THE Commission of Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland met on 2 October and expressed its thankfulness for the acquittal of Professor Macleod. It appointed a committee to look into the matter of Rev. John MacLeod, Rev. Angus Smith and Professor Hugh Cartwright, members of the Training of the Ministry Committee, having lost the confidence of many in the Church. It also directed the Training of the Ministry Committee to take action regarding “statements and comments made by Professor Donald Macleod in the media which appear to be at variance with the Free Church’s confessional position”. It called on the members of the Church to promote and pray for healing, forgiveness and renewal; to refrain from calling in question the innocence of any alleged conspirators; and to refrain from calling in question the finding of the criminal court regarding the innocence of Professor Macleod.
Later a large number of Free Church ministers and members met and issued a counter-statement alleging faulty procedure on the part of the Commission, supporting Professor Macleod in his intention not to submit to the investigation of the Training of the Ministry Committee, and requested that the Commission withdraw its decision.
The press has made capital of the sad saga and has not been slow to cast the conservative wing of the Church in a bad light. Professor Macleod’s own pen has added to the criticism; after the Commission came to its decision he compared the Free Church to an asylum that has been taken over by the lunatics.
It seems that the storm is far from over.
Religious Education – Isle of Man parents press for Christian syllabi
AT public meetings on the Isle of Man a call for a return to completely Christian religious instruction resulted in excellent recommendations being presented to the Manx parliament. The meetings proposed to parliament that its next Education Act should include the following clause: “For the removal of all uncertainty, it is hereby enacted that the Religious Instruction in schools maintained by the Isle of Man’s Department of Education shall be based on completely Christian syllabi. In every such school provision shall be made in the timetable thereof for instruction in the Christian faith and for the reading of the Holy Bible, accompanied by such explanation thereof and instruction therefrom as may be suited to the capacities of the children.”
Should the Manx parliament enact the proposal, as we hope it will, a light will be lit which, although it be in a corner of the land, will grow brighter.
Hallowe’en – further evidence of its pagan nature
HALLOWE’EN is a pagan festival to celebrate the last day of the Celtic and Anglo-Saxon year, to which Popery has applied a veneer of pseudo-Christianity. Its devilish nature is shown by two American societies for the prevention of cruelty to animals. The ASPCA says that at Hallowe’en “black cats or mainly black cats have been taken and slaughtered as part of Satanic rituals. It is not an isolated thing . . . it is happening all over by people who take their sick cults seriously.” A spokesman for the DCSPCA stated, “We have had several instances of very deliberate acts of cruelty and ritual slaughter of cats definitely linked to Satanic cults. It is happening across the country because Hallowe’en is a major satanic ritual.”
Undoubtedly, the works of darkness are promoted when people treat Hallowe’en as innocent fun and permit their children to participate in it.
Jehovah’s Witness family refuse blood for injured daughter
A TEENAGE girl, Emelie Grootjes, on holiday in Dorset, was injured when roller-blading, but died five days later after refusing a blood transfusion.
Doctors say that they pleaded with the girl’s family, who are Jehovah’s Witnesses, to permit a transfusion which would have given her a 90% chance of survival, but that her parents signed a form banning the use of blood or blood products in her treatment. Miss Grootjes confirmed the refusal.
Apart from the Jehovah’s Witnesses cult having the blasphemous error of denying the deity of Jesus Christ, it also perverts Scripture by denying the use of blood for food and the preservation of life. As J. A. Alexander shows, the Scripture prohibition of the use of blood for food was on account of blood being the emblem of life for sacrificial purposes. The system of sacrifices came to an end with the final sacrifice of Christ on the Cross, and therefore the prohibition was no longer necessary. The prohibition in Acts 15:20 was a temporary and prudent measure for maintaining peace between converted Jews and Gentiles while the Christian Church was becoming established.