Posted on 01/16/2009 9:54:17 AM PST by BGHater
President-elect Barack Obama's swearing-in Tuesday will incorporate several elements out of America's Masonic past.
One-third of the signers of the Constitution, many of the Bill of Rights signers and America's first few presidents (except for Thomas Jefferson) were Freemasons, a fraternal organization that became public in early 18th-century England.
Although it became fabulously popular in America, at one time encompassing 10 percent of the population, Pope Clement XII condemned Freemasonry in 1738 as heretical. The latest pronouncement was issued in 1983 by then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger - now Pope Benedict XVI - who called Masonic practices "irreconcilable" with Catholic doctrine.
Still, as the first president, George Washington had to come up with appropriate rituals for the new country. He borrowed many of them from Masonic rites he knew as "worshipful leader" of a lodge in Alexandria.
His Masonic gavel is on display at the Capitol Visitor Center. Until this inauguration, Washington's Masonic Bible - on which he swore his obligations as a Freemason - was used for the presidential oath of office. President-elect Barack Obama will use Abraham Lincoln's Bible.
The worshipful master administered the Masonic oaths. This was adapted to the president vowing to serve his country in an oath administered by the top justice of the Supreme Court.
I learned all this from Garrison Courtney, a 30-something government worker who gives Masonic tours of the District in his spare time. He is worshipful master at the Cincinnatus Lodge in Georgetown. Contrary to public perceptions of Masons being older white guys, current local membership is a racially and religiously mixed group of Gen-X men, he says.
They have, he adds, gotten a bad rap as a secretive organization.
"If people have questions, we will tell them," he says. "We're pretty open as an organization."
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
If you know the content of such oaths you should probably state them. We will not be willing to quote the actual oath, but we will be willing to state whether what you allege has any basis in truth. From my own understanding, the oath is explicitly pro-God, who I am charged to always refer to with reverence as is due from a creature to a Creator, to invoke His aid in all my laudable undertakings and to esteem Him the chief good. All other obligations in Masonry are subject and consequent to this charge.
As to patriotism, after having charged the new entered apprentice to also pursue his duty to his neighbor (act upon the square with all) and then to himself (avoid all intemperance and irregularity, which may impair his faculties and debase the dignity of his profession), he is charged to be “a quiet and peaceable citizen, true to his government, and just to his country. He is not to countenance disloyalty or rebellion, but to patiently submit to legal authority and conform with cheerfulness to the government of the country in which he lives.”
Perhaps you do not consider these elements to support a firm belief in God or to emphasize the importance of being a loyal and patriotic citizen. Perhaps you might buy a dictionary, in which case.
There is not one true statement, at least about Masonry, in your post.
I agree.
I shall quote from our GL’s manual of ritual on the subject.
In the third section of the first degree, the lecturer notes that there are three movable jewels in a Lodge, “the rough ashlar, the perfect ashlar and the trestleboard. The rough ashlar is a stone as taken from the quarry in its rude and natural state, the perfect ashlar is a stone as prepared by the hands of the workmen, to be adjusted by the fellowcraft. The trestleboard is for the master workman to draw his designs upon. By the rough ashlar, we are reminded of our rude and imperfect state by nature. By the perfect ashlar, by that state of perfection AT WHICH WE HOPE TO ARRIVE by a virtuous education, our own endeavors and the BLESSING OF GOD. By the trestleboard, we are also reminded that, as the operative workman erects his temporal building aggreeable to the rules and designs laid down by the master on the trestleboard, so we, both operative and speculative, endeavor to erect our spiritual building aggreable to the rules and designs laid down by the Supreme Architect of the Universe in the great books of nature and revelation, which are our spiritual, moral and Masonic trestleboard.”
This can all be quoted because it is plainly written in a manual, btw.
So you see, God is author of all that Masonry holds to be requisite. You might notice that the word Lucifer never occurs in that passage. The word has not passed my lips in any Masonic form or ceremony, nor have I ever heard the word from any other Mason.
