Interesting views about the possibly of the pope visiting Northern Ireland in 1979

Papers released under the 30 year rule in the Republic of Ireland have brought to light some interesting view about the possibly of the Pope visiting northern Ireland back in 1979 when he came to the Republic.

The decision by Pope John Paul II not to visit Armagh when he came to Ireland in 1979 was viewed as a "victory by Paisley", by the then Irish Prime Minister Jack Lynch.

For a fuller report see article in The Irish Times.

May the same outcome be seen if the Pope proposes to visit the Republic of Ireland another time!

Anyone notice the gross hyprocrisy of Sinn Fein and the issue of child abuse!

On 28th November 2009 Sinn Féin vice-president Mary Lou McDonald said anyone found to have covered up the abuse of children in the Dublin Archdiocese should be arrested and made to face the full rigours of the law. Sinn Fein's own website carried a statement, part of which reads:

The report on clerical sexual abuse of children in Dublin exposes how the most powerful men in the Catholic Church in the Dublin Diocese conspired to protect abusers of children. It was a gross betrayal of generations of children.

It is especially damning that the State authorities facilitated the cover-up and allowed the Church to be beyond the reach of the law. Senior Gardai, up to and including the level of Commissioner, repeatedly turned a blind eye to crimes of clerical sexual abuse.

Anyone, including Gardaí, found to be complicit in the cover up of child abuse must be arrested and made to face the full rigours of the law.

Little did she and the rest in Sinn Fein realise what was about to come to light concerning Gerry Adams covering up for over two decades the abuse of his own niece by his brother.

This story seems to be developing into a much wider issue, see here and here.

Will Mary Lou McDonald now call upon Gerry Adams to be 'arrested and made to face the full rigours of the law'? I doubt it!

This is just another example of the rottenness that lies at the heart of IRA/Sinn Fein. And to think that this party is in government over us! Truly the land mourns when the wicked bear rule, Proverbs 29:2 … when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn.

The hidden things of darkness are coming to light!!

The wicked walk on every side, when the vilest men are exalted, Psalm 12:8.

How grossly stupid can you be!!

A number of media outlets are carrying the story of a Church of England minister in York who has said that it is all right to steal.

For more details:
Shoplift advice sermon priest criticised
Priest defends shoplifting sermon
Full transcript of the sermon

The comments were made in a sermon to his congregation on Sunday past where he said stealing from large national chains was sometimes the best option for many vulnerable people. He said:

Instead, I would rather that they shoplift. My advice, as a Christian priest, is to shoplift.

I do not offer such advice because I think that stealing is a good thing, or because I think it is harmless, for it is neither. I would ask that they do not steal from small family businesses, but from large national businesses, knowing that the costs are ultimately passed on to the rest of us in the form of higher prices. I would ask them not to take any more than they need, for any longer than they need. And I would offer this advice with a heavy heart, wishing that our society recognized that bureaucratic ineptitude and systemic delay constitutes a dreadful invitation and incentive to crime for people struggling to cope at the very bottom of our social order.

Mr Richard Dobbs, from the British Retail Consortium said shoplifting was wrong no matter what the circumstances. He said:

I would have hoped that a vicar of all people would understand that there's a plain principal difference between right and wrong and stealing is wrong and it's wrong in all circumstances. The effect is of course to pile on costs to retailers which ultimately filter through to the prices that are paid by honest customers. There's often a big human cost in retail crime which is that staff are often abused or even attacked when they intervene to try and stop it.

It says much about the terminal decline of the Church of England that comments like this come from the mouth of a 'minister'. This minister is a clear example of the blind leading the blind: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch, Matt 15:14. He is a wolf in sheep's clothing, a hireling.

How ill served is any person or congregation who have a minister like this to give them spiritual instruction.

You just wonder how much rational thinking goes on in a person's mind to come out with comments like this.

It is never right to do wrong on any occasion or in any circumstances. The eighth commandment can hardly be clearer: Thou shalt not steal, Exodus 20:15.

The New Testament clearly states that thieves shall not inherit the kingdom of heaven, 1 Cor 6:9,10 Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.

It wasn't out of love for the souls of his congregation that he announced this advice. He was encouraging them to follow a path that leads down to destruction.

Welcome news! No Pope Here!

