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KICS assembly talks. Current series: “KICS Studies – Children in the Gospels who met the Lord Jesus”

• Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4
• See all the talks in this series here.
• See all the KICS assembly talks listed here.

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Older Sermons Recently Added

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Posted on 2024-09-30 a 9:15 pm

(The final study)

The cry of the believer in a day of distress.

“Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith the LORD hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger,” Lamentations 1:12.

This is a verse which has often been used by preachers to illustrate the attitude of the world toward the Saviour on the cross. He was a spectacle of woe and many passed by showing little sympathy but rather mocking and deriding Him.

Such an application is very acceptable and proper. Paul the apostle used the command of God with regards the muzzling of an ox as it trampled on corn as a means of threshing it — “Thou shalt not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn,” Deuteronomy 25:4 — to illustrate the duty of the believer to help in the supply of a gospel minister’s needs, 1 Corinthians 9:9 and 1 Timothy 5:18.

But the primary application of this verse is of that to which it firstly is referring to – the lamentation of the city of Jerusalem in grief over its fate.

I. THE SUFFERINGS OF THE PEOPLE OF GOD ARE OF NO CONCERN TO THE WORLD

“Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by?” The expression is that of a person occupied by the business they are engaged in, so occupied as to have neither interest nor time to consider the vision of woe they are passing.

1. The world has a spirit of enmity toward the people of God. “Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be,” Romans 8:7. The sight of the people of God in adversity provokes no sorrow or sympathy but rather gladness. That is seen in the attitude that the Lord condemned in the men of Edom at the destruction of Jerusalem mentioned in our text. Click to read more…

Posted on 2024-09-28 a 6:00 am

Once again John Coulter gives the Belfast Newsletter (25th September) readers the benefit of his bottomless folly! He writes under the title: ‘How should Christians really unwind on the Sabbath?’

In the article he seeks to muddy the clear waters of the Bible’s clear teaching on the Sabbath Day and lend support to and offer excuses on behalf of those who would see God’s commands regarding this essential element of Christianity defied and abandoned.

I might first of all state that God ordained the seventh day as the Sabbath in the Old Testament era in order to commemorate the finishing the work of creating all things in six days and resting the seventh day. The word ‘Sabbath’ means ‘rest’.

In the New Testament age, the end of which  I believe is approaching fast, the Lord changed the seventh day to the first day of the week as the day of ‘rest’ in order to commemorate His rising from the dead and thus demonstrating that He had finished His great work of the redemption of His elect.

John Coulter would have us believe that there is confusion surrounding how a Christian should behave on the Sabbath. Click to read more…

Posted on 2024-09-26 a 6:00 am

The BBC headlines on Saturday, September 21st 2024, indicated that in truth it is ‘NO CHANGE’ at DUP HQ!

DUP leader pledges new approach in conference speech

There can be no change within the DUP if it does not acknowledge that it has been promoting the wrong policies, evil polices, and pursuing them by deceitful and devious ways!

The DUP leader may now be claiming that the ‘approach’ will be different, but the DUP under him is still going to seek to promote that which is utterly in opposition to the mind and will of God for nations, great and small, as set forth in His Word!

This is mere chicanery!

Gavin Robinson opened his speech with an undertaking to serve his people. He claims that he will ‘chart a path for a stronger tomorrow’! He says he is ‘optimistic’ for the future. Given the recent events within the ranks of the DUP, hoping for anything short of WW III, would show optimism!

He refers to the last six months as ‘difficult, challenging’. That is rather a euphemistic way in which to refer to the recent past! Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, his predecessor, resigned at Easter after being charged with historical sex offences, and the DUP lost three seats in the Westminster election.

For the DUP leader to acknowledge the last six months as being merely “difficult and challenging” is an evidence of the degree of ‘self-delusion’ within the DUP ranks!

‘Charting a new path’ cannot be accomplished by sticking to a path which involves embracing the devil’s lies and depravities and rejecting God’s truth. That is what is entailed in the present political ‘menu’ the DUP offers to Ulster.

That ‘menu’ includes:

(1) support for government in partnership with IRA-terrorist honouring Sinn Fein.

(2) the embracing and endorsing of sodomy and its allied corruptions.

(3) ignoring the deceitful claims of deliverance from Westminster’s ‘Brexit ‘sham’ and then a lying cover-up and denial when that double-dealing is exposed! Click to read more…

Posted on 2024-09-25 a 5:27 pm

“Cast me not off in the time of old age; forsake me not when my strength faileth. . . . Now also when I am old and grayheaded, O God, forsake me not; until I have shewed thy strength unto this generation, and thy power to every one that is to come,” Psalm 71:9, 18.

In my School Assembly studies with the girls and boys of Kilskeery Independent Christian School, I have been urging upon them the wonderful truth that in the Bible, the Lord speaks directly to young people.

Here in this Psalm 71, we can observe words that are particularly directed toward those at the other end of the age spectrum!

What a wonderful book the Bible is! Everyone who believingly reads it can clutch it to their hearts as a personal word from the Lord to them!

While the Psalmist was not one who had access to a ‘pension’ in the manner we have come to accept here in the United Kingdom, he was certainly of that age at which pensions become available to us here. I must say, however, that the Lord undoubtedly provides a ‘pension’ to those who trust Him! These words from Psalm 92 surely indicate that!

“They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing; to shew that the LORD is upright: he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him,” verses 14-15.

The words of Isaiah the prophet endorse this truth. “Hearken unto me, O house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house of Israel, which are borne by me from the belly, which are carried from the womb: And even to your old age I am he; and even to hoar hairs will I carry you: I have made, and I will bear; even I will carry, and will deliver you,” Isaiah 46:3-4.

To these words, I may add Paul’s thoughts. “And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom: to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen,” 2 Timothy 4:18.

Here in Psalm 71, is revealed to us by divine inspiration, the very proper concerns of the aged and a proper setting forth of those concerns before the Lord in prayer. Click to read more…

Posted on 2024-09-25 a 6:00 am

Mrs Ann Foster BA, founding principal of Kilskeery Independent Christian School, speaking at a Sunday School Teachers’ Conference in Mourne Free Presbyterian Church in 1984.

She “being dead yet speaketh,” Hebrews 11:4.

Posted on 2024-09-23 a 6:00 am

AFFLICTION – a great aid to remembering!

“Jerusalem remembered in the days of her affliction and of her miseries all her pleasant things that she had in the days of old, when her people fell into the hand of the enemy, and none did help her: the adversaries saw her, and did mock at her sabbaths,” Lamentations 1:7.

That which Jerusalem stout-heartedly refused to believe when warned by Jeremiah, she has forced upon her by the afflictions that followed her rebellion and defiance of God and His Word!

Jeremiah had repeatedly warned in vain.

“My bowels, my bowels! I am pained at my very heart; my heart maketh a noise in me; I cannot hold my peace, because thou hast heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war. Destruction upon destruction is cried; for the whole land is spoiled: suddenly are my tents spoiled, and my curtains in a moment. How long shall I see the standard, and hear the sound of the trumpet? For my people is foolish, they have not known me; they are sottish children, and they have none understanding: they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge,” Jeremiah 4:19-22.

“Hear now this, O foolish people, and without understanding; which have eyes, and see not; which have ears, and hear not: Fear ye not me? saith the LORD: will ye not tremble at my presence, which have placed the sand for the bound of the sea by a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass it: and though the waves thereof toss themselves, yet can they not prevail; though they roar, yet can they not pass over it? But this people hath a revolting and a rebellious heart; they are revolted and gone. Neither say they in their heart, Let us now fear the LORD our God, that giveth rain, both the former and the latter, in his season: he reserveth unto us the appointed weeks of the harvest. Your iniquities have turned away these things, and your sins have withholden good things from you. For among my people are found wicked men: they lay wait, as he that setteth snares; they set a trap, they catch men. As a cage is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit: therefore they are become great, and waxen rich. They are waxen fat, they shine: yea, they overpass the deeds of the wicked: they judge not the cause, the cause of the fatherless, yet they prosper; and the right of the needy do they not judge. Shall I not visit for these things? saith the LORD: shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this? A wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the land; the prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so: and what will ye do in the end thereof?” Jeremiah 5:21-31.

However, what was refused from the lips of Jeremiah by the vast majority, is now ‘force-fed’ to the stubbornly stupid people of Jerusalem by the cruel hand of accumulated afflictions.

I. THAT WHICH HAD BEEN PRESSED UPON THE PEOPLE IS VIVIDLY RECALLED IN THEIR AFFLICTION

The word ‘remembered’ means ‘to recall to mind’. The warnings of Jeremiah had been heard but rejected but nevertheless, his words remained in their minds, unobserved and unheeded, until ‘affliction’ caused them to be ‘recalled’ and pondered. Click to read more…

Posted on 2024-09-21 a 6:00 am

“For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment; And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly,” 2 Peter 2:4-5.

I was reminded of the almost universal scoffing that has greeted the Bible’s account of the flood of Noah as I read such headlines as:

Polish city urged to evacuate as floods batter central Europe

and saw the extensive region affected, covering areas in a number of countries in Europe.

The floods have been caused by a number of factors according to scientists.

The BBC reported the following: ‘The record rainfall seen in central Europe has been caused by a number of factors, including climate change.

Different weather elements came together to create a “perfect storm” in which very cold air from the Arctic met warm air from the Mediterranean.

A pattern of atmospheric pressure also meant that Storm Boris was stuck in one place for a long time.

Scientists say that a warmer atmosphere holds more moisture, leading to more intense rainfall. Warmer oceans also lead to more evaporation, feeding storm systems.’

So say the scientists, who, despite all their learning and knowledge, know not the Lord or anything of His divine superintendence of all that happens in the world.

Pharaoh had to learn this truth the hard way.

“And the LORD said unto Moses, Rise up early in the morning, and stand before Pharaoh; lo, he cometh forth to the water; and say unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Let my people go, that they may serve me. Else, if thou wilt not let my people go, behold, I will send swarms of flies upon thee, and upon thy servants, and upon thy people, and into thy houses: and the houses of the Egyptians shall be full of swarms of flies, and also the ground whereon they are. And I will sever in that day the land of Goshen, in which my people dwell, that no swarms of flies shall be there; to the end thou mayest know that I am the LORD in the midst of the earth. And I will put a division between my people and thy people: to morrow shall this sign be. And the LORD did so; and there came a grievous swarm of flies into the house of Pharaoh, and into his servants’ houses, and into all the land of Egypt: the land was corrupted by reason of the swarm of flies,”Exodus 8:20-24.

Last Days

At the close of this age, because of the nations’ increasing rebellion against the Lord, in a manner reminiscent of the defiance shown by Pharaoh, there will be manifestations of God’s power in judgment against wicked nations. Click to read more…

Posted on 2024-09-20 a 6:00 am

“And there came two angels to Sodom at even; and Lot sat in the gate of Sodom: and Lot seeing them rose up to meet them; and he bowed himself with his face toward the ground; and he said, Behold now, my lords, turn in, I pray you, into your servant’s house, and tarry all night, and wash your feet, and ye shall rise up early, and go on your ways. And they said, Nay; but we will abide in the street all night. And he pressed upon them greatly; and they turned in unto him, and entered into his house; and he made them a feast, and did bake unleavened bread, and they did eat. But before they lay down, the men of the city, even the men of Sodom, compassed the house round, both old and young, all the people from every quarter: And they called unto Lot, and said unto him, Where are the men which came in to thee this night? bring them out unto us, that we may know them. And Lot went out at the door unto them, and shut the door after him, And said, I pray you, brethren, do not so wickedly. Behold now, I have two daughters which have not known man; let me, I pray you, bring them out unto you, and do ye to them as is good in your eyes: only unto these men do nothing; for therefore came they under the shadow of my roof.

And they said, Stand back. And they said again, This one fellow came in to sojourn, and he will needs be a judge: now will we deal worse with thee, than with them. And they pressed sore upon the man, even Lot, and came near to break the door. But the men put forth their hand, and pulled Lot into the house to them, and shut to the door. And they smote the men that were at the door of the house with blindness, both small and great: so that they wearied themselves to find the door,” Genesis 19:1-11.

“And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked: (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;),” 2 Peter 2:7-8.

“Then the LORD rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the LORD out of heaven; And he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground,” Genesis 19:24-25.

“And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day. 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 1:6-7.

Throughout the ages, the Lord in mercy has graphically pictured for mankind what lies ahead for those who defy Him and His law.

