Education’ scheme, into the classrooms of the state schools here in Northern Ireland.
The nature of the ‘online survey’ of parents, launched by the Stormont Education Committee, is so designed as to make it nigh on impossible to reject this scheme. The state school hierarchy are determined to impose this evil teaching upon children.
Christians must take note of this and recognise the danger facing their offspring in the state school and take the ONLY effective step to safeguard their children — that of sending them to a Bible-based school!
“And they shall teach my people the difference between the holy and profane, and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean,” Ezekiel 44:23.
I have been reading my way through the book of Ezekiel of late as I follow ‘Robert Murray McCheyne’s Bible Reading Calendar’, a very useful guide to systematically reading one’s Bible.
Since chapter 40, I have been reading about the future temple that will occupy its place in Jerusalem in the days of the Saviour’s Millennial Reign (Revelation 20:4-6).
The details of the temple structure given to us are really beyond our comprehension today but one day, as will be the case in many matters, we will with ease fully understand the significance of the details given. However, we may observe now that the details of the temple suggest that which creation generally declares, “the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard,” Psalm 19:1-3, so it will be with the details of the temple. That spoken of by Ezekiel will reveal features of the ‘great and glorious Architect’ of the splendid edifice.
SERVANTS
The ministering of God’s servants within the temple are also detailed for us in these chapters. The text I wish to draw attention to encapsulates the essence of their service.
I. THE PRIEST WAS EVER TEACHING GOD’S PEOPLE
What a wealth of knowledge concerning the truth of God is to be found in a consideration of the details of the garments the priest wore, the sacrifices he offered and his general conduct in the tabernacle and later in the temple?
1. The holy garments that the priest was required to wear sets forth the state we must be in as we come before the Lord. As the Old Testament saints were told: “Sanctify yourselves therefore, and be ye holy: for I am the LORD your God,” Leviticus 20:7, even so are we in the New Testament era required to observe just such a command. “But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy,” 1 Peter 1:15-16. Holiness of thought, word and deed is likened onto a garment to be donned. Click to read more…
“Church claims pupils called ‘bullies’ over homosexuality views”, so ran a headline of a BBC online news report here in Northern Ireland. It was a report on a meeting between representatives of the ‘Transferor Representatives’ Council (TRC)’ and MLAs on Stormont’s Education Committee. The chair of the education committee is Alliance MLA, Nick Mathison.
In the ‘Belfast Newsletter’, the report on the same matter was headlined: “Presbyterian and Methodist churches defend sex education (RSE) in Northern Ireland controlled schools to Sinn Fein and Alliance Party MLAs”.
The ‘Transferor Representatives’ Council’ (TRC) represents the three largest Protestant denominations, which handed some 500 schools into state care from the 1920s-50s, thus creating the controlled sector.
Dr Andrew Brown and Dr Rebecca Stevenson represented the Presbyterian Church in Ireland and Dr Anita Gracie the Methodist Church in Ireland.
The three representatives of the Transferor Representatives’ Council (TRC) from left Dr Rebecca Stevenson, Dr Andrew Brown and Dr Anita Gracie
The BBC news report served to highlight the depths of the acceptance of the corruptions of false doctrine within ecumenical denominations here, while the ‘Belfast Newsletter’ emphasised, ‘Sinn Fein and Alliance MLAs have pressed Protestant church representatives to justify why a Christian perspective should be valid in sex education in controlled schools.’
Both Sinn Fein and Alliance parties would be most happy to see every last remnant of Bible truth removed from state school classrooms.
Stormont’s Education Committee
The representatives from the TRC were there at Stormont to give evidence about Relationships and Sexuality Education (RSE) before Stormont’s Education Committee.
If the Government has its way, it will soon be compulsory for all post-primary schools in Northern Ireland to teach pupils about access to abortion and prevention of early pregnancy. Such is the result of former Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris laying regulations on RSE in Parliament in 2023. Click to read more…
Under the headline: ‘Why I’m glad my Christian beliefs shifted before my wonderful granda passed away’ a journalist, Gareth Hanna, who makes no secret of his rejection of the Bible, rejoices in his casting away of the truth of the word of God. An alternative title for the article seems to be ‘Traditional Christian beliefs are throwing grieving families into needless despair’.
