Category Archives: Assorted Articles

Email sent to David Cameron MP

Dear Mr Cameron,

I have just watched the Channel 5 news interview that you gave to John Suchet and in the course of it you declared that you were ‘a Christian’.

I must confess that this came as somewhat of a surprise to me for one particular reason. In a speech you declared your support for ‘the family’ but you did not restrict ‘the family’ to God’s ordained family standard of ‘one man and one woman’ but you broadened it to ‘man with man’ or ‘woman with woman’.

These latter 2 views of ‘the family’ are regarded by God as a sinful abomination as can be read in Romans chapter 1. The only sexual intimacy sanctioned by God is between a man and a woman who are married to each other as we read in Hebrews 13:4. Continue reading →

The ‘Labyrinth Experience’ in South Belfast

When Pastor Gary Gilley was our guest here in March 2006 to address a number of issues, including what has come to be known as ‘The Emerging Church’; he highlighted how in many instances churches and fellowships are now ‘supplementing’ or in some cases virtually ‘replacing’ the reading and preaching of the Word of God with more visual, sensory-based experiences designed to somehow induce an almost mystical ‘experience’ of ‘God’.

In recent times a couple of Methodist Churches in South Belfast have hosted what were termed as ‘The Labyrinth Experience’. In each case those presenting this ‘experience’ have ‘dressed up’ rooms in the church complexes in such a way as to appeal to and address the senses and to supposedly ‘picture’ some aspect of a spiritual relationship with God. Ideas such as ‘the journey so far’, ‘the God who knows and loves’, our ‘relationship’ and what He ‘reveals’ will hopefully be ‘conjured up’ by the use of partitions and curtains, devotional aids such as the well-known ‘Footprints’, photos of people and communities, water bowls, pebbles and an open Bible.

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Beware of ‘Lection Divina’ at ‘Summer Madness’

One of those who will be contributing to the upcoming Summer Madness event is Shane Tucker. This is how the reference to him on the ‘Seminars – sneak preview ‘07’ is worded –

Shane Tucker will be introducing us to an ancient form of meditation on the Bible with ‘Lectio Divina’

Just this evening I received this urgent email from Lighthouse Trails Publishing in America –

If you have a child in either a public or private school, please contact the school immediately and find out if your child is being introduced to any type of meditation exercise (this includes lectio divina and breath prayers). Tell the school you do not want your child participating in any of these activities. This would include Rob Bell’s popular Nooma films and his book Velvet Elvis, which are both being used in Christian junior high and high schools.

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‘Reflections’ on ‘emerging’ IKON

Last year Pastor Gary Gilley was our invited guest to speak around Northern Ireland on 2 subjects in particular – (1) The ‘Purpose Driven’ Movement and (2) The ‘Emerging Church’ Movement.

In the run-up to Gary’s visit he mentioned to me that there was a local [in Belfast] ‘Emerging Church’ group called IKON that was headed up by a man called Peter Rollins. Gary asked me if I knew of him and I said ‘no’. Subsequently I did a web search and came across a website for this group called IKON and as I browsed their site I saw a web page listed under a subheading of ‘The Last supper’ and that somehow ‘rang a bell’ for me. On further investigation I found out why.

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Make ‘MANDATE’ a ‘NO-DATE’ on 17th November 2007

Keeping up the flow of scripture-destroying ‘preachers’ lined up to visit Northern Ireland during 2007, the following link

http://www.emins.com/template.aspx?parent=220&pid=243&area=18&aNAme=&textsize=A

gives details of a return visit to Belfast by Erwin McManus, this time at the Odyssey Arena [cost £30.00] and this time under the auspices of ‘Evangelical Ministries’.

Last year he was a guest speaker at the CFC [Christian Fellowship Church] in Belfast and in advance of that visit I posted a warning on our website and this link will take you to that warning article –

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Joel Osteen coming to Belfast

The Belfast Odyssey arena currently has this advert on its ‘What’s on’ page – An Evening with Joel Osteen is a chance for you to be encouraged by one of America’s leading pastors. You will be able to celebrate God’s goodness through worship and praise music…, you’ll learn more about Joel’s ministry and family, and Joel will have an inspirational message from God’s Word. At the end of the event, Joel will proclaim a special blessing over everyone in attendance… You don’t have to be a Christian or a member of any particular church. The only requirement is a ticket. [Cost £11.50].

