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“The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun,” Ecclesiastes 1:9.

This is the final part of a three-part study in which we are seeking to discover the parallels between what it was the Saviour encountered during His ministry on earth and how those events mirrored what it is the child of God may expect to face in this age that has followed His ascension.

IN THE MIDST OF THE EVIL AND TREACHEROUS ATMOSPHERE THERE WAS A FAITHFUL REMNANT

1. The Lord warned His servants many times of what was going to happen. I have already quoted Matthew 16:21. In Mark 8:31 we read: “And he began to teach them, that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, and of the chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.” That warning brought forth the outrageously arrogant response of Peter. “And Peter took him, and began to rebuke him,”verse 32. What Peter said was of the devil for the Lord referred to him as Satan in those infamous words: “Get thee behind me, Satan: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men.”

 Despite this most foolish reluctance to believe the warnings of Christ about how things would end for Him, He repeated the warning again in chapter 17, verses 22-23 and again in chapter 20, verses 18-19. On the eve of His betrayal He still warned of the coming treachery. “And it came to pass, when Jesus had finished all these sayings, he said unto his disciples, Ye know that after two days is the feast of the passover, and the Son of man is betrayed to be crucified,” Matthew 26:1-2.

UNBELIEF

So almost from the beginning of His ministry until almost the last days of it, the Saviour clearly foretold of the danger ahead but a dreadful spirit of ignorance and blindness and unbelief stopped the disciples from benefitting from His warnings.

Is that not mirrored in the very same spirit found amongst God’s people today? Click to read more…

Posted on 2023-06-30 a 9:34 pm

THE LARGELY EMPTY RESPONSE BY ALL TOO MANY CHRISTIANS TO THE GOVERNMENT’S LATEST ATTACK UPON OUR CHILDREN!

The following news article has been mounted on the BBC news site.

Welsh Tory quits UK government over sex education law

The man in question is Robin Millar is the Conservative MP for Aberconwy. It is refreshing to see such a conscience amongst a parliament which appears to have little or no conscience!

Would that there was more of such amongst Christians here in Ulster!

He was one of 20 Conservative MPs who voted against the issue on Wednesday.

The rules brought in by the Tory government will make it compulsory for all post-primary schools in Northern Ireland to teach pupils about access to abortion and prevention of early pregnancy.

There have been many comments on this issue here in Ulster from parents with calls for actions of all kinds in response to this evil plan of the government.

All kinds except the ONE action that the Lord would approve of, namely the removing of children from under such instruction and placing them in a school governed by the Bible ALONE!

However, for me the reactions display a mixture of ignorance, apathy and continued carelessness. One Baptist pastor, in a letter to a local newspaper, tells us how he has instructed his children to withdraw from under such instruction. Click to read more…

Posted on 2023-06-29 a 10:55 pm

“The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun,” Ecclesiastes 1:9.

This is the second part of a three-part study in which we are seeking to discover the parallels between what it was the Saviour encountered during His ministry on earth and how those events mirrored what it is the child of God may expect to face in this age that has followed His ascension.

THE EARLY TIMES OF SUCCESS SEEN IN THE SAVIOUR’S MINISTRY

We see further evidence of the parallel between the experiences of the Saviour and those of His people in the ages subsequent to His ascension.

1. At the first, multitudes gathered to hear Him. “And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee: and there went out a fame of him through all the region round about. And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified of all. . . . . And in the synagogue there was a man, which had a spirit of an unclean devil, and cried out with a loud voice, Saying, Let us alone; what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art; the Holy One of God. And Jesus rebuked him, saying, Hold thy peace, and come out of him. And when the devil had thrown him in the midst, he came out of him, and hurt him not. And they were all amazed, and spake among themselves, saying, What a word is this! for with authority and power he commandeth the unclean spirits, and they come out. And the fame of him went out into every place of the country round about,” Luke 4:14-15; 33-37.

That was how it was at the first but that attitude did not last! “Many therefore of his disciples, when they had heard this, said, This is an hard saying; who can hear it? . . . . From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him,” John 6:60, 66. Soon enthusiastic hearing of Christ was ended and a very different frame of mind had developed. “ After these things Jesus walked in Galilee: for he would not walk in Jewry, because the Jews sought to kill him,” John 7:1.

In like manner, the earlier welcome given to the gospel preached by the apostles waned. Great success marked the beginning of the apostles’ witness. This was the case following the preaching on the day of Pentecost. “Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls. And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers. And fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles. And all that believed were together, and had all things common; And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need,” Acts 2:41-45. This continued for a time. “And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved,” Acts 2:47. “And believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women.) Insomuch that they brought forth the sick into the streets, and laid them on beds and couches, that at the least the shadow of Peter passing by might overshadow some of them. There came also a multitude out of the cities round about unto Jerusalem, bringing sick folks, and them which were vexed with unclean spirits: and they were healed every one,” Acts 5:14-16.

However, this success stirred the opposition of wicked men just as it was with the Saviour. Of Him we read: “The people therefore that was with him when he called Lazarus out of his grave, and raised him from the dead, bare record. For this cause the people also met him, for that they heard that he had done this miracle. The Pharisees therefore said among themselves, Perceive ye how ye prevail nothing? behold, the world is gone after him,” John 12:17-19. This His enemies could not tolerate. The Saviour was aware of this. “For he taught his disciples, and said unto them, The Son of man is delivered into the hands of men, and they shall kill him; and after that he is killed, he shall rise the third day,”Mark 9:31.

2. Despite the growing of opposition of wicked men, there was wonderful good wrought amongst the people. John wrote those wonderful statements which summarised the fruitfulness of Christ’s ministry. “And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book: But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name. . . . And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen,” John 20:30-31; 21:25. Click to read more…

Posted on 2023-06-27 a 5:30 pm

A ‘watchman’, in the Biblical sense, is one who watches for significant events and who reports these to the citizens whose interests he is seeking to guard.

There are significant events taking place in the world in these times which need the attention of the people of God directed to them.

That is the duty of the occupant of the pulpit. While I do not have a pulpit, I do have a pen and I am pressed in my heart to issue a comment on these events, while I can.

Sincerely in Christ’s name,

Ivan Foster

WARS AND RUMOURS OF WAR

“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,” Matthew 24:6.

There are reports of many tragic events filling the news bulletins of late. We cannot avoid ‘hearing’ of such things. Hearts have been broken, families bereaved and that often times as a result of human folly, pride and outright depravity.

The murder of little ones, often by their own mothers and fathers, is distressingly common. It is impossible to comprehend such wickedness and cruelty to helpless little ones. Such crimes are inexplicable except when seen as but clear examples of the Biblical truth, that mankind, having chosen not “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 1:28-32.

Two headlines this morning illustrate yet again the relevance of God’s Word and the omniscience of our Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. Click to read more…

Posted on 2023-06-24 a 7:04 pm

This report appeared in yesterday’s (23/6/23) ‘Belfast Newsletter’ and I know it will be of interest to many and the family will be remembered in prayer as they embark on their journey.

Sincerely in Christ’s name,

Ivan Foster

Northern Ireland minister and his family on a mission to Uganda to spread God’s word

A Northern Ireland minister has answered God’s call and is on his way to Uganda with his family to lead a local mission there.

Rev Ray Carscadden, who has been the minister of Coragarry Free Presbyterian Church in Co Monaghan since October 2017, is to begin a new life at the Emmanuel Mission Station, approximately 80 miles south of the Ugandan capital Kampala.

The mission station consists of the Emmanuel Church, of which Rev Carscadden will become minister, and the Emmanuel Christian School, whose principal is Noreen McAfee from Ballymoney Free Presbyterian Church, a missionary in Africa for more than 20 years.

Before travelling to Uganda, Rev Carscadden, his wife Rhonda and their children John, Isla-Grace and George were the subject of a Sending Forth Service in Dungannon Free Presbyterian Church which was attended by nearly 300 people.

Rev Carscadden, a former Science and Technology teacher at Clogher Valley Independent Christian School, was a member of Kesh Free Presbyterian Church before being called into the ministry.

Having completed four years of study at the Whitefield College of the Bible, he became minister at Coragarry Free Presbyterian Church in 2017. Click to read more…

Posted on 2023-06-24 a 6:18 pm

As a means of setting the many outlandish events of today in context, I often ask myself: ‘Just what would my father and mother have thought of this?’

I cannot conceive of what they would make of the unspeakably ludicrous happenings in some schools today!

Children are allowed, aye, encouraged, by ‘half-witted’ teachers, to identify themselves as various animals.

Of course, sin makes ‘beasts’ of all who surrender to its lusts. Jude makes this point. “‭But‭ these‭ speak evil‭‭ of those things which‭‭ they know‭‭ not‭: but‭ what‭ they know‭‭ naturally‭, as‭ brute‭ beasts‭, in‭ those things‭ they corrupt themselves‭‭,‭”‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬ Jude verse 10.

But this evil, deviant and bizarre phenomenon was never heard of before.

A teacher in Belfast recently called on parents to resist the proposed educational cut-backs.

School budgets: Belfast headteacher urges parents to fight cuts

But surely there is a greater threat facing children. This utterly freakish and alien craze that has broken forth amongst the young, parents should rise up and fight it!

In truth, this depraved folly has its origins in the lawlessness that a departure from God and His Word brings upon any people guilty of such a thing. The fruit of apostasy is seen in its fulness amongst the offspring of those guilty of rebellion from God. Rebellion against God in parents brings forth rebellion by their children against them. Paul stated that one of the marks of the final apostasy was this very thing. “Disobedient‭ to parents‬” (2 Timothy 3:2) is one of the many ills that spring from a defiance of God.

It is very obvious to a candid observer of today’s society that parenting has lost its way because it has cast away the final authority on the subject — the Word of God. Click to read more…

Posted on 2023-06-23 a 4:06 pm

“The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun,” Ecclesiastes 1:9.

This is the first part of a three-part study in which we are seeking to discover the parallels between what it was the Saviour encountered during His ministry on earth and how those events mirrored what it is the child of God may expect to face in this age that has followed His ascension.

The details of the life of the Saviour, as it is recorded for us in the New Testament, is thus given to us as a ‘pattern’ of that which we may expect to face individually and collectively as those who follow in His steps.

His words to His disciples as recorded in John 15:18-19, surely make that clear. “If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.”

Generation after generation sees a repeat, in principle and spirit, of that which has gone before. This has been so since the fall of Adam. Thus we may see, in the events of history, pictures and types of what this world has yet to face.

Truly, there is no new thing under the sun!

The simple reason for this is, the three main characters in the proceedings and occurrences of this world are unchangeable by nature.

First of all, God is unchanging. “For I am the LORD, I change not,” Malachi 3:6.

“Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever,” Hebrews 13:8.

“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning,” James 1:17.

The Westminster Confession of Faith, in chapter 2 says this of God: I. “There is but one only living and true God, Who is infinite in being and perfection, a most pure spirit, invisible, without body parts, or passions, immutable, immense, eternal, incomprehensible, almighty, most wise, most holy, most free, most absolute, working all things according to the counsel of His own immutable and most righteous will, for His own glory; most loving, gracious, merciful, long-suffering, abundant in goodness and truth, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin; the rewarder of them that diligently seek Him; and withal most just and terrible in his judgments; hating all sin, and who will by no means clear the guilty.” Click to read more…

Posted on 2023-06-22 a 4:22 pm

I have just sent this letter to the ‘Belfast Newsletter’.It is a swift reply to the latest article by John Coulter, headed by this title: ‘Women ministers are dedicated and professional – so what’s the problem lads?’

It is written in his usual casual, trivialising style which, along with the garbage in the article, further belittles God and His truth.

It is to the shame of the ‘Belfast Newsletter’ that it publishes this offensive drivel. Doubtless there will be those who welcome it, especially amongst the ranks of apostate ‘Irish Presbyterians’!

Sincerely in Christ’s name,

Ivan Foster

Dear Editor,

Poor John Coulter! He really does make a career of displaying his ignorance of God’s mind and will and revealed purpose.He heads up his latest nonsensical article, for which the ‘Belfast Newsletter’ doubtless pays him and aids him in his propagation of error, with the question: “Women ministers are dedicated and professional – so what’s the problem lads?”

Those who oppose woman ordained as ministers are simply following the apostolic instructions laid down for the early church in its formative years.

“‭This ‭is‭ a true‭ saying‭, If a man‭ desire‭‭ the office of a bishop‭, (interchangeable with the terms ‘elder’ or ‘presbyter’) he desireth‭‭ a good‭ work‭.‭ ‭A bishop‭ then‭ must‭‭ be‭‭ blameless‭, the husband‭ of one‭ wife‭, vigilant‭, sober‭, of good behaviour‭, given to hospitality‭, apt to teach‭;‭ ‭not‭ given to wine‭, no‭ striker‭, not‭ greedy of filthy lucre‭; but‭ patient‭, not a brawler‭, not covetous‭;‭ ‭one that ruleth‭‭ well‭ his own‭ house‭, having‭‭ his children‭ in‭ subjection‭ with‭ all‭ gravity‭;‭ ‭(For‭ if a man‭ know‭‭ not‭ how‭‭ to rule‭‭ his own‭ house‭, how‭ shall he take care of‭‭ the church‭ of God‭?)‭ ‭Not‭ a novice‭, lest‭ being lifted up with pride‭‭ he fall‭‭ into‭ the condemnation‭ of the devil‭.‭ ‭Moreover‭‭ he‭ must‭‭ have‭‭ a good‭ report‭ of‭ them which are without‭; lest‭ he fall‭‭ into‭ reproach‭ and‭ the snare‭ of the devil‭,” 1 Timothy 3:1-7.

Now it would appear that Mr Coulter has no problem casting aside the divinely inspired words of Paul and accepting and arguing for that which is utterly opposed to the will of God.

Mr Coulter, continue on in this frame of mind and one day the Lord will tell you plainly what the problem is!

Sincerely,

Rev Ivan Foster (Rtd)

Kilskeery

19th June 2023

Posted on 2023-06-19 a 11:56 pm

Yesterday I was greatly refreshed in my mind and soul as I read Revelation chapter 18.
It is a chapter which carries us into the future, to the time of the Saviour’s return in great power and of His judgment of that embodiment of rebellion and anti-God idolatry – Babylonianism!

Babylon, religious, mercantile and political is brought down most unexpectedly, decisively and conclusively.

“‭And‭ a‭ mighty‭ angel‭ took up‭‭ a stone‭ like‭ a great‭ millstone‭, and‭ cast‭‭ ‭it‭ into‭ the sea‭, saying‭‭, Thus‭ with violence‭ shall‭‭ that great‭ city‭ Babylon‭ be thrown down‭‭, and‭ shall be found‭‭ no more‭ at all‭,” Revelation 18:21.

Amidst the growing manifestation of Babylonianism all around us, in churches, parliament and commerce, it is so good to read God’s ‘epitaph’ for this evil system which He will most surely bring to an end!

I trust you benefit from the comments we made some 27 years ago on this chapter.