There is no clearer example of this than the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah and the fate that followed their detestable wickedness. The Lord Jesus informs us that mankind, unchanging and unchangeable in its defiance of God, will plunge itself back into the inquiry of the cities, whose ashes serve as a reminder of the wrath of God. Click to read more…

Posted on 2024-09-17 a 5:53 pm

Kilskeery Conference – Morning Meeting, September 15th 2024

Preacher: Rev. Ivan Foster

“Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.” 1 Corinthians 15:58.

This chapter begins with a glorious definition and exposition of the heart of the gospel message, verses 1-4. It ends with an exhortation to us all how it is we ought to live out our days because of the victory given us by Christ and revealed in the gospel. The word “therefore”, which begins the verse, links what is said to the verse 57.

This exhortation is all the more applicable to us today for, as a generation, we are living nearer the return of Christ and all that will mean for believers, than has any other generation! If time was ‘short’ in Paul’s day (1 Cors 7:29), it is much shorter today! The word ‘short’ carries the meaning of ‘winding up’! I recall from my days in Ulster television that the studio floor manager, if he wished an interview to come to an end as the time for the programme was nearly up, he could use one of two gestures. He could draw his finger across his throat meaning ‘cut the interview off’ or a winding motion with his hand meaning, ‘wind the interview up, bring it to a close.’

The latter is basically what Paul was indicating. The word translated ‘short’ appears in only one other place. “And the young men arose, wound him up, and carried him out, and buried him,” Acts 5:6. Here it is linked with the end of the life of Ananias.

The Lord is ‘winding up His purpose’ amongst men in this age!

We surely understand therefore what Paul was indicating. The last days of this age were approaching back then, nearly 2000 years ago! How much closer the end is today.

In the light of the ever nearing return of Christ our duty is set down here.

I. A SETTLED ADHERENCE TO THE TRUTHS OF THE GOSPEL IS EXPECTED OF US

1. The words “stedfast, unmoveable” tell us what is expected of us. The essence of the meaning of the words may be seen in one of the other places where the word translated “stedfast” appears. “If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister,” Colossians 1:23. There is what is meant by being “stedfast”. We are to be “grounded” and not “moving away from the hope of the gospel”! Click to read more…

Posted on 2024-09-16 a 6:00 am

Jeremiah conducts a spiritual post-mortem on the ‘Ways of Zion’!

“The ways of Zion do mourn, because none come to the solemn feasts: all her gates are desolate: her priests sigh, her virgins are afflicted, and she is in bitterness. Her adversaries are the chief, her enemies prosper; for the LORD hath afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions: her children are gone into captivity before the enemy. And from the daughter of Zion all her beauty is departed: her princes are become like harts that find no pasture, and they are gone without strength before the pursuer” Lamentations 1:4-6.

Such shop windows signs are often seen when recession hits  the economy and depression sets in.

Such may take place as a result of incompetence on the part of a nation’s political leaders, though I believe that there is always an element of God’s judgement against the sins of His people involved in such downturns!

I read on the day I wrote this, in the book of Ezekiel, the following: “The word of the LORD came again to me, saying, Son of man, when the land sinneth against me by trespassing grievously, then will I stretch out mine hand upon it, and will break the staff of the bread thereof, and will send famine upon it, and will cut off man and beast from it: Though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they should deliver but their own souls by their righteousness, saith the Lord GOD,” Ezekiel 14:12-14.

But God’s judgment against a people who desert His Word and embrace error, despite the repeated warnings the Lord sends them via His prophets, can be more extensive than economic hardship.

Our study verses speak of:

(1) The dreadful decline of true worship and the despair that such caused.

(2) The dominance of the enemy.

(3) The ‘beauty of holiness’ has departed from Zion.

These features still mark a people under God’s judgment and I say that they may be seen here in Ulster today. Click to read more…

Posted on 2024-09-14 a 6:00 am

It must ever be remembered that the man whose murder is at the centre of this controversy, Pat Finucane, was a man who was alleged to be a member of the IRA by former members of that terrorist organisation. He represented terrorists and murderers as a solicitor and his three brothers, John, Dermot and Seamus – were connected with republican activities. The first was an IRA man killed in a car crash, the second was one of the Maze 1983 escapees, and the third was a former prisoner, who was arrested alongside Bobby Sands after an IRA bombing and gunfight (Belfast Newsletter 30/10/20).

No matter how the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Hilary Benn, dresses up his decision to grant that which is utterly denied to the thousands of other victims of terrorism, he cannot hide his shameful subservience to murderous Irish Republicanism behind a cloak of legal gobbledygook!

Jim Allister MP told the News Letter:

“The double standards here are appalling. As I pointed out to the Secretary of State yesterday, not only are the Finucane family being treated differently from everyone else they are again being offered something which they had previously rejected.

“It is a gross insult to the thousands of innocent victims in Northern Ireland that Mr Benn should describe this murder and this one alone as ‘unique’.

“That the new government should do this at such an early stage sends entirely the wrong message to innocent victims.

“As the excellent editorial in Thursday’s News Letter highlighted, Lord Trimble had previously made the point that any inquiry into the murder of Pat Finucane should also involve a probe into the activities of Mr Finucane.

“Wicked and evil as this murder was, it was no more wicked and evil than the murders of Resident Magistrate William Staunton (who was shot by the IRA in front of his young daughter and her school friends), Judge Rory Conaghan (another judge shot in front of his daughter), Resident Magistrate Martin McBirney (shot again in his home in front of his family), Judge William Doyle (murdered as he left mass), Lord and Lady Gibson or law lecturer Edgar Graham. One also thinks of attack on the family of Judge Tom Travers in which young Mary Travers was murdered.

“For all the lectures about truth and justice, the truth is that the party John Finucane now represents not only defended and justified those wicked murders at the time but continues to do so right up to and including the present day.”

Rev Ivan Foster (Rtd)
13th September 2024

Posted on 2024-09-13 a 5:56 pm

In this the beginning of the 46th year of Kilskeery Independent Christian School, we wish to mount some articles that will bear witness to the labours of the founding principal of the school.

Here is a recording of her giving her testimony in Newtownabbey Free Presbyterian Church, back in 2009, at the Soul Winner’s Conference. She had just retired from teaching the year before.

May you find a blessing as she “being dead yet speaketh,” Hebrews 11:4.

 

Posted on 2024-09-13 a 6:00 am

The following article appeared in ‘The Times’ newspaper and was shared with me by a friend.

The writer of the article is called ‘Gary Murphy’. One could be forgiven for believing him to have roots in Ireland!

That makes the article all the more compelling. I would sincerely and earnestly ask Irish Roman Catholics, indeed Roman Catholics everywhere, to consider the picture that is painted here of the Roman  Catholic institution.

Any professing Christian may fall into sin. That is very obvious from the Bible’s record of David and Peter for example.

But if again and again it is reported that wickedness is uncovered within the life of an individual who claims to be a Christian, then it would be justifiable to say of that person that they are ‘false professors’ and not true believers!

Paul writes concerning the true Christian and what it is Christ has done for them: “Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works,” Titus 2:14.

When within the ranks of an organisation which professes to be the ‘church of Jesus Christ’, there are universal instances of repeated perversions of the most unspeakable kind and these are covered over and lied about again and again by those who hold the highest positions of authority within that organisation, what is one to think of it?

Reformers

There is only one conclusion that can be drawn. It is that of the Protestant Reformers in the 16th century whose eyes were opened by the grace and mercy of God — “We are in an organisation that is not what it claims to be and its teachings are entirely in opposition to the Holy Scriptures! We must immediately remove ourselves from it and seek to walk in obedience to God’s Holy Word.”

That has ever been the will of God for any who seek to obey Him. Click to read more…

Posted on 2024-09-09 a 4:33 pm

 The following notice appeared in the latest edition of the Free Presbyterian Church magazine, F P Vision.

What is referred to here by this oblique statement is an article by Jonathan Storey, minister of Mt Merrion Free Presbyterian Church, in which he recommends that we adopt the prayer of the Romanist ‘saint’ Thomas Aquinas, an Italian Dominican friar and priest.

I challenged the publishing of this article in an article entitled:

Is encouraging the adoption of papist prayers official policy of the Free Presbyterian Church?

In the article I wrote:

‘I consider this a most serious and unacceptable breach in our denomination’s adherence to the Word of God and to the Reformed Faith and it is time to call a halt to such violations of our God-ordained stand and witness and deal with those guilty of such.

If the sentiments of this article are not the official position of the Free Presbyterian Church, then how was it sanctioned for publication in an official magazine?’

In a response to my protest at the article, I was told the matter would be addressed in the next edition of the Free Presbyterian Vision. Click to read more…

Posted on 2024-09-09 a 6:00 am

Questions demanding an answer! — Part 1

“How doth the city sit solitary, that was full of people! how is she become as a widow! she that was great among the nations, and princess among the provinces, how is she become tributary!” Lamentations 1:1.

As Matthew Poole in his commentary says: ‘This book . . . hath its name from the subject matter of it, which is lamentation.’ It was written by Jeremiah, who afresh earns the title of ‘the weeping prophet’.

These questions in the opening verse denote the astonishing consequences of God’s judgment on an erring, stubborn, self-willed people! Their miseries can be dated I believe to after the defeat of the city by the Babylonians in BC 588.

We may see that the conquest of Jerusalem has passed from these words.

“The yoke of my transgressions is bound by his hand: they are wreathed, and come up upon my neck: he hath made my strength to fall, the Lord hath delivered me into their hands, from whom I am not able to rise up. The Lord hath trodden under foot all my mighty men in the midst of me: he hath called an assembly against me to crush my young men: the Lord hath trodden the virgin, the daughter of Judah, as in a winepress. For these things I weep; mine eye, mine eye runneth down with water, because the comforter that should relieve my soul is far from me: my children are desolate, because the enemy prevailed,” Lamentations 1:14-16.

‘The whole book lets us see from what a height of dignity to what a depth of misery sin may bring nations, how much soever interested in God; and likewise directs us to our duty in such states of affliction and misery if we would obtain mercy,’ Matthew Poole  (1624–1679).

In this first verse the prophet stands and speaks in awe and amazement at what has happened to the city of Jerusalem.

Three times the word “how” is uttered by Jeremiah

I. NO MATTER HOW SECURE OUR POSITION MAY BE, THE LORD CAN BRING US DOWN!

1. Jerusalem the city sat ‘solitary’. The word carries the meaning of ‘isolation’. The word first appears in Leviticus 13:43-46 and it refers to the imposed isolation of the many suspected of being a leper.

“Then the priest shall look upon it: and, behold, if the rising of the sore be white reddish in his bald head, or in his bald forehead, as the leprosy appeareth in the skin of the flesh; he is a leprous man, he is unclean: the priest shall pronounce him utterly unclean; his plague is in his head. And the leper in whom the plague is, his clothes shall be rent, and his head bare, and he shall put a covering upon his upper lip, and shall cry, Unclean, unclean. All the days wherein the plague shall be in him he shall be defiled; he is unclean: he shall dwell alone; without the camp shall his habitation be.”

The city once ‘full of people’ has been reduced to that loneliness and friendlessness of the leper forced without the camp! As Jeremiah looked upon Jerusalem in the aftermath of the Babylonian siege and conquest of the city, he marvelled that she that had been so secure, so prosperous and enjoyed such divine protection could be reduced to rubble!

This is what backsliding and sin will bring upon any people, irrespective of the privileges they rejoiced in and the enjoyment of God’s blessing they may have experienced in the past.

“For the wages of sin is death,” Romans 6:23. Click to read more…

Posted on 2024-09-07 a 6:00 am

Posted on 2024-09-06 a 6:30 pm

The following is an article printed in the Times Educational Supplement on 9th October 1998.

It is based upon an interview with the late Mrs Ann Foster BA, founding principal of Kilskeery Independent Christian School.

We reproduce it as a tribute to her many years of devoted labour within the school and her efforts to advance the cause of Christian education throughout the Free Presbyterian Church.

This week saw the commencement of the 46th year of our school’s existence.

Mrs Foster went into the presence of her Saviour and Lord in the earlier hours of June 8th, this year.

We would ask you to remember that the statements in the article which were purported to be made by Mrs Foster are what a female journalist wrote and would not really be a verbatim report! She obviously unsympathetic to the objectives of Christian education, as is seen in her derogatory description of the interior of the school.