It is also important to remind oneself that a secular, fraternal organization can never supplant nor even really supply for a proper Church. Masonry is explicitly not a religion, nor does it intend to enforce any particular creed or religious tenet. That is why Catholics are welcome to join. But, just as any Protestant, Jew or Muslim must leave their particular liturgies and tenets at the door ( in the interest of amity among brothers), so must Catholics.
To ask someone to refrain from engaging a fellow Mason in religious debate is certainly not the same thing as rejecting him for having religious beliefs discordant in detail with your own. That does not stop some from conflating the two, but such conflation is erroneous and can lead to inaccurate and even prejudicial commentary. If such violates nothing else (and it is likely a violation of Truth), it violates Charity, which is paramount to Masonry and, if memory serves, was our Lord’s paramount command to His disciples, first to God and then to their neighbor. Likewise, Masons are also bound to love God, their country, and their neighbors; to obey Him, to serve the country, to work for the benefit or their neighbors (and rejoice in their prosperity) and finally to work on themselves, using the blessing of God as the cement to bind the spiritual stones He provides them into a man less selfish and more concerned with the good of those around him.
Yep.
I guess you haven't yet heard about our massive plot to control the international tinfoil industry.
Yep. We're going to make it real hard for you guys to get new hats.
Shhhhhhhh. (Don't tell anybody. Just like all of your other "inside information", you're the ONLY ONE who knows about it.)
Shhhhhhhhhhhh.....
So is your sister more grateful to the Masons or to Christ Jesus for the provision?
The Children’s hospitals are indeed a good work. If provided independently of faith in Christ, then their rewards have been received already, worthy no future inheritance.
If they are provided through faith in Christ, to glorify Him, without any expectation or anticipation of reward, then they probably shall be honored with a crown in heaven by Christ Himself.
Additionally, if such philantropic works are done independent of faith in Christ, they may be parlayed into evil by the Adversary. It’s for this reason that the number one priority in all things is that they be performed through faith in Christ.
This is not insulting to anybody. It is offensive. Our Lord and Savior Christ Jesus as the only mechanism for the Kingdom of Heaven is probably the most offensive thing imaginable to the human mind. Nevertheless, it is true and veritable.
If your father, grandfather, and several uncles exercise faith alone in Christ alone, I rejoice for their faith in glorification of the Son. Like I previously mentioned, the environment doesn't preclude faith in Christ. The community which denies Him, will bear bad fruit.
Where do you get your false information?
She hated the Masons because she said that church members took money they should give to the church and gave it to Masonic sponsored projects like hospitals.
For many even the Catholics the first hatred for Mason stemmed from greed of mammon.
Most of these people say they know Jesus.
However as I tell these folks, “It is one thing to know about Jesus but it is another to know Jesus in your heart”.
If you truly knew Masonry you could not write the garbage I just read in your post.
May you really know Jesus Christ as your personal savior.
A typical masonic response.
For those reading, not cognizant of masonic teachings, observe carefully the implications being made in the query and statements of the masons.
First, I have not provided any false information, so the query itself is based upon a framework of deception for it assumes false information is being provided.
Secondly, it places in the onus on the reader, the respondent. If I were to reference the post to which he replies as being a source of information he has labled as false, it isn't he who has accountability for the information being discussed (at least in the adversarial masonic perspective).
The reply was to the following statement.
Reconciliation to God is through faith alone in Christ alone. Something not welcome within the Masonic community.
The reply implies the statement is false or that it is based upon false information, or neither of the two (something along the lines of: When did you stop beating your wife?).
Please note that this is a typical masonic trained handling of worldly situations. It contrives an argument where none exists. Instead of taking a situation to glorify Christ, it takes opportunity to promote self, worldliness, works, or any other distraction away from Christ, and where possible rewards any and all things antiChristian with worldliness and power. It doesn't promote faith in Christ, but it does promote judgment, adversarial manipulation, and appeal to glorify the Adversary. (This is, BTW, one main reason why many believers consider freemasonry to be satanic. Interestingly, high level Masons will debate amongst themselves as to if their Masonic studies are forays into Luciferianism or Satanism, go figure.)
The first portion of the post in question is standard Christian theology, well grounded in Catholic, Protestant, Reformed and Dispensational theologies. The devil's advocate would argue the point and allude it is false.