Sincerely in Christ’s name,

Ivan Foster

“For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities,” Revelation 18:5.

(The following is an extract from the book ‘Shadow of The Antichrist’ by Rev Ivan Foster, first published in 1996)

A PDF file of the whole book is available for reading or downloading HERE!

GRIEF AND GLADNESS – Exposition of Revelation Chapter 18.

There is a distinction between the Babylon of chapter 17 and the Babylon of chapter 18. In chapter 17 we have the system of Babylon which had been at work amongst the nations of men, virtually since the beginning of time.

That system of wickedness will be centred in the city of Babylon, first in the incorporated union of false religions that is symbolised by the Great Whore and then, when she is destroyed by the Antichrist, residing in him.

The Babylon of chapter 18 is the great city of Babylon, which rebellious man left off to build (Genesis 11:8), but which will be built to become the capital of Antichrist and antichristianity. It is here that the spirit of iniquity, or lawlessness and wickedness, will be given a base. “This is wickedness. And he cast it into the midst of the ephah; and he cast the weight of lead upon the mouth thereof. Then lifted I up mine eyes, and looked, and, behold, there came out two women, and the wind was in their wings; for they had wings like the wings of a stork: and they lifted up the ephah between the earth and the heaven. Then said I to the angel that talked with me, Whither do these bear the ephah? And he said unto me, To build it an house in the land of Shinar: and it shall be established, and set there upon her own base,” Zechariah 5:8-11.

In this chapter we have the judgment of God falling on and destroying the base upon which this wickedness has been established. Again, let it be noted that there is an emphasis upon the destruction of this evil city which will appear so glorious in the eyes of wicked men. This same emphasis was seen in the vision of the great Harlot in chapter 17. God would have His people ever to bear in mind the end of these things. He who can see the evil maggot in the core of the apple will not be persuaded to bite the fruit, no matter how red and luscious its skin may appear. So it is with the magnificence that will pervade the world, particularly the Roman or prophetic earth, in the final days of this age. In its heart is an evil that will bring down God’s wrath upon it. Click to read more…

Posted on 2023-06-17 a 6:00 am

UNRESTRAINED MAN WILL DARINGLY PUT FORTH HIS HAND TO THAT WHICH IS TRULY BEYOND HIS DOMAIN

“And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech. So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city,” Genesis 11:6-8.

The news today has been filled with the details of the report into the behaviour of Boris Johnson during the Covid 19 crisis. Unsurprisingly, it indicated that he lied repeatedly to the nation and to Parliament. While it appears that it is acceptable for politicians to lie, and that repeatedly, to their constituents, it is a ‘no, no’ to be caught lying to Parliament.

Consequently, Boris was called a ‘liar’, and he, understanding what was in the pipeline, jumped before he was pushed.

And true to form, he has issued a smoke-cloud of deceits, fabrications and fairy tales!

However, something even more serious was in the news today which highlights another mark of man’s depravity, a much more serious facet of fallen man.

Man was never prepared to remain within the territory assigned him by the Lord. But like a recalcitrant animal, he has stalked up and down the boundary line looking for a means to escape the limitations that the Lord has placed upon him — for his own good and safety — and enter upon territories forbidden of God.

In the text at the head of this article we are reminded of the occasion, just after the flood, when sinful man manifests his failure to learn anything from the display of judgment against sin which wiped out all of humanity, save the eight members of Noah’s family.

The will of God for the family of Noah and their descendants is set forth in God’s command to Noah after the flood waters had completely dissipated from the earth. “And God spake unto Noah, saying, Go forth of the ark, thou, and thy wife, and thy sons, and thy sons’ wives with thee. Bring forth with thee every living thing that is with thee, of all flesh, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth; that they may breed abundantly in the earth, and be fruitful, and multiply upon the earth. And Noah went forth, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons’ wives with him,” Genesis 8:15-18.

The earth was to be replenished with a new race of humans and animals, springing from those borne to safety in the Ark. But, as our text shows, postdiluvian man was as stubbornly opposed to doing God’s will as was antediluvian man! Click to read more…

Posted on 2023-06-16 a 4:22 pm

The following letter was published in today’s ‘Belfast Newsletter’. It states more clearly and that beyond dispute, the direction the DUP is taking! The writer of the letter is a self-confessed supporter of the amalgam of perverts that goes under the acronym LGBT, an initialism that stands for ‘lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender.’

Now the alleged ‘engagement’ that Gavin Robinson had with the ‘the LGBT community’ while Lord Mayor of Belfast, he can deny, though I feel that as a lawyer he would know that there is too much by way of circumstantial evidence to make a denial ineffective.

The direction of the DUP regarding sodomy and its correlated companions in wickedness, has been very plain for some time now and became undeniable in the repeated endorsement of a candidate in local council elections who openly acknowledges her perversion.

This being the case, the obvious question that must be asked is — ‘How can any Christian be a member of this party which has utterly abandoned its once professed position of support for Bible morality and how can any Christian support the party financially or at the polls?’

Various attempts at an answer may be contrived from mangled ‘political’ reasoning, but none will be produced based upon the Word of God!

Sincerely in Christ’s name,

Ivan Foster

Letter: The new deputy leader of the DUP is a good choice for unionism

A letter from Michael Palmer:

Published 14th Jun 2023, 08:11 BST

I congratulate Gavin Robinson on being elected as the new deputy leader of the DUP (June 9, see link below).This is brilliant news for the DUP and unionism.

I remember attending Belfast Pride’s Pride Talks Back in 2012 when Gavin Robinson was Lord Mayor of Belfast and was on the panel. I was impressed with his engagement with the LGBT community back then. Gavin is moderate in views and tone and is effective in communicating the DUP message.

I wish him the best of luck. I also note Sir Jeffrey Donaldson’s statement upon re-election as DUP leader that “the way forward for unionism must mean less hunting for heretics and more encouragement for converts”. I agree with this statement and I hope to see the DUP broaden unionism’s support.

Michael Palmer,

Newtownards, LGBT unionist

Posted on 2023-06-14 a 4:22 pm

“‭How are the mighty‭ fallen‭‭, and the weapons‭ of war‭ perished‭‭!‭”‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬  2 Samuel 1:27.

A headline in one of the national ‘dailies’, commenting on the ‘fall from grace’ by Nicola Sturgeon, former leader of the Scottish Nationalist Party, expresses the startling and sobering character of recent events in Scotland’s politics.

“The humiliating eight-year fall from grace of the woman who could not imagine being wrong… Nicola Sturgeon was once the most popular leader in the Western world. Now she stands amid the ruins of her career. How DID it come to this?”

How indeed?

The most important element of the many-sided answer to this question is the solemn Biblical truth: “‭Be‭‭ not‭ deceived‭‭; God‭ is‭‭ not‭ mocked‭‭: for‭ whatsoever‭‭ a man‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬ ‭‭‭‭‭(or woman)‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭ soweth‭‭, that‭ shall he‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬ (or she)‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭ also‭ reap‭‭,‭”‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬ (Galatians 6:7) and that God “‭‭will render‭‭ to every man‭ (or woman) according‭ to his‬‬‬‬‬‬ (or her)‭‭‭‭‭‭‭ deeds‭,‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬”‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭ ‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬(Romans 2:6).

Nicola Sturgeon, a woman it would be easy to consider as atheistic in her outlook, since her political policies have largely been marked by an anti-Bible characteristic, has felt at least something of the fate that awaits those who believe that they are greater than the Lord and can victoriously defy His truth and triumph over Him.

From being, as the columnist claims, ‘once the most popular leader in the Western world’ she has descended to a police cell and questioned regarding the financial scandal surrounding SNP funds.

I believe that few will fail to see the connection between her support for sodomite/transexualism, manifested in the case of male rapist, Adam Graham, who demanded that he be called female and be housed in a woman’s prison. She finally said of Graham in February of this year that he was ‘almost certainly’ faking that he was ‘transexual’!

That was a stating of the obvious since every such claim is a FAKE! Click to read more…

Posted on 2023-06-13 a 8:55 pm

A BBC ARTICLE THAT INDICATES THAT WICKED REPROBATES IN A POSITION OF AUTHORITY WITHIN THE STATE EDUCATION SYSTEM ARE DETERMINED TO DEFY GOD AND DEFILE THE MINDS AND THE HEARTS OF THE RISING GENERATION AND THUS BRING GOD’S JUDGMENT UPON OUR CHILDREN!

This BBC article show this to be so!

Sex education: Some schools tell pupils homosexuality is wrong, says report

How can a Christian parent, with children attending a state school, allow this situation to continue and not take steps to remove their offspring from under this abominable ‘Pharaoh-like’ scheme to destroy the sons and daughters of the people of God?

Sincerely in Christ’s name,

Ivan Foster

Posted on 2023-06-12 a 5:07 pm

“‭Ye that love‭‭ the LORD‭, hate‭‭ evil‭,‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭”‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬ Psalm 97:10.

Much has been said and written about these two emotions of the heart and mind and which produce corresponding fruit in the life and govern the actions of mankind. And much of what has been said and written is totally erroneous.

That there is a close relationship between these very dissimilar passions is very evident from the verse at the head of this article. A person is either allied to the LORD or to EVIL

1. A LOVE FOR THE LORD IS UTTERLY INCOMPATIBLE WITH ANY SIN

It is entirely wrong to say that the Bible does not teach ‘hatred’. What it most definitely teaches is that we are not to ‘hate our neighbour’. The Saviour’s response to a question by a lawyer is central to the teaching of God’s Word.

“‭Master‭, which‭ ‭is‭ the great‭ commandment‭ in‭ the law‭?‭ ‭ Jesus‭ said‭‭ unto him‭, Thou shalt love‭‭ the Lord‭ thy‭ God‭ with‭ all‭ thy‭ heart‭, and‭ with‭ all‭ thy‭ soul‭, and‭ with‭ all‭ thy‭ mind‭.‭ ‭This‭ is‭‭ the first‭ and‭ great‭ commandment‭.‭ ‭And‭ the second‭ ‭is‭ like‭ unto it‭, Thou shalt love‭‭ thy‭ neighbour‭ as‭ thyself‭.‭ ‭On‭ these‭ two‭ commandments‭ hang‭‭ all‭ the law‭ and‭ the prophets‭,‭”‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬ Matthew 22:36-40.

Love for the Lord prompts and instigates obedience to all that the Lord has revealed to us regarding His mind and will for our behaviour. “‭If‭ ye love‭‭ me‭, keep‭‭ my‭ commandments‭,‭”‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬ John 14:15. We cannot claim to love the Lord and live in disobedience to ANY of His commandments.

There are many today who would claim to be Christians and yet make the contradictory claim that there are things the Saviour commands which they don’t feel they have to obey! They explain away what is revealed to us in the Word, about which the Saviour said: “‭Heaven‭ and‭ earth‭ shall pass away‭‭, but‭ my‭ words‭ shall‭‭ not‭ pass away‭‭,‭”‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬ Matthew 24:35, by asserting that such things as they reject were born out of ‘customs and fashions of yesteryear!

However, it is entirely contrary to the teaching of the Bible to look on any of its direct charges as something that belongs only to a certain time or era. It is true that the Levitical Laws have, to a large degree been superseded by New Testament commands, but we have the direct instructions from the Lord and His apostles for such changes. Click to read more…

Posted on 2023-06-10 a 6:57 pm

I must respond to the latest news about the DUP.

DUP: Gavin Robinson elected as DUP deputy leader

This is but further evidence of the DUP’s liberalising trend. Gavin Robinson is far away from the views and beliefs that formed the basis of the DUP at its beginning!

He most certainly would not agree with the old slogan of the party: “Save Ulster from Sodomy”.

As it is the DUP needs saving from that perversion. It has become more and more tolerant of the abominable practice until it can be honestly said that the majority of its members would be, at best, indifferent to the direction the party is going in.

This is seen in that the majority involved in the vote for a Deputy Leader, cast their vote for the liberal candidate, Gavin Robinson.

Here are some articles I have written on the matter in the past.

Mrs Lindsey Robinson’s Blasphemy – May 1, 2021

God is still speaking – June 21, 2021

Sincerely in Christ’s name,

Ivan Foster

Posted on 2023-06-09 a 10:08 pm

The following brief devotional study was sent to me by one of our readers and I thought it good to share it with you all.

Today is a day of ‘half truths’, which of course is not the truth for any deviation or deletion from the truth and it is no longer TRUE!

Preachers are required to proclaim, as did Paul, “all the counsel of God,” Acts 20:27. There is a strong temptation today to leave out that which might offend some. Sadly, it is a temptation all too many yield to!

Read and heed this exhortation and timely warning, please.

Sincerely in Christ’s name,

Ivan Foster

Beware: Half lies

(B. McCausland)

This world, being mastered by the prince of lies, has always functioned on the verge of truth, either economically, educationally, socially or politically at its best.

Such a trend regularly manifests itself in Christian thinking through half-lies we base our judgement upon, making us miss sanctifying grace in our Christian walk.

For instance, we take in the half-lie that the government’s duty is to ‘protect’ and even ‘care’ for the people at all cost, providing all sort of benefits, housing, education, and tailored support. With that we welcome massive protocols, amoral taxation, and unnecessary regulations that not only dictate personal choice but often impair freedoms. In reality, governments are set only to punish evil and with that, ‘protect’, not everybody, but honest citizens.

Then we have the half-lie about public education. We maintain that the state schools are ok because they might have ‘Christian teachers’, ignoring how helpless the teachers are when the state’s measures, curriculum and agendas are imposed with no chance to be opposed. The same applies when we underestimate the peer pressure our children face from the ungodly or from other children belonging to unseparated Christian homes. Click to read more…

Posted on 2023-06-08 a 11:28 pm

I am sharing this Belfast Newsletter article because it contains researched details about the ongoing evil campaign mounted by Westminster which is designed to undermine and destroy in Ulster our historic Bible Christianity and the moral standards that arise from such. This is done in order to promote the wickedness that springs from the ‘New Morality’, adopted by Ecumenical churches long ago and fanatically supported by various women’s groups and shamefully by the NSPCC NI and of course, by Sinn Fein.

It is a sad comment on today’s ‘Christianity’ that this wickedness by the Secretary of State is aided by Mr Steve Baker, MP, Minister of State for Northern Ireland. Mr Baker would claim to be a Christian and a member of a Baptist Church in England. See his profile here.

Such betrayal of God’s truth and attacks upon His witness and testimony here in Ulster will not go unnoticed by Heaven!

The State School system has become the chief means of destroying the next generation by directing them away from God and His Word.

Christian, is your child under such satanic instruction?

Sincerely in Christ’s name,

Ivan Foster

7th June 2023

Unionists voice dismay as Tory Northern Ireland Secretary says he will impose new ‘sex and relationships’ education on the Province from London – including teaching pupils they have a right to abortion Unionists have voiced dismay at the Northern Ireland Secretary’s plan to impose a new “sex and relationships” curriculum on the Province, including teaching pupils about their right to abortion.