Mrs Foster’s answers were not reported in full and they were not the complete answers she would have given. She was a woman who was very well acquainted with the Bible and would have readily included many quotations from it in her responses to any questions she was asked.

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“Battle to teach God’s own law”

Times Educational Supplement

9th October 1998

“WHEN we have a teacher recruitment crisis we don’t advertise, we get down on our knees and pray to God for help,” says Ann Foster, head of the 52-pupil Kilskeery Independent Christian school in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland.

She agrees most heads would find that rather an odd method of recruiting staff, but then she is looking for a very particular kind of teacher.

First, they have to be willing to take a 75 per cent salary cut; second — and most importantly — they must share the doctrines of the Free Presbyterian faith, that they alone are God’s true servants in an immoral world, that the theory of evolution is wrong and that all children are natural sinners who must be taught to conform to God’s law. Click to read more…

Posted on 2024-09-06 a 6:00 am

Its utter depravity.

Its shameless deceit.

The cruel indifference to the sufferings of the victims of its criminal priests and nuns.

The repeated uncovering of its total ungodliness and denial of all things Christian!

I will leave readers of ‘The Burning Bush’ to check out these articles the ‘links’ to which are below.

Former Christian Brother accused of repeated sexual abuse by former pupil

‘Shocking’ abuse in Ireland’s religious schools

2,400 claims of historical sexual abuse at 308 schools run by religious orders

Ireland to set up inquiry into sexual abuse at schools run by religious orders

Whatever the outcome of the ‘inquiry’, we can be sure that Romanism, despite the numerous and repeated exposures of the evil that go on behind its walls, will be excused and whitewashed and the hypocritical bleatings of its ‘sheep in wolves clothing’ accepted by its people and the Irish government!

There is coming a day when its crimes will be justly and fully dealt with. That is the  DAY when God will judge that system of iniquity of which Romanism is today its chief manifestation on the earth. The final manifestation of unclean and false religion, latter-day Babylonism, and its judgment is pictured for us in Revelation 17. Click to read more…

Posted on 2024-09-05 a 5:00 am

Alf McCreary began as a journalist in the ‘Belfast Telegraph’ the same year as I was converted to Christ and became a Christian — 1964.

He was 24 years old while I was coming 21!

The very month he began his career in the ‘Belfast Telegraph’, September, I met my dear Ann, who was to become my wife in 1968 and who laboured alongside me in the gospel for 56 years.

Thankfully, the parallel ended in September 1964. McCreary became a chief spokesman for all that was ‘Ecumenical’ and anti-Bible and I laboured to do the very opposite!

He has been reported as being an elder in the apostate Presbyterian Church in Ireland. As such he may have signed the Westminster Confession of Faith as a profession of what he believed and would uphold. Irrespective of whether he did or did not, all that is stated in that Confession he set himself against.

O’Neillism

He was a prominent defender of the ecumenically inspired policies of the late, unlamented, Terence O’Neill, (1914-1990). O’Neill was the Ulster Unionist prime minister in Northern Ireland from 1963-1969.

It was during his premiership that the IRA terrorist campaign had its beginnings. Click to read more…

Posted on 2024-09-04 a 6:00 am

A ‘Belfast Telegraph’ article (29/8/24) bore the headline:

‘Sign of the Cross should no longer be regarded as a purely Catholic gesture’

I do not have access to the article for I am not willing to pay to read drivel and balderdash! This article is but another example of the stupid ‘scribblers’ the ‘Belfast Telegraph’ is prepared to pay to pour out thoroughgoing nonsense to deceive and promote the errors of Romanism. The writer on this occasion is John Laverty.

The ‘sign of the cross’ was never the practice of true believers. Rather it was the invention of those ‘church fathers’ who ushered the professing church into ever-deepening apostasy from the latter part of the second century AD onward until the blessed awakening and return to primitive first century Bible Christianity in the days of the Protestant Reformation in the sixteenth century. Of course, the error continued within the confines of Romanism and the apostatising, so-called Protestant denominations which are involved in the ecumenical movement!

Here is what one such false shepherd said on the matter as put forth in the defence of this practice by Rome.

“Basil (ca. 329 – 79 A.D) said that the Apostles ‘taught us to mark with the sign of the cross those who put their hope in the Lord, that is, those who presented themselves for baptism. Initially the Sign of the Cross was made with the thumb, usually on the forehead but sometimes on the lips and chest.’ ”

What ‘old Basil’ did NOT say was, JUST WHERE IN THE WRITINGS OF THE APOSTLES THIS WAS TAUGHT BY THEM!

Let us observe some truths about this heathen practice.

1. Making the sign of the of the cross is an essential part of popery’s religion.

We can also see here how important it is to them, in fact, as I understand it, ‘crossing’ takes place some fifty-one times in the Mass at the beginning and end prayers. That surely suggests that prayers would be incomplete and therefore would not be answered without a crossing of oneself!

What the sign of the cross is claimed to be is the person’s way of asking God to bless them, or more accurately, they are blessing themselves by making the sign of the cross.

No ‘crossing’, no blessing! Click to read more…

Posted on 2024-09-02 a 6:00 am

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(An introduction)

By Rev Ivan Foster (Rtd)

This wonderful book is scheduled for reading on August 24th – 28th in the excellent Robert Murray M‘Cheyne’s Bible Reading Calendar.

In 1965, while a first year student in the Theological Hall of the Free Presbyterian Church, I was told by Dr S B Cooke, one of the lecturers, that the prophecy of Jeremiah was ‘the book for today’.

In 1966, during the three month’s imprisonment (July – October) that I shared with Dr Ian Paisley and Rev John Wylie, both of whom have gone to glory, I was led to carefully read the book of Jeremiah. During that time, I gained a little understanding of the work, witness and wretched circumstances the prophet was put through during his 40+ years of serving the Lord and the clear similarity between his times and those coming upon us in Ulster.

Over the subsequent years, I have ever returned to the book and gained a deeper insight into the workings of apostasy and the wonderful mercy and long-suffering of the Lord and also His terrible judgment upon those who reject His mercy, abuse His patience, mock His Word and defy His power and authority.

Christians should study the writings of the ‘weeping prophet’ for it will enable them to understand just what is happening on a universal scale and most definitely here in Ulster. Furthermore, it will enable us to know what the Lord would have us to do in the midst of this rebellion.

I say this chiefly to ministers. Upholding and declaring God’s Word in a time of apostasy is not easy at all. It was for this reason young Jeremiah recoiled from the charge God gave him.

“Then the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations. Then said I, Ah, Lord GOD! behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child,” Jeremiah 1:4-6.

The Lord’s response to Jeremiah’s shrinking back from the task laid upon him, indicates that Jeremiah’s response was very natural and understandable!

“But the LORD said unto me, Say not, I am a child: for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak. Be not afraid of their faces: for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the LORD. Then the LORD put forth his hand, and touched my mouth. And the LORD said unto me, Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth. See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant,” Jeremiah 1:7-10.

(1). He had grounds for fearing the reaction of those to whom he was sent with God’s Word. The Lord’s reply indicates that there was much to fear ‘from their faces’,  for his preaching would not be welcomed by the general population. Click to read more…

Posted on 2024-08-29 a 6:00 am

“In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return,” Genesis 3:19.

We continue or study of what the Bible teaches the God-ordained method of disposing of the human body upon death, Is it burial or is it cremation?

I have already stressed in the first part of this article that it can be stated that the Bible sets forth burial as the God-ordained means of disposing of the dead.

Here now is the rest of our study.

II. THE FACT OF THE LONG PRACTICE OF BELIEVERS BURYING THEIR DEATH IS EMPHASISED ON A NUMBER OF OCCASIONS.

1. In the prophecies of the last days. Here is one of the most notable prophecies of the graves being opened.

“And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book. And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever,” Daniel 12:1-3.

There is a reference to the two resurrections, which I will explain a little further on in this article. “And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.” Click to read more…

Posted on 2024-08-26 a 11:17 pm

God’s message for these dark days

What is our message in these dark days?

“Then Zedekiah the king sent, and took him out: and the king asked him secretly in his house, and said, Is there any word from the LORD? And Jeremiah said, There is: for, said he, thou shalt be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon,” Jeremiah 37:17.

I must tell you a story about this text. It was the text the Lord laid on my heart for the welcome home rally held in the hills of Dundonald when Dr P, Rev JW and myself, a ministerial student, came out of prison in 1966. The rally was held on Lord’s Day, 23rd October, some four days after our release. There were approximately 25,000 people in attendance.

I had jotted down a few thoughts, an outline, in the margin of my Bible. When I was called upon to speak, I announced my text and started to speak. When I glanced down at my notes, the wind had turned over some pages of my Bible. Strange as it may seem, I could not remember the chapter my text was in! I asked the Lord to help me and I strongly felt that I was to forget looking for the text and my brief notes and trust the Lord for words. This I did!

Afterwards, Dr Bob Jones Jr said to me: “I pity you son! Most men begin their ministry with small numbers and hopefully build up. You have started with a multitude, the like of which you most likely will never again address!” I think that he was correct.

I want to turn to that text which I sought to preach upon some 48 years ago and which I have never preached upon since though I have often meditated upon it.

Posted on 2024-08-24 a 10:41 pm

I just had to respond to this article from today’s ‘Belfast Newsletter’, sent to me by a friend.

The writer, John Coulter, the son of a Presbyterian minister, shows yet again the moulding of his thinking under the modernistic and liberal theology he would have been placed under in the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, a church now embracing in various degrees all the immoral and God-dishonouring practices of the world-wide apostasy!

His articles invariably carry at the end this little statement: ‘Dr John Coulter has been a journalist since 1978’! I can tell you he has been an ‘eejit’ a lot longer!

What he says in this article, and employing a modern ‘perversion’ of the Scriptures in order to give the appearance of having support for his nonsensical views, is a direct denial of what the Bible in truth teaches.

In so doing he maintains his track record!!

1. He calls the Bible view of modest appearance a ‘draconian view’. In other words, ‘harsh and severe’. That is a very dangerous thing to say of the Word of God.

2. He then goes further and states that it was ‘very misogynistic’ for all women to have their heads covered in any place of worship. That was and still is the command of God. “‭Every‭ man‭ praying‭‭ or‭ prophesying‭‭, having‭‭ ‭his‭ head‭ covered‭, dishonoureth‭‭ his‭ head‭.‭ ‭But‭ every‭ woman‭ that prayeth‭‭ or‭ prophesieth‭‭ with ‭her‭ head‭ uncovered‭ dishonoureth‭‭ her‭ head‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬ (her husband)‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭: for‭ that is‭‭ even‭ all one‭ as if‭ she were shaven‭‭,‭”‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬ 1Corinthians 11:4-5.

I preached on this portion back in 1995.

Here are links to two sermons on the subject and the notes that accompanied them. I was preaching against the very views that Coulter is here espousing!

Read sermon notes here

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Read sermon notes here

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3. The man shows himself a fool by thinking that the abandoning of God’s Word and substituting it with man’s notions is how to fill pews! I dare say that he is ignorant of the Saviour’s words to those of a similar ilk to himself back some 2000 years ago (there really is nothing new under the sun! Ecclesiastes 1:9). “Why‭ do ye‭ also‭ transgress‭‭ the commandment‭ of God‭ by‭ your‭ tradition‭?‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬” Matthew 15:3.

What Coulter would have the Christian do is abandon God’s Word and take up his silly theory for advancing the cause of the gospel.

Silly indeed, and more than that, it is to think that by abandoning God’s Word we can fulfil God’s will and purpose and see His blessing descend upon such disobedient assemblies!

As I said, the poor man is a fool!

Below is a picture of his article.

Sincerely in Christ’s name,

Ivan Foster
23rd August 2024

Posted on 2024-08-23 a 5:28 pm

An open letter to all Free Presbyterians from Rev Ivan Foster (Rtd)

Free Presbyterian Church ministers have publicly associated themselves with ‘Logos Ministries International’ and three of them have stated their approval of what it was Mr Danny Roberts (who is, I understand, a member of Ballynahinch Free Presbyterian Church) said in response to my setting out the fellowship and cooperation with ecumenical churches here and abroad and also the organisations that promote and endorse Roman Catholic doctrines, that he and the LMI are openly engaged with.

In his response to my article on the LMI, Mr Roberts at no point denied that he and LMI are involved with ‘ecumenical churches’ here in Northern Ireland or in many other places.

He did, however, attack me stating that I am engaged in tearing down ‘the church and God’s people’ and ‘spreading false information’. I am a liar in other words.

