Is protesting against the follies, the breaches in discipline and the deafness of many in our church leadership, an exercise akin to that of the actions of King Canute seeking to stop the incoming tide??
Critics and mockers may sneeringly say ‘yes’ to the question in our title. However, I recall the words of the Lord, found in the book of Jeremiah.
“And now, because ye have done all these works, saith the LORD, and I spake unto you, rising up early and speaking, but ye heard not; and I called you, but ye answered not; Therefore will I do unto this house, which is called by my name, wherein ye trust, and unto the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I have done to Shiloh. And I will cast you out of my sight, as I have cast out all your brethren, even the whole seed of Ephraim. . . But this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people: and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you. But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in the counsels and in the imagination of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward,” Jeremiah 7:13-15, 23-24.
“For I earnestly protested unto your fathers in the day that I brought them up out of the land of Egypt, even unto this day, rising early and protesting, saying, Obey my voice. Yet they obeyed not, nor inclined their ear, but walked every one in the imagination of their evil heart: therefore I will bring upon them all the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do; but they did them not,” Jeremiah 11:7-8.
“From the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Amon king of Judah, even unto this day, that is the three and twentieth year, the word of the LORD hath come unto me, and I have spoken unto you, rising early and speaking; but ye have not hearkened. And the LORD hath sent unto you all his servants the prophets, rising early and sending them; but ye have not hearkened, nor inclined your ear to hear. They said, Turn ye again now every one from his evil way, and from the evil of your doings, and dwell in the land that the LORD hath given unto you and to your fathers for ever and ever: and go not after other gods to serve them, and to worship them, and provoke me not to anger with the works of your hands; and I will do you no hurt. Yet ye have not hearkened unto me, saith the LORD; that ye might provoke me to anger with the works of your hands to your own hurt,” Jeremiah 25:3-7.
“I have sent also unto you all my servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them, saying, Return ye now every man from his evil way, and amend your doings, and go not after other gods to serve them, and ye shall dwell in the land which I have given to you and to your fathers: but ye have not inclined your ear, nor hearkened unto me,” Jeremiah 35:15.
God has been defied by His people repeatedly
There are things that defy the commands of the KING more than the waves of the sea! Indeed, the seas obey the Lord but not His people! “Fear ye not me? saith the LORD: will ye not tremble at my presence, which have placed the sand for the bound of the sea by a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass it: and though the waves thereof toss themselves, yet can they not prevail; though they roar, yet can they not pass over it?” Jeremiah 5:22.
However, unlike Canute, the Lord of Glory is able to retaliate against those who defy Him. As he said via the lips and pen of Jeremiah:
“Therefore will I do unto this house, which is called by my name, wherein ye trust, and unto the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I have done to Shiloh. And I will cast you out of my sight, as I have cast out all your brethren, even the whole seed of Ephraim,”
And yet again:
“Behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, saith the LORD, and Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will bring them against this land, and against the inhabitants thereof, and against all these nations round about, and will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, and an hissing, and perpetual desolations. Moreover I will take from them the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones, and the light of the candle. And this whole land shall be a desolation, and an astonishment; and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. . . Yet ye have not hearkened unto me, saith the LORD; that ye might provoke me to anger with the works of your hands to your own hurt,” 25:9-11, 13-14.
The Free Presbyterian Church cannot continue to ignore the Word of God and the challenges and warnings it presents to those bent upon a more ‘liberal and modernistic’ regime in our pulpits. What it set out to do back in 1951 when it warned the ecumenical denominations of their errors and the dangers they faced, has now to be faced by this generation of ministers for, without a doubt, there are those within our ranks who have turned from the duties to which we were called of God to carry out against His enemies, and there has been an adopting of the thinking and views of those we rightly condemned in the earlier years of our witness.
As back then, the Presbyterian Church, the Church of Ireland and the Methodist churches all were slow to act against breaches of the Word of God and their theological standards by ministers and members, so today there is an obvious reluctance within our denomination leadership to challenge those actions that should be challenged. Rather, they either choose to ignore them or, as was often the case, appear to condone them.