By Adam Kula

Belfast Newsletter

Chris Heaton-Harris’ Northern Ireland Office announced the move on Tuesday afternoon, prompting the DUP to wonder why he was prioritising changes to the curriculum over shoring up the funding for schools.

Meanwhile the TUV accused him of imposing “left-wing ideology” onto pupils, and advised parents to opt-out of having their children sit through such classes.

It comes against a backdrop of DUP displeasure with Mr Heaton-Harris over his ongoing calls for the party to drop its boycott of Stormont over the Irish Sea border. Click to read more…

Posted on 2023-06-07 a 10:22 pm

I have just obtained a copy from a friend of a news briefing sent out by one ‘Niamh Burns’ of the ‘Communications Team’ which is a statement issued on behalf of the The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, the Right Honourable Chris Heaton-Harris today, June 6th..

The statement is headed:

New — requirements for Relationship and Sexuality Education curriculum in Northern Ireland

I quote some of the words of the statement with my emphasis added.

“The UK Government is updating the requirements for Relationship and Sexuality Education (RSE) curriculum in Northern Ireland, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Chris Heaton-Harris has announced today (Tuesday 6 June).

The Regulations will amend the Education (Northern Ireland) Order 2006, and the Education (Curriculum Minimum Content) Order (Northern Ireland) 2007 in relation to Key Stage 3 and 4.

They will make age-appropriate, comprehensive and scientifically accurate education on sexual and reproductive health and rights, covering prevention of early pregnancy and access to abortion, a compulsory component of curriculum for adolescents.

They will also place a duty on the Department of Education to issue guidance on the content and delivery of the education to be provided by 1 January 2024. 

The Department will also be under a statutory duty to make Regulations about the circumstances in which at the request of a parent, a pupil may be excused from receiving that education, or specified elements of that education. 

Consultation with parents on Relationship and Sexuality Education is already common practice in Northern Ireland and we expect the Department of Education to ensure schools afford parents the opportunity to review relevant materials.

The Regulations, in practice, will result in educating adolescents on issues such as how to prevent a pregnancy, the legal right to an abortion in Northern Ireland, and how relevant services may be accessed. Click to read more…

Posted on 2023-06-06 a 6:07 pm

“For the LORD is our judge, the LORD is our lawgiver, the LORD is our king; he will save us,” Isaiah 33:22.

I first read this verse on 5th January 1965. It was my first day as a student for the gospel ministry of the Free Presbyterian Church. Dr Paisley was conducting class. He had however an appointment elsewhere and so he flicked through a Bible and chose this verse and said: “Give me an introduction, three points and a conclusion. I will be back shortly and I will see what you produced.”

There were three other students there that day. James McClelland was in his third and final year. James Beggs and William Beattie had been attending evening classes. All were therefore somewhat acquainted with the requirements of sermon preparation and immediately got down to examining the verse.

I looked at the verse in utter consternation for in truth, being only nine months a Christian, I had no idea what the verse was referring to. I had little or no understanding of the ministry of Isaiah or the character of the days he preached in or the message he was charged with delivering to Judah.

I really cannot recall what I put down on paper by way of ‘an introduction, three points and a conclusion’. I do know that it was not worth remembering. Dr Paisley returned in about an hour and as ‘fate’ would have it, he first asked me for my ‘production’. I will not tell you what his response was but I will say that I felt as never before my ignorance of God’s Word.

James McClelland, being James, jumped in to my defence and none too gently reminded Dr Paisley that it was my first day etc, and that he was being too hard on me. I will not give you a ‘word for word’ account of James’ intervention, though it is engraved in my memory, but it did have an impact on Dr Paisley. There was revealed to me for the first time that his bark was worse than his bite. He took up my scribbles again and said: ‘That’s not too bad at all. You could develop that alright!’

I am not ashamed to say that my lip was trembling most ominously but Dr Paisley’s latter response cheered me up somewhat!

So began a lifetime of learning God’s Word. Today, I am returning to this verse for the first time since that day long ago. I never did feel inclined to preach this verse, but today (Thursday, 1st June) in my daily I read it yet again, accompanied by the memories of that ‘dramatic’ start to my studies. I immediately felt that I would like to set down something of what I now understand the verse to mean. As I do so, I am very aware of the journey the Lord has led me on and the ‘tutors’ who helped on that journey and under God’s merciful blessing, were to me as Aquila and Priscilla (Acts 18:24-26), not least of which was my wife, Ann, in my early days, aye, and still so today.

Let me examine now that old verse which sits like a milestone in my memory. Click to read more…

Posted on 2023-06-02 a 7:59 pm

Mary Ann Chaplin (1844-1922) a Strict Baptist lady, a member of ‘Ebenezer Chapel’, in Chelmsford, where I have preached in the past, was a strong Protestant. She was of Huguenot descent, one of eleven children.

The Lord began His work of grace in her heart early in life, and she was baptized at the age of fourteen. She wrote her first published piece of poetry when only eleven. She continued to write all her life, and herein is a sample of her gracious, wise and timely words, copied from one of her publications: “CHIMES FOR THE TIMES”, published in 1891.

M J Tryon, a Strict Baptist pastor in Stamford, in his preface to the second edition of “CHIMES FOR THE TIMES”, sent forth in 1907, said this: “Mrs Chaplin writes out of the abundance of her heart; believing deeply ‘Chimes’ ring forth no uncertain sound; thus they delight and cheer the heart of her fellow-pilgrims, who, though not possessing her gift of expression, can and do appreciate her grace and her gifts.”

Her reference, in the third verse, to the  ‘Throne’ and its ‘kowtowing’ to popery in Queen Victoria’s day, is even more relevant today!

Surely, “the righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance.”

It came upon the Spanish fleet
Three hundred years ago,
As tangible a blessing as
A despot could bestow;
It took the form of cannonade,
Of thumbscrew, whip, and priest,
By which the Bible reading ones
Identified the Beast;
But this was England’s safety then,
And this was England’s hope, —
God’s curse has ever rested on
The blessing of the Pope.

Thumbscrew, and cannonade, and whip,
With all the flower of Spain,
Came cursing on to England, and
Went cursing back again;
They “raised the wind” by fraud or force,
Her liberties to smother,
But God — in answer to her cries—
In justice raised another.
Billow and fire and sturdy aim,
And English tact had scope,
When Heaven’s thunder laughed to scorn
The blessing of the Pope.

To-day the curse is in his heart,
The while with lips he blesses;
Infidel, Godless England, sees
No harm in his caresses;
The maudlin men of' “modern thought”
Can grip no standard truth;
And Jesuits in the English Church
Have Romanised our youth;
The very Throne has bent itself
To Leo’s trampling feet;
Can God do otherwise than let
Such sin with sorrow meet ?

We beckon on this blessing Pope!!
Who holds Victoria vile;
And fain would give her “moonlight” fare
As in the Sister Isle;
“No faith with Heretics” is still
The Papal undertone,
And Englishmen are fools who think
That Rome is kinder grown ;
“Kill, kill,” she says; let Manning’s words
Our sad attention win,
For life and liberty go out
When Leo’s power comes in.

He has learned wisdom (of a sort)
From signalised defeat;
So those who shrived the “moonlight” hordes
Are ordered to repeat —
How the “good Father” has a wish,
For English law to reign,
Lest boycotting and murder spoil
The plan of their campaign!
And though all history pours its light
On the deceptive wile,
Our fascinated Senators
Bow gratefully and smile.

Ah, here is England's danger now,
In spite of every hope, —
God’s curse has ever rested on
The blessing of the Pope;
The old Armada fought with Him,
But crumbled at His touch;
And England, if she bends to Rome,
Deserves His wrath as much.
Oh, for a prayer of th’ olden time,
One strong, low, gushing cry;
For error's crescent sweeps our sea,
And who can pass it by?

The battle is the Lord’s, my friends,
The battle is the Lord’s;
We are with Him whatever meed
The earthly state accords;
His grace, His truth, His promise, stand
As in the olden days,
He can afford to wait, though we
With indignation blaze;
But for our children, for ourselves,
For England’s common sense,
God drive conviction’s fire-ships through
This squadron of pretence!

Posted on 2023-06-01 a 12:01 am

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The ‘Irish News’ carried the following headline in today’s (31st May) edition.

Sinn Féin’s John Finucane accused of ‘glorifying terrorists’ over plans to attend republican commemoration event

The advertised event is due to take place next month

The ‘Irish News’ report includes the following statements.

“SINN Féin’s John Finucane has been accused of ‘glorifying terrorists’ by plans to attend a republican commemoration event in Co Armagh next month.

He is listed as the main speaker at the South Armagh Volunteers Commemoration, which is due to be held at the Mullaghbawn Community Centre on June 11.

An advert for the event is featured beside a ‘Roll of Honour – South Armagh Brigade’, which lists more than 20 names.

But former DUP leader Arlene Foster, who shared the image of the advert for the event on social media, has criticised Mr Finucane’s plans to attend. ‘For all those fawning over Sinn Fein, here is one of their MPs glorifying terrorists and making it sound like a fun day out for all the family.’ She said the Sinn Féin MP would be ‘glorifying terrorists’ by speaking at the event.”

Part of the Terrorism Act, 2006 says this:

(3) For the purposes of this section, the statements that are likely to be understood by [a reasonable person] as indirectly encouraging the commission or preparation of acts of terrorism or Convention offences include every statement which—

(a) glorifies the commission or preparation (whether in the past, in the future or generally) of such acts or offences;

and

(b) is a statement from which members of the public could reasonably be expected to infer that what is being glorified is being glorified as conduct that should be emulated by them in existing circumstances.

The event which is planned for June 11th in South Armagh and at which the Sinn Fein MP is advertised as the main speaker is most assuredly an event which glorifies the IRA terrorists of the ‘South Armagh Brigade’, whose murderous ’exploits’ they are ‘honouring’! Click to read more…

Posted on 2023-05-31 a 5:21 pm

“For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words,” 1 Thessalonians 4:16-18.

The first epistle of Paul to the church of the Thessalonians is one full of references to the return of Christ to this earth.

Each chapter ends with a reference to that wonderful event.

“And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come,” 1:10.

“For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming?” 2:19.

“To the end he may stablish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints,” 3:13.

Then we have the verses at the end of chapter 4 which we will consider.

“And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ,” 5:23.

Such constant referring to the Saviour’s return suggests:

1. Paul’s great interest in this wonderful subject. We owe much of our knowledge of the end times and the second advent of Christ to the writings of Paul. Peter acknowledged this. He refers to the return of Christ and events at the end of this age and goes on to say: “Even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you; as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction,” 2 Peter 3:15-16.

2. Paul’s desire to acquaint the saints of God with details of the return of Christ. His frequent references to this blessed event in this letter surely shows that he was most anxious to impart knowledge of the subject. Indeed, Paul’s desire is but a reflection of God’s desire to have His people instructed in events surrounding the glorious return of Christ. The Saviour’s willingness to fully respond to the disciples’ questions: “Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?” Matthew 24:3, likewise demonstrates this truth. Chapters 24 and 25 of Matthew contain the fullest of details regarding that longed for return of the Saviour.

3. I believe that Paul’s fulsome instruction in this epistle indicates not only the need for such instruction but also the readiness of the Thessalonians to receive instruction! “But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. . . . Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God. Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things? . . . And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,” 1 Thessalonians 5:1-3 and 2 Thessalonians 2:3-5, 8-9. Click to read more…

Posted on 2023-05-29 a 6:10 pm

A letter I submitted to the ‘Belfast Newsletter’ on Friday 26th May

and which has been published in today’s edition

Further to Tom Ferguson’s letter: “Unionist unity is not possible without a shared political objective”, may I add a comment in support of what he says.

Unionist unity is attractive but if there is an incorporating of the unscriptural policies that both the DUP and the UUP presently adhere to, what would such unity be in the eyes of God?

Nothing but the old rebellion renamed!

Disunity is not the problem. It is but one of the consequences of the problem. The problem is an offended God!

Until that matter is addressed, no matter what ‘repair jobs’ are carried out, the advance of the enemy will continue!

In truth, I cannot see a return from the apostasy that has been embraced by Ulster and that repeatedly. The DUP voting pattern shows a total disregard for the standards that the party once espoused. It is clear that the DUP is increasingly repudiating the truth of God in its search for votes – all to no avail of course! Even professing Christians have joined in the casting off of ’the old paths’!

This old Bible text holds the answer for us.

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

The DUP and Protestantism generally, echoes the reply of the rebels in the days of Jeremiah.

Sincere regards,

Rev Ivan Foster (Rtd)

Kilskeery, 26th May 2023.

Posted on 2023-05-29 a 6:04 pm

Clive Staples Lewis (1898-1963) was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland. He is extremely popular with many evangelicals today and considered as a foremost Christian thinker and philosopher. Though Lewis died in 1963, sales of his books have risen to two million a year.

In an article commemorating the 100th anniversary of Lewis’s birth, J I Packer (a man who has abandoned orthodoxy for ecumenism) called him “our patron saint.” Leading US publication, Christianity Today said Lewis “has come to be the Aquinas, the Augustine, and the Aesop of contemporary Evangelicalism” (Sept. 7, 1998). In its April 23, 2001 issue, Christianity Today again praised Lewis. It said that he has been called “the 20th century’s greatest Christian apologist.”

It went on to say that he wrote several mythical works, such as The Chronicles of Narnia, which the magazine recommended, saying “Christ came not to put an end to myth but to take all that is most essential in the myth up into himself and make it real.” Such a statement from a so-called Christian magazine is be condemned as arrant nonsense. In his Chronicles, Lewis depicts the Lord Jesus Christ as a lion named Aslan who is slain on a stone table. Of this depiction, Christianity Today says, “In Aslan, Christ is made tangible, knowable, real.”

Can such a claim by this publication be justified? Is there a setting forth of true Biblical Christianity in C S Lewis’s writings?

We say “NO” to both questions and that for the simple reason that C S Lewis was a denier of many cardinal doctrines of the teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ and a setter forth of error.

Christianity Today significantly stated of him that he was “a man whose theology had decidedly unevangelical elements”. A Christianity which “in parts” is evangelical, is not evangelical Christianity!

Had he lived a little longer, it is likely that Lewis would have converted to Roman Catholicism. He believed in prayers for the dead and purgatory and confessed his sins regularly to a priest. He received the Roman Catholic sacrament of last rites on July 16, 1963.

Lewis also rejected the doctrine of bodily resurrection and believed there is salvation in pagan religions.

Read More …

Posted on 2023-05-25 a 5:41 pm

And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness, 1 John 5:19.

The whole world is truly referred to in this text. It refers first of all to the people of God. And we know that we are of God. It then refers to the rest of the world in the remainder of the verse. And the whole world lieth in wickedness. That is all this world consists of — those who are in Christ and those who are not; those who are of God and those who are of the devil.

Let me first of all say a word to Christians.

I. HERE IS A DELIGHTFUL ASSERTION.

This verse speaks of two truths concerning the child Of God.