He clearly insinuated that I spread hate and false information, as well as being unbiblical in my dealing with him and blasting other believers online for the world to see.

He also indicated that he would have nothing to do with ‘mixing with Catholics’ and that I was therefore accusing him falsely.

I set out in detail in a further article, just how false these denials were and that the internet is full of clear documentary evidence that Mr Roberts and the LMI organisation  have very close links with and are in a working relationship with ecumenical churches and those who promote Roman Catholic doctrine.

Mr Roberts has put on record that he is not going to reply to my third article: ‘Logos Ministries International attack answered!’

Now why is that?

Might I suggest that it is because HE CANNOT TRUTHFULLY ANSWER THE ARTICLE.

The facts of his unscriptural associations and activities are displayed repeatedly on the internet – put there by him and his associates!

Since I mounted on the ‘Burning Bush’ my third article, many Christians, who did their own research, sent me links of the unorthodox religious alliances that Mr Roberts and the LMI have formed! Click to read more…

Posted on 2024-08-23 a 6:00 am

The following is my reply to an email that was sent to me today.

I have decided to send it out to show the baseless defence of LMI’s activity that some Christians are ready to offer.

I believe it fair to say that a lack of a proper knowledge of God’s Word and a misunderstanding of it, gives rise to such a defence. It is to be expected that shallow, casual teaching of what men ‘think’ the Bible says leads to disciples with the same misconceptions of God’s truth.

That is to be seen all over the ‘evangelical world’ today. Shallowness in the pulpit cannot do anything but produce even greater shallowness in the pew.

It is commonly reported that some young preachers obtain their ‘pulpit messages’ by going to the internet and downloading what others have said — not all of them the most orthodox, it must sadly be said!

How far removed is such preaching from that marked by the introduction so often used by the prophets and the inspired description of that proclaimed by the apostles!

“Thus saith the LORD,” Exodus 7:17.

“Paul also and Barnabas continued in Antioch, teaching and preaching the word of the Lord, with many others also,”Acts 15:35.

Sincerely in Christ’s name,

Ivan Foster

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20th August 2024.

Dear  xxxxxxxxx,

You have raised a number of matters in your email.

I will attempt to answer them though I serious doubt if you will be satisfied with my reply. Click to read more…

Posted on 2024-08-20 a 10:29 pm

Here in this recording is the stand and the witness of the Free Presbyterian Church as it once was set forth by the man, who in his heyday, was the epitome of contending for the faith and denouncing the errors and evils of ‘Ecumenism’ — the late Dr Ian Paisley.

This sermon was preached the year after I became minister in Kilskeery Free Presbyterian Church.

It is appropriate, as we mark Kilskeery’s 50 years of witness and contending for the faith, that Ulster hears again the voice of authentic Free Presbyterianism, preaching in that fashion for which he was greatly beloved.

May all consider the contrast there is between that which was being preached back in 1979 and the mocking  and degrading parody of the gospel of Christ, offered by Mr Danny Roberts and his LMI associates. Here is a link to a LMI video, which we mount alongside Dr Paisley’s preaching to highlight the utter contrast and is what some Free Presbyterians have invited into their churches and some have even praised while endorsing a condemnation of my witness against the errors of the Logos Ministries International.

 

Free Presbyterian, please compare Dr Paisley’s definition of Free Presbyterianism with what you are listening to. If there is not a likeness and compatibility, then I suggest you do something about it by telling your minister this truth and urging him to listen to the recording included here!

Dr Paisley’s message here should help all to recognise the drift away from the stand that our denomination was brought into existence to maintain and move them to humbly pray that the Lord in mercy will overthrow the compromise and heal the backsliding that has gripped the Free Presbyterian Church and bring us back again to the ‘old paths’ (Jeremiah 6:16)!

Posted on 2024-08-19 a 4:56 pm

(18th August, 2024 — Annual Day of Prayer marking the beginning of the witness — August 17th 1974)

“Having therefore obtained help of God, I continue unto this day, witnessing both to small and great, saying none other things than those which the prophets and Moses did say should come: That Christ should suffer, and that he should be the first that should rise from the dead, and should shew light unto the people, and to the Gentiles,” Acts 26:22-23.

Today we meet to bless the Lord for His mercy to Kilskeery Free Presbyterian Church over the last 50 years.

Read sermon notes here

 

Watch a video of this sermon below:

Posted on 2024-08-18 a 9:27 pm

A FORGOTTEN PRACTICE!

“‭I am crucified‭‭ with Christ‭: nevertheless‭ I live‭‭; yet not‭ I‭, but‭ Christ‭ liveth‭‭ in‭ me‭: and‭ the life which‭ I‭‭ now‭ live‭‭ in‭ the flesh‭ I live‭‭ by‭ the faith‭ of the Son‭ of God‭, who‭ loved‭‭ me‭, and‭ gave‭‭ himself‭ for‭ me‭,‭”‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬ Galatians 2:20.

I can recall back in 1968, just after Ann and I were married and we had moved, for a short time, to a house in Brookeborough, Co. Fermanagh, bowing in prayer before this text and asking the Lord for understanding of it.

I. Spiritual understanding once granted, must be retained and sustained by a constant supply of God’ grace.

As we must repeatedly and regularly partake of food and water and sleep, in order to maintain physical life, even so it is with our soul’s strength and vigour.

If we are to remain ALIVE to God and His mind and will for our lives, there must be this constant partaking of His grace by the appointed means — prayer and the reading and musing upon His Word. As David said: “‭My heart‭ was hot‭‭ within‭ me, while I was musing‭ the fire‭ burned‭‭: ‭then‭ spake‭‭ I with my tongue‭,‭”‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬ Psalm 39:3. The word ‘musing’ carries the meaning of ‘whispering or muttering’. Those who read the Bible to themselves in this manner are seeking to savour and digest every word and its meaning.

Acts 8:30 says, regarding the meeting between Philip and the man‭ of Ethiopia‬ in the desert: “‭And‭ Philip‭ ran‭‭ thither to ‭him‭, and heard‭‭ him‭ read‭‭ the prophet‭ Esaias‭, and‭ said‭‭, Understandest thou‭‭‭‭ what‭ thou readest‭‭?‭”‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬

We should note how this man was reading, it was out loud. He was musing and seeking the meaning of what it was he read.

It must be recognised that few Christians so read their Bibles. For many it is an exercise similar to the counting of the beads of the rosary by the Roman Catholic! In other words, a ritual that must be performed!

We can never remain ALIVE to God by insincere observance of a vital means of grace and life to our souls. How often have Christian confessed to themselves and even to others that they feel so ‘dead’!

That is NOT an admission that spiritual life has ceased within them. No, that cannot happen to the child of God, for to them has been imparted ‘eternal life’!

No, it is the acknowledgement that the level of spiritual energy within them has dropped away because of their neglect of their soul and its requirements. They have become ‘cast down’. Click to read more…

Posted on 2024-08-17 a 6:00 am

“‭In the sweat‭ of thy face‭ shalt thou eat‭‭ bread‭, till‭ thou return‭‭ unto the ground‭; for out of it wast thou taken‭‭: for dust‭ thou‭ ‭art‭, and unto dust‭ shalt thou return‭‭,‭”‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬ Genesis 3:19.

Advertising of cremation as a ‘handy’, ‘cheaper’ and much more ‘pleasant’ way to dispose of the dead, has become a very regular feature in the media of late.

The adverts treat death in a most unseemly and distasteful way. Death is to be an occasion for a party and songs and celebration. That has been seen on some recent occasions when a ‘celebrity’ left instructions that bright and garish clothing was to be worn by those attending their funeral and worldly songs, signifying worldly joy, were to be sung. This all is the result of the darkness that has descended upon the general public regarding eternity and what lies beyond death for the unconverted sinner.

Death, for ever so many today, is but the end of a life of godlessness and Christ-rejection and the beginning of an eternal sentence of God’s judgment upon such.

If only the Bible were more widely known and believed, then people would understand that far from being a matter of frivolity and catchy advertising, death for the sinner is an entering into an indescribable cauldron of eternal sufferings.

Heed these words.

“‭And‭ as‭‭ it is appointed‭‭ unto men‭ once‭ to die‭‭, but‭ after‭ this‭ the judgment‭,‭”‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬ Hebrews 9:27.

“‭The wicked‭ shall be turned‭‭ into hell‭, ‭and‭ all the nations‭ that forget‭ God‭,‭”‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬ Psalm 9:17.

“‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭Who among us shall dwell‭‭ with the devouring‭‭ fire‭? who among us shall dwell‭‭ with everlasting‭ burnings‭?‭”‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬ Isaiah 33:14.

“‭But‭ the fearful‭, and‭ unbelieving‭, and‭ the abominable‭‭, and‭ murderers‭, and‭ whoremongers‭, and‭ sorcerers‭, and‭ idolaters‭, and‭ all‭ liars‭, shall have their‭ part‭ in‭ the lake‭ which‭ burneth‭‭ with fire‭ and‭ brimstone‭: which is‭‭ the second‭ death‭,‭”‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬ Revelation 21:8. Click to read more…

Posted on 2024-08-16 a 6:00 am

On this day, when I wrote my answer to Mr Roberts of Logos Ministries International and his deceitful attempt to deny what I wrote about LMI, I providentially read, as part of my daily Bible reading, 1 Samuel chapter 4.

As I read it, I noted truths which I am sure God would have Free Presbyterians take note of.

It was time when a perplexing question was on many lips. It is a question that needs to be asked by us all in this day when the enemy prevails.

“WHEREFORE HATH THE LORD SMITTEN US TO DAY BEFORE THE PHILISTINES?” verse 3.

Christian, do you have any sense of that which is taking place amongst us today?

Please note these following observations:

1. They were smitten of the Lord because they had followed the leadership of ungodly frauds and imposters.

“Now Eli was very old, and heard all that his sons did unto all Israel; and how they lay with the women that assembled at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation,” 1 Samuel 2:22.

2. Being thus led, the people placed their hope in vain notions.

“Let us fetch the ark of the covenant of the LORD out of Shiloh unto us, that, when it cometh among us, it may save us out of the hand of our enemies,” 4:3.

3. Belief in such vain notions filled them with false hope.

“And when the ark of the covenant of the LORD came into the camp, all Israel shouted with a great shout, so that the earth rang again,” 1Samuel 4:5.

4. The dreadful price the people paid for their folly.

“And the Philistines fought, and Israel was smitten, and they fled every man into his tent: and there was a very great slaughter; for there fell of Israel thirty thousand footmen. And the ark of God was taken; and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were slain,” 1 Samuel 4:10-11. Click to read more…

Posted on 2024-08-14 a 9:55 pm

Deceitful words in defence and the dupes who support it!!

In my article, ‘Paul’s announcement that his course was finished’, posted on the 8th August, I indicated that I would be setting aside the ‘sword of contending’. I did not say I was throwing it away. Because of age and declines in health and strength I fully intended that I would be ending that element of my witness on the ‘Burning Bush’ website, but I did keep the sword close at hand in case I ever needed it again!

Well, I have a need of it and have gripped it once again to respond to a concealed and secretive attack upon what I have recently said about ‘Logos Ministries International’!

The devil is a master at concealing his evil machinations, even from those he uses to carry them out!

The labyrinth of links and associations that LMI has established with ecumenism and apostasy is bewildering and difficult to unravel, even for those who wish to get to the truth.

I am prepared to believe that some of those who have publicly rejoiced in the pronouncements of this organisation, do so with little or no understanding of what it is they are embracing and endorsing.

Even Free Presbyterian ministers may be guilty of such gullibility!

Attack

I was not told by Mr Roberts himself of anything he said about me and my article. I have, however, been informed that he, who is prominently involved in ‘Logos Ministries International’, has attacked me and my articles on the ecumenical involvement of LMI. He has been supported in his attack by Free Presbyterians ministers, who give their names on his ‘Facebook’ page.

At no point in his statement does he deny that LMI is involved with ‘ecumenical churches’ here in Northern Ireland or in many other places.

He states that I am engaged in tearing down ‘the church and God’s people’. He faults me for not having spoken to him about LMI. He further says:

‘But to be called out from someone I have never had a conversation with saddens me, especially when that person is an ex-minister spreading false information.’

He may have failed to notice that I never even mentioned his name in anything I wrote, just the activities of LMI.

But every little distortion aids in the spread of falsehood! Click to read more…

Posted on 2024-08-14 a 5:20 pm

There has been much reporting of ‘hate’ crimes of late. It is rather strange that while the IRA were murdering hundreds of Protestants in the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s, there were very few references or headlines about ‘HATE’.

