Worried about salvation?

Some Christians struggle with a settled sense of assurance more than others, though we all struggle with this in some ways. It is the fruit of a genuinely redeemed person to be in awe not in presumption. I trust that this brief video overview of J. C. Ryle’s superb chapter on the subject will bring you a deep sense of comfort and point you to the unchanging Word of God.

The Wife of Youth

It is violence for a gracious soul to be out of his stalk and root; union here is life and happiness; therefore the Church’s last prayer in canonic Scripture is for union, (Rev., xxii, 20.) “Amen: Even so, come, Lord Jesus.” It shall not be well till the Father, and Christ the prime heir, and all the weeping children, be under one roof in the palace royal.

It is a sort of mystical lameness, that the head wanteth an arm or a finger; and it is a violent and forced condition, for arm and finger to be separated from the head. The saints are little pieces of mystical Christ, sick of love for union.

The wife of youth, that wants her husband some years, and expects he shall return to her from over-sea lands, is often on the shore; every ship coming near shore is her new joy; her heart loves the wind that shall bring him home. She asks at every passenger news: ” Oh! saw ye my husband? What is he doing? When shall he come? Is he shipped for a return?” Every ship that carrieth not her husband, is the breaking of her heart.

What desires hath the Spirit and Bride to hear, when the husband Christ shall say to the mighty angels, “Make you ready for the journey; let us go down and divide the skies, and bow the heaven: I will gather my prisoners of hope unto me; I can want my Rachel and her weeping children no longer. Behold, I come quickly to judge the nations.” The bride, the Lamb’s wife, blesseth the feet of the messengers that preach such tidings,

“Rejoice, O Zion, put on thy beautiful garments; thy King is coming.” Yea, she loveth that quarter of the sky, that being rent asunder and cloven, shall yield to her Husband, when he shall put through his glorious hand, and shall come riding on the rainbow and clouds to receive her to himself.

— Samuel Rutherford (1600-1661)

Emma Stark, are we deceived?

When you think of this quartet of chaos here, who would you honestly rather be listening to…the likes of JC Ryle, Thomas Goodwin & Martyn Lloyd-Jones, or…Emma Stark and co.? Were men like Martyn-Lloyd Jones responsible for the transgender disaster of today, as Stark and her fawning friends assert? Was Martyn Lloyd-Jones deceived? Emma Stark, are we deceived? Really?

‘Is it not extraordinary that throughout all those centuries people missed it? At last they discovered it last century; it had never been known before. Suddenly the simple solution has been found.’

All the cults say exactly that, and I argue that, in and of itself, it is sufficient to prove that this teaching is wrong. All the Patristic Fathers, all the Protestant Reformers, all the mighty men of God, who knew God in such an intimate manner, and who did such exploits for him, and whom he used so mightily—we are asked to believe that they all had missed the crucial teaching, they all had gone the wrong way, they had misunderstood the Scriptures. Surely that, in and of itself, is enough to make us reject this teaching. An arrogance attaches to it which in itself proclaims that it is not true exposition of Scripture.

Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones (Ephesians, vol.8, pp 46-47)

A Statement Concerning Pastor Chris Wickland

“And in this faithlessness the hand of the officials and chief men has been foremost. As soon as I heard this, I tore my garment and my cloak and pulled hair from my head and beard and sat appalled. Then all who trembled at the words of the God of Israel, because of the faithlessness of the returned exiles, gathered around me while I sat appalled until the evening sacrifice.”

Ezra 9:2-4

Following my previous public communications (here and here) which anonymously refer to Chris Wickland’s so-called “prophetic” ministry, affecting the national British Church, I am now obliged to submit this statement to the Body of Christ which is intended to both clarify my personal conviction regarding his ministry as well as provide sober counsel to all who would listen.

The flowchart below outlines merely one example of Chris Wickland’s extra-biblical conduct, rendering him unfit for Christian leadership at any level. It is now my conviction that he is demonstrating extreme folly in both local ministry as well as national testimony; he is therefore a harmful liability to both his local congregation and the national audience from which he garners attention.

The supernatural does not prove God, it merely proves the supernatural.

While we do not know each other as friends, Chris contacted me by phone in August 2022 following my podcast critique of his “prophecy” of the same time (above). Therefore, 1) we have spoken together directly and I have communicated the seriousness of my concerns about his ministry to him at that time and 2) I have followed-up with him twice via text message (ignored) and via public comments on his YouTube videos in 2024. Chris now refuses to communicate with me with the rationale that I am a cessationist (which I am most certainly not) and that I couldn’t possibly understand where he is coming from because of this. This is further evidence of his lack of discernment and unfitness to be a Christian leader.

Chris, the LORD rebukes your ongoing falsity (proven) of “prophetic” speech, combined with your extreme irreverence to the Name of Yahweh and His precious Bride. I call for your resignation and repentance and for every member of the Body of Christ to weigh and test these matters as the Bible teaches, (1 John 4:1-3; 1 Thessalonians 5:19-21; 1 Corinthians 14:29).

As did Ezra and all who trembled at the words of the God of Israel, I sit appalled. And I call for such a sitting from the wider Church.

“And Schecaniah the son of Jehiel, the sons of Elam, addressed Ezra: We have broken faith with our God and have married foreign women from the peoples of the land, but even now there is hope for Israel in spite of this. Therefore let us make a covenant with our God to put away all these wives and their children, according to the counsel of my lord and those who tremble at the commandment of our God, and let it be done according to the law.“

Ezra 10:2-3

Nick Franks (30th September, 2024).

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The Missed Warning of Lockdown
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A Prayer of Emergency

A Prayer of Emergency (WW3 & World’s End)

You’ll probably want to grab your Bible and a pen for this video. What do we pray in an emergency…not so much a geo-political emergency but a spiritual emergency as seen by the pandemic of Christian leaders who fail to think and pray like Ezra, Nehemiah and Daniel?

Please spend a few minutes with me considering the main themes of Ezra, Nehemiah and Daniel chapter 9 and a prayer of emergency for the glory of The Holy One of Israel and his wayward people.

God Closed Church

What will this book do and say in essence? (Autumn 2024)

To persuasively reiterate, clarify and substantiate that it was the LORD God Jealous Who ‘closed church’ in 2020, such is the widespread whoredom of His covenant people, and that He did this to bring us all to our knees so that we might become the God-closed Church of faithfulness — a Bride betrothed and radically preparing for our coming Bridegroom King, Jesus Christ the Lord.

The very small remnant of people who recognise this, (and the significant relational trauma and alienation from gathered worship experienced by those who do), is part of the demonstrable proof that the vast majority of the Church urgently needed to close in 2020 and who remain sleep-walking towards Matthew 24:12. This very much includes those who wrongly think that they are exempt from this exile having resisted, (or repented for having complied with), totalitarian government agendas.

Continue reading “God Closed Church”

Peacetime Church in Wartime World 🍎

Mairi and I went to some gorgeous gardens this week to pick some apples for somebody and to make a video about God closing the Church. Please watch/share a YouTube preview of this podcast filmed in one of the most beautiful gardens you’ll ever see.

With the permission of a friend with whom we strongly disagree, we anonymously examine a personal email conveying the increasingly popular conviction of church leaders who claim that, in March 2020, God was both judging the Church but not closing it… 

Nick’s forthcoming ebook, “God Closed Church”, will be available shortly.

Continue reading “Peacetime Church in Wartime World 🍎”