1. We are of God. What does that mean?

a). It means, first of all, that we are born of God. Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him , verse 1. Wherever you find faith in Christ, victorious opposition to the world and holiness (for these three go together and are inseparable) there you have one born of God. For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith, 1 John 5:4. We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not; but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not , 1 John 5:18. How glorious it is to be a partaker of the divine nature; to be part of the family of God! The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God, Romans 8:16.

Read more…

Posted on 2023-05-25 a 5:29 pm

The following headline, one of many of the same ilk, appeared in ‘The Daily Telegraph’ earlier this month: “Scientists witness what the end of the Earth could look like”. These ‘educated ejits’ (to quote the late W P Nicholson) state that “In five billion years it will likely be engulfed by our own Sun”.

Like so many blind and bumptious declarations by ungodly men, this baseless prediction, that the earth will be swallowed up by the sun in 5 billion years, is utter nonsense. They who cannot tell with any degree of accuracy what tomorrow’s weather will be like, rise up on their hind legs to pompously forecast what will happen 5 billion years from now!

These men utterly and blindly reject the record in the rocks of the earth and what is infinitely more clearly recorded in the Word of God, about what happened some 6000 years ago when the earth was brought forth ‘ex nihilo’, out of nothing, And in a further display of their blindness they would dare to pontificate regarding, as far as man is concerned, the utterly unknowable future!

The Bible tells us about all of our ‘tomorrows’, “Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that. But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil,” James 4:13-16.

Tomorrow is utterly hidden from the eyes of men and they have no means of predicting what GOD WILL DO WITH HIS CREATION! For that information we must utilise God’s own revelation on that matter.

I read today what God has to say about the future existence of the earth, “ . . . the earth which he hath established for ever,” Psalm 78:69. The word ‘established’ literally means ‘to found, fix, establish, lay foundation’.

What these foolish self-opinionated men say of the earth’s future is revealed as most foolish and flies in the face of what its CREATOR says of His own divine handiwork.

Let us consider just what the Lord tells us in His Word of His unalterable purpose for the earth. Click to read more…

Posted on 2023-05-25 a 5:02 pm

The follow BBC news report, one of hundreds such reports over recent years, makes one exclaim in distress of heart:

HOW CAN POPERY HOLD UP ITS HEAD AND WHY DO ITS ADHERENTS CONTINUE IN THEIR SUPPORT AND HOW CAN OTHER CHURCHES, THE MEDIA AND GOVERNMENT AGENCIES CONTINUE TO TREAT THIS ABOMINABLE SYSTEM OF THE DEVIL WITH SUCH SUBSERVIENT REGARD?

The report reminds me of what I read in Bible on the Lord’s Day morning past.

“The dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty,” Psalm 74:20.

But Rome’s blatant and brazen hypocrisy reminds me of the words of those against whom the Psalmist David prayed:

“They speak vanity every one with his neighbour: with flattering lips and with a double heart do they speak.

The LORD shall cut off all flattering lips, and the tongue that speaketh proud things: who have said, With our tongue will we prevail; our lips are our own: who is lord over us? For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now will I arise, saith the LORD; I will set him in safety from him that puffeth at him,” Psalm 12:2-5.

I take comfort in the truth that God has set a day when He will judge Popery and all her evil minions for the corruption and cruelty with which she has inflicted millions.

Pray Christian for your Roman Catholic neighbours that in these latter times there may yet be an awakening of them to the true character of the hateful system which lords it over them.

The purpose for which the Lord Jesus saved Paul and sent him forth to preach the gospel, is one that we might make the basis of our prayerful pleadings for our neighbours.

“To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me,” Acts 26:18.

Sincerely in Christ’s name,

Ivan Foster

Christian Brothers accused of engaging in ‘slave trade’

BBC News

A 74-year-old County Limerick victim of child sex abuse by Christian Brothers has accused the congregation of having been engaged in the “slave trade”.

Tom Wall was just three when he was sent by court order to an industrial school in the village of Glin after his unmarried mother left a mother-and-baby home in nearby Newcastle West.

Industrial schools were established in the mid-19th Century and often run by religious orders to care for neglected, orphaned or abandoned children.

The Christian Brothers opened their first school in 1802 to provide education and help the poor.

In 2009, they issued an apology, following a damning public inquiry into child abuse in Catholic-run institutions in the Republic of Ireland. Click to read more…

Posted on 2023-05-22 a 9:23 pm

The article quotes one Satanist, Dex Desjardins, explaining that their “Opening ceremony did have the ripping up of a Bible as a symbol of oppression, especially oppression of LGBTQ folk and women, and also the BIPOC community, and pretty much anybody who’s grown up with religious trauma, which is a tremendous number of our members.”

When I read those words I couldn’t help but recall the incident in Jeremiah 36, when king Jehoiakim was sent a message from the Lord by Jeremiah the prophet and written out by Jeremiah’s friend, Baruch. The king’s reaction was but a precursor of today’s Satanist.

The Lord had instructed Jeremiah to “Take thee a roll of a book, and write therein all the words that I have spoken unto thee against Israel, and against Judah, and against all the nations, from the day I spake unto thee, from the days of Josiah, even unto this day. It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the evil which I purpose to do unto them; that they may return every man from his evil way; that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin,” verses 2-3.

Like the Bible in general, it was a message warning of God’s wrath against sin and the offer of mercy and forgiveness to the repentant. That is, in essence, the summary of the Bible’s contents.

Jeremiah, being in prison because of his faithful preaching of God’s Word, said to his fellow-labourer, Baruch, “Therefore go thou, and read in the roll, which thou hast written from my mouth, the words of the LORD in the ears of the people in the LORD’S house upon the fasting day: and also thou shalt read them in the ears of all Judah that come out of their cities. It may be they will present their supplication before the LORD, and will return every one from his evil way: for great is the anger and the fury that the LORD hath pronounced against this people,” verses 6-7.

It is clear that the desire of the prophet was the well-being of his nation by setting before them the warning of wrath and the merciful offer of the Lord.

The reading of God’s Word reaches the ears of the princes, verse 10-15, and eventually it came to the notice of the king, verses 19-22. What the king heard angered him greatly and he reacted to God’s word in a most evil fashion. “And it came to pass, that when Jehudi had read three or four leaves, he cut it with the penknife, and cast it into the fire that was on the hearth, until all the roll was consumed in the fire that was on the hearth,” Jeremiah 36:23.

It is to be noted that he did not listen to all of God’s message. Giving a fair hearing to God’s Word is not the habit of the worldling. Rather, they reject it with only a slight, if any, understanding of what it is they are rejecting! The BBC news story indicates that men and women today would still seek to destroy God’s Word, foolishly thinking that to rend it in pieces and to burn it to ashes, as did king Jehoiakim, effectively silences it and nullifies what God has said! Click to read more…

Posted on 2023-05-20 a 9:09 pm

“Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truth. Yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance; Knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath shewed me. Moreover I will endeavour that ye may be able after my decease to have these things always in remembrance. For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty,” 2 Peter 1:12-16.

“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.

I read these verses this morning (Friday, May 19th) as part of my Bible reading and they came home to my heart with special power. They remind me of what the essential character of a minister of the gospel is ever to be. He is a ‘remembrancer’ to the people of God.

I. PLEASE NOTE WHAT IT IS HE IS EVER TO REMIND THE CHRISTIAN OF.

“These things”, that is the “exceeding great and precious promises” by which we “might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust,” verse 4. The preacher’s agenda is set down plainly for him to follow and never to deviate from.

1. God’s Word largely comprises ‘promises’. Among the very first words God spoke to Adam was the ‘implied promise of life’. “And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die,” Genesis 2:15-17. It is clearly implied in these words that life was promised to Adam as long as he was obedient and did not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

The Lord again speaks in the gracious terms of a promise to fallen Adam. The promise is found in the words spoken directly to the devil but doubtlessly heard by Adam. “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel,” Genesis 3:15. Click to read more…

Posted on 2023-05-20 a 5:54 am

Here is a report from today’s ‘Belfast Newsletter’ that will shame every Christian who recognises just where our politicians, even those who profess to be Christians, are leading our land.

Councillor Alison Bennington is, as this reports states, an ‘openly-gay politician’, though I prefer the more accurate statement that she belongs to that section of today’s society which flies in the face of God and His Word and who, as the Bible says are given up of God “unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature,” Romans 1:26.

Councillor Alison Bennington identifies with the citizens of Sodom whose fate is recorded as a dire warning to those who would follow in their perverted footsteps. “Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire,” Jude 1:7.

Paul Girvan, in an act of blatant denial of his Christian testimony, happily (he was smiling broadly) happily rejoices in this abandoning of public righteousness and endorses all that this woman stands for by embracing her as he does.

I can only say utter shame on Paul Girvan and all who support him and vote for him and the party he represents.

The DUP is leading Ulster down the path of destruction by their sanctioning of that which God abominates above all of man’s wickedness. Click to read more…

Posted on 2023-05-19 a 8:01 pm

The following news story will likely attract only the interest of some in the political and business world. Its details of ‘money laundering’, the machinations of which are so complex that it leaves even the ‘experts’ baffled and will leave the average reader unable to follow the meandering path of the money involved. The ramifications of such a crime is lost on the most of us.

This story will however generate an interest above the normal because of the involvement of the Conservative Party. It does serve to highlight the increasing link between the ‘political world’ and the ‘criminal/business world’!

What will not be recognised by many is that here we have a reminder of that matter of which the Bible makes much! The Lord has given us extensive information on the moral atmosphere which will develop and reach a fulness in the last days of this age. Like a cancer which has been held in ‘remission’ by various medical treatments but which makes many attempts at a comeback only to be curbed, but which finally overwhelms the medication and brings the life of the victim to an end, so the Word of God tells us of the workings of what is called ‘the mystery of iniquity’ (2 Thessalonians 2:7) which will follow just such a path.

The term, ‘mystery of iniquity’, may be explained as meaning ‘the hidden wicked spirit engaged in an ongoing defiance of God’s Law’. Paul says it was at work in his day and it has been at work really since the fall of man. Furthermore the apostle tells us that it has been held in check by the Lord throughout ages. “‭O‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭nly‭ he who now‭ letteth‭‭ ‭will let‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬ (hold back, detain)‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭, until‭ he be taken‭‭ out of‭ the way‭.‭”‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬

This latter phrase may be explained as meaning ‘that the spirit of rebellion is held in check by God, but the restraint will one day be taken out of the way and the spirit of rebellion will be allow to have its way’. That will happen in the day God has appointed. “‭And‭ now‭ ye know‭‭ what withholdeth‭‭ that‭ he‭ might be revealed‭‭ in‭ his‭ time‭,‭”‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬ 2 Thessalonians 2:6.

The identity of the agency used to restrain this evil thing is much debated, but I will suggest to you that as James and Peter tell us, “‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭God‭ resisteth‭‭ the proud‭, but‭ giveth‭‭ grace‭ unto the humble‭,‭”‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬ James 4:6; 1 Peter 5:5, so it is God Himself Who restrains this spirit of apostasy. After all, it is a direct attack upon Him, His Word and His Kingdom, so it is not surprising that He directly interposes in the matter. We are reminded of this fact in Romans 13:1-2. “‭Let every‭ soul‭ be subject‭‭ unto the higher‭‭ powers‭. For‭ there is‭‭ no‭ power‭ but‭ of‭ God‭:‭ the powers‭ that be‭‭ are‭‭ ordained‭‭ of‭ God‭.‭ ‭Whosoever therefore‭ resisteth‭‭ the power‭, resisteth‭‭ the ordinance‭ of God‭: and‭ they that resist‭‭ shall receive‭‭ to themselves‭ damnation‭.‭”‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬ There we are taught that resistance of the ordinance of God will bring down God’s damnation.

This a solemn truth to be pondered in these lawless days! Click to read more…

Posted on 2023-05-17 a 5:38 pm

I would like to share a picture of a visitor to our garden on Friday 12th.

Here she is!

The ‘lady’ in question is a female ‘great spotted woodpecker’. I have been told that this is the furthest west in Northern Ireland one has been spotted.

Apparently, Ireland had an introduction of woodpeckers after the birds multiplied in Wales to a degree that fresh territory was needed and thus the short  flight across from Wales to southern Ireland took place.

Ornithologists inform us that such a migration took place not that long ago after these beautiful birds became extinct here in the 17th and 18th century.

We are looking forward to her returning in the near future (she was there this morning at 8.20am) and perhaps bringing some fledglings along with her.

Sincerely,

Ivan Foster

Posted on 2023-05-15 a 4:45 pm

This letter has been published in today’s (16/5/23) edition of the ‘Belfast Newsletter’

I just had to respond to the sacrilegious article by John Coulter published yesterday in the ‘Belfast Newsletter’!

I deem it to be blasphemous because of the stupid and irreverent title given by him to his article.

It is reprehensible of Coulter, a promoter of unwholesome and fraudulent so-called ‘gospel music, to seek to encourage others to embrace this aping of the world.

Well did John the apostle write:  “For many deceivers are entered into the world,” 2 John 1:7.

May the article be seen as a work of deception!

Sincerely in Christ’s name,

Ivan Foster

Sir,

I have not read the article “Sir Cliff Richard is right, why should the devil have all the good music?” by John Coulter.

The title tells me enough about the nonsense that it will contain.

The title is an endorsement by Mr Coulter of the puerile statement by Cliff Richard and that tells where the article is heading!

One question immediately occurs to me. Just when did the devil ever do anything or endorse anything that was truly ‘good’?

The Lord said of him: “He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it,” John 8:44.

It is further stated of the devil in the Bible that, “He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil,” 1 John 3:8.

That makes it obvious that the ‘devil’s music’ is not admired by the Lord. I go with the Lord’s opinion of the devil and utterly reject the folly of Cliff Richard and John Coulter.

The devil is obviously not the source of anything good, musical or otherwise and to say that he is, flies in the face of God’s Word!

Regards,

Rev Ivan Foster (Rtd)

Kilskeery, Co. Tyrone

Posted on 2023-05-13 a 5:00 am

I am embarrassed for my many friends in America who have to bear with the innumerable foolish, embarrassing, and tactless utterances of their President, the so-called leader of the ‘Free World’! The man was always a fool but now his folly is compounded by the failings that come with ‘old age’!

Biden has English ancestors. The surname Biden was first found in Hampshire and later in Gloucestershire and Somerset. Wikipedia says of him: “Biden’s family is mostly descended of the British Isles, with most of their ancestors coming from Ireland and England, whilst also claiming descent from the French.”

However, ‘Oul Joe’ likes to make much of his links with Ireland and displays, whenever he can, his inherited Irish prejudices and hatred of all things British. He is a pseudo Roman Catholic, loudly proclaiming his adherence to that false religion while promoting policies such as abortion which is supposedly rejected by Roman Catholicism.

On his recent visit to Northern Ireland, it was noticed that his official car did not fly the flag of our country, the ‘Union Jack’. This despising of our national flag is in keeping with the practice of his Sinn Fein/IRA friends and associates.

He is pictured above with Gerry Adams and IRA fugitive, the late Rita O’Hare, wanted for the attempted murder of British Army Warrant Officer Frazer Paton in Belfast in October 1971.

