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I just had to send off this letter to the ‘Belfast Newsletter’ in answer to the total folly written today in an article by John Coulter.

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UPDATE 28 Jan 2023: More of John Coulter’s blasphemous folly
The news paper published my letter this morning.

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What I do not say is that this man’s late father was, for a short time, a student in the Free Presbyterian Church, before he left and joined the ministry of the apostate Presbyterian Church in Ireland.

Please be sure to share this article with friends.
Sincerely in Christ’s name,

Ivan Foster

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Sir,

Your contributor, Mr John Coulter, presents a sadly disappointing article in today’s ‘Belfast Newsletter’, which is entitled: ‘Gay policy for churches is tricky enough, handling trans issues will be even more so’.

I say disappointing, since Mr Coulter comes from a background where, I believe,  the Bible and its teachings would have been honoured, yet never once in his article does he quote from God’s Word.

His late father, being a Presbyterian minister, would have signed the Westminster Standards as a statement of his faith. The Shorter Catechism asks in question 2: ‘What rule hath God given to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy him?’

The answer given is gloriously succinct!

‘The Word of God, which is contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament, is the only rule to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy him.’ (more…)

Christians risk being ‘criminalised’ by trans conversion therapy ban

Church leaders tell Rishi Sunak legislation will also see parents and teachers fall foul of the law

By Nick Gutteridge, Political Correspondent

26 January 2023 • 8:30pm

Christians are at risk of being “criminalised” by a proposed new ban on trans conversion therapy, 1,400 church leaders have warned Rishi Sunak.

In a letter to the Prime Minister, they said the legislation would also see parents and teachers fall foul of the law. They have called for a meeting with Mr Sunak in Downing Street and urged him to drop the “confused” and “unnecessary” proposal.

The Government has said the new law, which will ban all forms of conversion therapy in England and Wales, will cover trans people.

Mr Sunak is facing a Tory revolt over the plans, with dozens of MPs from different wings of the party set to oppose it in Parliament.

Church leaders from different denominations have said the teachings of their faiths are “at grave risk of being outlawed by the proposed legislation”. (more…)

It is a great joy to read your Bible and find it speaking to you on the issues of today.

Our school has printed the following text on the presentation label inside every Bible given to school leavers: “When thou goest, it shall lead thee; when thou sleepest, it shall keep thee; and when thou awakest, it shall talk with thee,” Proverbs 6:20-22.

The Word of God does indeed speak with those who come to its pages with earnest faith. May we be given the grace to say with the child Samuel: “Speak; for thy servant heareth,” 1 Samuel 3:10.

May the following thoughts be instructive and of a benefit and blessing to you all.

Sincerely in Christ’s name,

Ivan Foster

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MEN WHOSE RELIGION IS NOTHING BUT AN ACT!

“But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in,” Matthew 23:13.

I recall, as if it were but yesterday, the first time I heard Dr Paisley preach on this chapter, in my early days attending his church in 1964. He was defending himself yet again against the railing accusations of ecumenists and modernist ministers, who had accused him of being ‘unChrist-like’ whenever he condemned in strong Biblical terms those guilty of denying the truth of the Bible!

I was thrilled to thus see that the enemies of God could be answered directly, unsparingly and powerfully from the recorded words of the Lord Jesus Himself.

I believe I learned a lesson back then that has lasted a lifetime!

1. The word ‘hypocrite’ is particularly applicable.

The Greek word from which the English word ‘hypocrite’ comes is hupokrites. It carries the meaning of an actor, stage player.  It refers to someone who is merely pretending to be someone he is not in reality.

How wonderfully precise and accurate is such a word in describing men who daily masquerade as being men that in truth they are very far from being! The term ‘Pharisee’ has entered the English language and it is used in a derogative manner when speaking of one noted for his religious falsity.

Most Protestant ministers begin their ministry by publicly swearing to believe creeds and confessions that essentially date back to the days of the Protestant Reformation. Despite years of modernism and ecumenism, most professedly Protestant churches have at least some of the basic elements of Biblical religion laid down in their foundational doctrines.

By confessing such doctrines as theirs, the men who then go on to deny and undermine these truths are indeed hypocrites, merely actors playing out a role and that for money! (more…)