I think he has been told to change the title so that the blasphemous point he is trying to make is even more clear to ‘BT’ readers!
Although I have already sent out an article today, I must answer this wicked man’s deceptions!
Gareth Hanna is one whose writings I have challenged before and contradicted from the Word of God. It is to the shame of the ‘Belfast Telegraph’ that they have given space yet again to such blasphemies but I suppose, having embraced that position decades ago, that newspaper is unlikely to change.
As for the writer, Gareth Hanna, as a Christian one must sense with sorrow, something of the horror that the Bible reveals awaits someone of his opinion!
Hanna’s article ends with this self-evidently stupidly defiant statement:
I say, ‘self-evidently stupidly defiant statement’, for the simple reason that while he employs the word ‘unsaved’, the opposite of the word that is used of God to describe those who have been redeemed by the blood of Christ’s sacrifice at Calvary and who are thus assured of heaven’s peace and joy for all eternity, he then deliberately misleads his readers by stating that those who come under this term, ‘unsaved’ are not to be considered eternally lost! To be concerned about being ‘unsaved’ is needless. Hanna says! He would have his readers blindly follow his reasoning and reject the plain Word of God! Click to read more…
Stormont is the capital of lies and prevarication in Northern Ireland, the very seat of betrayal!
The whole regime, sited in a building that was once the political ‘Zion’ of Ulster Protestants, is now structured on lies and it pursues a perverse and fraudulent agenda which but faintly masks the true agenda of its Irish Republican majority — a united Ireland under a popish dominated Dublin!
There are few who occupy its seats who have not been caught out in deceit and falsehood in recent times.
There was a time when a person in public office who lied would immediately have resigned in shame. But with a record of public support for and glorying in terror, murder, thieving and treachery, it is not surprising that Sinn Fein does not step up and acknowledge their duplicity with regards the case of Michael McMonagle, a Sinn Fein employee, indeed a Sinn Fein press officer.
Michael McMonagle was arrested by police investigating sexual offences while working as a Sinn Féin press officer and the party was informed in August 2021.
We are told in the press that two other Sinn Fein employees, former press office colleagues, provided McMonagle with references before he was hired as an events and communication manager with the British Heart Foundation in September 2022.
Michelle O’Neill says she knew nothing about the references.
Michelle O’Neill has also said at the time, the party “took decisive action” and, in line with their policies, immediately suspended McMonagle as a party member and as press officer.
From then on, the First Minister says, she had “no further contact with him”.
McMonagle accompanies the family of Dáithí Mac Gabhann at a British Heart Foundation event in Stormont in February 2023 which was also attended by the First Minister. Click to read more…
There are few false religions that are more bombastic and arrogant in their blasphemies than Islam.
Just this morning, I read in my Bible one of God’s many pronouncements concerning Israel: “Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them: and I will place them, and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore. My tabernacle also shall be with them: yea, I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And the heathen shall know that I the LORD do sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for evermore,” Ezekiel 37:26-28.
Despite Islam’s professed regard for the Bible, the Muslim unhesitatingly blasphemies against God’s Word and would seek to trample its truth underfoot!
This outrageous rant by the Iranian leader is in direct conflict with that which the Lord solemnly repeats on many occasions throughout the ages.
Here are just some of God’s declarations regarding His purpose for the people and the land of Israel.
1. GOD’S PROMISE TO ABRAHAM, SOME 4000 YEARS AGO.
“And the LORD appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the LORD, who appeared unto him,” Genesis 12:7. Click to read more…
This is the fruit of the falsehoods of ecumenism, liberal theology and the spread of such by the infiltration of Christian churches and organisations by the devil and his agents, particularly over the last 100+ years.
“Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it,” John 8:44.
“And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season,” Revelation 20:1-3.
It is also the outworking of the events that God, in His Word, has foretold would happen!
