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The developing situation in our world requires constant comment!

In every sphere of social activity, political, medical, sport, entertainment – there are those who send forth information and evaluation of what is going on in their field of ‘expertise’!

How much more important is a constant flow of observation and information on the eternally vital subject of the Providential dealings of God in this world!

We offer our limited and meagre attempts at monitoring and highlighting significant events in this world as this age draws closer to its conclusion.

May you find these reflections useful and profitable.

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NATIONS IN REBELLION!!

“And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire. And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues: and they repented not to give him glory. And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues for pain, and blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds,” Revelation 16:8-11.

Monday 19th July was heralded as ‘Freedom Day’ throughout England for ‘About-Turn’ Boris Johnston and his government had set that date as the day there would be a lifting of many of the restrictions imposed upon the country, because of the Covid pandemic.

With the recent increasing rise in infections and the number of people in various professions being required to isolate (including the Prime Minister and the Health Secretary) due to their coming into contact with someone testing positive for Covid, many were calling it ‘FreeDumb Day”!!

In the United States, there are growing fears that a fourth wave of the virus had already started. The pandemic continues to rage in many countries, though such news is kept out of the headlines! The tourist industry is facing chaos as a result of those countries which were recently declared safe to travel to, now reporting a rise in the infection rates. Many travellers found themselves facing ‘isolation’ when they returned home as a result of this change of status of the holiday destinations they had eagerly travelled to.

The joy of a ‘sunny foreign holiday’ soon evaporated in the face of this turn of events. (more…)

The following article appeared in ‘The Burning Bush’ some eleven years ago. Given the betrayal of the Ulster people by successive political leaders in London with their constant yielding to the demands of Sinn Fein/IRA, the effective removal of Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom by their ‘Brexit Protocol’, agreed with the EU, their enforcing of new and unacceptable abortion guidelines which entail the permitting of abortion up to the time of birth and their recently announced amnesty for terrorist murderers, gives this article an almost ‘prophetic’ significance!

Furthermore, this being the centenary of the founding of Northern Ireland, we have all been given a vivid picture of the bondage into which the Democratic Unionist Party sold us with their ‘power-sharing’ deal with Sinn Fein/IRA in that the supporters of murder refused to ‘grant’ approval for as much as a rose bush being planted to commemorate that wonderful event!

See the following articles.

Thorn in the side for Sinn Fein

Unionism needs to recalibrate

It surely indicates that the direction in which things were moving regarding the future of Ulster was not hidden to all in this Province for the article was read with approval by many believers and challenged by no one!

For this reason we are remounting the article on our website.

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The Union with today’s Great Britain holds out no hope for the Ulster Protestant

By Rev Ivan Foster (Kilskeery)

Written at the request of the Belfast Newsletter and published in its edition of August 13th 2010.

Given that few unionists in Ulster would have believed at the beginning of 2006 that, before the year was out, the DUP would have embraced the murderous IRA’s front men as partners in government, to contemplate what the next eleven years might bring to our land is to look through a very dark glass indeed.

That which motivated the opposition of the majority of our forefathers to “Home Rule” in the 1880s was a love for the gospel and its mercies. They believed that it would entail the enthroning of Roman Catholicism and undermining of their civil and religious liberty. Their fears were summarised by the maxim – “Home Rule is Rome Rule!” and expounded in the “Ulster Covenant” of 1912. (more…)

This article is the substance of a message preached at the Annual Easter Convention in Martyrs Memorial Free Presbyterian Church on 29th March, 1986. It was remounted on our website in 2010. Now 11 years later we remount it once more.

It contains information and Biblical instruction which is even more relevant today. I challenge any minister to openly refute the principle that the Bible teaches the need for Christian schools. The moral and spiritual climate of our Province and the United Kingdom has sunk further down over the intervening years and the children of Christians have suffered as a result.

There is a mention of the opening of Clogher Valley Christian school at the end of the article. Sadly, I understand that its school management committee has just taken a decision to close the school.”

Ivan Foster.
15th July 2021.

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A MESSAGE FROM A QUARTER OF A CENTURY AGO…WHICH SHEDS LIGHT ON OUR PRESENT CIRCUMSTANCES. 

Foreword

In 1978, the Presbytery of Ulster of the Free Presbyterian Church heard a request from Rev Ivan Foster to consider the need for Christian schools. Following a discussion, a delegation of ministers and elders met officials of the Department of Education. The outcome of that meeting was a recommendation to Presbytery that permission be granted to any church that wished to start a school. The Presbytery agreed in principle and appointed a Presbytery Education Board, chaired by Rev Foster, to supervise the new missionary enterprise. In September of the next year, Kilskeery Free Presbyterian Church started the first Free Presbyterian school. Mrs Ann Foster B.A. was its Principal and only teacher. It had 13 pupils. Today, the Free Presbyterian Church has schools attached to its churches in Newtownabbey, Ballymoney and Bangor as well as Kilskeery with a total enrolment of 125 pupils. These schools are served by 8 full-time teachers and 6 part-time staff. In the case of Kilskeery school, it provides a full range of primary and secondary subjects. Last year a number of pupils sat CSE and GCE ‘O’ level examinations, obtaining marks above the national average. Two pupils sat and passed, with very good marks, 11 ‘O’ level subjects each. The other schools are also moving into secondary education with Newtownabbey and Bangor already providing first form and first, second and third form tuition respectively. (more…)