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 ...
Sir, I have had the extreme displeasure to read your tendentious posts. I am a Catholic Christian. I believe that Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior and that I have no way to heaven and no salvation outside of Him. My sins are covered by His once for all oblation and satisfaction for them. Outside of Him, I have no worth in myself, beyond the fact that I am created by the living God, who has made all things good.
All that said, I am now in line to sit in the East in a Masonic Lodge. No one ever asked me whether I believed in Yahweh, Allah, or the Triune God. No one ever wondered whether I believed that Jesus Christ is one in substance with the Father and the Holy Spirit, and now that everybody in the Lodge (and a lot of Masons throughout my state) know it from personal testimony, their principal response is joy that I have every reasonable chance of fully pursuing my earthly pilgrimage to ultimate salvation, communion with the saints and to live forever in the presence of the living God.
So, according to you, my Lodge is exceptional, yes?
Ahh, thank for that additional bit of data. I am very sorry that no Masons showed up. It would be exceptional if they had been asked and refused. That is in itself a Masonic offense. If you know the number and state of the Lodge, the relevant officers can be consulted. What you do then is up to you.
I REALLY DO NOT UNDERSTAND THIS TOPIC CLEARLY.
I noticed that there will be a program on the masons on the history channel this wednesaday night at 9 est. Perhaps that will shed some light on who they are, etc.
I simply testify that when I have stated I believe in God through faith in Christ, I was denied any admittance into that organization, explicitly for that reason. Even moreso, repeated attacks upon my family, my profession, my marriage, my personal self, along with threats of physical harm and murder were par for the course by those with very close ties to the Masonic community.
Those same Masons who elevate their worldly positions by associations with those who brazenly commit criminal activity, promote homosexuality, adultery, fornication, theft, extortion, active liars, have sought every Machiavllian mechanism to advance their personal and community empires. Even with this said, their remained amongst them a deep rooted and personally seated animosity towards any and all things associated with those who think through faith in Christ.
In all these things, they generally are corrupt, having committed a handful of criminal acts, but then confess them amongst themselves, and satisfy their personal sense of justice by then performing what is right in their own eyes, only accepting the authority of Masonry, while even denying the Constitution of the United States as they hold office in our nation.
I have no doubt that the last several Presidents have been Masons, if not the majority of them. It is my duty to obey legitimate authority through faith in Christ. When posed by those who deny Him, and seek to any mechanism other than to glorify Him first, then my duty and allegiance is to remain faithful to God through faith in Christ first.
Yep!
Tinfoil, this and that - anything but simply bow your knee to the Lord Jesus Christ.
This is the essence of the error of Masonry, or any other lodge of Kabbala: All paths do not lead to eternal life; only one: Jesus Christ.
I guess the same premise and question could be asked of yourself.
The ironic thing is that when enough criminal and corrupt people involve most of society in their corruption, why do they think nobody else sees their corruption?
Keep it simple. Faith alone in Christ alone and no matter what the environment, all things are possible for those who remain in fellowship with Him.
Good works? Great. My heart rejoices when a fellow believer and brother performs as God has created Him to perform.
Good works without faith in Christ? Their rewards have already been received prior to the first death and are limited without divine acknowledgment, but maybe parlayed into evil by the Adversary.
Your post is largely fiction, though it is possible you have applied to a Lodge and been voted out. I suspect you were not positively recommended by the Investigating Committee. Had I heard you say such things as you do, I know I would not have recommended you.
Your post is also an invitation to polemic. I will not engage. I simply deny that the allegations you cite have any merit whatsoever and leave you to expound them to others.
No, I'm not a Mason and have not spent any time, as you obviously have spent, investigating Masons.
What is it about Masons that scares you?...other than the koolaid you have consumed?
Are you Catholic?
That is certainly the way it appears to me. It would not seem at all surprising, therefore, that at the core of Freemasonry is a deep respect for Lucifer.