According to a report in today's Irish Independent Newspaper the Pope will not be coming across the Irish Sea when he visits the British mainland in September 2010. This is very good news. It would be even better if he was not making what is only the second visit of a pope to the UK since the time of the Protestant Reformation.

Every Bible believer ought to oppose a papal visit.

The reasons for doing so are:

1. The claims of the Pope -
i. He is a sovereign and all other Kings, Queens, Presidents, etc. are subject to him;
ii. He is the supreme Judge of all;
iii. He is the director of men's consciences;
iv. He is the successor of the Apostles, the vicar of Christ and the way to God;
v. He is God on earth; vi. The British Monarch is an usurper.

2. The Act of Settlement.

3. The memory of the Reformers all who have died at the hands of popery in this nation.

4. The past and present deeds of Roman Catholicism.


Update

Even Irish Catholics are very angry with the Pope

The Christian, Climate Change & Global Warming

Updated 26th Dec 2009

There has been much ado in recent weeks about the UN climate convention which took place in Copenhagen, Denmark. High level discussions lasted long into the night in order to come up with an agreement to cut the level of CO2 emissions across the world.

Some countries were all for an agreement; others were seeking to safeguard their own interests. They ultimately failed to negotiate a legally binding agreement.

It is an established fact that there has been a measured 20% increase in atmospheric CO2 concentration levels from 1958 to 2007. They have risen from 315 to 380 ppm [parts per million].

What should a Christian's view be of climate change and global warming? Is the rise in CO2 concentration levels a development to be worried and concerned about? What saith the Scriptures on this matter? Consider:

I. The Christian is required to look after and take care of the world they live in.

God has made man a steward over the created world.

Our Creator has given His chief creation this responsibility, Gen 1:28-30; Gen 2:15. Man was commanded to subdue and have dominion over the earth. He is first to engage in a study of the earth with all its intricate processes and complex systems and then he is to utilise that knowledge for the benefit of the earth's inhabitants both animal and human. Here is the very basis for science and technology, research and development, theory and application, study and practice.

Man even in his state of innocency was a creature of work. God has no time for idleness. Part of man’s work was to look after his environment. The word 'keep' means 'to guard' or 'to be a watchman' upon a city wall. The same word is used in Ps 127:1 & Isa 21:11. This watchfulness is not so much a protecting of the earth from external enemies but the exercising of a careful and loving stewardship over it. Adam was to keep his environment beautiful and orderly, with every component in its place and in harmonious relationship with the whole.

Man is therefore commanded not to exploit his environment, rather he is to keep it.

The onus to do so became even greater after the Fall into sin and the curse of sin coming upon the whole physical world, Gen 3:17-19. The need to exercise stewardship has not lessened but increased with the Fall. The earth is marred by sin and now with the sweat of his brow man will exercise his stewardship of the earth.

A Christian should therefore always be conscious of the need to take care of the earth and is not a recent convert to the idea of preserving the earth’s resources or protecting its climate.

II. The earth's resources are there for man's use and yet they are limited.

The earth and its resources are there to serve the needs of God's creatures.

The concept of living off the earth is one ordained by God. For example, the concept of growing crops for food, raising animals and eating their meat is one which came directly from the God of heaven after the Flood, Gen 8:21-9:4. There are also other resources, such as fossil fuels, which are for man's use.

However, the earth and its resources are not going to last for ever. The earth is a finite resource and its duration is limited by the Lord. The world is hastening towards its close. Because the earth's resources are limited they are going to eventually run out.

This is what troubles environmentalists, NGOs and governments. Yet to a Christian it is an undisputed reality.

The earth’s limited resources ought to teach us all that neither we, nor the earth we live in, are here for ever. Moses in his prayer in Psalm 90, after having dwelt upon the earth’s and our own mortality, calls upon us to number our days and to apply our hearts unto wisdom, Ps 90:12.

Sadly, the present clamour over climate change, etc. does not make men and women do this. They give no thought for the hereafter.

While man certainly does do damage to the physical world the extent of the present global warming is very much over-hyped. While those who completely dismiss climate change and global warming are wrong, those who speak about it in cataclysmic terms are equally misguided.

They do not have a good record. There have been a host of ‘issues’ hyped up in the past and none has transpired. Not all that long ago there was great concern over ‘desertification’. Yet you hardly ever hear today of expanding deserts in Africa. A global ice age was also predicted back in the 1970s, now it's the opposite.

