Posted on 01/28/2018 6:33:06 PM PST by MNDude
I am not a Mason.
Why are you asking this? It seems pedantic.
Are you looking to join the Masons? Or are you simply trying to make a point that is lost on me?
Religion and politics are forbidden in the Lodge. Talk about what you want in the parking lot. Many Masons are preachers and know full well what Jesus taught. Converting people in the Lodge is not one of the missions of the Lodge. It IS about helping widows and orphans. Who does that sound like? It IS about helping your fellow man. Who does that sound like.
Like I said before, being a Mason is about good men becoming better and it is based on works. If you are a Christian, aren't you required to do works? Works don't save you, but if you are saved, you are saved to do works for the Kingdom.
The liberal attitude about religions in the Masons is to try to remove as much friction as possible to get things done. If you worry about helping a widow and orphan because they are Hindu, then you don't really care about your fellow man. A Christian missionary goes to foreign lands to help whoever is there, not to just help the Christians he finds there. It is a mistake to think the Masonic lodge teaches a religion. What they teach is character and generosity. If you give money to the Shriner's hospital, the money goes to help children of any race or religion at no cost to the parents. Many of the people that work there give their time freely.
There are so many false rumors about Freemasonry that almost nobody even looks at them anymore. Our country was built on many of their principles and almost all of the founders that I know of were Christians and Masons. 29 of the original 55 signers were pastors or at least ordained ministers. It's not right to say all Masons are Christian, but most American and European Mason are. Many have compared Masons with Christianity and have a problem that we don't push Jesus as the Savior. As a Christian, I will tell you Jesus is the only way. But as a Mason, I might not even mention Him. All you have to to is confess a belief in God to be a Mason. Many that have confessed belief in a god, end up as a Christian before long. We are just told that we can't argue and dispute about religious things in the Lodge.
We take an oath to keep the secrets of the Lodge, so Catholics have a problem with a person that won't confess Lodge business with their priests. Otherwise, I'm sure there would be many Catholics in the ranks.
Rumors,lies, and whispering have harmed the Masons over the years, but they go on and help people anyway. If people would look at it more like the Lion's club instead of some Satanic cult meeting a coven of witches, maybe more American males would grow up to be real men instead of whimpering whelps playing video games in moms basement. Do a study on prominent Masons in American history and then tell me they are all Satan worshiping demon possessed imps that hate Jesus. It's just NOT TRUE! There could be the odd Mason that was arrested for something just like there could be a CCL holder arrested for a bad shooting. People are people. I'm just saying Freemasonry is a positive influence on the men of America and should be encouraged.
One more thing, many people that tried to become a Mason have been turned down for whatever reason. They go back to your days in High School and you better pay your bills. Your arrest record is checked. They will contact friends you haven't seen in 20 years. Most are blackballed because they failed to pay their bills, or went to jail. When these people are refused entry into the Lodge, they spread rumors and lies about the Lodge. They aren't used to being judged by others. Everyone has an excuse why they had their truck repossessed or that night they hit their wife with a chair. What if they find you got a girl pregnant and are not paying child support? There are as many reasons you can't be a Mason as there are stars in the sky. In the final vote for the Lodge, you could be "black balled" just because someone doesn't like your attitude. It's a club, and we get to decide who gets in. If it's found you don't cut the mustard, many hold grudges their whole life and can't move on. That is one reason we didn't want them. They will spend their life badmouthing something they know nothing about. If someone wants to find out about Masonry, ask one. Chances are you will find out in the first 10 minutes if you even qualify to be one. You may not even want to keep the rules of the lodge. Another thing, no matter what anyone tells you, it helps to have a little money. It may not be fair and not very pretty, but there will be many activities that require a few bucks. If they hand you some tickets to sell, you buy them and decide if you want to make the effort to sell them. You don't have to sell them but you sure did buy them. People on fixed incomes need to be well fixed, as they say. The Blue Lodge isn't so bad, but the Shriner's generally have money.
When I was a teen a member of our LCMS church in Texas was excommunicated for refusing to give up his membership with the Masons.
If you are evil, you won't get in. If Satanists want to help people, then you might get in. I can guarantee that you would be black balled before you ever got in. Every member gets a vote on you. All it takes is one person to stop you.
