Letter sent to Newtownabbey Times regarding the selection of a sodomite candidate to stand in the local elections

Dear Editor
Now that the dust has settled on the recent elections, and on what appears to be the DUP’s attempt to test the waters, it is important to restate that sexuality is always a matter of choice according to the inclination of the human heart. Sinful choices, therefore, consequently flow from a sinful heart. To argue ‘I was born this way’ is in reality an admission of sinful depravity.

Sadly, the human heart is “deceitful above all things and desperately wicked,” cf. Jeremiah 17:9. The sin of sodomy is one of those sins which flows from a deceitful and desperately wicked heart.

This same sin is further described in Holy Scripture as an ‘abomination’, cf. Leviticus 18:22; 'uncleanness’, ‘dishonourable’ ‘vile affections’, ‘against nature’ and ‘unseemly’, cf. Romans 1:24,26,27. The Bible uses the strongest of language against this sin.

Compromising with murderers, and their supporters, has brought Unionism to its knees. More of the same is not the answer!

Samson thought he could play with sinful temptation and not suffer any consequences. He learned to his great cost that trifling with what is wrong brings a fearful harvest. Samson ended up blind, shackled, subjugated by the Philistines and grinding corn in their prisonhouse.

Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, joined in affinity both with ungodly Ahab and his son Ahaziah. Remember that Ahab's house was a murderous one. These were political ventures, which were thought would benefit and enrich their respective kingdoms with peace and prosperity. It wasn't that Jehoshaphat was joining in joint worship or anything that was overtly religious. It was a purely political, commercial union, designed to advance the peace and prosperity both of the northern and southern kingdoms in Israel.

Mistaken ventures

On the first occasion, when Jehoshaphat and Ahab determined to go to war against the Syrians, Jehoshaphat was wise enough to seek counsel from God. Micaiah the prophet counselled them to desist and go home. Micaiah spoke on God's behalf and said: I did see all Israel scattered upon the mountains, as sheep that have no shepherd: and the LORD said, These have no master; let them return therefore every man to his house in peace.

This mistaken venture into war ended with the untimely death of ungodly Ahab and Jehoshaphat only escaping death by the skin of his teeth. Upon his return home Jehoshaphat was again warned by God about his foolish and mistaken adventure. Evidently the spirit that caused him to join with Ahab had not been totally eradicated from his heart and mind. Jehu, the son of Hanani, the seer, went out to meet king Jehoshaphat upon his return and said to him: Shouldest thou help the ungodly, and love them that hate the LORD? therefore is wrath upon thee from before the LORD, 2 Chronicles 19:2.

Failure to oppose a papal visit is a cowardly betrayal of Protestantism

It is reported on the BBC website that unionist members of Belfast City Council have abstained on whether to invite the pope to Belfast. See here. Part of the report reads:
DUP councillor Lee Reynolds said the motion presented by the SDLP "was essentially an election stunt and it wasn't a game we were willing to play". "They were wanting an insult and we weren't going to give them that, so we chose the path of abstention."

Ulster Unionist councillor Jim Rodgers, who had previously spoken out against issuing an invitation to the Pope, said he had decided to abstain after "giving the issue a lot of thought".

"I am concerned at the likelihood of trouble on our streets ... and I don't want any religious or civic leader coming here to find themselves offended and see violence on a large scale," he said.

Belfast Newsletter - Robinson: if safe, Pope can visit

Failure to oppose such an invitation is a cowardly betrayal of Protestantism. This is politics without principle! Are they ashamed of being Protestants? Is it a fear of scorn by the religious and secular liberals that makes them abstain? Is it base political calculation that is at work? Or has the rot of ecumenism infected these politicans so much that they meekly refuse to stand up for truth and righteousness? It could be all these and more!

It's Worth Remembering - Sin has no Rights!

The Office of First Minister and Deputy First Minister [OFMDFM] have announced a Sexual Orientation Strategy consultation which is set to begin next week and is designed to run for 12 weeks. For further information see here. 

It is worth stating that according to the Word of God sin has no rights. None at all! In fact the opposite is the case. Sin is to be punished and at times the perpetrator to be shunned and avoided. Sadly, this rule is applied in an ever diminishing number of cases. Even murderers are now welcomed into government with open arms in our society!

There are basic human rights that are common to all mankind. For example, the right to life; the right to fair and equal treatment before the law; the right of religious freedom and expression; innocent until proven guilty is another fundamental right; there are civil freedoms which are basic rights. These are just a few of the most obvious 'rights' that a human being is entitled to. 