Freemasonry is a deeply Luciferian religion. Read Pike. He makes it clear that it's about kabbalah, astrology, ancient Egyptian and Indian paganism, and so forth. No Christian could possibly love Christ and Lucifer. No Christian could possibly be loyal to both the Gospels and the dark magic of the kabbalah.
I ask other Christians to review this thread and to see the things the Freemasons here say about Lucifer. They admit that their religion holds Lucifer in high esteem. Their only defense is that this Lucifer isn't the Devil, but is rather an "angel of light." But St. Paul warned us of exactly this - the Devil will disguise himself as an angel of light. It's really quite transparent. I cannot accept their sincerity. I see no excuse for Freemasons.
Freemasonry is kabbalah. It is based on the occult. Freemasons are the channel for bringing occult influences into our schools, churches, communities, families. And in their heart of hearts they must know that they're part of something fundamentally evil. Churches that tolerate their presence are inviting the Serpent to their very bosom.
We Christians must exclude Freemasons of all stripes from our society. I certainly do. As soon as I find out that an acquaintance is a member of any Masonic organization, I gently confront them with the occult roots of their religion, if they do not renounce it I renounce them.
We cannot allow the smoke of Satan. Exclude them, my brothers and sisters. Summarily, and without regret.
Other than him, I have no personal experience to compare the good brother deeds claimed by this ‘secret’ loook out for the brother we are the ONE claims made.
I do find curious that a big deal is made about how to treat ‘brotherhood’ and not all peoples. I figure it like this as Christ said by their fruits you shall know...
I already do, thank you very much.
Just your thoughts, huh?
Care to make this "thought" coherent?
I am reminded of a certain person by your own comments... I said what I personally KNEW by a self identified 'mason'... as compared to the claims put forth on this thread as to what the 'secret' society projects... Oh and to be clear here this 'man' did NOT announce his stature, it was told completely by innocent discussion as to availability of schedules and why a specific time would NOT be open because of such and such...
I'm still not "getting it". Is it just me? Anybody???
Something to do with some comments I have made? Which ones?
I said what I personally KNEW by a self identified 'mason'...
Are you trying to say that you "said what (you) personally knew about a self identified 'mason"?
as compared to the claims put forth on this thread as to what the 'secret' society projects...
WHAT claims that the "secret society projects?
Oh and to be clear here this 'man' did NOT announce his stature, it was told completely by innocent discussion as to availability of schedules and why a specific time would NOT be open because of such and such...
He didn't "announce his stature"? I thought that he was a "self identified 'mason".
...it was told completely by innocent discussion as to availability of schedules and why a specific time would NOT be open because of such and such...
Huh?
My testimony is not fiction, but an organization which places anything prior to Christ and explicitly disallows one to state their faith in Christ is not a body of brethren to encourage good works through faith in Christ.
There is a litany of other evidence over 50 yrs which also doesn’t shine favorable on Freemasonry, but that is not for me to judge, but simply provide testimony to those with that authority.
I encourage Masons to further study Scripture, but only by faith alone in Christ alone, lest their hearts be hardened.
BTW, during this Church Age our function is to perform good works through faith in Christ to glorify Him. If we glorify any other before we glorify Him, we fail to walk by faith in Him. While one might deny allegations have any merit, one also allows those who perpetuate unrighteousness to continue and further denies glory to the Son.
I do not seek the merit from any other, but attribute my faith to Him and place all glory to Him. Likewise I encourage those who seek righteousness to further remain in faith alone in Christ alone prior to any other, to perform the works He has prepared at the right time and at the right place.
What you post is simply ridiculous.
You are wasting your time. I will not engage in polemic, particularly not in worthless, ad hoc, rumor-mongering polemic. If you have had bad experiences, I am sorry for you. Things happen. I will not defend practices for which there is no confirmation and certainly no warrant in the rules and edicts of which I am aware. If that does not satisfy you, then you must go to someone else for satisfaction or further contention (as that appears also to satisfy something for you).
Masonry is a cult, they do thing in secret in dark corners, it also also very closely tied to mormonism ...
That’s very admirable. Who do you glorify?
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