These last few days have rarely seen one go past without some news outlet using the word ‘HATE’ in a headline.

Invariably, the term is used of a crime committed against a non-native, black or Asian individual, whose person or property has come under attack from those who claim to be protesting against the disproportionately generous treatment of the immigrants who arrive in the UK illegally.

As is ever the case in such circumstances, many innocent, hard-working and legal immigrants become targets by those acting is a most loutish fashion.

I. THE BIBLE TEACHES US WHOM WE SHOULD LOVE.

From the beginning of time, God has expected His people to treat strangers with kindness. “‭Thou shalt neither vex‭‭ a stranger‭, nor oppress‭‭ him: for ye were strangers‭ in the land‭ of Egypt‭,‭”‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬ Exodus 22:21.

The Christian must ever act in the light of their estrangement from God. “‭Wherefore‭ remember‭‭, that‭ ye‭ ‭being‭ in time past‭ Gentiles‭ in‭ the flesh‭, who‭ are called‭‭ Uncircumcision‭ by‭ that which‭ is called‭‭ the Circumcision‭ in‭ the flesh‭ made by hands‭;‭ ‭that‭ at‭ that‭ time‭ ye were‭‭ without‭ Christ‭, being aliens‭‭ from the commonwealth‭ of Israel‭, and‭ strangers‭ from the covenants‭ of promise‭, having‭‭ no‭ hope‭, and‭ without God‭ in‭ the world‭:‭ ‭but‭ now‭ in‭ Christ‭ Jesus‭ ye‭ who‭ sometimes‭ were‭‭ far off‭ are made‭‭ nigh‭ by‭ the blood‭ of Christ‭,‭”‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬ Ephesians 2:11-13.

The true believe cannot but have an affinity with strangers.

We are not required to ignore sin or criminal activity amongst strangers but we are forbidden to oppose them simply because they are not ‘native born’. Click to read more…

Posted on 2024-08-14 a 6:00 am

“THE WICKED WALK ON EVERY SIDE, WHEN THE VILEST MEN ARE EXALTED‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭,‭”‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬ Psalms 12:8.

“Teagan MacAodhagáin: Meet Ireland’s first transgender minister who was ordained in NI”, so ran the headline in the Belfast Telegraph of Saturday 10th August. The ‘church’ into which this ‘man’ has been ordained has been known from its beginning as ‘the gay church’!

“Metropolitan Community Churches (MCC) (aka The Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches or UFMCC) was founded in Los Angeles, California (USA) on October 6, 1968 by the Rev. Troy Perry.

Since then, MCC has grown from a few churches in the 1970s, when we were known as “the Gay Church,” to hundreds around the world by the 1980s when we became known as “the AIDS church,” to our current configuration which many dub “the Queer Church.” As a global movement comprising churches, spiritual communities, emerging ministries, clergy and lay leaders, human rights activists and many others, our goal is to “Transform Ourselves as we Transform the World.”

The writer of the articles is a well known advocate of all things that promote the ‘LGBTQI+ community’, Gareth Hanna! I have refuted him and his claims in a letter to the ‘Belfast Telegraph’, back last year. 

However, he and his like persist in their perversity, even though they are unable to answer what it is the Bible says.

What a day faces them when they meet with the AUTHOR of the Bible they cannot answer though they have lived to misrepresent its teachings!

“‭And‭‭ the times‭ of this ignorance‭ God‭ winked at‭‭; but now‭ commandeth‭‭ all‭ men‭ every where‭ to repent‭‭:‭ ‭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 17:30-31.

Latest Folly

In his latest article, Hanna reports on the ‘ordination’ of one who claims to be a ‘transgender’ though what he claims to have ‘metamorphosed’ from and what into, I cannot really be sure from Hanna’s scribblings. Click to read more…

Posted on 2024-08-12 a 6:00 am

‘No place for racism in our society’, says O’Neill

 O’Neill leads a party which was allied with IRA terrorism which raged for decades here in Northern Ireland and which resulted in hundreds of innocent people, Protestant and Roman Catholic, being callously murdered. The chief motive of the IRA was a hatred of all things Protestant and British. Thus the Protestant and Unionist community chiefly were the targets of the IRA. Roman Catholics who were deemed to show any sympathy for the IRA’s chief victims, became targets also and were brutally murdered. The bodies of some of these victims have never been found!

For her to condemn ‘RACISM’ is so ridiculous to be laughable!  Sadly, she and her party hold office only because of the blatantly foolish action of the Democratic Unionist Party entering into nefarious agreement to share power with them back in 2007. Blind greed and grasping after power was the DUP’s motive for such an utter contempt for all its former promises to never share power with Sinn Fein/IRA. That greed was bolstered by a confidence in its own ‘political skills’!

We are where we are today because of that arrogance and mercenariness!

The hypocrisy of O’Neill was shared by the DUP in that she was joined in this statement, we are told, by the DUP, Deputy First Minister, Emma Little-Pengelly.

It would appear that the DUP has either forgotten the years of IRA terror and murder or simply, for the sake of maintaining their apparent position of power, which is in truth a mere ‘spider’s web of make-believe’, shut them out of their minds! Click to read more…

Posted on 2024-08-09 a 5:49 pm

Following the distribution of my article — “Free Presbyterian ministers are to help raise funds for an ecumenical organisation, engaged in fellowshipping with and aiding the outreaches of ecumenical denominations”, some have requested evidence of the ecumenical involvement of this organisation.

I must say, that when I received the requests I thought of the saying I heard of old in Belfast when a man responded to a questioning of that which he considered to be very obvious. His response was: ‘Is the Pope a Mickey?’

To ask if Logos Ministries International is ecumenical is the equivalent of asking ‘Is the Pope a Mickey?’!!

A little research will show that LMI cares nothing for the purity of a Christian testimony, the honour of the Saviour, divinely inspired truth or obedience to God’s Word. NO, just the pursuit of a money-raising enterprise which is of their own invention!

‘Logos Ministries International’ has long been involved with ecumenism. It is a clear evidence of the silence of our pulpits regarding the duty of warning people of such dangers, that I have to establish for many the errors of this organisation.

Here are some links to articles that will demonstrate the ecumenical links, local and overseas, of ‘Logos Ministries International’.

Thomas McClean and Alan Dourish enjoyed an excellent morning with the congregations at Corrick Presbyterian Church and Badoney Presbyterian Church yesterday, as they shared about the work of LMI and brought a missional challenge from God’s Word

Sincere and heartfelt congratulations from everyone at LMI go to our Overseas Ministry Partner in South Sudan, James Baak, after his recent elevation to the position of Rt. Rev’d James Baak Nhial, Suffragan Bishop of Lietnhom Area Diocese!

Last Sunday morning, LMI’s Communications Manager, Alan Dourish, was back in his home village of Florencecourt in County Fermanagh, where he spoke at two church services in Druminiskill and St John’s

It will very much be a case of ‘turning back the clock’ for our Co-Founder and Mission Director Thomas McClean this Sunday evening, when he travels to be with our friends at Carryduff Presbyterian Church

Anyone seeking further proof of the corruptions within LMI may search the internet for themselves. Facebook in particular will shows the LMI to have many links with the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, the Church of Ireland and the Methodist Church in Ireland, all of which have been long time supporters of Ecumenism and are riddled with support for unbiblical doctrines and immoral behaviour. LMI is also with Charismatic groups.

LMI is even ‘thrilled’ to have links with Roman Catholic organisations as the following link shows.

We are thrilled to have Ron Huntley from Divine Renovation Ministry with us on Monday 21st October. Ron will be with us all the way from Nova Scotia, Canada to share his experience at Divine Renovation, a Catholic Ministry with a heart for developing missional parishes. This is an afternoon for those in church leadership, especially within a Catholic context.

LMI have made no secret of their links with compromised and ecumenical denominations and groups! Their Facebook publications glory in these links!

Rev Ian Foster (Rtd)
8th August 2024

Posted on 2024-08-08 a 5:18 pm

Not really surprising.

“For our transgressions are multiplied before thee, and our sins testify against us: for our transgressions are with us; and as for our iniquities, we know them; in transgressing and lying against the LORD, and departing away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood. And judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter. Yea, truth faileth; and he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey: and the LORD saw it, and it displeased him that there was no judgment,” Isaiah 59:12-15.

THERE IS LAWLESSNESS IN THE CHURCHES!

Prayers asking for God’s blessing for same-sex couples

THERE IS LAWLESSNESS IN PARLIAMENT!

Tory MP investigated over alleged misuse of party funds

THERE IS LAWLESSNESS IN THE POLICE!

Police corruption

THERE IS LAWLESSNESS IN BUSINESS!

Water firms to be punished for years of sewage leaks

THERE IS LAWLESSNESS IN THE HOME!

Child deaths due to abuse or neglect: statistics briefing

THERE IS LAWLESSNESS IN THE ADMISSION OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS!

Around 80 migrants including children rescued from Channel

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All this being so, it can hardly be surprising that we have lawlessness on the streets!

What happens in the pulpit will spill over into the pew and then out to the pavements of the land!

It has happened before as the Bible gives ample historical evidence for and there are also told that this age is to end with a world-wide rebellion against God which, as it did in Noah’s day, will bring God’s judgment though this time in the form of the personal intervention of the Lord Jesus Christ.

“And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself. And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God. And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS,” Revelation 19:11-16.

While governments struggle to find an answer to ‘lawlessness’, the Christian enjoys an inspired account of how our Saviour will bring it all to an end when “the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever,” Revelation 11:15.

Posted on 2024-08-08 a 6:00 am

“I have finished‭‭ ‭my‭ course‭,‬‬‬‬‬” 2 Timothy 4:7.

The word ‘course’ is linked in its meaning to the idea of ‘running’. I believe that Paul was referring to the course of his ministry, which he had desired to finish with joy, and was now declaring that it was finished. This desire he had stated earlier, as recorded in Acts 20:18-24.

“‭Ye know, from the first day that I came into Asia, after what manner I have been with you at all seasons, serving the Lord with all humility of mind, and with many tears, and temptations, which befell me by the lying in wait of the Jews: and how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have shewed you, and have taught you publickly, and from house to house, testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. And now, behold, I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there: save that the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide me. But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.”‬

Although the words of Paul in 2 Timothy 4:7-8 have the air of the approach of an imminent death: “‭I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing”‬, yet the words that follow indicated that Paul anticipated that he would not be put to death immediately.

He says to Timothy in verse 9, “‭Do thy diligence to come shortly unto me”‬. This request surely indicates that he expected to be alive for at least a little longer. Also, the words of verse 13 also indicate that he expected to live for some time yet.

“‭The cloke that I left at Troas with Carpus, when thou comest, bring with thee, and the books, but especially the parchments.”‬

The books and parchments indicate that Paul felt that he had yet work and studying to do.

I. FROM THESE CONSIDERATIONS I BELIEVE WE MAY LEARN THAT A MAN MAY BE AWARE THAT HIS LABOURS FOR THE LORD HAVE REACHED THEIR END.

I believe that Paul felt that his life’s work for the Lord had reached its conclusion even though he might live yet for a time.

I must confess that these ponderings of the words of verse 7 came to me in the middle of the night as Monday dawned in the wake of the heart-stirring events of the death and funeral of Dr John Douglas, following on as it did just two months from the death of my dear and sweet life’s partner, my wife Ann, on June 8th.

1. Dear Christian, it is always right to mark the milestones of life’s journey. Many live as if they will never die. That is most foolish. It is absolutely true that man “‭knowest not what a day may bring forth,”‬ Proverbs 27:1. Nevertheless, the signs of aging and the approach of our demise should not be ignored.

Sinners do that in their blindness and folly. In my life I have stood at many a bedside and spoken to those who were near to death. It was plain for all around to see that was so, yet the one in bed often replied to my pleadings to receive Christ as their Saviour with the words, ‘I would like to take time to think about that’!

There was an ignoring of the ‘milestones’ of frailty, grey hairs and sickness. How wrong that is! We should heed the signals that indicate that our ‘course’ is nearing its end.