A Grubby Peace built upon Grubby Deals

Peace at any price, and peace without justice, isn't worth having. Sadly, peace at any price, and peace without justice, is what the people of Northern Ireland have had served up to them for the last decade and more. Sadder still is the fact that many in Ulster love to have it so.

The revelation that a sordid litany of amnesty deals have been agreed with IRA terrorists so that they can escape prosecution for their vile crimes is the latest revelation to surface to indicate the squalid nature of the 'Peace' that presently exists in Northern Ireland. See here.

What makes it all the more nauseating is that IRA/SinnFein, and their ilk, have been lobbying vociferously to have soldiers and policemen held accountable for their actions in lawfully combating terrorists during the Troubles. It is little wonder they can't keep the smirk off their face as they chuckle their way through government. 

Any peace process that involves buying off the terrorist; the subsequent elevation of these same terrorists to high government office and all the other concessions to the perpetrators of terror is immoral, unethical and unscriptural. Those who have long argued this to be the case are justified with every passing day in opposing what passes for government at Stormont.

Call to Protestant Politicians to uphold Biblical values

The Evangelical Protestant Society yesterday released a statement calling upon Protestant Politicians to uphold Biblical values. It reads:
The Evangelical Protestant Society, as an evangelical umbrella organisation which seeks to defend and promote evangelical Protestantism in our changing society, has been concerned for some time about the gradual but steady erosion of Ulster’s Protestant foundations. We have therefore written to all Protestant and Unionist elected representatives at Stormont and Westminster to urge them to take a firm stand in two specific areas where we feel there has been slippage in recent times.

To read the rest of the statement click here.

Will the Haass proposals include Public Meetings such as 'Christian Commemorations', 'Gospel Open-airs' & 'Christian Protests'?

A previous attempt to resolve issues, through legislation, surrounding 'parading' in Northern Ireland  did envisage including Gospel Open-airs & Christian Protests. It was back in the spring of 2010 that the then proposed legislation was going to require anyone organising an open-air Gospel meeting or protest, where there was the prospect of more than 50 people in attendance, to have to give 37 and 22 working days notice respectively. Objectors to such events would only have had to give 7 days notice.

These proposals were only dropped after a storm of protest. At the time objections were received from the Human Rights Commission and the likes of Emmon McCann, hardly the frontline defenders of Gospel liberties!

This therefore begs the question whether the Haass proposals this time around will seek to include something similar? In reading through the 'Haass Proposals' the section dealing with 'Parades, Select Commemorations, and Related Protests' is not entirely clear. The document uses a raft of different wording and phraseology. For example, it includes the following words/phrases: 'parading and marching'; 'parades, protests, and events'; 'parades, protests, and other events'; 'parading, protesting, and assembling'; 'parade, commemorate, and protest'; 'parades, select commemorations, and related protests'; 'parades, select commemorations, and protests'; 'parades and other events' & 'parade or select commemoration', etc.

Sad but not surprising!

According to recent reports there has been a huge increase in the number of town and city centres, city districts and neighbourhoods officially classed as being blighted by alcohol related anti-social behaviour since the alcohol licensing laws were relaxed in 2005.

Official figures show number of alcohol trouble hotspots has risen 150 per cent since 2007. It was the last Labour Government that brought in 24 hour drinking. The problem is so great that a special name has been given to these areas. They are now called 'Cumulative Impact Zones'. An euphemism indeed, for town centres or city districts blighted by alcohol fuelled thuggish behaviour!

It has been reported that at the end of March 2007, when the licensing laws had been relaxed for just over a year, there were only 71 of these zones in the United Kingdom. Home Office officials now say that this figure has soared to 175.

The increased anti-social behaviour in these areas ranges from fighting and litter to drug dealing, pick pocketing and street robbery. Many of the problem areas are now found in small and previously quiet towns which used to have very few crimes of this nature. The situation in these areas is considered so bad councils have special powers to turn down planning applications for yet more bars to protect the public from further disorder.

Stormont Assembly to vote on opening the door to Sunday Racing

Today in the Northern Ireland Assembly a Bill will be debated that will change the legislation governing motorcycle road racing in Northern Ireland.