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Faithful unto Death

Shortly after 18^th April I received an Internet link that posted a report under the heading – “A letter to the Global Church from the Protestant Church of Smyrna”. The link was

http://izmirprotestan.org/docs/Letter_to_the_Global_Church.pdf

This report gave the horrific details of how 3 Christian leaders in the area of Smyrna in Turkey had been savagely butchered to death by members of a Muslim ‘tarikat’ – a group of Islamic ‘faithful believers’. These 3 brothers in Christ, missionary and father of 3, Tilman Geske, pastor and father of 2, Necati Aydin, and former Muslim [like Pastor Aydin] Ugur Yuksel had all been involved in both printing and proclaiming God’s TRUTH and had arranged to meet with these Muslim men to give them a Bible study. Tragically this was merely a ruse to lure God’s servants to a meeting where they would be martyred for seeking to spread God’s TRUTH.

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‘Sunday Worship’ – BBC Radio 4: 29th April 2007

Jesuit-led ‘service’ for mostly ‘gay’ congregation

On page 41 of the Daily Mail of Friday 27th April 2007 their lead article by Simon Caldwell stated the following – ‘The BBC is to relay a “gay Mass” from San Francisco this Sunday, the first time such a service has been broadcast. The 50-minute Mass at the Most Holy Redeemer Catholic Church in the predominantly gay Castro district of the city will feature prayers and readings tailored for the gay community…Its parish priest, Father Stephen Meriweather blesses participants in the San Francisco’s annual gay pride march…Last night a media watchdog said Sunday’s radio broadcast was “bound to cause offence” to mainstream Christians…However Father Donal Godfrey, the U.S. Jesuit priest celebrating the Mass said he was delighted the BBC was “exploring how gay people fit into the perspective of the Christian narrative”. “Being gay is not special,” he said. “It’s simply another gift from God who created us as rainbow people”…The preacher will be James Allison, a homosexual British Catholic theologian and author of “Is it ethical to be Catholic? – Queer perspectives”.

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WIKIPEDIA ‘Encyclopedia’ on Cecil & Creationism

Braehill Baptist meetings available to watch

I was recently informed by a Christian friend that there was an entry concerning myself on the ‘WIKIPEDIA Encyclopedia’ website. This particular website was in the news just last week in an article in the Daily Mail of 11 April 2007 under the heading ‘Minister tells pupils to use the website that makes up facts’. This is part of what that article said –

‘Teachers criticised the Education Secretary yesterday after he encouraged pupils to use a controversial Internet encyclopedia to research school work. Alan Johnston hailed WIKIPEDIA as a more appealing version of the revered Encyclopedia Britannica. Yet the unregulated site has been dogged by rows over inaccurate entries because anyone can enter or alter the information themselves’…Founded in 2001 in America, WIKIPEDIA has more than 1.6 million articles in English alone. Anyone can edit entries although WIKIPEDIA insists the sheer numbers of users ensures errors are swiftly corrected’.

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‘The Bible’ – What Alf McCreary didn’t write

In his Belfast Telegraph article of 14^th April 2007 entitled ‘The ultimate guidebook to the meaning of life’, the ‘Religion Correspondent’, Alf McCreary reflected on a Channel 4 TV documentary called ‘The Bible Revolution’.

There was a particular passage in the article that impacted forcibly upon me. What ‘impacted’ upon me was not what Mr McCreary actually wrote but rather what he did not write. Let me first quote what the passage as he wrote it said –

‘The Bible was available in England during the Middle Ages, but only in a Latin translation which the vast majority of worshippers did not understand. Indeed, the Church was so worried that people might read the Bible for themselves that anyone who campaigned for an English version was regarded as a dangerous heretic.

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