Paisley's Platform Perishes.

Paisley’s Platform Perishes.

In 1971 the marriage between the Free Presbyterian Church and the then Protestant Unionist Party ended with the dissolution of the Party. So the Church went in pursuit of another lover and found the newly formed DUP pleasing to the eye. The scriptural analogy of the ‘Big Man’, Samson, chasing after the daughters of the Philistines, could well be appropriate.

Judges 14
1And Samson went down to Timnath, and saw a woman in Timnath of the daughters of the Philistines.
2And he came up, and told his father and his mother, and said, I have seen a woman in Timnath of the daughters of the Philistines: now therefore get her for me to wife.
3Then his father and his mother said unto him, Is there never a woman among the daughters of thy brethren, or among all my people, that thou goest to take a wife of the uncircumcised Philistines? And Samson said unto his father, Get her for me; for she pleaseth me well.

As Samson of old, had made a wrong decision in pursuing a secular rather than a spiritual path, so too has the Free Presbyterian Church. Samson was found in an unequal marriage with the Philistines, who were the enemies of God’s people, and as a consequence brought nothing but trouble, heart ache and sorrow which was to last for years. The marriage between the Free Presbyterian Church and her political bride, the DUP, has brought nothing but compromise, confusion, division and sorrow amongst God’s redeemed people for quite some time.

The Free Presbyterian Church in the past, has punctuated all the political decisions of the party, with days of prayer and fasting, while at the same time, using its pulpits for political pronouncements against all opponents. Political messages were preached against anything and anyone that opposed party or church. Protests were arranged against anything that opposed Free Presbyterianism and were justified by implying that the word protest was a derivative of protestant.

For a time the Word of God was the sole rule of faith and practice in the Church and there can be no doubt that the Free Presbyterian Church was honorable and faithful in preaching the whole counsel of God; however, the political marriage had been made and the party, with it’s secular appetite, had to be pleased at the same time. Because of its association with the Free Presbyterian Church, the DUP wrapped itself in the robes of self righteousness and immediately claimed the moral high ground; this great marriage appeared to be successful while Church and Party attracted a higher membership.

It is worth pointing out that the Free Presbyterian Church claimed to stand opposed to ecumenism and spiritual apostasy; so any slippage that it detected in other denominations in the direction of Roman Catholicism, would have been viewed as spiritual adultery. At the same time the DUP would have translated this message into political denunciation of its opponents.
Even though the Free Presbyterian Church preached against the unequal yoke as revealed in God’s Word;

2Cor ch6. 14Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?
15And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?
16And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
17Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you.

Though this was their profession, it is virtually untenable in their present estrangement with the DUP. The marriage vows of the Free Presbyterian Church with the DUP have been seriously questioned on more than one occasion, yet the association holds strong. When the Civil Rights movement emerged, both church and party united in opposition. When the Sunningdale Agreement came into focus, the Free Presbyterian Church claimed victory for its lover when this political venture failed.

However the real tests commenced with the Belfast or the Good Friday agreement back in 1998. It was at this hurdle that the marriage between the Free Presbyterian Church and the DUP started to get into difficulty. You see there had been an underlying enigma to this unhappy marriage; while the DUP craved the popular vote, the Free Presbyterian Church condemned the voters’ religious persuasion. For example, the DUP welcomed votes from all denominations, while the Free Presbyterian Church condemned these denominations as apostate and Romeward in outlook. At the Belfast Agreement the DUP signed up to power sharing with all that it entailed, while the Free Presbyterian Church watched in silence. Is this not duplicity in the extreme?, a church that takes the separatist position does not object, when the party that it wholeheartedly supports, is abandoning all its avowed principals and promises in order to be in power.

It appears that a Humanist agenda had been set by the British and Irish governments, equality and human rights with political correctness became the social goals, and God’s Word had been shelved altogether. This is exactly where the Free Presbyterian Church, which could be rightly paralleled with the ‘House of Saul’, was seen to fall.

In The Old Testament, Saul, Israel’s first king made a fundamental mistake by refusing God’s Word and bowing to political pressure. The passage in 1 Samuel 15 describes what happened;

20And Saul said unto Samuel, Yea, I have obeyed the voice of the LORD, and have gone the way which the LORD sent me, and have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites.
21But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the chief of the things which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice unto the LORD thy God in Gilgal.
22And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.
23For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, he hath also rejected thee from being king.

As the Lord had rejected Saul for his rebellion and compromise of God’s Word, so too the Free Presbyterian Church falls into such condemnation. In grave spiritual peril, the Free Presbyterian Church sailed under DUP power closer to the rocks, on to the shore line of the St Andrews Agreement. By now the writing was upon the wall, the DUP were destined to enter a power sharing executive; the silence was deafening from the pulpits of the Free Presbyterian Church, not even a single protest. Everything that Free Presbyterians had prayed for, everything their church had stood for was to be compromised, was to be rejected on the grounds of political expediency, to achieve political advantage.

On the 8th of May 2007 the power sharing executive was set up, while at the same moment the credibility of the Free Presbyterian Church was destroyed. The moderator of the Free Presbyterian Church ,and leader of the DUP, surrendered totally to former principles in order to secure a high political position. Such a circumstance could not be seen to damage the Church’s position, so a damage limitation measure was put in place where the moderator stood down from church office. However, at this point there were no disciplinary measures executed against those that had lead the church into such compromise and shame, no church commissions were ordered to examine the destructive circumstances.

The Free Presbyterian Church would have been first to protest if such were the circumstances in any other denomination; did they foolishly think that this hypocrisy would not be exposed?, did they not think that such a marriage as they entered into with the DUP would result in devastation and hurt?. In a further damage limitation exercise, this time, it was the turn of the DUP, when it allowed its leader to stand down in 2008.

Now in the sad circumstances of the present, the Free Presbyterian Church stands idly by as its political party is pulled apart by sin and moral duplicity. The pulpits are silent as politics have robbed the church of its authority and commission; the pews are filled with political foes who demand church sensor against one another, while those who formed the spiritual backbone of the church are discouraged, disillusioned and fearful of their own positions.

Clearly it is time for those that are saved by grace, and find themselves in such a church, to cry to God for direction, to where they will find grace and help to rebuild their spiritual lives again, without political entrapment which always causes compromise.

Rev Mervyn Cotton (Heb13:6)