If I found out you were a Satanist, I would make a point to be at the lodge to vote against you. We don't need stupid people in the Lodge. I do the same if you believe in abortion or sodomy. I would probably do the same if I found out you even said a kind word about Obama. We can't talk politics at the Lodge, but my personal beliefs are mine. There are plenty more like me. If I saw you hollering at Walmart to a clerk, you better have a good excuse. You can be black balled for ANY reason. Most people get a benefit of the doubt unless it's obvious you are a kook. Worshiping Satan would not qualify as the benefit of the doubt. I have personally never heard of anyone even trying to qualify with Satan as there God, but I can assure you, they won't make it.
Many people don't understand this is a club. We have rules, many many rules, but in the end, if we want you in, your in. If we want you out, you can't get in with dynamite. Most people take offense to that. They will memorize the rules and quote you some sort of violation they feel we are doing against them. We aren't looking for whiners. We want to increase the ranks of Masons, but they must be of high quality. It's a lot less embarrassing over the years to have leaders and not weasels using weasel words. If someone did get in and embarrassed the Lodge, they can be removed by a trial.
Hard for me to answer definitively, because I have never been either a Christian (I'm a Jew) or a Mason (I was asked to join but didn't). My understanding is that many Masons (most of them in the US, in fact) are professing Christians, but that Masons accept as members adherents of all monotheistic religions (but don't accept atheists or polytheists).
*** When I was a teen a member of our LCMS church in Texas was excommunicated for refusing to give up his membership with the Masons. ***
Same story, except the TX Church was ELCA, and the member was my Dad’s friend. He was given the option of quitting the Masons or the Church. He left the Lutheran Church. It was a real scandal back then.
In my TX town, a lot of the Higher Ups at two of the biggest hospitals were Masons. Promotions and hiring preferences were given to Masons. I think that was the “networking” aspect of Freemasonry.
The person in the office next to mine spent many hours helping “recruits” with the memorization required. Day after day, while the State of Texas was paying him a salary to work at his job, I would listen to the oral coaching.
One day, when he had a “recruit” who couldn’t remember jack, I opened his door, and started reciting all the texts these guys had to memorize by rote.
I said that “since this memorization stuff is all supposed to be secret, you really shouldn’t be saying it where I can hear it. I have no desire to hear all this stuff, or memorize it. Plus, you are not getting a salary from the State to spend five hours a day on Freemasonry stuff.
He cut back on it, and was a lot quieter while coaching “recruits”, but he still kept it up on the State’s dime.
Take it up with the right Reverend Charles Finney, not me. LOL.
Or:
... take it up with President John Quincy Adams, one of the outraged founders of the “Anti-Mason Party” which was precursor to Lincoln’s GOP...
(and Lincoln notedly, was not a Mason but was besieged by lunatic Masons like McClellan and his Baal-demon inspired dreams which urged him not to fight, nearly costing the North the war. Scatch the surface of the Baltimore incident on the way to DC and you will see masonic fingerprints all over it coughPinkertonwasAmasoncough)
But again, take your whiny complaints about Finney’s posts back to its source: the greatest evangelist of the last two centuries, Charles Finney (who makes masons like Billy Graham look like a piker)
Here ya go.
Feel free to interject and “correct” Finney’s statements below:
Why I left Freemasonry by Rev. Charles Finney
http://www.isaiah54.org/finney.htm
Masonic Oaths Procured by Fraud
I found that in taking these oaths I had been grossly deceived and imposed upon. I had been led to suppose that there were some very important secrets to be communicated to me; but in this I found myself entirely disappointed.
Indeed I came to the deliberate conclusion that my oaths had been procured by fraud and misrepresentations; that the institution was in no respect what I had been informed it was; and as I have had the means of examining it more thoroughly, it has become more and more irresistibly plain to me that Masonry is highly dangerous to the State, and in every way injurious to the Church of Christ.
Features of an Anti-Christ
Judging from unquestionable evidences, how can we fail to pronounce Freemasonry an unchristian institution?
We can see that its morality is unchristian.
Its oath-bound secrecy is unchristian.
The administration and taking of its oaths are unchristian and a violation of the positive command of Christ.