As soon as Biden was across the border into the Irish Republic, the Irish ‘tricolour’ was immediately hoisted on his car.

The failure to fly the ‘Union Jack’ was contrary to ‘diplomatic protocol’ but then that would mean nothing to this antiquated imbecile who cannot open his mouth without attempting to put both feet into it. Click to read more…

Posted on 2023-05-11 a 5:22 pm

There is something grossly wrong when a publicly funded organisation, the main function and responsibility of which is to provide impartial public service broadcasting in the UK and the world, takes upon itself the role of the ‘standard-bearer’ for that ubiquitous movement, promoting the perverted activities of that commonly, called the ‘lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender’— a tiny section of society.

I am referring to “The British Broadcasting Corporation”.

One of the articles on BBC Northern Ireland’s website illustrates its taking up this self-appointed role.

The headlines read: ‘Blood on the Dancefloor: The gay police officer murder which shocked NI’.

The article is all the more offensive in that it uses the immoral activities of a policeman murdered in a’ sodomite establishment’ back in 1997.

The murder was carried out by Irish Republicans. To take the man’s life was wrong and it is to be condemned.

But also to be condemned is this specious and feignedly ‘compassionate’ decrying of the crime.

The tears are ‘crocodile’ and the motive is utterly ulterior. Under the guise of sorrowing at the murder is the promotion of the abominable wickedness of sodomy and its allied perversions.

It is wrong that the BBC should engage in this and surely is contrary to the role it is funded to perform. The BBC ought not to be a platform for the cursed wretchedness of a re-emergence of that shame which damned Sodom and Gomorrah!

The citizen is utterly powerless to do anything about such abuse of the BBC’s role and it would appear that few in the realm of the governance of the State, appear in the least interested in using their power to do something!

Perhaps that is because they depend upon the BBC for a promoting of their interests amongst the electorate. There will therefore be no ‘biting of the hand’ that holds a microphone up for their efforts in self-promotion!

Posted on 2023-05-09 a 4:44 pm

“‭But‭ of‭ that‭ day‭ and‭ hour‭ knoweth‭‭ no‭ ‭man‭, no, not‭ the angels‭ of heaven‭, but‭ my‭ Father‭ only‭,‭”‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬ Matthew 24:36.

Do these words mean that the Lord Jesus was unaware of the time of His return? Many would say that is so and because of that it is futile to speak of the revelation in Holy Scripture by Christ of signs that foretell the approach of that day since He did not know the ‘‭‭‭‭day‭ and‭ hour‭’. Therefore He could not speak of that which indicates the approach of the ‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‘‭‭‭‭day‭ and‭ hour‭’.‬‬‬‬‬‬‬

But is that what this verse is saying. I think not!

The context indicates that the Saviour DID know the ‘‭‭‭‭day‭ and‭ hour‬‬‬‬‬‬’‭‭‭‭‭‭‭.‬‬‬‬‬‬‬

Please remember in this chapter we have Christ answering two questions, one of which is, “‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭What‭ ‭shall be‭ the sign‭ of thy‭ coming‭, and‭ of the end‭ of the world‭?‭”‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬ verse 3.

I put it to you that the Saviour could not reveal what the ‘sign’ of His coming was if He did not know ‘‭‭‭‭day‭ and‭ hour‭’ when His return would take place!‬‬‬‬‬‬‬

If it is true that the Saviour was ignorant of the ‘‭‭‭‭day‭ and‭ hour‭’ then He would have told His disciples that He could not answer their question. But He did not respond ‬‬‬‬‬‬‬with a declaration of ignorance but rather began to answer their question in great detail.

His answer is most explicit indeed. The word ‘shall’ is ever linked to the expression of a strong determination to do something. It is most assertive. That word appears many times in this chapter. If my counting is correct it appears some 53 times in the chapter in our Authorised Version.

That would tell us Christ was speaking very authoritatively and forcefully. There was nothing tentative or hesitating about the Saviour’s response that might suggest a lack of a full knowledge of the answer to the question, ‘when shall you return’!

The detailed information imparted by the Lord indicates He HAD full knowledge of that day. Click to read more…

Posted on 2023-05-08 a 4:50 pm

Football for all… but not if you’re an evangelical Christian says former Irish league player and coach — (Belfast Newsletter, 3rd May 2023)

The Sunday marathon is a sober reminder that we live in days of increasing spiritual weakness and confusion — (Belfast Newsletter, 5th May 2023)

Irish Cup final: Former IFA boss says ‘Christians can still go to Sunday matches – it won’t matter in the afterlife’ — (Belfast Newsletter, 5th May 2023)

The first two headlines relate to concerns about the increasing desecration of the Lord’s Day and the third provides an explanation for the increase!

The third headline is taken from the comments of an attender at Greenisland Methodist Church. For him to go public in this manner surely indicates that his church minister and oversight are happy with his views and behaviour. If they are not then doubtless a public statement will be made disowning his behaviour!

The assertion of Jim Boyce is quite contrary to the traditional teaching of Methodism and more importantly, the Word of God.

We quote:

“The General Rules of the Methodist Church requires ‘attending upon all the ordinances of God’ including ‘the public worship of God’ , (he Oxford Handbook of Methodist Studies).

The founder of Methodism, John Wesley, stated ‘This ‘handwriting of ordinances’ our Lord did blot out, take away, and nail to His cross (Col. 2:14). But the moral law contained in the Ten Commandments, and enforced by the prophets, He did not take away …. The moral law stands on an entirely different foundation from the ceremonial or ritual law …. Every part of this law must remain in force upon all mankind and in all ages.’ (‘Sermons on Several Occasions,’ 2-Vol. Edition, Vol. I, pages 221, 222). Click to read more…

Posted on 2023-05-06 a 7:00 pm

My attention was drawn to this article by Mr Jim Allister, KC, the leader of the Tradition Unionist Voice political party, 29th April.

I made it my business to contact the author of it, Dr Edward Cooke, Doctor of Philosophy, School of History, Anthropology, Philosophy and Politics at Queens University, Belfast.

In his initial reply to my email Dr Cooke said:

Dear Rev Foster

I have been trying for over a year to bring this matter to the attention of different political parties and media outlets within NI and the UK and in 2023 I have approached the mainstream UK churches who also appear ‘disinterested’ in these issues. I would be most grateful if you used any social media platform to bring these matters to the attention of your congregation and the wider public. I enclose for you two reports on how the university sector within NI and the UK has evolved and how Unionists within NI and Christians within the UK have been marginalised in a key employment sector.

Many thanks

Edward Cooke

Accordingly, I am publishing the article as a pdf file because of its size.However, please take the time to download the article and read carefully this document exposé of what I would call the the attempt to ‘secularise’ UK universities, to the exclusion of all religious influence, especially that of Bible Christianity.

Recent Demographic Changes in the NI university sector – Feb 2022

The sad fact is that Dr Cooke says that he has “ . . been trying for over a year to bring this matter to the attention of different political parties and media outlets within NI and the UK and in 2023 I have approached the mainstream UK churches who also appear ‘disinterested’ in these issues.”

We have but a further demonstration that the political ‘watch men’ and ‘watchdogs’ representing us in the two main Unionist parties are as those of whom Isaiah the prophet complained long ago: “His watchmen are blind: they are all ignorant, they are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark; sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber,” Isaiah 56:10.

We trust that by this effort to highlight Dr Cooke’s research we may do something to stir up those who are paid handsomely to represent the interests of the Unionist and Protestant people here in Ulster.

Sincerely in Christ’s name,

Ivan Foster

2nd May, 2023

Posted on 2023-05-03 a 4:00 am

The depth to which our nation is sinking is acutely set forth in the forthcoming coronation of ‘Charles and Camilla’ in Westminster Abbey, a place linked to the translation of the incomparable Authorised Version of the Holy Scriptures and the compilation of the Westminster Confession of Faith.

Of course the Abbey has long been the scene of desecration at the hand of the Romanising clerics of the Church of England.

Saturday, 6th May will see that desecration reach new depths.

Sincerely in Christ’s name,

Ivan Foster

CELEBRATE THE CORONATION OF AN ADULTERER AND AN ADULTERESS??  . . . . . I THINK NOT!

 “And all the king’s servants, that were in the king’s gate, bowed, and reverenced Haman: for the king had so commanded concerning him. But Mordecai bowed not, nor did him reverence,” Esther 3:2.

There is an honour that is due to “kings, and for all that are in authority”, (1 Timothy 2:2) but it does not entail such an honouring of sin by showing endorsement of their immorality.

Paul the apostle in speaking to Felix, showed due deference. “Then Paul, after that the governor had beckoned unto him to speak, answered, Forasmuch as I know that thou hast been of many years a judge unto this nation, I do the more cheerfully answer for myself,”  Acts 24:10.

Nevertheless, when opportunity was given him later to witness to Felix, Paul did not hesitate to deal with the very matters about which the wicked Felix needed to hear. “And after certain days, when Felix came with his wife Drusilla, which was a Jewess, he sent for Paul, and heard him concerning the faith in Christ. And as he reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, Felix trembled, and answered, Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient season, I will call for thee,”  Acts 24:24-25. “Righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come” were the very subjects that Felix need to consider. He was in an adulterous marriage with a woman notorious for her libidinous ways.

Due honour does not mean turning a ‘blind eye’ to sin.

1. Mordecai would not bow and reverence Haman for he was a hater of the Jews and a Gentile who came from a very evil ancestry, being of the lineage of Agag, an Amalekite. “After these things did king Ahasuerus promote Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, and advanced him, and set his seat above all the princes that were with him,” Esther 3:1. He was of that nation which God had obliged the Israelites to abhor and oppose from generation to generation; and therefore he did not show outward respect to a man whom he did and ought inwardly to contemn. “Because the LORD hath sworn that the LORD will have war with Amalek from generation to generation,” Exodus 17:16.

There has come to the throne in our nation a couple who are united in an unholy marriage. The details of the adulterous lifestyle of Charles and Camilla have been publicly disclosed in the national press for years past for all who wished to read it! Click to read more…

Posted on 2023-05-01 a 5:06 pm

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There is an article in today’s ‘Belfast Newsletter’ that repeats many of the old lies and deceits against Dr Paisley and the 1966 Free Presbyterian protest against the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland.

I have written the following letter and submitted it to the Editor for publication.

Please pray that it will be published.

Sincerely in Christ’s name,

Ivan Foster.

Sir,

It is quite amazing that a man, writing an article to counter what he says are falsehoods linked to the early witness of Ian Paisley, should go about employing the most blatant falsehoods himself! Mr Patrick Speight is a former BBC Radio presenter so perhaps we ought not to be surprised at such a tactic.

I was part of that Free Presbyterian protest procession in June 1966 he fulminates against, so I know first hand what took place.

Patrick Speight was a ‘cub’ of some 12 years of age at the time, so he is relying on hearsay, news reports and ecumenical propaganda for his information!

I will highlight some of his deceits regarding the parade which Mr Speight is keen to blacken. I will let whoever will answer his challenging of other elements of the BBC documentary he is so offended by.

I must say that it is always amusing to witness the ‘kettle calling the pot black’! Click to read more…

Posted on 2023-04-28 a 6:06 pm

Individuals from the political echelons of the United States of America have continually offered condemnation of the lot of Irish republicans at the hands of the British Government and criticised the Protestant and Unionist people of Northern Ireland as being guilty of this wrong-doing.

I believe that it may honestly be said that of all the nations that have directed their anti-British ire toward us, the USA has less room to talk than any!

This article was prompted by the playing of a very stirring ‘Negro Spiritual’ a few minutes ago on a US Christian radio station that I tune into constantly. It was the very well known and much loved, ‘Deep River’. Such is the pathos aroused in my heart by the words and the tune that I have never listened to it without thinking of the dreadful treatment many black people suffered during the centuries of slavery enforced upon them within the USA.

We may learn from various sources that ‘Deep River’ is a traditional African American spiritual which Henry Burleigh arranged along with many others in his collection of Jubilee Songs of the USA of 1916.

Deep River,
My home is over Jordan.
Deep River, Lord.
I want to cross over into campground.
Deep River,
my home is over Jordan.
River, Lord,
I want to cross over into campground.
Oh, don’t you want to go,
To the Gospel feast;
That Promised Land,
Where all is peace?
Oh, deep River, Lord,
I want to cross over into campground.

As I listened to the song, I envisaged the longing of the converted slave for the rest and peace of heaven over on the other side of the deep river of death. Heaven was symbolised I believe by the campground of a revival gospel gathering which often times the slaves were allowed to attend. The rest from the forced labour, that was their life, must have been ‘heaven like’ for those that were allowed to join in the singing and worship. Click to read more…

Posted on 2023-04-27 a 5:20 pm

I am copying an article from the ‘Daily Mirror’ dated 21st April, which centres on the subject of the ‘end of this age’ as predicted by Sir Isaac Newton (4 January 1643 – 31 March 1727).

One would naturally be slow to contradict anything that the man, considered to be ‘one of the most renowned scientists in history’ and more importantly, a true christian has said. However, as Paul contradicted Peter when he acted wrongly (Galatians 2:11-14) so we, on the authority of God’s Word, dare to contradict any man’s false predictions regarding the date of the Saviour’s return and the end of this age.

The Lord Jesus said: “‭Watch‭‭ therefore‭: for‭ ye know‭‭ not‭ what‭ hour‭ your‭ Lord‭ doth come‭‭,‭”‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬ Matthew 24:42. “‭Watch‭‭ therefore‭, for‭ ye know‭‭ neither‭ the day‭ nor‭ the hour‭ wherein‭‭ the Son‭ of man‭ cometh‭‭,‭”‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬ Matthew 25:13. “‭When‭ they therefore‭ were come together‭‭, they asked‭‭ of him‭, saying‭‭, Lord‭,‭ wilt thou‭‭ at‭ this‭ time‭ restore again‭‭ the kingdom‭ to Israel‭?‭ ‭And‭ he said‭‭ unto‭ them‭, It is‭‭ not‭ for you‭ to know‭‭ the times‭ or‭ the seasons‭, which‭ the Father‭ hath put‭‭ in‭ his own‭ power‭,‭”‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬ Acts 1:6-7.

The article contains much silliness, from various sources, about the return of the Lord but Sir Isaac Newton’s theory is not in agreement with what the Bible teaches.

While we CANNOT KNOW ‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‘the day‭ nor‭ the hour‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬’ of the Saviour’s return, we DO HAVE CLEAR INFORMATION on the events that will indicate that the day is drawing very near.