The beginnings of that has been seen in the Free Presbyterian Church of late. Those who took part in the political funding of sodomites and the endorsing of lesbianism within the DUP have been allowed to continue in membership, aye, even in office, rather than disciplining them.
In recent times, where there has been a forcing of the Presbytery to act against wrong-doing, there has been an acceptance by most in Presbytery (at the recommendation of Presbytery officers) of the most insipid ‘apology’ and a promise not to repeat the offence, and an ignoring of the sad fact that the breach was in defiance of a promise that had been made to the Lord. When promises made to the Lord can be ignored and cast aside what hope is there that a promise made to men will be honoured?
Once such actions would have meant at least the suspension of the offender!
If the Free Presbyterian Church does not act, and by that I mean remove from office those men who have been content to preside over such a departure from the ‘old paths’ and shield those who have been guilty of what would have been condemned most forthrightly in earlier years of the church’s stand for the ‘crown rights of King Jesus’, then ruin will swiftly follow such a failure!
A stand against the trends must be taken soon. Delay only enables the rot to deepen and the ‘root of bitterness’ to strengthen itself and “springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled,” Hebrews 12:15.
The days that remain to me cannot be much longer but I trust I shall be spared to witness the Lord hearing and answering the prayer of Psalm 80:3.
“Turn us again, O God, and cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved.”
May the Lord indeed “Return, we beseech thee, O God of hosts: look down from heaven, and behold, and visit this vine; And the vineyard which thy right hand hath planted, and the branch that thou madest strong for thyself,” Psalm 80:14-15.
Then may we say, “So will not we go back from thee: quicken us, and we will call upon thy name,” Psalm 80:18.
I close with words that are part of my daily reading today (July 16th) and which I have read even as I finished this article. They are so applicable and timely providential. They are among the final words of the aged Joshua to the people of Israel and also some words of Jeremiah from the days prior to the overthrow of Jerusalem and the entering into the Babylonian captivity by Judah.
Please remember, Christian, what Paul said of the Bible’s record.
“Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come,” 1 Corinthians 10:11.
“Take good heed therefore unto yourselves, that ye love the LORD your God. Else if ye do in any wise go back, and cleave unto the remnant of these nations, even these that remain among you, and shall make marriages with them, and go in unto them, and they to you: Know for a certainty that the LORD your God will no more drive out any of these nations from before you; but they shall be snares and traps unto you, and scourges in your sides, and thorns in your eyes, until ye perish from off this good land which the LORD your God hath given you. And, behold, this day I am going the way of all the earth: and ye know in all your hearts and in all your souls, that not one thing hath failed of all the good things which the LORD your God spake concerning you; all are come to pass unto you, and not one thing hath failed thereof. Therefore it shall come to pass, that as all good things are come upon you, which the LORD your God promised you; so shall the LORD bring upon you all evil things, until he have destroyed you from off this good land which the LORD your God hath given you. When ye have transgressed the covenant of the LORD your God, which he commanded you, and have gone and served other gods, and bowed yourselves to them; then shall the anger of the LORD be kindled against you, and ye shall perish quickly from off the good land which he hath given unto you,” Joshua 23:11-16.
“I have forsaken mine house, I have left mine heritage; I have given the dearly beloved of my soul into the hand of her enemies. Mine heritage is unto me as a lion in the forest; it crieth out against me: therefore have I hated it. Mine heritage is unto me as a speckled bird, the birds round about are against her; come ye, assemble all the beasts of the field, come to devour. Many pastors have destroyed my vineyard, they have trodden my portion under foot, they have made my pleasant portion a desolate wilderness. They have made it desolate, and being desolate it mourneth unto me; the whole land is made desolate, because no man layeth it to heart. The spoilers are come upon all high places through the wilderness: for the sword of the LORD shall devour from the one end of the land even to the other end of the land: no flesh shall have peace. They have sown wheat, but shall reap thorns: they have put themselves to pain, but shall not profit: and they shall be ashamed of your revenues because of the fierce anger of the LORD,” Jeremiah 12:7-13.
Rev Ivan Foster (Rtd)
17th July 2024