And Masonic oaths pledge its members to some of the most unlawful and unchristian things:
1. To conceal each other’s crimes.
2. To deliver each other from difficulty, whether right or wrong.
3. To unduly favor Masonry in political action and in business matters.
4. Its members are sworn to retaliate and persecute unto death the violators of Masonic obligations.
5. Freemasonry knows no mercy, and swears its candidates to avenge violations of Masonic obligations unto death.
6. Its oaths are profane, taking the Name of God in vain.
7. The penalties of these oaths are barbarous, even savage.
8. Its teachings are false and profane.
9. Its designs are partial and selfish.
10. Its ceremonies are a mixture of puerility and profanity.
11. Its religion is false.
12. It professes to save men on other conditions than those revealed in the Gospel of Christ.
13. It is wholly an enormous falsehood.
14. It is a swindle, obtaining money from its members under false pretenses.
15. It refuses all examinations, and veils itself under a mantle of oath-bound secrecy.
16. It is virtual conspiracy against both Church and State.
Some Fair Conclusions
No one, therefore, has ever undertaken to defend Freemasonry as judged by the above. Freemasons themselves do not pretend that their institution as revealed in reliable books, and by some of their own testimony, is compatible with Christianity.
So it must follow that,
First, the Christian Church should have no fellowship with Freemasonry; and those who adhere intelligently and determinately to such an institution have no right to be in the Christian Church.
We pronounce this judgment sorrowfully, but solemnly.
Second, should the question be asked, “What shall be done with the great number of professed Christians who are Freemasons?”
I answer, let them have nothing more to do with it.
Let it be distinctly pressed upon their consciences that all Masons, above the first two Degrees, have solemnly sworn to conceal each other’s crimes, murder and treason alone excepted; and that all above the sixth Degree have sworn to espouse each other’s cause, and to deliver them from any difficulty, whether right or wrong.
Third, if they have taken those Degrees where they have sworn to persecute unto death those who violate their Masonic obligations, let them be asked whether they really intend to do any such thing. Let them be distinctly asked whether they intend to aid and abet the administration and taking of these oaths.
Or if they still intend to countenance the false and hypocritical teachings of Masonry. Or if they mean to countenance the profanity of their ceremonies, and the partiality of their sworn practice. If so, surely they should not be allowed their place in the Christian Church.
Fourth, can a man who has taken, and still adheres to the Master’s oath to conceal any secret crime of a brother of that Degree, murder and treason excepted, be a safe man with whom to entrust any public office?
Can he be trusted as a witness, as a juror, or with any office connected with the administration of justice?
Fifth, can a man who has taken, and still adheres to, the oath of the Royal Arch Mason be trusted to public office?
He swears to espouse the cause of a companion of this Degree when involved in any difficulty, so far as to extricate him, whether he be right or wrong. He swears to conceal his crimes, MURDER AND TREASON NOT EXCEPTED.
Is such a man bound by such an oath to be trusted with office?
Ought he to be accepted as a witness or juror when another Freemason is a party in the case?
Ought he to be trusted with the office of Judge, or Justice of the Peace, or as a Sheriff, Constable, Marshal or any other office?
Umkay.
So you are saying that both Reverend Charles Finney and President John Q Adams were wrong about freemasonry?
I think not, unless you can refute Finney’s moral reasons against the Lodge, especially for Christians.
Adams enacted laws against the first Globalist elites, the murderous Freemasons, because he knew it was an actual conspiracy of darkness.
Sorry if you haven’t done your homework on the history of Masonry. It will keep you out of heaven, as you are adding to the Gospel new texts and new beliefs and this is strictly forbidden.
A Mason once bit mi sister
Why is there such a bother about an institution which has about one quarter of the membership it had 50 years ago? If it was influential in the past, and served as a sort of mutual assistance league, it is less effective in that role today due to declining and aging membership. In the Dallas suburbs where I live, the only lodges are in the older parts of the suburban towns, a remnant from the days they were farming communities. You will as likely see a Masonic lodge, or for that matter a VFW hall or a Knights of Columbus lodge, in the newer subdivisions as you would see the Aurora Borealis in Texas.
I’ve always been curious about this, too. The Freemasonry threads seem to come up now and then on FR; give vent to a lot of vitriol (which vitriol is mostly on the part of those ‘anti’); and then they submerge for a time.