Scientists have discovered that many of these things go in natural cycles. That may well be the case with global warming. One thing is sure - the earth will continue as long as God intends it to.

III. There is an extreme degree of hypocrisy and irony in the Global Warming lobby.

There is a considerable degree of hypocrisy shown by politicians, world leaders, etc. who fly around the world on chartered or private jets, which emit huge amounts of greenhouse gases, to lecture others on why they should limit such emissions and lobby to cut the number of plane journeys everyone else makes. Let's start with theirs!

It is extremely ironic that evolutionists are following a Creationist model in being careful about the world’s climate and resources. It highlights the inherent contradiction within much of the global warming lobby. Evolutionists believe that the world has evolved over billions of years and that we are all the product of chance, mutations, natural selection and survival of the fittest.

If this is so then why do they not trust what they believe and say that the world will continue to mutate, survive, adapt, evolve and the fittest will continue to survive?

Supposedly unknown and unobservable processes have brought the world to where it is today. If the earth has supposedly survived for these billions of years as claimed then why do they not trust their beliefs that it will continue to do so?

By their words and by their actions they are casting doubt on their own thesis.

Instead what we get is something along a creationist model where they are calling upon everyone to take care of and preserve the earth and its resources. There is a considerable degree of irony in it all.

Man in his heart knows the truth that God is the Creator and that He has given man a responsibility to look after the earth and unawares to him he is acknowledging this reality.

Gatherings like the one witnessed in Copenhagen illustrate the teaching of the Word of God that the Truth is written upon all our consciences, Rom 2:14,15 For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another).

This truth may be corrupted by the Fall but it is still there to some degree nevertheless. Men and women may seek to strenuously deny this truth, however, their denial does not negate its reality.

Climate change is often built upon a distortion of the facts. Former vice-president Al Gore’s film 'An Inconvenient Truth' has been found in a court of law to contain at least eleven material falsehoods. These falsehoods relate to claims:
1. That the snows melting on Mount Kilimanjaro was evidence of global warming;
2. That evidence from ice cores proves that rising CO2 causes temperature increases over 650,000 years;
3. That Hurricane Katrina had been caused by global warming;
4. That the drying up of Lake Chad in Africa was caused by global warming;
5. That a study showed that polar bears had drowned due to disappearing Arctic ice;
6. That global warming could stop the Gulf Stream throwing Europe into an ice age;
7. Blaming global warming for species losses including coral reef bleaching;
8. That the Greenland ice covering could melt causing sea levels to rise dangerously;
9. That the Antarctic ice covering is melting;
10. That sea levels could rise by seven metres causing the displacement of millions of people;
11. That rising sea levels have already caused the evacuation of the inhabitants of certain Pacific islands to New Zealand.

The recent exposure of emails from the East Anglia's Climate Research Unit has shown individuals massaging the figures to establish climate change and global warming.

Temperature and climate fluctuations have been known in the past. Four hundred years ago and again as recently as Victorian times, the river Thames in London was frozen over. Evidently, winters were much colder than London presently experiences.

The Normans’ Domesday survey of 1086 listed no less than thirty-eight vineyards in England, with Ely marking the most northerly spot, seventy miles northeast of London. It was evidently a much warmer climate back then than presently exists.

Higher CO2 level may not lead to the problems imagined. From the levels of CO2 detected in rocks, etc. today there was a time [mostly likely prior to the Flood] when these levels were considerably higher than they are today.

It was not these levels of CO2 that brought the Flood but man's own sin!

IV. The earth is going to warm up considerably one day.

The end of man's wicked rebellion and then later the end of this earth will be characterised by rapid, extensive, 'global warming'.

God’s future judgment of the earth and its ungodly inhabitants is going to be of this nature, Rev 16:8,9 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. These events will take place prior to Christ's second coming.

Preparation for the new heavens and the new earth will see events of this nature, 2 Peter 3:10-13 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. This dissolving of the elements will take place many years after those which mark Christ's second return.

May we all give heed to these future events. May we be wise in the light of eternal realities, O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end! Deuteronomy 32:29.

Some further reading on the subject:
Global warming - a creationist's view
Global warming - facts & myths
The great global warming swindle

Well done to The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC)

I should have said this before but well done to The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) who have been successful in the case they took against the Department of Health in Northern Ireland, claiming the advice to medical professionals on abortion did not accurately reflect the law.