2. I have been active as a Christian now for just over sixty years. Strange to relate, although I can look back to my conversion by the grace of God on a Sabbath evening, April 5th 1964, I found assurance of my salvation the following Sabbath in Ravenhill Free Presbyterian Church, when I responded to the appeal made by Dr Paisley at the end of his sermon and came out to meet with him in the little prayer room to the left of the main door as you enter the church. He opened the Word of God and showed me that “‭Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved,”‬ Acts 2:21, and other related Scriptures. Instantly, all doubts vanished and my heart was filled with joyful peace that has never forsaken me. Click to read more…

Posted on 2024-08-07 a 6:00 am

Free Presbyterian ministers are to help raise funds for an ecumenical organisation, engaged in fellowshipping with and aiding the outreaches of ecumenical denominations.

IS ASSISTING SUCH AN ORGANISATION A BREACH OF THE FREE PRESBYTERIAN  MINISTER’S ORDINATION OATH?

It most certainly once would have been considered such but it appears that new rules of interpreting that oath have been adopted by some, whereby the standards of separation from apostasy once adhered to have been set aside!

Posted on 2024-08-06 a 4:27 pm

Rev. Ivan Foster (Rtd) delivered a tribute at the homegoing service of Dr. John Douglas, who was his brother-in-law and fellow labourer in the Lord’s work. The service was held at Lisburn FPC, where Dr. Douglas had ministered for decades.

I count it a great privilege and honour to be invited to take part in the funeral service of Dr John Douglas.

I sincerely thank Eunice and the family for allowing me to play a small part in today’s proceedings.

I wish to express first of all, the sincere condolences of the whole Foster family, to Eunice and all the family, even as they were our comforters in the time of our sorrow at the recent home-call of Ann, my precious wife and her dear sister.

View a video of the entire service:

John Douglas was my dear friend as well as a brother-in-law beloved. He was a companion in the faith, a fellow labourer in the gospel and one with whom I shared an earnest contending for the ‘Crown rights of King Jesus and crown jewels of His gospel’.

I first met John in 1964, 60 years ago. That was a year of ‘introductions’ for me.

On April 5th of that year, the Lord in mercy introduced Himself to me, a lost sinner, and graciously pardoned my sins and made me a new creature.

One week later, I met a man who was to become a great influence in my early Christian life, Dr Ian Paisley. He it was who led John to Christ, his first convert at the beginning of his ministry in Ravenhill.

It was shortly after that, that I met John in the old Ravenhill church. In September of that year, I also later met my dear wife to be, Ann, along with her sisters Eunice and Jennifer and brother Charlie. Click to read more…

Posted on 2024-08-03 a 10:03 pm

This evil man has acknowledged his guilt.

‘Ex-BBC presenter Huw Edwards pleads guilty to making indecent images of children’

The ‘Independent’ of July 31st, reports: ‘The former BBC News at Ten anchor, 62, admitted at Westminster Magistrates’ Court to having 41 indecent images of children on his phone, seven of which were category A, the very worst kind.

Also among the 377 sexual images discovered by police – sent to him by 25-year-old convicted paedophile Alex Williams from Merthyr Tydfil, south Wales, between December 2020 and August 2021 – were 12 category B images, and 22 category C images.

Five of the category A images featured children aged between 13 and 15, while at least two were moving images that depicted a child believed to be “between seven and nine”, the court was told.’

It is also reported that he faces up to 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to making indecent images of children.

Paid in Full

Despite knowing this about the pervert, the BBC continued paying this man his full and excessively high wages until his final resignation in April of this year.

That makes the BBC complicit in his wickedness! Click to read more…

Posted on 2024-08-02 a 6:00 am

“And they came over unto the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gadarenes. And when he was come out of the ship, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit, who had his dwelling among the tombs; and no man could bind him, no, not with chains: because that he had been often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been plucked asunder by him, and the fetters broken in pieces: neither could any man tame him.

And always, night and day, he was in the mountains, and in the tombs, crying, and cutting himself with stones. But when he saw Jesus afar off, he ran and worshipped him, and cried with a loud voice, and said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the most high God? I adjure thee by God, that thou torment me not. For he said unto him, Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit.

And he asked him, What is thy name? And he answered, saying, My name is Legion: for we are many. And he besought him much that he would not send them away out of the country. Now there was there nigh unto the mountains a great herd of swine feeding. And all the devils besought him, saying, Send us into the swine, that we may enter into them. And forthwith Jesus gave them leave.

And the unclean spirits went out, and entered into the swine: and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the sea, (they were about two thousand;) and were choked in the sea,”  Mark 5:1-13.

I was made to think of this portion of God’s inspired Word when I heard of the horrific events in Southport, England, on Monday 29th July. It was widely reported in the press. Here is a BBC report.

Southport stabbing: How the knife attack unfolded

In truth, no news report could ever fully convey the distress and heartbreak that followed this horrendously murderous attack by a teenager, a son of immigrants. The culprit has been arrested. He has been described as being ‘reclusive’!

However, that would not account for his actions and for the actions of the many, many other examples of similar murderous incidents in recent times on the streets and in the homes of the United Kingdom! Hundreds of murders take place each year, the most of them animalistic attacks almost void of any tangible motive.

In these days of apostasy from God and His truth by the mainline churches, the impact of this rebellion upon the nation is the releasing of the floodgates of lawlessness and defiance of all that the Lord has commanded men to obey!

It is that spirit that is epitomised by ‘the man of Gadara’! Click to read more…

Posted on 2024-08-01 a 6:00 am

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“Woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh!” Matthew 18:7.

Our Saviour knows all things! “Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure,” Isaiah 46:10.

1. In our text He speaks of “offences”. The word literally means ‘the movable stick or trigger of a trap, a trap stick, any impediment placed in the way and causing one to stumble or fall.’

The Saviour is here telling us that such ‘impediments’ will be multiplied and increasingly encountered by the believer. “It must needs be that offences come.” As the end of this age approaches, so the world will become more outrageous in its defiance of God and what is holy and become more and more of an offence to the ‘righteous’!

2. Furthermore, the Saviour tells us the source of such offences. “Woe unto the world because of offences.” It is the worldly “man by whom the offence cometh.” This world and all in it and of it, is the enemy of God. “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,” 1 John 2:16.

How wrong it is in any way to be affiliated with the ways of the world. “Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God,”  James 4:4. Click to read more…

Posted on 2024-07-30 a 6:00 am

A consideration of the words of Jeremiah chapter 22

Many believe that there is nothing to be gained by studying the moral guidance that was given by God’s servants of old, such as these words here in this chapter 22 of Jeremiah. It is true that these words were uttered some 2600 years ago. But we must remember that the source of these words is JEHOVAH, for such is stated in the opening verse of the chapter.

“‭Thus saith‭‭ the LORD‭; Go down‭‭ to the house‭ of the king‭ of Judah‭, and speak‭‭ there this word‭,‭”‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬ Jeremiah 22:1. The Lord says of Himself: “‭For I ‭am‭ the LORD‭, I change‭‭ not,‭‭‭‭‭”‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬ Malachi 3:6. These words have been paraphrased into the well-known couplet:

No change Jehovah knows, glory to His name.
All may change but Jesus never, glory to His name!

This being so, there is no change in the moral standards that the Lord requires of His people today from those of yesterday!

That is why the study of the Bible is essential if we would live to please the Lord. Of course, it is not just a matter of ‘reading and studying’ the Bible. We are required to obey its precepts – from Genesis to Revelation!

I have obtained my title for this article from the opening of the chapter before us.

“‭Thus saith‭‭ the LORD‭; Go down‭‭ to the house‭ of the king‭ of Judah‭, and speak‭‭ there this word‭,‭ ‭And say‭‭, Hear‭‭ the word‭ of the LORD‭, O king‭ of Judah‭, that sittest‭‭ upon the throne‭ of David‭, thou, and thy servants‭, and thy people‭ that enter‭‭ in by these gates‭:‭ ‭Thus saith‭‭ the LORD‭; Execute‭‭ ye judgment‭ and righteousness‭, and deliver‭‭ the spoiled‭‭ out of the hand‭ of the oppressor‭: and do no wrong‭‭, do no violence‭‭ to the stranger‭, the fatherless‭, nor the widow‭, neither shed‭‭ innocent‭ blood‭ in this place‭.‭ ‭For if ye do‭‭ this thing‭ indeed‭‭, then shall there enter in‭‭ by the gates‭ of this house‭ kings‭ sitting‭‭ upon the throne‭ of David‭, riding‭‭ in chariots‭ and on horses‭, he, and his servants‭, and his people‭.‭ ‭But if ye will not hear‭‭ these words‭, I swear‭‭ by myself, saith‭ the LORD‭, that this house‭ shall become a desolation‭,‭”‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬ Jeremiah 22:1-5.

The fall-out of the wrong political measures adopted by the kings of Judah stemmed from their rejection of God’s Word. The ‘tree’ that produced the woes that overtook Judah, its kings and people, was their rejection of the Lord as their God with the following of idols and the impure and immoral behaviour that sprang from that spiritual rebellion. Their wrong politics was the ‘fruit’ of their apostasy.

The harvest that would most surely follow their wicked rejection of the Lord and His Word could ONLY be avoided by a return to an obedience to the truth of God and the adopting of behaviour that was in keeping with that truth!

What was said of Judah may be said of Ulster today! Click to read more…

Posted on 2024-07-26 a 6:00 pm

I have copied this article from the ‘Belfast Newsletter’ website. It is a most alarming revealing of how quickly society is spiralling downward under the hegemony of the growing ‘sodomite’ perverted clique!

Society is already, to a large degree, defined according to the deviant thinking of those who have turned from the natural order that God has ordained to the aberrant notions born in the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, and damned by God for their wickedness.

That our police force should be controlled and compelled to carry out the policies of the Sodomite will but hasten the day when that which the Saviour, in Luke 17:28-30, refers to is upon us.

“Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.”

Ulster Unionists

The article also reveals that the Ulster Unionist party has been sending their representative to the training courses! See the section highlighted in the article. Here is what is said: ‘Cara-Friend has also provided training to the Ulster Unionist Party too; a PR photo in 2018 showed the entire top team of the party posing with their trainers.’

The DUP need no lesson for they have shown themselves quite ready to embrace the end-time defection from God’s Word with their recent history of being involved in the f=sharing our of government funds to sodomite organisations and also endorsing one who openly flaunts her ‘lesbianism’. It is widely reported that there are that those within the party who are sodomites or who support such a perverted and abominable lifestyle.

Let all be aware that this burgeoning moral ‘cancer’ is the direct result of the abandoning of the Word of God in the pulpits of the main churches and their embracing of the conduct of those ancient nations which God destroyed because of their wickedness.

“Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. 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; being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them,” Romans 1:25-32.

That which follows on from sodomy is listed here. It is that which springs from the ‘reprobate mind’ to which God gives such rebels over to. Click to read more…

Posted on 2024-07-23 a 6:01 am

I am sure that it is superfluous to say that ‘The Burning Bush’ is opposed to Roman Catholicism. We have many articles and sermons posted here which denounce the teaching of that organisation and that SOLELY on the basis of what the Bible teaches.

Our witness is one exclusively given over to setting forth the TRUTH of the BIBLE in opposition to all the base inventions of men, new and old!

However, I believe I can say that we have striven to say to our Roman Catholic neighbours that our denunciations of Roman Catholicism is not to be seen as a personal attack on them. I have often said that the actions of the surgeon when he cuts into a patient is not an evidence of any animosity toward that patient on his part but rather it is a kind and helpful attempt to remove from the suffering one that which likely will kill them.

False doctrine damns souls! That is what the Lord Jesus taught us. If we BELIEVE the Bible we shall enjoy eternal life in glory. If we REJECT the Bible, and embrace an alternative to its truth, we will be lost forever under God’s judgment.

Listen to what the Saviour said on this matter.

“That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved,” John 3:15-17.

“He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him,” John 3:36. Click to read more…

Posted on 2024-07-23 a 6:00 am

Reasons why today Christians should be much in prayer for ensuing generations of believers!

“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 24:6-13.

These are the words of the Lord Jesus Christ as he answers the important questions of His disciples. “And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world (Greek – ‘age’)?” Matthew 24:3.

This age will end amidst the greatest rebellion and defiance of God that mankind has ever engaged in since the fall of Adam, some six thousand years ago (Ussher’s Chronology). But for the restraining power of God, mankind would have engaged in such wicked mutiny against God’s authority and rule long go. The Lord has held back men and shackled them, oftentimes cutting them off before they could really get started on their insubordination.

I. THE LORD HAS A TIMETABLE AND MAN AND DEVILS ARE CONSTRAINED BY IT

That is what happened at the flood in Noah’s day. Man was intent in overthrowing God’s rule on earth. “And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually . . .  The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth,” Genesis 6:5, 11-12.