I think somebody’s just messin’ with the peeps...
Freemasonry is tied to the Illuminati origins, which stems from Knights Templar of Catholic Church, from which they were expelled. That history is worth researching. I have several books, and have studied some of areas of the Secret Societies involved.
The NWO is Banks, Bilderbergers/politicians/CEOs, etc., and richest families in world. Knights Templar pillaged thru Europe during the Crusades, and had finances/gold to loan Kings.. supporting Kingdoms until France turned on them, see link.
http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/sociopolitica/sociopol_masonsknightstemplar07.htm
Jesus warned in the Bible to avoid secret groups. ‘There is nothing hidden that will not be made light’. Avoid Freemasons/Secret Societies.
Nothing in the lodge ritual - even that line - says good works get you into heaven. It says that they’re necessary - not that good works cause you to go to heaven. And if you believe as a result of your faith in Christ you receive 1) salvation and 2) the ability to do good works (which if I understand correctly, is pretty much the Lutheran position), then there’s no contradiction anyway. (Though my personal opinion that line should be reworded because it can be interpreted as you do, and my understanding is in some places it has been - and there isn’t any religious teaching in the lodge).
Alternatively, since it relates to the Lambskin, take the whole line to mean that it’s the Lamb’s purity of life and rectitude of conduct (nothing says it’s YOUR purity...). Take your pick. Or, realize that it’s one sentence in about eight hours of degree work in a part of the degree that’s so important it’s frequently...skipped.
Regardless, it’s less works-righteousness than the Athanasian creed: “At His coming all men will rise again with their bodies and shall give account for their own works. And they that have done good shall go into life everlasting; and they that have done evil into everlasting fire.” If you can explain that line away, the Lambskin line is no bother to me.
Finally, keep in mind that Freemasonry originated as an exclusively Christian (actually, exclusively Anglican) organization. I’m no Masonic historian, but I understand that was part of the mid 1700s schism between the “ancients” and the “moderns” (ancients wanting to keep it how it was “back in the day” - including requiring members to be part of the Church of England). So some of the symbolism is strikingly Christian, but has been overlaid with religously-neutral meaning. It still comes through like a frying pan to the head to the Christian though.
“Sorry if you haven’t done your homework on the history of Masonry.”
Isn’t it always ironic that the non-Masons purportedly tell the Masons all about Masonry that they don’t know/?
No, I’m NOT going to ‘avoid’ them. I’ve known too many good men who have been Masons.
And I think that you are greatly misinterpreting Jesus, who told his own disciples, “The knowledge of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them.” That suggests to me that there are different levels upon which individuals can grasp Truth and through which they can develop; and a philosophical, fraternal institution that wants to ‘make good men better’ seems to me a very valuable adjunct to any religion that men may have.
I think it’s a good idea that people just let other people alone, and quit trying to imply that what someone has found beneficial, is somehow ‘wrong’; and quit trying to force one’s own notions upon others.
Jesus told us how to live, and He told us the first and second greatest commandments.
Quite often, I don’t see those ideals practiced on threads like this.
Do as you wish, I could care less, but remember that decisions have consequences. I only suggested you research this secret society. Don’t ask if someone knows anything about a group, then reject even the idea that you should check thoroughly. That shows you asked deceptively, so that you could defend it! sic!
LOL!
I have long experience with ‘secret societies’.
The lesson I learned from that experience is that there isn’t much SECRET about them; and they’re largely made of ordinary, fallible human beings, most of whom are just personally seeking a little inspiration in their lives - probably because organized religions have become so moribund, and don’t fill all of the peoples’ aspirational desires.
Any notion that organizations like Freemasonry are trying to ‘rule the world’ is a paranoid fantasy.
There ARE wealthy, powerful people who TRY to world the world - but there have ALWAYS been!
There’s nothing different about that today than it was in the most ancient times.
And anyway: “What is that to thee?”
Listen to St. Paul and the Broken bones....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vpXX5BjltM
You are in error. It is, “murder and treason excepted.” I wrote it down. In our neck of the woods we call it bearing false witness. Others may have a different word for it.
You are looking for a fight, forget it. I just wrote you off as nuts! No reply wanted!
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