In February 2007, the following article was published.
“The Burning Bush” bows out
‘This edition of “The Burning Bush” will be the last. It has been in print since March 1970, becoming a regular monthly read since 1988. The founding editor, Rev Ivan Foster, retires next year. It is for this reason alone that the publication is coming to an end.
However, “The Burning Bush” website (www.ivanfoster.org) will continue for some time and it is hoped that pertinent articles will still continue to be made available by this means. The Editor appreciates very much the encouraging comments that have been made by readers regarding the ending of “The Burning Bush”. I would like to thank all those who have faithfully supported this witness, some from the earliest days of its publication.
I must also thank my wife, Ann, who has carefully scrutinised each issue for spelling mistakes etc; since 1970. No one was more pleased at the arrival of a computer in our home than she was, since she had the task of typing out the earliest editions on a typewriter for me then to physically “cut and paste” in order to prepare it for duplicating. The computer meant that she had only the scrutiny to take care of. . . . . . . .
To you one and all, I say a sincere thank you. Ivan Foster.’
That was 17 years ago. Now that 54 years have passed since “The Burning Bush” began its witness and I recently passed my 80th birthday and my wife Ann marked her 77th birthday a few days earlier, our energy levels are not what they used to be!
Consequently, I will be reducing the ‘output’ of articles and comment. While I am able I will continue to offer the occasional comment on public events and the deepening apostasy, but it will not be of the same volume as in past years.
The “The Burning Bush” website will remain available for any wishing to explore its many articles and we have a large number of sermon recordings which we can continue to ‘feature’.
In recent years I owe much to the help given me in the maintaining the site to Mr John Pittman Hey whom I have never met since he resides in Mississippi in the USA. He came forward and offered to help ‘gratis’, in maintaining the site, having visited it and found himself in sympathy with our stand on many issues facing God’s people today. He has ‘rescued’ the site on a number of occasions from cyber attacks etc, and patiently put up with my requests for my last minute ‘corrections’, discovered after publication!
It is most likely we will never meet in time but I look forward to the fellowship of heaven with my brother.
I must also thank my son Andrew, resident in Canada, for his original setting up of the present site and caring for it for many years on top of his pastoral duties in Penticton Free Presbyterian Church and his many other labours.
Of course, I must offer my thanks to the many readers who have accumulated over 1,107.000 visits to the site since it went digital in the late 1990s. Their encouraging emails and letters have been most encouraging amidst oftentimes hostile comments from those who reject the ‘the old paths’ of Free Presbyterianism.
I have not yet ‘finished my course’ but I trust by God’s grace I will be able to echo Paul’s words, brought before me by Dr Ian Paisley when he preached my ordination sermon back in April 1968, at least faintly at the end of my days.
“I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith,” 2 Timothy 4:7.
Sincerely in Christ’s name,
Ivan Foster