1. A general and increasing apostasy from the truth of God revealed to us in the Bible‭‭‭‭‭ will tak‬‬‬‬‬e‭‭‭‭‭ place ‬‬‬‬‬near to the Saviour’s return. The Saviour likened it unto the return of the moral conditions that characterised the earth before the judgment of the flood in Noah’s day and the fiery judgment that befell Sodom and Gomorrah in the days of Lot. “‭And‭ as‭ it was‭‭ in‭ the days‭ of Noe‭, so‭ shall it be‭‭ also‭ in‭ the days‭ of the Son‭ of man‭.‭ ‭They did eat‭‭, they drank‭‭, they married wives‭‭, they were given in marriage‭‭, until‭ the day‭ that‭ Noe‭ entered‭‭ into‭ the ark‭, and‭ the flood‭ came‭‭, and‭ destroyed‭‭ them all‭.‭ ‭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,‭”‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬ Luke 17:26-30. Click to read more…

Posted on 2023-04-22 a 7:47 pm

“‭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,‭”‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬ Acts 26:22.

Today, I look back to this date in 1968. It was a Saturday and I was ordained to the Christian ministry by the Presbytery of the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster and installed as minister of Lisbellaw Free Presbyterian Church (later to become Bethel FPC) in the tin hut in Lisbellaw which had served the fledgling congregation as a meeting house since February 1967.

The congregation had been constituted in March 1967, a little over a month after the first meeting in the hall.

By August 1972, a site had been purchased in the the county town, Enniskillen, just four miles away, and a new church building opened.

By that date, a congregation has been formed in the Clogher Valley, just east of Fivemiletown and another across the border in the Republic of Ireland, in Coragarry, Co Monaghan. The beginnings of the witness in Kilskeery, County Tyrone, some ten miles from Enniskillen.

They were busy times for there was an ear for the gospel and souls were being saved.

I can but humbly thank the Lord for being allowed to have a small part in those blessed days.

click to view

View a video of this sermon below

Posted on 2023-04-20 a 4:46 pm

“‭Draw me not away‭‭ with the wicked‭, and with the workers‭‭ of iniquity‭, which speak‭‭ peace‭ to their neighbours‭, ‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭but mischief‭ ‭is‭ in their hearts‭,‭”‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬ Psalm 28:3.

Nothing informs better us of the character of an enterprise or an individual than the persona of those who support them and press the claims of either upon the public.

On that basis the character of the ‘Good Friday Agreement’ is most corrupt indeed. Consider those who are its chief ‘cheer leaders’!

We will start with Joe Biden, the most unfitted President that the United States of America has ever had! The apostle Paul said: “‭Some‭ men’s‭ sins‭ are‭‭ open beforehand‭, going before‭‭ to‭ judgment‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭,‭”‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬ 1 Timothy 5:24. John Gill says of these words: “Some men are such open and notorious sinners, that there is no need of any inquiry about them, or any examination of them; or any witnesses to be called to their character, in order to pass judgment concerning them.”

Is that not the case with Joe Biden. There are millions in the USA who would shout out, ‘Amen’ to that summary of the character of their President.

He is a supporter of abortion, sodomy, transgenderism and all its affiliated perversions and a professing ‘faithful’ Roman Catholic! He openly rejoices in the company of IRA terrorists who have been part of a murderous plague on Protestants and Roman Catholics in Northern Ireland and in the Irish Republic, which is the effective base of its operations.

A man, who if ‘halos’ could be awarded by men, would have been given one by the besotted devotees of the ‘GFA’, is former US Senator, George J. Mitchell. He was, amongst other things, the chairman of The Walt Disney Company from March 2004 until January 2007. However, being an expert on ‘Mickey Mouse’ and ‘Goofy’ was not his only claim to fame, though I feel he has made ‘goofs’ of quite a few Unionists here!

Virginia Roberts Giuffre, the accuser of Prince Andrew, is a woman who has long claimed that disgraced financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein forced her to have sexual relations with powerful men, and named Mitchell as one of them in documents unsealed on August 9, 2019 (a day before Epstein’s death) by a Federal court in the Southern District of New York. The papers included affidavits and depositions of key witnesses in a 2015 lawsuit that Giuffre filed against Epstein and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell. Giuffre accused the two individuals of sex-trafficking her to high-profile individuals, including George Mitchell, in the early 2000s while she was underage. Mitchell denied ever having met or spoken with Giuffre, and stated that he became aware of Epstein’s criminal prosecution only through the media. Click to read more…

Posted on 2023-04-19 a 4:43 pm

On the 11th April, I received an email from a reporter working for ‘The Impartial Reporter’, a newspaper which circulates in Fermanagh and South Tyrone. Part of the email reads: “We are doing a series in the paper regarding the Belfast Agreement and wondered if you would be interested in contributing a short comment piece.”

Since I had received a similar request 25 years ago when the ‘the Belfast Agreement’, also known as ‘the good Friday agreement’, was first signed, I was happy to give my opinion on this ‘sham peace’ agreement, much lauded by the deceitful politicians and ecumenical ‘wolves in sheep’s clothing’ over the last twenty-five years .

Here is the article.

Sincerely in Christ’s name,

Ivan Foster

The ‘Good Friday Agreement’

(Rev Ivan Foster)

In the summer of 1998, I along with fellow Free Presbyterian ministers in Co. Tyrone, issued a statement in the wake of the Omagh bomb, which resulted in 28 men, women and children brutally murdered as well as many more seriously injured, commiserating with the families so wickedly bereaved.

Part of that statement read: “We accuse our Government and in particular the Prime Minister, Tony Blair, and the Northern Ireland Secretary of State, Mo Mowlam, of pursuing a policy in Northern Ireland that has encouraged this atrocity and the many others that have gone before, by seeking to placate terrorism through immoral concessions such as the present early release of convicted terrorists. Yesterday’s murderous monsters have become today’s ministers-in-waiting! We have already heard words of condemnation from the lips of those politicians, who favour the release of convicted murderers and bombers, that are but an echo of the words employed to condemn the actions of those terrorists they are now determined to release. . . .  The politicians who have supported the present policy of appeasement that underwrites the “Peace Agreement” cannot escape having blood on their hands after today’s evil. Click to read more…

Posted on 2023-04-15 a 10:45 pm

A dear brother in Romania sent me an email this morning which encouraged this old preacher’s heart.

He said: “This message was a great comfort for my soul yesterday and today, while I listened to it.” 

That prompted me to have a listen and I hope you understand me when I say that I could listen to what I said 30 years ago as someone simply listening to a preacher. 

I was humbly blessed and so very thankful at the honour bestowed upon me to speak so of Christ.

I send it out with the hope that you too will benefit from the message, preached in Faith FPC, Greenville, SC, USA in October 1993.

Sincerely in Christ’s name,
Ivan Foster

Posted on 2023-04-14 a 6:37 pm

The phrase ‘keep company with’ refers to marriage, religious affiliations, social associations and business partnerships.

It is important to the Lord just what impression the Christian’s ‘crowd’ sets forth.

I recall my maternal grandmother being quoted as having said on this matter: “Show me your company and I will tell you who you are!’

I suppose that very well known adage: ‘Birds of a feather flock together’ states the same basic truth. Who you are drawn to and with whose company you are content and happy to be in, tells an observer what your views and affections are.

It is for this reason that the Lord, like any father, shows concern about the crowd we identify with and the Holy Scriptures contain many directives on this matter.

MARRIAGE.

Whom a Christian marries is not a matter of indifference to the Lord, any more than it is to caring earthly parents. Thus we find Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, urging this maxim upon Corinthian Christians. “‭The wife‭ is bound‭‭ by the law‭‭ as long‭ as‭ her‭ husband‭ liveth‭‭; but‭ if‭ her‭ husband‭ be dead‭‭, she is‭‭ at liberty‭ to be married‭‭ to whom‭ she will‭‭; only‭ in‭ the Lord‭,‭”‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬ 1 Corinthians 7:39. The choice of the woman as to who it is she marries is limited by this rule. She is at entire liberty to marry, or not to marry, and to marry whom she pleases. That is not forbidden by the laws of God. But she is limited by the ‘spiritual’ character of the man she would marry. The marriage union must be ‘in the Lord’!

The word ‘only’ clearly indicates that she is limited to one category of men from which she would choose her husband. He ‘must’ be a Christian, he must be one of the Lord’s people.

My fifty plus years of pastoral labours have brought me into contact with many households, both within my own flock and outside it. I have noted on many occasions the unhappy price paid by a man or a woman who ignored this injunction and instead allowed their own feelings and emotions to overrule God! I saw that it invariably brought unhappiness to the disobedient Christian, to the one they married and to the children born of the union. Irrespective of the circumstance of how the unscriptural union was formed — often as a result of an unsaved person making a false profession of faith in Christ in order to find acceptance with the Christian whose hand in marriage they desired — without exception it had a grievous impact upon the family unit thus formed. Click to read more…

Posted on 2023-04-13 a 5:01 pm

“When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn,” Proverbs 29:2.

Today, Joe Biden arrives in Northern Ireland for what is thankfully a very short visit before moving on to the Irish Republic.

Joe Biden is very much pro-abortion, (to the embarrassment of many of his fellow Roman Catholics in the USA and Ireland, north and south) pro-sodomite, pro-transgenderism, pro-Sinn Fein/IRA and utterly anti-Protestant and anti-British!

We pity those who love righteousness in the United States who have had to suffer his presidency and the embarrassment that this aged ‘ejit’ (he will doubtless rejoice in having such an Irish disparagement directed at him) has brought to his nation.

Sadly, their distress will have been heightened of late with his announcement that he is to run again for the presidency!!

It would be an exercise in blatant and abject humiliation for any Unionist to be present at any function he will engage in during his brief stay. David shaking hands with Goliath and embracing him would not adequately illustrate the ignominy of a representative of the Unionist people welcoming this political nincompoop to Ulster.

He comes to join with those who are celebrating the signing of the treacherous ‘Good Friday Agreement’ 25 years ago. It is one of the greatest and most bare-faced dissimulations since Judas kissed the cheek of the Saviour!

As Jim Allister, TUV leader said recently:

“In swimming against the tide of hysteria about Joe Biden’s visit, let me be clear that this President is an avowed nationalist partisan who in his past, when the IRA’s murder campaign was in full swing, joined with other meddling US politicians to seek to prevent extradition of wanted IRA terrorists (eg IRA escapee Joe Doherty), who more recently (Feb 2022) likened the struggle of the Palestinian people to Britain’s treatment of Irish Catholics for over 400 years, and who has championed the Union-dismantling Protocol.

“Little wonder he wants to celebrate the terrorism-rewarding Belfast Agreement and try further pressure on unionists to operate the Protocol’s dismantling of the Union and partitioning of the United Kingdom.

“I find nothing to celebrate in the mass release of murderers, the ushering of terrorists into government and the imposition of an unworkable system at Stormont – all the handiwork of the Belfast Agreement. But from the perspective of an avid all-Irelander like Biden a milestone of achievement.”

Ulster is caught up in a hysterical storm of lies and deceit and blatant propaganda regarding the ‘GFA’. The newspaper columns and pulpits of the ecumenical advocates have vainly sought to have the people of Ulster swallow that which is all too obviously a deceit. The ‘GFA’ did not bring peace. It saw hundreds of murderers released early from jail, the perpetrators of a terror campaign elevated and politically ‘fumigated’ and foisted upon those in Ulster they had sought to eradicate by murder. Click to read more…

Posted on 2023-04-11 a 10:44 pm

“‭And‭ as they‭ thus‭ spake‭‭, Jesus‭ himself‭ stood‭‭ in‭ the midst‭ of them‭, and‭ saith‭‭ unto them‭, Peace‭ ‭be‭ unto you‭,‭”‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬ Luke 24:36.

Yesterday morning, in the morning meeting of Kilskeery Free Presbyterian Church, Rev Paul Hanna preached a very profitable and stirring message from the verse 6 of Luke 24. “‭He is‭‭ not‭ here‭, but‭ is risen‭‭: remember‭‭ how‭ he spake‭‭ unto you‭ when he was‭‭ yet‭ in‭ Galilee‭.‭”‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬ I would commend the message to all. The service may be watched at here. I trust you will view the message.

While Rev Hanna read from Luke 24, my eyes were drawn to verse 36, which heads this article. The words are familiar to me yet they came with freshness to my soul and I determined that after the meeting I would look more closely at them.

I particularly noticed the opening words of the verse. “‭And‭ as they‭ thus‭ spake‭‭, Jesus‭ himself‭ stood‭‭ in‭ the midst‭ of them‬‬‬‬‬‬”. ‬‬‬‬As I contemplated this statement it occurred to me that here we have: ‬‬

I. WHAT IT IS THAT DRAWS THE SAVIOUR INTO THE MIDST OF HIS PEOPLE

The giving witness to His resurrection drew the Saviour into the midst of the little gathering.

1. The smallness of the gathering of disciples does not deter the Saviour coming amongst His people. There were only “‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭eleven‭ gathered together‭‭, and‭ them that were with‭ them‭,‭”‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬ verse 33, when they were joined by the two who had seen the Saviour. Many throughout the world can empathise with such numbers!

This is a comfort to us in Kilskeery and to many, many like gatherings across the world in these evil times when the cause of Christ is despised and ridiculed as it has not been in living memory.

Smallness is always a cause of concern for the believer who wishes ever that more of their neighbours and friends, indeed enemies, would come in under the sounds of the Word of God. However that distresses the Christian, it is clear from the text that it does not in the least deter the Saviour from coming amongst such a small gathering. Click to read more…

Posted on 2023-04-10 a 6:11 pm

Posted on 2023-04-09 a 12:01 am

Here are some thoughts which arose from the reading my Psalm for today, Psalm 12.

May you find profit for your soul in the article.

Sincerely in Christ’s name,

Ivan Foster

A PART OF THE HIGH PRICE ULSTER IS PAYING FOR THE DUP’S POWER-SHARING AGREEMENT WITH SINN FEIN/IRA

“‭The wicked‭ walk‭‭ on every side‭, when the vilest‭ men‭‭ are exalted‭‭.‭”‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬ Psalm 12:8.

Christians look on the violating of our streets by those who flaunt and rejoice in their perverted iniquity with grief and heartache. The vexing of Lot was slight in comparison to that which a lover of God and Truth experience as they view the parading of the evils of Sodom throughout the world in these latter days.

As we have often said, the Lord Jesus indicated that that which precipitated the fiery destruction of the cities of Sodom‭ and Gomorrah‬ (Genesis 19:28-2; Jude 1:7), would mark the final days of this age as mankind in its rebellion against the Lord would repudiate all that is revealed in God’s Word and plunge back into the swamp of immorality, from which nations were wondrously delivered to a great measure during the gospel era.

“‭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,‭”‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬ Luke 17:28-30. That evil night has begun to descend upon the nations, our own being no exception. Click to read more…

Posted on 2023-04-07 a 5:15 pm

April is always a special month for me.

I was converted on 5th April, 1964 and on 20th April 1968 I was ordained as a gospel minister and installed as pastor of the congregation where I had been preaching as a student from the beginnings of the witness in February 1967 — Lisbellaw Free Presbyterian Church.

The congregation moved to its newly opened church building in Enniskillen in August 1972 and changed its name to Bethel Free Presbyterian Church.

I moved to Kilskeery as pastor in February 1978. That congregation was one of four which sprang from the Lisbellaw witness.

I retired as a pastor in November 2008. I was asked that month to give a word of testimony in Mullaglass Free Presbyterian Church in South Armagh.