All upon the face of the earth with the exception of those in the Ark, perished under God’s judgment.

“And the flood was forty days upon the earth; and the waters increased, and bare up the ark, and it was lift up above the earth. And the waters prevailed, and were increased greatly upon the earth; and the ark went upon the face of the waters. And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth; and all the high hills, that were under the whole heaven, were covered. Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail; and the mountains were covered. And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, and every man: All in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, died. And every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven; and they were destroyed from the earth: and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark. And the waters prevailed upon the earth an hundred and fifty days” Genesis 7:17-24.

Wicked persistence

The universal manifestation of God’s wrath and power was very great at that time but it did not deter mankind from rebellion. Within 100 years we have that generation which sprang from the sons of Noah, who were tasked with repopulating the earth, united in another attempt to defy God and His purpose amongst men. Click to read more…

Posted on 2024-07-22 a 6:00 am

Two chapters that need no explanation from a man and which should speak loudly to us all here in Ulster today!

This article is only comprised of God’s Word from two chapters which were part of my Bible reading yesterday.

I make no comment on the divine words for they need no human explanation.

Instead of comment, I will follow the example of W P Nicholson that I read of from some 100 years ago. He tells of how a wealthy Christian bought air time on a radio station in California and asked W P to simply read from the Bible and make no comment.

But that faithful old Ulsterman sought to emphasise some verses he read. Since he could make no comment, what he did was to read twice those verses he wished to have listeners particularly note!

I will do something similar. I will underline and put in bold type those verses I would have my readers particularly note.

The controversy within the Free Presbyterian Church is not of my making, despite what some may say.

Rather, it is as the prophet said: “Hear ye, O mountains, the LORD’S controversy, and ye strong foundations of the earth: for the LORD hath a controversy with his people,” Micah 6:2.

I will let Him therefore have His direct say on matters here in our land amongst His professing people.

May the Lord add His comments by His Holy Spirit as you read these passages.

Sincerely in Christ’s name,

Ivan Foster

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Judges Chapter Two

“And an angel of the LORD came up from Gilgal to Bochim, and said, I made you to go up out of Egypt, and have brought you unto the land which I sware unto your fathers; and I said, I will never break my covenant with you.

And ye shall make no league with the inhabitants of this land; ye shall throw down their altars: but ye have not obeyed my voice: why have ye done this? Click to read more…

Posted on 2024-07-20 a 6:00 am

“Now therefore fear the LORD, and serve him in sincerity and in truth: and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt; and serve ye the LORD,” Joshua 24:14.

(Bible reading for July 17th)

To the end of his days Joshua laboured to strengthen the obedience and dedication of  Israel to the Lord their God.

Equally tenacious was the spirit of disobedience found amongst many in the ranks of that nation.

Note how in the verse above Joshua says, “Put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt; and serve ye the LORD.” Incredible as it would seem, there were still those Israelites who, despite all that they had seen and witnessed of God’s kindness and saving power toward them and His hatred of idolatry, worshipped idols.

Joshua faithfully warned of the consequences of disobedience.

“If ye forsake the LORD, and serve strange gods, then he will turn and do you hurt, and consume you, after that he hath done you good,” verse 20.

He felt it necessary to repeat his call to reject idolatry.

“Now therefore put away, said he, the strange gods which are among you, and incline your heart unto the LORD God of Israel,” verse 23.

This exchange took place just before the great man died.

“And it came to pass after these things, that Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died, being an hundred and ten years old,” verse 29.

But we must note the ominous assertion in verse 31.

“And Israel served the LORD all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that overlived Joshua, and which had known all the works of the LORD, that he had done for Israel.”

The clear implication is that their obedience and their adherence to the covenant they made at Joshua’s insistence would not last long. Click to read more…

Posted on 2024-07-18 a 8:00 am

Is protesting against the follies, the breaches in discipline and the deafness of many in our church leadership, an exercise akin to that of the actions of King Canute seeking to stop the incoming tide??

Critics and mockers may sneeringly say ‘yes’ to the question in our title. However, I recall the words of the Lord, found in the book of Jeremiah.

“‭And now, because ye have done‭‭ all these works‭, saith‭ the LORD‭, and I spake‭‭ unto you, rising up early‭‭ and speaking‭‭, but ye heard‭‭ not; and I called‭‭ you, but ye answered‭‭ not;‭ ‭Therefore will I do‭‭ unto ‭this‭ house‭, which is called‭‭ by my name‭, wherein ye trust‭‭, and unto the place‭ which I gave‭‭ to you and to your fathers‭, as I have done‭‭ to Shiloh‭.‭ ‭And I will cast you out‭‭ of my sight‭, as I have cast out‭‭ all your brethren‭, ‭even‭ the whole seed‭ of Ephraim‭.‭ . . ‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬But this thing‭ commanded‭‭ I them, saying‭‭, Obey‭‭ my voice‭, and I will be your God‭, and ye shall be my people‭: and walk‭‭ ye in all the ways‭ that I have commanded‭‭ you, that it may be well‭‭ unto you.‭ ‭But they hearkened‭‭ not, nor inclined‭‭ their ear‭, but walked‭‭ in the counsels‭ ‭and‭ in the imagination‭ of their evil‭ heart‭, and went backward‭, and not forward‭,‭”‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬ Jeremiah 7:13-15, 23-24.

“‭For I earnestly‭‭ protested‭‭ unto your fathers‭ in the day‭ ‭that‭ I brought them up‭‭ out of the land‭ of Egypt‭, ‭even‭ unto this day‭, rising early‭‭ and protesting‭‭, saying‭‭, Obey‭‭ my voice‭.‭ ‭Yet they obeyed‭‭ not, nor inclined‭‭ their ear‭, but walked‭‭ every one‭ in the imagination‭ of their evil‭ heart‭: therefore I will bring‭‭ upon them all the words‭ of this covenant‭, which I commanded‭‭ ‭them‭ to do‭‭; but they did‭‭ ‭them‭ not,‭”‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬ Jeremiah 11:7-8. Click to read more…

Posted on 2024-07-16 a 6:00 pm

An email sent to some Presbytery officers on the subject:

Is encouraging the adoption of papist prayers official policy of the Free Presbyterian Church?

Brethren,

At the close of an article on prayer in the present ‘Vision’ magazine, the writer, Jonathan Story, minister of Mt Merrion Free Presbyterian Church, recommends that we adopt the prayer of the Romanist ‘saint’ Thomas Aquinas, an Italian Dominican friar and priest.

Is it now the accepted and established position of the Free Presbyterian Church that the prayers of mass-mongers and blasphemous bachelor priests of Rome are models to be followed and emanated?

If it has the sanction of the Ulster Presbytery then a line has been crossed that brings the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster into the camp of liberalism and apostasy.

I have no doubt many members of our denomination will find that intolerable!

Should not the prayers of such an idolatrous priest be rejected as did the Saviour with the devil’s quotation and misapplying of Holy Scripture?

“Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple, And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God,” Matthew 4:5-7.

I consider this a most serious and unacceptable breach in our denomination’s adherence to the Word of God and to the Reformed Faith and it is time to call a halt to such violations of our God-ordained stand and witness and deal with those guilty of such.

If the sentiments of this article are not the official position of the Free Presbyterian Church, then how was it sanctioned for publication in an official magazine?

Are we to expect exhortations to attend Corrymeela Ecumenical Centre published in the ‘Vision’ next?

I will be circulating a copy of this letter since the sinful error of promoting popery has also been circulated amongst our church members.

Sincere regards,

Ivan Foster
15th July 2024

Posted on 2024-07-16 a 8:00 am

Never was there a truer headline printed in a newspaper than the one reproduced below from ‘The Times’ newspaper, sent to me by a friend!

We cannot agree with every comment, especially the one claiming that Tony Blair is a ‘Christian’ when he, is in fact, a convert to Romanism!

There is just cause for thinking that such a headline should have been used of recent Stormont Assemblies but there is no newspaper here of a mind to see Stormont as such or courage to print an article as this even if they did!

Sincerely in Christ’s name,

Ivan Foster

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Britain has elected the most godless parliament in its history

Half the cabinet, including Sir Keir Starmer, chose the non-religious option to profess allegiance to the King

July 05 2024, 11.00am

When Alastair Campbell said “we don’t do God”, it was because he knew that Tony Blair very much did. But as Sir Keir Starmer becomes the first atheist prime minister for decades, Britain has elected the most irreligious parliament in history.

There were 14 Muslim MPs, who swore on the Quran, and Rishi Sunak was one of three MPs to swear on the Bhagavad Gita, the Hindu holy book. There are also likely to be a handful of religious MPs, including Tim Farron, the former leader of the Liberal Democrats and a Christian, who affirmed because their beliefs prohibit oaths.

The big jump in irreligious MPs was the result of the Labour landslide in which Starmer’s party won 412 MPs. Almost half of Labour MPs — 47 per cent — affirmed, compared with only 9 per cent of Conservatives. The Liberal Democrats, who won a record 72 seats, also had 47 per cent of their MPs make an affirmation. Click to read more…

Posted on 2024-07-13 a 6:19 pm

I send out this article, centred upon a text which is most suitable when Ulster is marking that day when God in His mercy granted a victory to the forces of William of Orange which providentially, secured for Ulster Protestants the freedom to worship in accordance with the Word of God.

I have to say that sadly, the day will be marked by many Orangemen crowding into public houses, many of which are owned by Irish republicans, in total ignorance of what it was happened on July 12th 1690 or the true significance of that event! They will have carried banners with Scripture texts and some lodges  are even led by one of its members carrying a copy of the Bible as they march in the procession.

But grievingly such symbolism is meaningless to so many Orangemen!

We have surely witnessed the the foundations of our gospel heritage being eroded and destroyed by a departure within the main Protestant denominations

Sincerely in Christ’s name,

Ivan Foster

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The only answer to a distressing situation

“If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?” Psalm 11:3.

The circumstances in which “the foundations” of true religion are deemed to be destroyed in a land is set forth in the Psalm.

1. When the believer is as a helpless bird being hunted, as was David in the days of this Psalm. In a day of apostasy the Christian is counted of little value, afforded little honour and deemed an easy target. David’s words to Saul as the king hunted him, are worth repeating. “Now therefore, let not my blood fall to the earth before the face of the LORD: for the king of Israel is come out to seek a flea, as when one doth hunt a partridge in the mountains,” 1 Samuel 26:20.

Nothing is more despised than is the witness of the gospel today. It is for this reason political organisations such as the Democratic Unionist Party seek to cast off the cloak of ‘the old-time religion’ it once was happy to wear because it is now deemed a liability and costing them votes!

2. When the wicked feel that they are free to target the upright. “For, lo, the wicked bend their bow, they make ready their arrow upon the string, that they may privily shoot at the upright in heart,” verse 2.

Sadly it is not just the wicked but foolish and blinded professing Christians who ‘shoot’ lies and false criticisms at those who are ‘correct’ in their denunciations of the sins of this age. They whisper and seek to conceal their false and defamatory statements from those they target for they know in their hearts that there is no substance to their allegations!

It is in such circumstances that it may be seen that the ‘foundation, support, stay’ (Hebrew) of true and holy religion has come under attack and ‘been pulled down’.

Is that not the state of affairs today? Click to read more…

Posted on 2024-07-12 a 8:00 am

The SDLP leader, Colum Eastwood, underscores how empty and worthless are his solemn, sincere and faithful  promises as he makes a mockery of his oath to the king in order to obtain his MP’s salary.

His actions are but a public display of what Roman Catholics believe is morally acceptable – ‘Mental Reservation’.

It is defined thus: “Mental reservation (or mental equivocation) is an ethical theory and a doctrine in moral theology which recognizes the “lie of necessity”, and holds that when there is a conflict between justice and telling the truth, it is justice that should prevail. The doctrine is a special branch of casuistry (case-based reasoning) developed in the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance and associated with the Jesuits.”

See this article:  MP oath to King an empty formula, says SDLP leader

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Also for your reading is this article by Dr Edward Cooke of Queens University, Belfast.

Is Translink a company that increasingly discriminates against Protestants and Unionists within Northern Ireland in its policy of mutual cultural recognition?

