“And the Lord said, Whereunto then shall I liken the men of this generation? and to what are they like? They are like unto children sitting in the marketplace, and calling one to another, and saying, We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced; we have mourned to you, and ye have not wept. For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine; and ye say, He hath a devil.
The Son of man is come eating and drinking; and ye say, Behold a gluttonous man, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners! But wisdom is justified of all her children,” Luke 7:31-35.
Matthew Henry’s comment on these words of the Saviour is as follows:
‘By this it appears that the ministers of Christ may be of very different tempers and dispositions, very different ways of preaching and living, and yet all good and useful; diversity of gifts, but each given to profit withal.
Therefore none must make themselves a standard to all others, nor judge hardly of those that do not do just as they do.
John Baptist bore witness to Christ, and Christ applauded John Baptist, though they were the reverse of each other in their way of living.
But the common enemies of them both reproached them both. The very same men that had represented John as crazed in his intellects, because he came neither eating nor drinking, represented our Lord Jesus as corrupt in his morals, because he came eating and drinking; he is a gluttonous man, and a wine-bibber.
Ill-will never speaks well. See . . . how they put the worst construction upon every thing they meet with in the gospel, and in the preachers and professors of it; and hereby they think to depreciate them, but really destroy themselves.’
John the Baptist differed from the Saviour and vice versa though not in core spirituality and holiness. They differed in demeanour and bearing. But their enemies found grounds for criticising them to the extent that what was present in one was deemed a fault but its absence in the other was likewise deemed a fault.
There is something of that spirit abroad today in that the bold protests in past decades are hailed as most praiseworthy but such actions carried out today are considered sinful and to be condemned!
That may be so because the protests of the past were aimed at those OUTSIDE the Free Presbyterian Church who were guilty of transgressing the Word of God. Now, however, protests of a similar nature are deemed wrong and worthy of sanction when they are directed against some WITHIN the Free Presbyterian Church who are in transgression of God’s Word. There ought to be no distinction drawn. Both protests are proper and warranted by Scripture.
I would have every Free Presbyterian know and understand that Rev David DiCanio, who has been deposed from the ministry of the Free Presbyterian Church of North America, in essence, if truth be told, for exposing the sin of ‘Contemporary Christian Music’ within the Free Presbyterian Church, acted in total concord with Holy Scripture and in agreement with the FPCNA’s own statement on the sinfulness of such music.
Separated unto the Gospel
The FPCNA constitutional document ‘Separated unto the Gospel’ contains the following statement which indicates the biblical position of the FPCNA on this matter.
‘The music we use in our worship (whether vocal or instrumental) clearly reveals that we are “new creatures in Christ,” that old things have passed away and all things have become new. The devil has his own music, which the world–wittingly or unwittingly–employs to honor him. But we believe that this kind of music has no place in the life of the Church, which is not to be “conformed to this world,” but “transformed” into the image of Christ (Rom. 12:2). We reject the modern-day notion that says in order to reach the world with the gospel, we need to use the world’s music. We therefore refuse to use Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) and any style of music that, in our estimation, not only denigrates Christ and His gospel, but also reflects the spirit of the world, a spirit that is given over to entertainment instead of to the worship of God and the edification of the saints.’
(Separated unto the Gospel, Principles of Worship section)
The Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster shares this view ‘OFFICIALLY’ and it is part of the public witness of our church.
And yet Rev David DiCanio is put out of the ministry of the FPCNA for acting in the spirit of this statement.
Defence
It has been put forward by the officers of the Ulster Presbytery, as a defence of this act of ‘deposing’ Rev DiCanio, that Mr DiCanio has NOT been disciplined for ‘exposing sin’ but rather because of the methods he employed when he exposed the use of ‘the devil’s own music’ (to use the terminology of the standards of the FPCNA) and because he refused to apologise for doing that which he believes is in accord with the Word of God and his ordination oath of submission to the Bible and the standards of the FPCNA.
This explanation has been endorsed and supported by the vote of a strong majority of the members of the Ulster Presbytery of the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster.
The crux of the matter is that Rev David DiCanio exposed that which is officially designated as sin by both Free Presbyterian Presbyteries but because the method he employed in doing so has been deemed unacceptable, he is cast out.
Oppose and Stop
The Clerk of Presbytery, Rev John Greer, is on record as saying that the coming into our churches of this modern ‘Christian Music’ is to be opposed and stopped.
Here is a recording of him expressing his opposition to such music.
(Resisting the introduction of ‘Contemporary Christian Music)
I asked a question in the above article: ‘What does Mr Greer suggest be done when the music he says must be kept out is actually already in the church?’
What method would he and his fellow office-bearers, who decry Rev DiCanio’s methodology, employ to oppose this music when it is obvious his warnings and opposition has gone unheeded by those ministers who welcome this ‘music’ in their churches?