Here is a recording of that testimony.

Ivan Foster

Posted on 2023-04-05 a 12:01 am

My original letter was a comment on the first of the three BBC episodes. The Editor of the ‘Belfast Newsletter’ wished to hold it back from publication until after the last episode was aired. That will take place this evening but I have already viewed it online and have added a line or two to my original letter to deal more comprehensible with the contents of the whole programme.

The length of my letter is a bit more than is suitable for publishing in the ‘Letters Page’ in the printed edition of the Belfast Newsletter so I have submitted a abbreviated copy with the understanding that the full letter will appear on their web page.

Here is a copy of the full length letter published on-line by the ‘Belfast Newsletter’.

Dear Sir,

Although I was reminded by the BBC only days ago that the first of their programmes entitled: “The House of Paisley”, to which I was invited to partake some months ago, was to be broadcast last night, I entirely forgot to watch it. It was only when I was reminded yet again that it had been aired last night (Monday 3rd April) that I sought out a copy of it on the BBC site and then also watched the two other programmes in the series.

Having watched them with very mixed feelings indeed, I have to liken the ‘documentary’ to the publishing of an assessment of the Lord Jesus Christ by the devil!

It was lacking in an honest evaluation of the man in his earlier years of prominence and it was given over to the opinions of those who hate all that he stood for and desire only the dishonouring of his witness in the 1960s and 1970s.

I knew the man personally and was closely associated with him in many of those tumultuous days. My views are not those of someone who relies on videos, news reports and garbled accounts. I was with the man in pulpits, prayer meetings, protests and prison. Those were days which cannot properly be understood via television documentaries, no matter what objectivity they may claim, which is something these broadcasts lacked entirely. Click to read more…

Posted on 2023-04-04 a 10:36 pm

I sent this email to Mr Fletcher whose video is mounted on the BB webpage.

Dear Sir,

My name is Ivan Foster. I am a retired minister of the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster, having completed some 43 years as a pastor and being still engaged in a little preaching, though retired now some 15 years.

The video of your speech was shared with me and I have mounted it upon my website, mentioned below.

I sincerely want to thank you for the witness you bore to Christ and His Word and the benefits that this nation of ours has enjoyed for many generations.

It was sad to observe so few in attendance at the debate and I am saddened that those from Ulster, who would profess faith in Christ, do not seem to be in attendance.

Having thanked you, I did mention in my introduction to the video on my website, the anomaly of you, a member of the Conservative Party, criticising practices which your party has been chief in promoting, even legitimising that which God condemns such as abortion, sodomy and the ludicrous notion of transgenderism.

You surely cannot be happy in such an environment! Click to read more…

Posted on 2023-04-04 a 10:32 pm

The speaker in this video of a parliamentary debate is Nick Fletcher, MP for the Don Valley in Yorkshire.

He is a professing Christian. He resides in Bawtry and is married to Gail. They have two children, James and Lucy.

In this video he shares his faith in Jesus Christ with fellow MPs in a debate about the importance of Christianity to society.

Such a witness amongst members of the UK Parliament is welcome. I know very little about the man. I do not know which church he attends and, with no desire to be ungracious, would I necessarily endorse all he says. He is a member of the Conservative Party and thus he is part of a very corrupt and treacherous political organisation, the policies of which have done much harm here in Ulster and in the rest of the UK. Indeed, it is a chief participant in the evils Mr Fletcher condemns in his speech.

However, I do thank him for his witness in ‘Caesar’s Court’, and I sincerely trust that it will encourage other believers to speak out in the midst of this evil Christ blaspheming age!

Sincerely in Christ’s name,

Ivan Foster

Posted on 2023-04-03 a 5:03 pm

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It was that consummate and polished Nazi liar, Joseph Goebbels, who said:

“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”

That is the strategy of the devil. The Lord Jesus said of him: “‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭‭He‭ was‭‭ a murderer‭ from‭ the beginning‭, and‭ abode‭‭‭ not‭ in‭ the truth‭, because‭ there is‭‭ no‭ truth‭ in‭ him‭. When‭ he speaketh‭‭ a lie‭, he speaketh‭‭ of‭ his own‭: for‭ he is‭‭ a liar‭, and‭ the father‭ of it‭,‭”‬ ‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬John 8:44.

The Saviour tells us in the‭se‬ words that the devil does not abide in the truth. The first use of the Greek word translated ‘abode’ (histemi) is found in Matthew 2:9. “‭When‭ they had heard‭‭ the king‭, they departed‭‭; and‭, lo‭‭, the star‭, which‭ they saw‭‭ in‭ the east‭, went before‭‭ them‭, till‭ it came‭‭ and stood‭‭ over‭ where‭ the young child‭ was‭‭‭”‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬, ‘stood over’ is our word. The devil does not stand near or over the truth. Furthermore, the Saviour tells us that the devil is the ‘father’, the ‘ancestor, the generator’ of lies.

Every lie may be traced back to him!

Joseph Goebbels definition of the ‘big lie’ aptly describes the tactic employed by the advocates of the variety of perversions which are lumped together under the acronym LGBT+. Such a term is ‘an abbreviation consisting of initial letters pronounced separately’. That is the umbrella term for the immoral perversities which, while always present amongst the inhabitants of the world, has emerged as a blighting flood upon nations in very recent times!

That ‘LGBT+ism’ is old may be seen in God prohibition of such behaviour as it is set down in His Law “‭Thou shalt not lie‭‭ with mankind‭, as with‭ womankind‭: it ‭is‭ abomination‭,‭”‬ ‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬Leviticus 18:22. “‭The woman‭ shall not wear that which pertaineth‭ unto a man‭, neither shall a man‭ put‭‭ on a woman’s‭ garment‭: for all that do‭‭ so‭ ‭are‭ abomination‭ unto the LORD‭ thy God‭,‭”‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬ Deuteronomy 22:5.

Of course, God’s denunciations of such practices made no difference to those given over to such perversions. It means nothing to them to defy the Lord and ignore and scorn His warnings of the eternal consequences of such wickedness. Click to read more…

Posted on 2023-03-30 a 7:29 pm

This article was prompted by an email from a friend which highlighted the high opinions of Kate Forbes (or Mrs McLennan to use her married name) expressed in the press.

Such opinions underscore the ignorance of God’s Word that is to be found amongst professing Christians.

We wish to challenge these foolish views.

Sincerely in Christ’s name,

Ivan Foster

THE POLITICAL STANDARDS OF KATE FORBES EULOGISED AND THE BIBLE IGNORED

Headlines such as those which have appeared in the ‘Belfast Newsletter’ of late, such as ‘Kate Forbes stood by her Christianity with courage and dignity’ and ‘No glass ceiling for Christians in politics’, all seem to praise the actions of Mrs Forbes of the Scottish Nationalist Party.

Such praise is offered in ignorance and contradiction of the Word of God. The path Kate Forbes pursued of late may have caused many to feel she had acted courageously but what she did was not endorsed by the Word of God.

The SNP is a most morally corrupt party, One of its main political planks is that of sanctioning and promoting the ridiculous and evil notion of ‘transgenderism’! Kate Forbes is reported as being opposed to such but then Lot was somewhat opposed to sodomy, Peter tells us it ‘vexed’ him (2 Peter 2:7-8), but that does not exonerate him being in Sodom!

Furthermore, many of, if not all of the policies of this party, which nurtures strong anti-British and anti-Protestant sentiments, are unbiblical. It is pro-abortion and pro-same-sex marriage.

Again, this not the company of the child of God.

I noticed that during the leadership election campaign, Kate Forbes was highly critical of the man who eventually became the leader, the Muslim, Humza Yousaf. But it was pointed out in a newspaper article that she had voted for all his polices in the past!

That is hardly being principled! Click to read more…

Posted on 2023-03-29 a 4:26 pm

I am sharing these photographs, sent to me by my one of my granddaughters, of Saturday’s Free Presbyterian protest (March 25th) at Belfast’s City Hall, against the imposition on Ulster of evil abortion laws by the Westminster Parliament.

Here is a video of the protest:

We are thankful for such a witness and trust that the Lord will bless the word preached and the literature distributed.

Rev John Armstrong, one of the preachers taking part in the protest. Rev Armstrong is minister of Dungannon Free Presbyterian Church and Moderator of the Presbytery of the Church. Click to read more…

Posted on 2023-03-27 a 4:42 pm

I wish to thank all who contacted me and offered very kind words of encouragement following the publication of the first part of my dealing with this subject.

My Bible tells me of the rearranging of the political borders in Europe in the latter days and I believe we see signs of that happening.

The Lord has not left us without a ‘prophetic map’, if only God’s people would attentively consult it.

Sincerely in Christ’s name,

Ivan Foster

IF THERE WAS A UNITED IRELAND TOMORROW — WHAT SHOULD CHRISTIANS DO??

Part Two

Since posting the first article on this subject, it has occurred to me that there are matters I did not touch upon which I would like to do now.

A ‘United Ireland’ is no happy prospect for an Ulster Protestant. As the people of Ukraine have witnessed the animosity and bitterness of Vladimir Putin and his Russian military in the form of artillery bombardments, missiles and drones and invading soldiers across their border, so we in Ulster have had very clear and graphic evidence of the enmity that nestles in the heart of the southern Irish Romanists in the form of harassing verbal missiles since the birth of our state and ‘invaders’ crossing our border to plant bombs and mount ambushments and assassinations. Of course, there have been those from within our territory, citizens, who hate the existence of Northern ireland and who have laboured by a wide variety of means, many illegal and immoral, to bring about its downfall.

The Ukrainian people have been supported and sympathised with by many, many nations, and rightly so. But that is not the case with the Protestant in Ulster. The government of the United Kingdom, our Government, has shown every sympathy with the cause of the IRA and their bomb and bullet campaign. So much so that political restraints were placed upon the security forces so that they did not do what they could have done in a very short time, wiped out the IRA terrorists. Even though it meant the murder and maiming of many hundreds of civilians, the destruction of many properties and businesses worth £billions and the loss of a great numbers of their own security force members, such was the treacherous connivance of the ‘powers that be’ to undermine the well being of the Protestant people and their place within the United Kingdom, that it was considered that such was a price worth paying!

We have seen all too many United States Presidents cosying up to representatives of the IRA terrorists over the years for us not to learn that the USA would gladly see the demise of Protestant Ulster.

Why is this so? Well it all comes back to the Bible!

A long time ago the Lord said to the devil: “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel,” Genesis 3:15. There was to be a spirit of ‘enmity, hatred’ placed between the devil and Christ and also His ‘seed’ or ‘spiritual offspring’. The Christian is told by the Word of God and by the indwelling Spirit of God that “We are the children of God,” Romans 8:16. As such, we share in the animosity directed toward Christ by the devil and his allies. That hatred is most widespread for “The whole world lieth in wickedness,” 1 John 5:19.

Protestantism in Ulster is not what once it was! Nevertheless, there remains within it elements of old-fashioned Bible Christianity, the remnants of of the glorious Protestant Reformation. Sadly, much of the old truths have been forgotten by nominal Protestant church-goers, thanks chiefly to the death-dealing plague of modernistic and ecumenical lies from the pulpits of the main churches. However, there remains in this Province a remnant of the old religion of the Bible and it exercises an influence still, to some degree, on the thinking of our society. It is for this reason that our enemies speak of Ulster being ‘dragged kicking and screaming into the twenty-first century’! Ulster has not ‘moved with the times’ because of the roots that have gone down deep into our ethnic persona.

The mere ‘whiff’ of that old Protestant perfume’ is enough to still send our enemies into convulsions of hatred and bigotry. Click to read more…

Posted on 2023-03-25 a 8:15 pm

Ulster Protestants, especially those of previous generations, feared a united Ireland! Their fears were well based and succinctly expressed in the slogan of our forefathers in the early years of the last century when they mustered together to resist by every legitimate means the imposition of a Dublin-led 32-county Irish state, with Protestant Ulster being thus forced out of the United Kingdom and deprived of their British citizenship.

That slogan was ‘FOR GOD AND ULSTER’.

The place given to the Roman Catholic Church in the 1937 Constitution’ of the 26-county ‘Irish Free State’, which became the Republic of Ireland in 1937, illustrates that the prominence given to Popery was exactly that which our forefathers recognised would be so.

For them, the issue was essentially a religious one. Again they adopted a slogan to give expression to opposition. ‘HOME RULE IS ROME RULE’. What they feared became a central feature of the Dublin-ruled 26 counties.

At the partition of Ireland in 1922, 92.6% of the south’s population were Roman Catholic while 7.4% were Protestant. By the 1960s, the Protestant population had fallen by half, mostly due to the enforced emigration of those Protestants terrorised out of their homes and properties by the IRA in the early years of Irish independence. Most, if not all, moved into Northern Ireland.

Roman Catholicism was given an undefined “special position” on the basis of being the church of the majority. As an act of ‘window dressing’ in the 1970s, that “special position” provision was removed from the Constitution. The decision was ratified by a referendum which had a %50 turn out with 721,033 saying YES and 133,430 saying NO.

During the 1950s the Catholic Integrist group Maria Duce, led by Irish Catholic priest Denis Fahey, launched a campaign to amend the original “special position”of the Constitution of Ireland.

Fahey argued that the status given to the Roman Catholic Church was insufficient and that the Constitution should recognise the Catholic Church as being divinely ordained and separate from ‘man-made’ religions. The campaign succeeded in securing some support but made little progress. It did show the position that Rome thought should be hers.

The decision to amend the Constitution and remove the “special position” of Rome, was mere window dressing promoted by the ’spirit’ of Ecumenism then rampant in the mainline churches. That ‘spirit’ being pro-Romanism, was very much pro-united Ireland!

It is still very much so!! Click to read more…

Posted on 2023-03-23 a 4:45 pm

It is the duty of God’s ‘watchmen’ to sound the alarm loud and clear and repeatedly in these wicked days!

We can get used to the sounds and sights of sin around us. Just as a people adjust to the mayhem of war, and adapt and continue on with life as best they can, as was seen during the ‘Blitz’ in London and many other cities during the Second World War. So there is a very real danger of Christians, living amidst the ‘Satanic Blitz’ now talking place world wide, becoming impervious to current developments.

Today’s local news provides us with a number of examples of the changing face of our land. The following headline is but one example of the increasing emergence of the sinful community of ‘Sodom’ in our midst and it being embraced by the blinded populace of today.

Northern Ireland Census 2021 results: Number of LGB+ adults included for first time

It is imperative for God’s servants to keep sounding an alarm lest we become indifferent to the evil all around.

Sincerely in Christ’s name,

Ivan Foster

THE MORAL MORASS INTO WHICH APOSTATE PROTESTANTISM AND POPERY

HAVE BROUGHT THE UNITED KINGDOM

The daily news highlights this harrowing truth every day! Here are but three of the last examples of the disintegration of the moral, ethical and social fabric of the United Kingdom.

1. LIES, FABRICATION AND UTTER CONDEMNATION

Such is what faced the Unionist people over the issue of the ‘Windsor Framework’!