This question arises when you consider that on the 12th, 13th and 14 July 2024, Translink (according to the latest timetable) run eight, eight and five trains respectively from Portadown to Dublin, when on the 13th and 14 July there are three all-Ireland, semi-final GAA matches being played at Croke Park in Dublin and when on the 13 July, Translink run only two trains from Portadown to Scarva (at 6.07pm and 11.07pm) after the Royal Black Scarva pageant has finished?!  Why the disparity, considering the potential for Translink to generate revenues on the 13th July when some 100,000 spectators travel (by private transport) to watch the Scarva pageant?

Scarva increasing is a victim of its own success.  Difficulty, and the increasing cost of accessing the limited amount of car-parking and the inequalities in relying on private transport with an exclusionary public transportation policy, asks equality questions of the operations management at Translink!  Moreover, Translink appear to provide none of the regular public bus services from Banbridge and Portadown to Scarva, and in doing so, this policy clearly disadvantages elderly and economically disadvantaged Protestants and unionists who have no private means from spectating at one of the cultural delights within Northern Ireland.  It a[pears on the face of it, Translink have omitted to consider the S.75 equality screening implications of its operating decisions around the provision of public transportation to Dublin and Scarva!

With these disadvantages in mind, it is little wonder that increasingly more NI unionists are continuing the 12th July holiday period with a rail visit to Bangor on the 13th July to watch the Bangor and Lurgan Black Preceptory parade, a parade that paradoxically deserves to be better supported by the NI unionist population.

If Translink have taken a conscious policy decision to abandon the 13 July Scarva parade, it then falls on the parade organisers of the Scarva pageant to better inform (and improve) public accessibility to Scarva for all in order to ensure that the elderly and economically disadvantaged unionist community are provided with information and a means to watch the Scarva pageant.

Dr Edward Cooke

Posted on 2024-07-10 a 9:14 pm

This article from ‘The Telegraph’ of London makes interesting reading.

We may not agree with every sentence and sentiment but the core of the article is all about the input of the alien cultural ambitions of some Muslim activists that has had an impact upon the recent election and will have a great impact in the future!!

What is happening in England is something that I mentioned long ago! I recall that I wrote that the back-stabbing by the Westminster governments of the loyalist people of Northern Ireland in the treacherously deceitful way that the terrorism of the IRA was used by governments to wear down and force compromise after compromise from foolish Unionist politicians, would come back upon their heads one day!

One wonders if the Muslim ‘campaign (which) is a glimpse into a horrifying future’ referred to in this article, might take on an even greater likeness to Sinn Fein/IRA’s end game of murderous terrorism?

Sincere regards,

Ivan Foster

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Why the Muslim Vote campaign is a glimpse into a horrifying future

Group’s sectarian insurgency over Gaza succeeded in making a dent to Labour’s majority

Jake Wallis Simons

When the circus finally arrived, it offered the usual attractions. The old rituals were a comfort. John Curtice, the swing-o-meter, Laura Kuenssberg and Jeremy Vine performed the familiar motions, not to mention the irrepressible Count Binface.

(Count Binface is a satirical perennial candidate created by the British comedian Jonathan David — The BB Editor)

But while the Labour celebrations and the Tory misery felt routine – even after we had grown used to them in opposite roles – under cover of darkness, a shocking new act crept into the tent.

An insurgent force has entered British politics. The Muslim Vote had no rosette and advanced no meaningful manifesto beyond a set of deeply sectarian principles. It stood candidates tactically, and owed their allegiances purely to religious and ethnic interests.

It had a single set of demands, all related to Gaza. This was a non-party. Yet in numbers, its victory was equal to Reform.

On the day of the election, Jeremy Corbyn proclaimed: “Today, Palestine is on the ballot.” If victorious in Islington North, he added, he would “stand up for the people of Gaza” and campaign tirelessly for “an end to the occupation of Palestine”. Click to read more…

Posted on 2024-07-10 a 5:31 pm

SOME OF THE WORDS OF GOD.

“‭Now‭ the Spirit‭ speaketh‭‭ expressly‭, that‭ in‭ the latter‭ times‭ some‭ shall depart from‭‭ the faith‭, giving heed‭‭ to seducing‭ spirits‭, and‭ doctrines‭ of devils‭;‭ ‭Speaking lies‭ in‭ hypocrisy‭; having‭‭ their‭ conscience‭ seared with a hot iron‭‭;‭ ‭forbidding‭‭ to marry‭‭, ‭and commanding‭ to abstain from‭‭ meats‭, which‭ God‭ hath created‭‭ to‭ be received‭ with‭ thanksgiving‭ of them which believe‭ and‭ know‭‭ the truth‭.‭ ‭For‭ every‭ creature‭ of God‭ ‭is‭ good‭, and‭ nothing‭ to be refused‭, if it be received‭‭ with‭ thanksgiving‭,‭”‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬ 1 Timothy 4:1-4.

“‭This‭ know‭‭ also‭, that‭ in‭ the last‭ days‭ perilous‭ times‭ shall come‭‭.‭ ‭For‭ men‭ shall be‭‭ lovers of their own selves‭, covetous‭, boasters‭, proud‭, blasphemers‭, disobedient‭ to parents‭, unthankful‭, unholy‭,‭ ‭without natural affection‭, trucebreakers‭, false accusers‭, incontinent‭, fierce‭, despisers of those that are good‭,‭ ‭traitors‭, heady‭, highminded‭‭, lovers of pleasures‭ more‭ than‭ lovers of God‭;‭ ‭having‭‭ a form‭ of godliness‭, but‭ denying‭‭ the power‭ thereof‭: from‭ such‭ turn away‭‭.‭”‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬ 2 Timothy 3:1-5.

“‭I‭ charge‭‭ ‭thee‭ therefore‭ before‭ God‭, and‭ the Lord‭ Jesus‭ Christ‭, who‭ shall‭‭ judge‭‭ the quick‭‭ and‭ the dead‭ at‭ his‭ appearing‭ and‭ his‭ kingdom‭;‭ ‭Preach‭‭ the word‭; be instant‭‭ in season‭, out of season‭; reprove‭‭, rebuke‭‭, exhort‭‭ with‭ all‭ longsuffering‭ and‭ doctrine‭.‭ ‭For‭ the time‭ will come‭‭ when‭ they will‭‭ not‭ endure‭‭ sound‭‭ doctrine‭; but‭ after‭ their own‭ lusts‭ shall they heap‭‭ to themselves‭ teachers‭, having itching‭‭ ears‭;‭ ‭And‭ they shall turn away‭‭‭ ‭their‭ ears‭ from‭ the truth‭, and‭ shall be turned‭‭ unto‭ fables‭.‭ ‭But‭ watch‭‭ thou‭ in‭ all things‭, endure afflictions‭‭, do‭‭ the work‭ of an evangelist‭, make full proof‭‭ of thy‭ ministry‭,‭”‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬  2 Timothy 4:1-5.

“‭This‭ second‭ epistle‭, beloved‭, I‭‭ now‭ write‭‭ unto you‭; in‭ ‭both‭ which‭ I stir up‭‭ your‭ pure‭ minds‭ by way‭ of remembrance‭:‭ ‭that ye may be mindful‭‭ of the words‭ which were spoken before‭‭ by‭ the holy‭ prophets‭, and‭ of the commandment‭ of us‭ the apostles‭ of the Lord‭ and‭ Saviour‭:‭ ‭knowing‭‭ this‭ first‭, that‭ there shall come‭‭ in‭ the last‭ days‭ scoffers‭, walking‭‭ after‭ their‭ own‭ lusts‭,‭ ‭and‭ saying‭‭, Where‭ is‭‭ the promise‭ of his‭ coming‭? for‭ since‭‭ the fathers‭ fell asleep‭‭, all things‭ continue‭‭‭ as ‭they were‭ from‭ the beginning‭ of the creation‭,‭”‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬  2 Peter 3:1-4.

 

AN EXAMPLE OF THE CONTRARY WORDS OF MEN.

“We must build a better future for our people, those we agree with and those we disagree with.”

(Gregory Campbell, Democratic Unionist Party MP, just elected ahead of the Sinn Fein candidate by 179 votes)

When illness overtakes a loved one, amongst their friends there is the hope and prayer that a recovery will take place and a healing wrought by the mercy of the Lord. But as deterioration continues, it becomes evident that recovery is becoming less likely for, in the providence of God, life’s ‘allotted span’ is coming to an end.

For the child of God of course there is the glorious hope of being carried into the immediate presence of the Lord and the end of all of earth’s woes, trials and sorrows.

It is not so for those who must face death in their sin. For them it is as was the case with the rich man in the Saviour’s account of his death. “‭T‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭he rich man‭ also‭‭ died‭‭, and‭ was buried‭‭;‭ ‭and‭ in‭ hell‭ he lift up‭‭ his‭ eyes‭, being‭‭ in‭ torments‭,‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭”‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬ Luke 16:22-23. Click to read more…

Posted on 2024-07-06 a 7:56 pm

HOW DID IT GO FROM THIS:

“And when the queen of Sheba had seen the wisdom of Solomon, and the house that he had built, and the meat of his table, and the sitting of his servants, and the attendance of his ministers, and their apparel; his cupbearers also, and their apparel; and his ascent by which he went up into the house of the LORD; there was no more spirit in her. And she said to the king, It was a true report which I heard in mine own land of thine acts, and of thy wisdom: howbeit I believed not their words, until I came, and mine eyes had seen it: and, behold, the one half of the greatness of thy wisdom was not told me: for thou exceedest the fame that I heard. Happy are thy men, and happy are these thy servants, which stand continually before thee, and hear thy wisdom. Blessed be the LORD thy God, which delighted in thee to set thee on his throne, to be king for the LORD thy God: because thy God loved Israel, to establish them for ever, therefore made he thee king over them, to do judgment and justice,” 2 Chronicles 9:3-8.

TO THIS???

“And the LORD was angry with Solomon, because his heart was turned from the LORD God of Israel, which had appeared unto him twice, and had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods: but he kept not that which the LORD commanded. Wherefore the LORD said unto Solomon, Forasmuch as this is done of thee, and thou hast not kept my covenant and my statutes, which I have commanded thee, I will surely rend the kingdom from thee, and will give it to thy servant.”

1 Kings 11:9-11.

Solomon was the wisest man that ever lived for his wisdom was given him of God.

“In Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream by night: and God said, Ask what I shall give thee. And Solomon said, Thou hast shewed unto thy servant David my father great mercy, according as he walked before thee in truth, and in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart with thee; and thou hast kept for him this great kindness, that thou hast given him a son to sit on his throne, as it is this day. And now, O LORD my God, thou hast made thy servant king instead of David my father: and I am but a little child: I know not how to go out or come in. And thy servant is in the midst of thy people which thou hast chosen, a great people, that cannot be numbered nor counted for multitude. Give therefore thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and bad: for who is able to judge this thy so great a people? And the speech pleased the Lord, that Solomon had asked this thing. And God said unto him, Because thou hast asked this thing, and hast not asked for thyself long life; neither hast asked riches for thyself, nor hast asked the life of thine enemies; but hast asked for thyself understanding to discern judgment; Behold, I have done according to thy words: lo, I have given thee a wise and an understanding heart; so that there was none like thee before thee, neither after thee shall any arise like unto thee,” 1 Kings 3:5-12.

Yet Solomon ended his days as a fool! He had acted most foolishly indeed in his latter years. In truth, when we consider the mighty blessings and exceeding great privileges he enjoyed from God’s hand, Solomon became the most foolish man that ever lived! His epitaph, as recorded in 2 Chronicles 9:29, divides his life into two sections — first and last! Click to read more…

Posted on 2024-07-05 a 10:41 pm

“And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see,” Revelation 6:1.

The word ‘see’ features large in this chapter.

When this ‘seeing’ takes place is at the ‘opening of the book’ mentioned in the previous chapter.

“And I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals. And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof? And no man in heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book, neither to look thereon,” Revelation 5:1-3.

The “book written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals” is the full record of God’s purpose for His covenant people Israel and also of the fate of their enemies who are confederate against them in the ages past, but who will band together as never before in the closing years of this age. Its fulfilment has long been anticipated by the people of God for it has been the subject of the visions of all the prophets which they shared with God’s people.

It is “written within and on the backside” for it is the ‘full’ details of God’s eternally determined intention for His people and His land.

The Lord has fully resolved that there will be an overthrowing of man’s evil rebellion against Him and an enthroning of His Son as KING, even as it is stated in Psalm 2.

“Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee. Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel,” verses 6-9.

The future vain attempt by depraved and foolish men is set forth in the opening of the Psalm 2. Click to read more…

Posted on 2024-07-01 a 6:00 am