The North West 200, one of the premier motorcycle road races held in Northern Ireland, was cancelled in 2013 due to torrential rain. This was the second occasion in three years that the North West 200 had to be cancelled due to bad weather. In addition, the Dundrod 150 motorcycle race in August 2013 and the Ulster Grand Prix in 2008 were also cancelled in similar circumstances.

It is not presently possible to re-schedule these races because the existing legislation does not permit that flexibility. Consequently alternative dates or times from those quoted in the road closing order made to facilitate the event can not be used.

The Department for Regional Development is proposing to insert one new clause into the existing legislation. This new clause will amend Article 3 of the Road Races (NI) Order to: provide that not more than two contingency days may be specified in a road closing order and that a contingency day must be one of the two days falling immediately before or immediately after a day specified in a road closing order.

Christian Bed & Breakfast loses Supreme Court appeal

Click here

A poignant reminder of the past!

Border Trail of IRA Slaughter

During the Troubles in South East Fermanagh 42 Protestants were cruelly murdered by IRA/Sinn Fein. A tour has now been organised, by the relatives, in memory of these 42 individuals who were brutally murdered. The South East Fermanagh Foundation (SEFF) Border Trail allows people to pay tribute to the memory and walk respectfully in the footsteps of some of those individuals who were murdered.

A fuller report can be read in The Belfast Newsletter

Quotable Quote

Rev Richard Monteith [FPC Rhiwderin, Wales] drew my attention to these comments by J C Ryle:

Let us learn what miserable creatures great men are, when they have no high principles within them, and no faith in the reality of a God above them. The lowest labourer who has grace and fears God, is a nobler being in the eyes of his Creator than the King, ruler, or statesman, whose first aim it is to please the people. 

To have one conscience in private and another in public - one rule of duty for our own souls, and another for our public actions - to see clearly what is right before God, and yet for the sake of popularity to do wrong - this may seem to some both right, and politic, and statesmanlike, and wise. But it is a character which no Christian man can ever regard with respect.

Let us pray that our own country may never be without men in high places who have grace to think right, and courage to act up to their knowledge, without truckling to the opinion of men. Those who fear God more than man, and care for pleasing God more than man, are the best rulers of a nation, and in the long run of years are always most respected. 

Men like Pontius Pilate, who are always trimming and compromising, led by popular opinion instead of leading popular opinion, afraid of doing right if it gives offence, ready to do wrong if it makes them personally popular, such men are the worst governors that a country can have. 

They are often God's heavy judgment on a nation because of a nation's sins.

J C Ryle's comments on John 19:1-16.

How very appropriate for the times in which we live!

Who's losing their moral compass????

It is more than the SDLP who have lost their 'moral compass'!!

It is just as morally wrong to prop up unrepentant terrorists in government as it is to criticise the imprisonment of a convicted bomber and an IRA gunman.

Dodds says SDLP ‘pitching for dissident support’

What about Northern Ireland's 'Holocaust'???

This photo is on the front page of the news sheet delivered to the homes in Newtownabbey by the local council. That in itself is a waste of money, especially when the Council is in debt to the tune of £46m. The highest of any local authority in Northern Ireland. See here

However, not only is there a waste of public money involved but there is also rank hypocrisy on display. To involve someone who has openly acknowledged his part in an organisation that brought about a 'holocaust' in Northern Ireland over recent years is sickening to say the least. Martin McGuinness and his fellow travellers in the IRA are no different, and no better, than those Fascists and Nazis who exterminated six million Jews in Europe.

Who owns marriage?

A bit of a squabble has broken out between a Liberal Democrat member of the Westminster government and Lord Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury.

Lord Carey had written an article for the Daily Mail in which he stated that neither the State or the Church owned marriage.
See - Marriage will ONLY remain the bedrock of a society if it is between a man and a woman

Equalities minister Lynne Featherstone in an article in today's Daily Telegraph has responded by saying that as marriage is owned by the people and not by the Church nor the State, the government could introduce same-sex marriages as a "change for the better".
See - Lynne Featherstone tells Church 'don't polarise gay marriage debate'

Lord Carey has responded by accusing Lynne Featherstone of putting an "unwarranted slant" on his words.

See - Church 'does not own marriage'

Who own marriage?

Marriage is one of only two institutions that predate the Fall of our first parents, Adam and Eve, into sin in the Garden of Eden at the beginning of time. The Sabbath day is the other. 

God owns marriage! He instituted marriage and ordained that marriage be between one man and one woman. In the beginning He created them male and female, Gen 1:27: So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

Flattery, deception & bullying!!!

