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How It All Began
On St. Patrick’s Day, 1951, a new Biblical witness for Christ was born in the village of Crossgar, County Down, Northern Ireland. As a result of the high-handed actions of the Down Presbytery, the elders of the local Presbyterian Church were banned from using their own church hall for a Gospel mission. When the leaders refused to acquiesce, they were suspended. All this took place less than twenty-four hours before the mission was due to commence.
Those elders could not go back to their church without denying or compromising the gospel. So they decided to leave a denomination that permitted dances and parties of various kinds in its church halls but which, in this case, banned the gospel of Jesus Christ.
With the help of the Rev. Ian Paisley, their guest evangelist, they formed the Presbytery of the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster. From four congregations in that first year, the growth of the new church continued until its witness spread to all parts of Northern Ireland. The church was founded to faithfully preach and defend the gospel of Christ in an age of growing compromise and apostasy. That determination is still to be found in every Free Presbyterian Church.
The church has now spread well beyond the boundary of Northern Ireland. Today there are over one hundred Free Presbyterian churches and extensions throughout the world; in Northern Ireland, England, Scotland, Wales, the Irish Republic, Australia, Canada, USA, Jamaica and Spain with missionaries in many other places.
The Free Presbyterian Church also has a world-wide radio ministry, "Let The Bible Speak".
Ministers, missionaries and other Christian workers are trained in the Whitefield College of the Bible, which is situated in Banbridge, Northern Ireland, with North American students being trained in Greenville, South Carolina, USA, and in Toronto, Canada.
The spirit of family fellowship among all these far-flung churches, missionaries and ministries is deep and sweet, united in the common desire to preach Christ in all His fulness, endeavouring to lead souls to saving grace in Him.
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