Are the feelings of annoyance and pique of those guilty of introducing such music in defiance of God’s Word to be considered more important than the vexation that sin causes to the Lord? Is their peevishness to be acted upon and the transgression of God’s Word ignored and swept under the carpet?
It would appear to be so, since nothing is being done to investigate the folly of those ministers who employ CCM in Free Presbyterian Churches, as has been highlighted by Rev DiCanio’s video.
60 years ago
I started as a student for the gospel ministry on 5th January 1965, under the tutelage of Dr Ian Paisley and his father, Pastor James Kyle Paisley. Shortly after my starting my studies, Dr Paisley felt that I would greatly benefit from coming to live in his house since I was but recently converted and had no extensive background knowledge of the gospel.
I lived for a period of some six months in his manse on the Beersbridge Road, and yes, I did learn much that was a very great benefit to me when facing the controversies surrounding the opposition of the Free Presbyterian Church to the religious and political ‘Ecumenism’ that cursed and blighted our country then and which is to blame, to a large extent, for our present moral circumstances in Northern Ireland.
During my three years of studentship, including three months in jail, I spent virtually nearly all my time in the company of Ian Paisley. I was there when those Christians, who were in general agreement with his opposition to the ecumenical and liberal theology infiltrating and taking over the mainline churches, expressed their agreement to him but took exception to his ‘methods’.
They didn’t like his protest marches and rousing the people to express their disagreement with what the churches were doing on the ‘doorsteps’ of those guilty denominations!
Spluttering Response
I will always remember his reply to such criticisms. ‘Tell me brother, what is your method and perhaps I can adopt it and so improve my witness?’
The question invariably brought forth much spluttering and gasping and vain attempts to formulate a sensible response.
In the end, Dr Paisley would say: ‘Since it is obvious you don’t have a method of openly and publicly opposing the sins of today’s apostasy, you will forgive me if I don’t adopt your methods and just stick with my own!’
Today
That is where we are today – just where the ‘spluttering’ critic was back many years ago.
Rev Dicanio did indeed expose sin, that is conceded, but he used the wrong methods and for that he must be punished for he refused to bow down to the allegation that he acted wrongly and must apologise to those who were guilty of breaking God’s Law and breaching the standards of the Free Presbyterian Church they are called upon to uphold.
For rightly refusing to apologise for obeying God’s Word and earnestly contending for the faith, Rev Dicanio was ‘deposed’.
I ask the officers of Presbytery and those ministers and elders who supported the actions of the FPCNA in ‘deposing’ Mr DiCanio, WHAT ARE THEY DOING ABOUT THAT WHICH IS IN DIRECT DEFIANCE OF THE BIBLE AND THE STANDARDS OF BOTH PRESBYTERIES?
Such surely is a greater ‘sin’ than that of stepping outside of man’s standards of protest, if David DiCanio did indeed do so?
Rev David DiCanio took that which some Free Presbyterian Churches in Ulster had posted on their websites and exposed their endorsement of ‘Contemporary Christian Music’ and put it in a video which he then circulated to a number of people in the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster.
That in turn raised the ire of some of those who were guilty of having such music in their churches and they complained to the ‘hierarchy’ in private and as a direct result a very great wrong was done to a faithful preacher of God’s Word.
Until this is rectified, a dark blot with remain upon the witness and testimony of the Free Presbyterian Church. It will also remain as an offence to the Lord with the dire consequences that such will bring.
The Lord does not forget offences against His servants, as the Saviour made clear to Israel long ago.
“That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar,” Matthew 23:35.
The unjustified action taken against Rev David DiCanio has been detrimental to his good name and Christian testimony and would have killed off his usefulness to God, had not the Lord intervened and appears to be owning his labours in Liberia still.
I do not believe that such events will be overlooked and ignored by the Lord but rather the many prayers that go up for brother DiCanio will yet be answered and his actions validated.
Repeat
I close by repeating my challenge to the office-bearers of the Ulster Presbytery:
‘WHAT ARE THEY DOING ABOUT THAT WHICH IS IN DIRECT DEFIANCE OF THE BIBLE AND THE STANDARDS OF OUR CHURCH?’
To do nothing and to contemn a man who acted in a spirit that is totally in keeping with the stand and practice of the founders of the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster in the past, is to preside over the demise of that which the Lord brought into existence by His mercy and grace some 74 years ago and which has been a much favoured instrument of His in the salvation of souls.
I cannot express the sense of shame I feel must be attached to such a stance. Those who persist in this wrong course will go down in history as those who permitted the downfall of a bold and faithful and effective gospel witness in these last days and who must give an account of such on that great day of the Lord Jesus as we are told in God’s Word. “. . . we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. . . . every one of us shall give account of himself to God,” Romans 14:10, 12.
Let us all heed these words and live tremblingly in their light!
Rev Ivan Foster (Rtd)