The shameful ‘sham and fraud’ that is the ‘Windsor Framework’, is blatantly obvious to all. Better if it were called the ‘Windsor Fabrication’ for it is a deceit from beginning to end. Click to read more…

Posted on 2023-03-21 a 8:07 pm

Saturday’s edition of ‘The Telegraph’ carried an article headlined: “Christian lecturer sacked over ‘homosexuality is invading the church’ tweet”.

The sacking took place in ‘Cliff College’, a Methodist institution. It is not surprising that the College ‘big wigs’ should object to a ‘tweet’ which said: ‘homosexuality is invading the church’.

Cliff College, belonging as it does to the Methodist denomination in England, has been a centre of theological liberalism and ecumenism for a very long time. I can recall Dr Ian Paisley denouncing its theological views back in the 1960s!

This latest incident shows that there is no recovery from apostasy, it can only grow worse!

Methodism in these islands has been involved in and committed to ‘Ecumenism’ since the formation of ‘The World Council of Churches’, of which it was a foundation member in 1948.

That infamous and nefarious religious organisation has, as its objective, the ‘reversing of the Reformation’ as one Lutheran delegate declared at its inauguration.

For nearly a century, there have been evidences of Methodism seeking to ‘reverse’ the teaching of the Bible, never mind attacking the work of God wrought during the Protestant Reformation.

I have to ask what any professing Christian is doing in a college which furiously reacts to the very obvious truth that sodomy is invading the professing ‘Christian’ churches? It is daily reported that there has been an endorsement of, a sanctioning of, indeed a ‘sanctifying’ of sodomy within the churches. Most of them allow such wickedness within their ranks and claim it to be approved of by God. Click to read more…

Posted on 2023-03-20 a 2:51 am

THE FOOTSTEPS OF PATRICK

A brief account of the work of God in Ireland over the last 1500 years by Rev. Ivan Foster.

The Gospel of Christ came to Ireland over 1500 years ago. Despite many attempts by Satan and his agents, God has been pleased to maintain His truth in this land. Following its first planting, the Gospel was carried by men whose hearts the Lord had touched into many neighbouring countries: Scotland, England, Wales, France, Germany, Switzerland and further. God has been pleased, in some measure, to do again in these latter days what He did in those distant days. May the land, now associated with terror and strife, become known again by the title it was then given, “The land of Saints and Scholars.”

Ireland before the 17th century plantation

The text of a lecture given at Bangor Free Presbyterian Young People’s meeting by Rev.Ivan Foster

A knowledge of the history of Ireland is a very beneficial and precious thing and that for a number of reasons.

1. History displays the merciful dealings of God with our forefathers.

2. Such a knowledge will do much to expose the lie of Rome that has bred the spirit of Irish nationalism based upon the myth of a pure Irish race that has ever been fervently Roman Catholic.

3. It will go far toward removing the feeling of insecurity and of guiltiness at being in Ulster that many Ulster Protestants suffer from as a result of Rome’s persistent lie.

PATRICK, THE APOSTLE OF IRELAND

The story of his life as told by himself

Providence has preserved for us two documents written by Patrick. Both of these documents, Patrick’s Confession and Patrick’s Letter, are accepted as genuine by both Protestant and Roman Catholic historians. Patrick wrote in Latin, the language of the scholar of his day.

Patrick’s testimony was reprinted in a series of articles in the monthly magazine of Kilskeery Free Presbyterian Church,“THE BURNING BUSH”.

Posted on 2023-03-17 a 2:22 am

The BBC Northern Ireland news website carries the following headline today:

Good Friday Agreement: PM to invite Joe Biden to NI for 25th anniversary

If you don’t already know about the blinkered, biased opinion of Joe Biden of all things British, here are a few helpful hints about which I was reminded by a reader of ‘The Burning Bush’.

The late Robert Boyer of the Altoona Mirror wrote back in 1985 of Biden’s attempts to shield terrorists:

“The four men for whom the Senators (all Roman Catholics) seek safety here are charged abroad with planting bombs in public places, killing and taking hostages. The U.S. courts now protect them because their heinous acts were ‘political’, so they claim.

If Kerr and Dodd and Biden and their friends succeed, then we would have no legal recourse at all if, for instance, the killers of Robert Stethem, the U S sailor murdered in June by hijackers, were to seek sanctuary in a foreign country, claiming safety because Stethem was a member of the military service, and thus the killers’ crime was ‘political’.

Altoona Mirror , December 2 1985 p.4A,

Quoted in Paisley’s Struggle For Ulster by Dr Ronald Cooke.

 Joe Biden’s anti-British Comments in Jerusalem – reported in the Daily Express, July 2022.

“THE 46TH US PRESIDENT WAS LEFT RED-FACED AFTER HE COMPARED ISRAEL’S CONTEMPORARY TREATMENT TOWARDS PALESTINE WITH THAT OF BRITAIN’S HISTORIC ATTITUDE TOWARDS CATHOLICS IN IRELAND.”

He said: “The background of my family is Irish American. And we have a long history not fundamentally unlike the Palestinian people, with Great Britain and their attitude toward Irish Catholics over the years for 400 years.”

Daily Express, 13 Feb 2022. Click to read more…

Posted on 2023-03-13 a 6:37 pm

This study is an enlarging of a message preached at a special season of prayer, held this morning in Kilskeery Free Presbyterian Church.

In the light of the approaching anniversary of the new and wicked abortion laws, imposed upon us by Westminster, the Presbytery has called for a special season of prayer to seek the Lord for His blessing upon His people and a spirit of repentance to be granted across our land. A protest against the evil abortion laws is planned for later on March 25th.

I wish to emphasise that the liberalising of the abortion laws and the imposing of them upon us here in Ulster is but part of the increasing spread of the defiance of God and His law which we are told by Scripture will engulf the peoples of the world as the return of Christ draws near.

We must therefore constantly pray in the light of what God’s Word tells us is taking place today. Ill-informed prayer is prayer robbed of much of its power. It may be likened unto shooting in the dark. There is little hope of hitting the target!

Sincerely in Christ’s name,

Ivan Foster

Posted on 2023-03-11 a 6:56 pm

Posted on 2023-03-10 a 10:44 pm

I am reproducing two letters which appear in the columns of the ‘Belfast Newsletter’ today.

I would suggest they highlight the utter chicanery of the British Prime Minister and those involved in the portrayal of the so-called ‘Windsor Framework’ as a resolving of the constitutional treachery of the ‘Protocol’. That deceitful arrangement with the EC effectively detached us constitutionally and commercially from the rest of the United Kingdom and lumped us in under EEC regulations with the Irish Republic. The ‘Windsor Framework’ in no way alters that, despite the vociferous assertions of Rishi Sunak, the British Prime Minister.

Furthermore, the ‘political maneuvering’ by the DUP leader, Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, and his like-minded cronies within the party, is but another example of the deceitful mind-set of that party. From a party that once had as its slogan, ‘The Truth Will Set You Free’, they have become a bunch of double-dealers who speak nothing but treachery out of both sides of their mouth.

The BBC News NI political editor, Enda McClafferty, in an article entitled: Brexit: Peter Robinson returns as DUP faces crossroads draws a parallel between the present political dilemma for the DUP and ‘the moment when the party signed the St Andrews Agreement to join Sinn Féin and other parties in a power-sharing executive.’

That was the moment that set the DUP on the final leg of its journey of self-destruction and the betrayal of its pro-union supporters.

I believe that it is about to take the final step, under Donaldson’s leadership, on that path of the sell-out of the Unionists and Protestants in Ulster.

Please also see this article just published:

Protocol / Windsor Framework latest: Citizens in Great Britain would not accept what is being demanded of Northern Ireland says Lord Frost

Sincerely in Christ’s name,

Ivan Foster

Jim Allister: Ruth Dudley Edwards has ignored two points of vital importance in her column in support of the Windsor Framework

A letter from Jim Allister KC: Click to read more…

Posted on 2023-03-08 a 4:46 pm

This report from today’s ‘Daily Mail’ brought to mind the words of David at the death of king Saul and his son Jonathan. “How are the mighty fallen!” (2 Samuel 1:19) but then I thought that such words were too flattering for this papal reprobate!

Instead, there came to my mind the account in the Bible of the fate of the Philistine idol, the fish-god, Dagon, as it fell down broken when the Philistines put the Ark of the Covenant, which they had stolen from the Israelites, in the temple of Dagon.

“When the Philistines took the ark of God, they brought it into the house of Dagon, and set it by Dagon. And when they of Ashdod arose early on the morrow, behold, Dagon was fallen upon his face to the earth before the ark of the LORD. And they took Dagon, and set him in his place again. And when they arose early on the morrow morning, behold, Dagon was fallen upon his face to the ground before the ark of the LORD; and the head of Dagon and both the palms of his hands were cut off upon the threshold; only the stump of Dagon was left to him.”  1 Samuel 5:2-4.

Pope John Paul II, pope from 1978 until 2005, is spoken of in hushed tones by Roman Catholic devotees. Wikipedia states of him that:

“John Paul II’s cause for canonisation commenced one month after his death with the traditional five-year waiting period waived. On 19 December 2009, John Paul II was proclaimed venerable by his successor, Benedict XVI, and was beatified on 1 May 2011 (Divine Mercy Sunday) after the Congregation for the Causes of Saints attributed one miracle to his intercession, the healing of a French nun called Marie Simon Pierre from Parkinson’s disease.

A second miracle was approved on 2 July 2013, and confirmed by Pope Francis two days later. John Paul II was canonised on 27 April 2014 (again Divine Mercy Sunday), together with John XXIII. On 11 September 2014, Pope Francis added these two feast days to the worldwide General Roman Calendar of saints. While saints’ feast days are traditionally celebrated on the anniversary of their deaths, that of John Paul II (22 October) is celebrated on the anniversary of his papal inauguration. Posthumously, he has been referred to by some Catholics as “Pope St. John Paul the Great”, although the title has no official recognition.”

In truth, these bestowals of unctuous and flattering ‘honours’, posthumously conferred upon him, have made not a tittle of difference to his eternal abode. Like all who claimed to be popes before him, he died a lost sinner, trusting in the unbiblical rituals and ceremonies of the counterfeit ‘church’ which he headed and is therefore in hell. Click to read more…

Posted on 2023-03-06 a 11:14 pm

The headline of a recent ‘Daily Telegraph’, which was drawn to my attention, ran as follows:

“Protestants are now hounded out of politics, as Kate Forbes has shown”.

The headline itself is most unusual and demands a reading of the article. For that reason we are circulating it amongst our readership.

I would wish however to make a few comments on it.

It can never be right for a Christian to ally themselves with an organisation or political party so blatantly anti-Bible as is the Scottish Nationalist Party. (SNP).

One cannot be in such a group without canvassing for people to support its views and that is very, very wrong for any Christian. In that Kate Forbes is wrong and in disobedience to God’s Word  and very much out of step with the godly founders in the 18th century of her ‘Free Church of Scotland’: men such as  Thomas Chalmers, Robert Candlish,  John ‘Rabbi’ Duncan and the Bonar brothers, Andrew and Horatio.

However well Kate Forbes may have spoken out against the core policies of the SNP, she cannot justify her membership of that party. There comes a time when a protest only becomes effective AFTER a person has separated from that protested against. There is little point in shouting ‘FIRE’ and remaining within the conflagration!

She is quoted as saying she would have ‘respected and defended the democratic choice that was made’, that is, the SNP’s decision to support ‘same-sex’ marriage. That is the equivalent of saying that she would have defended the decision, made by the majority of Jews, to crucify Christ. What is right morally is not decided by the vote of a majority but by the Word of God. It alone, as the Shorter Catechism her church still teaches, states in its answer to its second question. “Q 2: What rule hath God given to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy him?

A: The Word of God, which is contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, is the only rule to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy him.”

Kate Forbes is very wrong and so is the writer of this article who seems to consider her position on this issue very commendable. Click to read more…

Posted on 2023-03-03 a 2:56 am

“‭And ‭that‭ these days‭ ‭should be‭ remembered‭‭ and kept‭‭ throughout‭ every generation‭, every‭ family‭, every‭ province‭, and every‭ city‭; ‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬and ‭that‭ these days‭ of Purim‭ should not fail‭‭ from among‭ the Jews‭, nor the memorial‭ of them perish‭‭ from their seed‭,‭”‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬ Esther 9:28.

The true believer in the Lord Jesus Christ has, in truth, more reason to remember this day of thanksgiving than does the average Jew today. The events remembered and celebrated took place in the year BC 510, according to the trustworthy calculations of the godly and strongly Protestant Archbishop of Armagh, James Ussher (4 January 1581 – 21 March 1656). This holy man, who aided our persecuted Presbyterian forefathers and favoured Presbyterian church polity, compiled a history of the world, “The Annals of the World”. His learning was widely admired and to this day great store is laid upon his chronology of the events of history since the creation.

Accepting Ussher’s date, the first’ Purim’ took place over two and a half millennia ago! This year ‘Purim’ will be celebrated by the Jewish people on 6th March. The celebration has become, in character, something like the so-called ‘Christmas’ celebrations amongst those who have but a ‘nodding acquaintance’ with the things of God.

Since the Lord Jesus Christ is rejected amongst most Jews, there is no true recognition of the One Who wrought the wonderful deliverance of the Jewish nation all those years ago.

One of the strange features of the Book of Esther is the absence of any mention of ‘God’ in the book, though the hand and providence of God may be most clearly seen in it! I take that absence as a providential foreshadowing of the absence of any mention of the true God in today’s celebrations of Purim.

The Lord Jesus Christ is indeed THE KING OF ISRAEL! It was His Kingly intervention all those years ago that preserved the Jewish people from the attempt by their enemies, led by Haman‭ the son‭ of Hammedatha‭ the Agagite‬‬‬ (Esther 9:24). It was He Who had watched over Abraham and all his descendants and is watching still, though now, in this time of retribution for their rejection and crucifixion of the Saviour, He watches to preserve them from utter destruction and will keep them until that day, in the near future, when He will reveal Himself unto them in saving mercy and grace, at His second coming. Zechariah, amongst many prophets, writes of that wonderful event.

“‭And it shall come to pass in that day‭, ‭that‭ I will seek‭‭ to destroy‭‭ all the nations‭ that come‭‭ against Jerusalem‭.‭ ‭And I will pour‭‭ upon the house‭ of David‭, and upon the inhabitants‭‭ of Jerusalem‭, the spirit‭ of grace‭ and of supplications‭: and they shall look‭‭ upon me whom they have pierced‭‭, and they shall mourn‭ for him, as one mourneth‭‭ for ‭his‭ only‭ ‭son‭, and shall be in bitterness‭‭ for him, as one that is in bitterness‭‭ for ‭his‭ firstborn‭,‭”‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬ Zechariah 12:9-10.

In truth ‘Purim’ celebrates what was in fact a portent of that glorious day for which every believer awaits with joyful anticipation. Click to read more…

Posted on 2023-03-01 a 4:43 pm