Read more:
The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children
Belfast Telegraph

Abortion is the murder of the unborn plain and simple! Thankfully there has been a knocking back of the pro-abortion agenda in our Province. The vast majority of people are against an extension of the 1967 UK abortion law to Northern Ireland.

The Scriptures make the following observations about the unborn:

I. The unborn child in Scripture is described as a person.

The unborn child is not somehow less a person because it is yet unborn. That is what secular society seeks to say. They use terms about an unborn child that dehumanises and depersonalises the unborn and portrays them as a mere form of matter. They never talk about the unborn child in human terms. It is called an 'embryo' or 'foetus'. It might not be deliberately done by all but that is part of the reasoning behind it with many pro-abortion campaigners. This type of terminology gives the impression that somehow the unborn child is not to be looked upon as a full human being that has not yet reached the stage of being a person. But in God’s Word that is not how the unborn child is considered.

A. The same word is used for both. It is said of Rebekah’s twins that the children struggled within her: And the children struggled together within her; and she said, If it be so, why am I thus? And she went to enquire of the LORD, Genesis 25:22.

This is the word for children already born. Note the use of the same original word but a different English translation 'youths' in Proverbs 7:7: And beheld among the simple ones, I discerned among the youths, a young man void of understanding.

It is likewise so in the New Testament. The same word is used for a child whether born or unborn. At the very beginning if its existence it is looked upon in exactly the same terms as immediately prior to its birth. In both places it described as a son: And, behold, thy cousin Elisabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age: and this is the sixth month with her, who was called barren, Luke 1:36. Compare these words with v57: Now Elisabeth’s full time came that she should be delivered; and she brought forth a son.

Likewise the word ‘babe’ in Luke 1:41,44 referring to an unborn child is also used of newborn children, Luke 2:12, 2 Tim 3:15, 1 Peter 2:2.

God uses equivalent terms to speak of children from conception, before they are born and after they are born.

B. Personality and life is present in the unborn from conception. David’s description of himself before and after he was born shows that there is a personal identity present in the fully grown man is present in the unborn child from their earliest days: Ps 139:1-16. David speaks of God having a blueprint for his development.

The Lord said He knew the prophet Jeremiah before he was born, Jer 1:5 Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.

Being a person in every sense of the word, then the unborn child has the same right to have its life protected as any other individual would.

C. This applies whether the child has some serious disability or is the offspring of a forbidden relationship. The first is no better than what Hilter did with his eugenics programme in Germany and was rightly condemned. Whatever the terrible wrongs of the second the child is certainly not to be killed for the wrongs of a father. Two wrongs do not make a right!

II. God requires the same punishment for killing the unborn as for killing a man.

In Exodus 21 we are told what the punishment is for deliberately killing a fellow human being. v12.

A. The crime of murder is punishable by the perpetrator forfeiting his own life. The idea of capital punishment originated with the Bible. There is however a distinction to be made between murder and manslaughter. Manslaughter is where a person accidentally kills a fellow human being but never intended so to do. The manslayer was not to lose their own life in these circumstances, v13. The institution of capital punishment is carried over into the New Testament. There were others crimes in Israel punishable in this way. They have ceased but the capital punishment for murder still holds true. Murder is the willful deliberate taking of another’s life.

B. God states that the same punishment is to be passed upon the person who causes the unborn to die, Exodus 21:22,23 If men strive, and hurt a woman with child, so that her fruit depart from her, and yet no mischief follow: he shall be surely punished, according as the woman’s husband will lay upon him; and he shall pay as the judges determine. And if any mischief follow, then thou shalt give life for life.

Whoever harms the unborn their life is to be taken. In God’s eyes the killing of the unborn is as sinful as the killing of an adult. In God’s eyes to kill the unborn is to murder them. In God’s eyes the unborn child is as real and of the same value as an adult.

C. Murder defiles a land, Numbers 35:30-34. Nothing will lift that defilement until and unless the murderer is punishment. No bargain is to be struck to let the murderer escape, v31 Moreover ye shall take no satisfaction for the life of a murderer, which is guilty of death: but he shall be surely put to death.

How great is the strain on so called civilised society with the murder of so many unborn children? Their blood cries out unto God for recompense.

