Alan Cairns (clergyman)

Alan G. Cairns (August 12, 1940 – November 5, 2020) was a Northern Irish pastor, author, and radio Bible teacher.

Alan Cairns, 2005

A native of Belfast, Northern Ireland, he joined the nascent Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster as a teenager. After being called to its ministry, he became a close associate of Ulster preacher-politician Ian Paisley.[1] Cairns served as pastor of Free Presbyterian churches in Dunmurry and then Ballymoney. In 1973 he began a radio ministry, "Let the Bible Speak," which in 2020 was heard on stations in the UK, the Irish Republic, North America, India, Africa, Nepal, Iran and Afghanistan.[2][3]

In 1980, Cairns accepted a call to pastor Faith Free Presbyterian Church, Greenville, South Carolina, the first church in the United States to associate itself with the Ulster denomination.[4] In Greenville, Cairns founded Geneva Reformed Seminary, which today serves as the seminary for the Free Presbyterian Church of North America.[5]

Cairns adapted and published many of his sermon series as books and wrote a Dictionary of Theological Terms from a Reformed perspective. In 2007, Cairns became pastor emeritus, and in 2009, he retired to Ballymoney, where he died of COVID-19 in November 2020, at age 80.[6]

Publications
  • Apostles of Error: An Examination of Liberalism, Neo-Orthodoxy, and Particularly New Evangelicalism (Greenville: Faith Free Presbyterian Church, 1989)
  • Throned in Highest Bliss (Belfast: Ambassador Productions, 1990)
  • A Prophet with Honour: The Life and Work of John Wylie... (Belfast: Presbytery of the Free Presbyterian Church, 1991)
  • Eagle's Wings: Daily Devotional Meditations for a Whole Year, editor (Greenville: Ambassador, 1991)
  • A Sure Foundation: Rediscovering the Basic Message of the New Testament (Greenville: Ambassador, 1996)
  • Dictionary of Theological Terms, editor (Greenville: Emerald House, 1998)
  • Chariots of God: God's Law in Relation to the Cross and the Christian (Belfast: Ambassador, 2000)
  • The Fruit of the Spirit (Greenville: Ambassador-Emerald International, 2002)
  • The Lord's Prayer (Greenville: Ambassador International, 2004)

References
  1. "Tributes after death of Free Presbyterian minister Dr Alan Cairns, long-time clerical associate of Ian Paisley". Belfast News Letter. 6 November 2020. Retrieved 9 January 2021.
  2. Let the Bible Speak website
  3. Noel Hughes, "Let the Bible Speak: How it all began," LTBS Quarterly, January 2013, 4-5; Alan Cairns (interview), "The Founder's Vision," LTBS Quarterly, January 2013, 20-22.
  4. Ishmael Tate, "Cairns answered long-distance call willingly," Greenville News (April 5, 2006), City People, 4.
  5. "History of GRS". Geneva Reformed Seminary. Retrieved 9 January 2021.
  6. Hewitt, Ralph (7 November 2020). "Tributes by church as former minister Alan Cairns dies of coronavirus". Belfast Telegraph. Retrieved 9 January 2021.
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