“For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows. Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake. And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved,” Matthew 24:5-13. Click to read more…
“O God, the heathen are come into thine inheritance; thy holy temple have they defiled; they have laid Jerusalem on heaps. The dead bodies of thy servants have they given to be meat unto the fowls of the heaven, the flesh of thy saints unto the beasts of the earth. Their blood have they shed like water round about Jerusalem; and there was none to bury them. We are become a reproach to our neighbours, a scorn and derision to them that are round about us. How long, LORD? wilt thou be angry for ever? shall thy jealousy burn like fire? Pour out thy wrath upon the heathen that have not known thee, and upon the kingdoms that have not called upon thy name. For they have devoured Jacob, and laid waste his dwelling place. O remember not against us former iniquities: let thy tender mercies speedily prevent us: for we are brought very low. Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of thy name: and deliver us, and purge away our sins, for thy name’s sake. Wherefore should the heathen say, Where is their God? let him be known among the heathen in our sight by the revenging of the blood of thy servants which is shed. Let the sighing of the prisoner come before thee; according to the greatness of thy power preserve thou those that are appointed to die; And render unto our neighbours sevenfold into their bosom their reproach, wherewith they have reproached thee, O Lord. So we thy people and sheep of thy pasture will give thee thanks for ever: we will shew forth thy praise to all generations,” Psalm 79:1-13.
Once again Israel and Jerusalem are in the news and those who love God’s ancient nation, with dread see a terrible day approaching. That Israel can take care of itself as did David when faced by Goliath, has been demonstrated on many occasions, yet an alliance of enemies is being forged at this present time and it speaks of a day of cruel persecution for Israel in the near future.
Iran, Iraq and Syria are currently active against Israel through their ‘surrogate’ terrorist organisations, Hezbollah, the terrorist arm of Iran, being presently the most active. They occupy large areas in Lebanon, Israel’s northern neighbour and are thus well situated to bombard Israel by artillery and rockets. It has a sizeable body of armed guerrillas under its command. It was announced to the world on Saturday, September 28th, that Israel had killed its infamous leader, by an air strike on his headquarters in Beirut. The BBC headline ran as follows: Hezbollah confirms death of leader Hassan Nasrallah after Israeli strikes on Beirut. Nasrallah, who had not been seen in public for years because of fears of being assassinated by Israel, was considered by many as one of the most influential figures in the Middle East.
Terrorism tends to elevate those guilty of it as it did Gerry Adams, a former barman, whose links with the murderous IRA promoted him to the status of that of a ‘statesman’, at least in the eyes of some ‘eejits’, such as former USA President, Bill Clinton, an openly acknowledged moral deviant!
The Psalm 79 describes scenes that some believe are of Jerusalem in the days of Jeremiah, following its overthrow and devastation by the Babylonians. Others see it as a report of a later overthrowing of the city by Antiochus IV Epiphanes, who ruled the Seleucid Empire from 175 BC until his death in 164 BC. Click to read more…
To mark the anniversary of the cruelty experienced by the Jewish people under Adolf Hitler, when 6 millions were murdered, I republish this article from 2016. It is the substance of what was taught to the pupils of Kilskeery Independent Christian School back then.
There is a more substantial link between heaven and earth than we Christians can perceive. There is much of heaven’s activity on earth of which we are not aware. The Bible clearly indicates that. For instance, the Saviour said on one occasion: “Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven,” Matthew 18:10. Again, we are told by Paul of the angels, “Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?” Hebrews 1:14.
“Then said he, Unto what is the kingdom of God like? and whereunto shall I resemble it? It is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and cast into his garden; and it grew, and waxed a great tree; and the fowls of the air lodged in the branches of it,” Luke 13:18-19.
Yet another reason to hesitate before supporting the Royal British Legion ‘Poppy Appeal’!
With lurid headlines, the “Belfast Telegraph’ joyfully exposed the chicanery of the DUP when it entered talks with Sinn Fein/IRA, all the while strenuously denying that such were taking place. Amongst those who made the deceitful and wicked denials were those within the ranks of the DUP who professed faith in Christ!
Stormont is the capital of lies and prevarication in Northern Ireland, the very seat of betrayal!
«A Psalm of Asaph.»