III. The unborn child does not have the right to kill its mother.

Is it ever right to be party to ending the life of the unborn? The sole exception to the rule that the unborn child has the right to life and is not to be killed for some personal, social or economic reason is the case where a mother’s own life is at stake.

A. The unborn child must abide by the law of God which says that it must not kill. It has to be stressed that these types of cases are extremely rare. The unborn child like anyone else does not have an absolute right to live even to the point where someone else loses their life like its mother.

For example, if a mother needed medical treatment or surgery to preserve her own life but that treatment would harm and kill her unborn child then she is entitled to go ahead with that treatment.

Historic Protestantism has always held to the belief that in those cases where it is impossible to save the life of both mother and child then it is the mother’s life which should have the first right to be protected.

B. The rationale. An unborn child does not have an innate right to kill its parent. If nothing is done in these circumstances then both mother and child will die. The sixth commandment not only forbids us to take life, it also requires us to preserve life. The answer to Shorter Catechism question 68 states: The sixth commandment requireth all lawful endeavours to preserve our own life and the life of others.

To stand back and let both mother and child die is to break the sixth commandment and kill by omission.

To be without natural affection is a mark of the days of departure from the Truth of God, Rom 1:31.

Gerry Adams to 'preach' on 'love, forgiveness and repentance'

According to this report in the Daily Mail Gerry Adams has been invited by Channel 4 to examine Christian teachings on 'love, forgiveness and repentance'. The proposed programme is one of a seven-part documentary series called 'The Bible: A History'. Each part will be presented by commentators from 'very different backgrounds'.

The families of those killed in the Troubles, however, have condemned the programme as an insult and said the broadcaster was being used.

Victor Barker whose son was killed in the Omagh bombing has said:
Asking Gerry Adams to speak about love and forgiveness is like asking Myra Hindley to lecture on child-minding. 'I think it's a big mistake and completely misguided. Channel 4 is being used by Mr Adams. It is offering him a platform for doing what he does so well, of coming across on camera as a genuine, peaceful person who wants to promote peace and love.

Michael Gallagher who also lost his son in the Omagh bombing has said:
I am a supporter of free speech, but there always seems to be an imbalance. The victims are never given the same influence as the perpetrators. 'As a Christian, I believe that forgiveness is something Gerry Adams will have to ask for in the next life.
You can't compare a democrat like Ann Widdecombe with someone who gained political power on the back of innocent people being bombed and murdered.
It is dangerous to give people a degree of respectability because it means young people growing up today don't understand their heinous past.

Former Tory minister Lord Tebbit, who was injured in the 1984 IRA bombing of the Grand Hotel in Brighton and whose wife was seriously disabled by the same bombing, burst out laughing when told about Mr Adams taking part in the programme. He said:
I wish him well. And I hope he also comes across the doctrine of hell and the consuming of pernicious unrepentant murderers and sinners in general by the fires of hell for all eternity.
What will he do after that? A programme about pigs discovering cleanliness?

The day when darkness is put for light and light for darkness is certainly upon us, Isaiah 5:20.

Unrepentant terrorists like Adams, who glory in or conceal their past, know nothing of 'love, forgiveness and repentance'. One text of Scripture sums up what Gerry Adams needs to know about the subject:
He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy, Proverbs 28:13.

The very fact that he has been invited to take part in this programme highlights the view that many people have of him. He is eulogised as a man of peace when he is in reality a man of war, The words of his mouth were smoother than butter, but war was in his heart: his words were softer than oil, yet were they drawn swords, Psalm 55:21.

In one way it is no surprise that he has been invited. After all, if he and his murdering cohorts are deemed fit for government and have been elevated to the highest positions in the government of this Province is it any wonder that broadcasters ask them to contribute to programmes like this. Gerry Adams and his fellow travellers are fit for either!

The Millennial Position of C H Spurgeon

A very interesting article specifically setting forth the millennial position of C. H. Spurgeon but also very good on end time matters generally.

Different millennial views are defined and explained in an easy to follow way. Well worth reading!

Click on image below to download pdf [Adobe reader required]

Very sad evidence of the moral decline in our Province

57% of Belfast's children born out of marriage

This story is a sad testimony of the moral decline that is gathering pace in our Province. The moral law of God, summarised in the ten commandments, is being set aside and forgotten.

Any nation or society that turns away from the Law of God will reap a sad harvest.

Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people, Proverbs ch 14:34.