The second half of the statement is that faith alone in Christ alone is not welcome within the Masonic community. Again, the devil's advocate would deny this so as to deceive believers into entering a system of false works, encouraging faith in anything but through Christ. If not to entice believers, the devil's advocate would also work to deceive unbelievers into a system of works dedicated to studying mechanisms to prop up one another in a worldly system of advancement between their brethren.
In both situations, a counterfeit system of order is promoted independent of faith through Christ.
Let's look at another possible meaning. The reply is from a Mason who is simply frustrated that the system of works he's involved in, isn't received by other Christians in the fashion he had anticipated in his thinking. Reality conflicts with his self image of his efforts. He recognizes he has been involved in works which he intended to be good and expects rewards for his good work. He is patient for his due, but when exposed to the light that reward might not be forthcoming, falls back onto that which is good in his own eyes, instead of what God provides. So perhaps the query is that of an frustrated adolescent who doesn't know how to respond through faith in Christ, but only by labeling that which he opposes as false.
If this is the case, then the query is merely one of a spoiled child.
One last possibility is one of probing for information with malintent, to cause future harm to those with whom he disagrees. Masons are also known for extortion, threatening, and assassination in order to advance their personal empires and those causes they find righteous in their own eyes. Again, consequent to thinking independently of faith through Christ, the quest is to form a cosmic system of worldly order. Such an order if independent of faith through Christ, is also appealing for a lust for power.
To answer the question directly, I have not provided false information. Secondly, I reiterate I have provided a testimony, not an accusation.
If the situation were as you allege, of honest and honorable men faithfully serving Christ by faith alone in Him alone in the Masonic service, there would have been a joyous welcome of my testimony, instead of attack upon my veracity. The Adversarial heart belies its deceptive counterfeit.
compass and square ping
Then don’t take my word for it, take God’s Word for it.
Just go down to your local lodge, and tell them in your initial statement that you believe in God through faith in Christ. They assert all Masons must believe in God.
When they deny you, ask the question, “if they do not accept a believer in God through faith in Christ, then what God are they referencing”?
It soon becomes obvious they do believe in something; have given quite a bit of thought to that object of their thinking; and the more one studies Scripture, the more their counterfeit appeal to worldliness and even worship of Satan and Lucifer becomes obvious.
With this stated, does this mean all Masons are evil? No!
On the contrary, many Masons perform some outstanding good works. Whenever those good works were NOT performed through faith in Christ, they shall be judged as having been already rewarded in this world and not of eternal value.
One isn't saved by believing in God. The gospel is that we are saved by having faith in what He has provided for salvation, namely our Lord and Savior Christ Jesus.
When a believer seeks to glorify Christ and is denied acceptance for stating He believes through faith in the Son, those who reject him are placing their organization ahead of glorifying God through faith in Christ.
You have not answered the question, what is the source of your false (because it is) your information?
My Aunt Mary told my Aunt Lorraine, at my uncle’s viewing, to stop stroking the my uncle’s over coat (which Mary had advised her to have put on him) because poor Jim was going to need it.
Then about two years later, when a third aunt died, Mary refused to get out of the car at the cemetery because she was so upset that Isabel had been cremated, that she could not watch.
I thought at the time that Mary was just old and not thinking straight, but my sister insisted that it had something to do with my uncle and the Masons. No one else in my family believed anything like that, even the Masons or Eastern Star members.
Masonic funerals are only an adjunct to actual religious services and do not substitute for them in any way. The main idea is to help console the bereaved, letting them know that a group of men they might not have even been very aware of is now dedicated to ensuring that they are helped whenever possible.
In the ceremony, an apron will be draped over the coffin (or some appropriate item relative to the deceased, if cremated) and sprigs of acacia will be strewn. That’s all. The fear does sound unfounded and you should feel confident in reassuring your sister on the point.
When my uncle died, a man who had been a dedicated Mason, his whole life, my aunt arranged a funeral to accommodate a large number of Masons. She was disappointed that they never showed up. Of course, he had retired and was buried from his home town, not where he had lived the last twenty or thirty years.
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