Peter Hain, a previous Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, has written a memoir. Extracts are being published in a number of newspapers.

The Belfast Newsletter has carried extracts concerning his time spent in Northern Ireland as Secretary of State. Peter Hain openly acknowledges the tactics he employed to bring about a political agreement. In shorthand he used flattery, deception and bullying.

Here is a flavour of what has been reported:

The sanitising of Sinn Fein continues apace

Martin McGuinness has been described as: one of the great leaders of modern time, by a Presbyterian minister speaking at Sinn Fein's annual conference in Belfast.

Addressing delegates in the Waterfront Hall, Rev David Latimer from First Derry Presbyterian Church said differing religious and political beliefs should no longer be a source of suspicion.

He becomes another in a long line of politicians, clergy, etc who are engaged in sanitising Sinn Fein.

To read a full report click here

What saith the Scriptures is the reaction of a born again believer to comments like this? Does the Scriptures support describing a self confessed terrorist in this fashion? 

1. The sixth commandment states: Thou shalt not kill, Ex 20:13. A man who supports, condones and excuses murder in the name of a politial objective is acting contrary to the law of God. 

2. Murder is one of the things that God hates: These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him: A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,  An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren, Prov 6:16-19.

3. The murderer is worthy of death: Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man, Gen 9:6.

In describing McGuinness in the fashion that he has David Latimer is therefore not acting according to the teaching of the Word of God. A different spirit evidently motivates him. 

The wretchedness of our system of Government

If anything displays the utter wretchedness of the immoral system of government that is in place in this Province it is the news today that Mary McArdle who was part of the IRA gang who ambushed Magistrate Tom Travers and his family as they left Mass in south Belfast in April 1984 and killed his 22 year old daughter has become a special advisor to the new Culture minister.

Belfast Telegraph - Murder link aide to remain in Job.
Belfast Newsletter - Appointment of Sinn Fein Advisor provokes anger

In one way it is hardly surprising when it is remembered that the Culture minister herself is a convicted terrorist. A system that rewards terrorists with early release and elevates them to rule over the innocent who they have terrorised in nothing short of being a wicked system of government.

Anyone who props up this wicked system of government must surely hang their head in shame.

It is worthwhile remembering what Romans 13:1-7 has to say about those who hold office in civil government:
Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.
Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation.
For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same:
For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.
Wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake.
For for this cause pay ye tribute also: for they are God’s ministers, attending continually upon this very thing.

Deputy First Minister to be questioned about murder [Fancy that!!]

The Belfast Newsletter reported on Friday that the Historical Enquiries Team is about to question the Deputy First Minister about the murder of 29-year-old census worker Joanne Mathers in 1981.

For the full report click here

Martin McGuinness, who has openly stated that he is 'proud' to have been in the IRA, was the IRA’s commander in the city of Londonderry during much of the Troubles.

Up until now IRA/SinnFein have refused to co-operate with the Historical Inquiries Team. So much for their new supposed recognition and support of policing and justice that was peddled as the excuse for appointing McGuinness as Deputy First Minister in the first place!

In 1998 when David Trimble sought to share power with Martin McGuinness his terrorist past was said have made him unsuitable to hold any post in government never mind that of Deputy First Minister. 'Unscriptural, unethical and immoral' were the terms employed.

This report in the Newsletter is once again a reminder of McGuinness' past and proof that those words were very accurate.

The likelihood of McGuinness being called to account by the HET for his past is nil. However, although Martin McGuinness may escape the censure of any earthly court, there is one Judge and a coming day in which every murderer and supporter of murder will be called upon to answer for their deeds. The hidden things of darkness will then be brought to light.

The shedding of innocent blood is specifically said to be one of the seven things that God hates: Proverbs 6:16,17 These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him:
A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood…

The God of heaven will not be as easily deceived about McGuinness and his past, as multitudes in this Province have!

Assembly election candidates' views sought on a range of scriptural, moral and ethical questions

A questionnaire was sent out to all the Assembly candidates seeking their views on a range of scriptural, moral and ethical subjects by three organisations representing evangelical Christians here in Northern Ireland: The Caleb Foundation, Evangelical Protestant Society & Day One - Lord's day Observance Society.

Thirty-eight out of over two hundred candidates replied. Their replies can be viewed online at MLA Watch - Christians asking questions. It makes interesting reading!