If you want to read the oaths and rituals pick up a little book called Duncan's Ritual. I loaned it to a brother at church when he was offended that I said something against free-masonry. He didn't like the judging posture because his grandfather is a mason and a "good" man. I wasn't mean, mind you. He just didn't like my take. He borrowed the book and gave it back a month later without really commenting. I gave him and over view and told him what to look for too.

The biggest issue for me aside from the blood oaths and gnostic positions is the re-birth one goes through in the lodge. You dress up like Hiram Abiff, the imaginary character masonry is based on, and you play him as he goes through being murdered while blind-folded. Once dead the masonic distress signal is given by all the masons standing around as you lie "dead." You are eventually risen back to life with the true grip of the master mason upon the five points of fellowship. During which time you are given the substitute for the secret word of masonry.

As a Christian, this ritual of resurrection does not sit well with me at all. Christianity is compatible with Masonry, but not vice versa IMO. Masonry can accept any religion that professes to believe in god though here in the South you'll find that lodges mostly use the Bible upon with to swear blood oaths and open and close the lodge.

Historically masons were not supposed to ask anyone to join and most of the time would not even respond right away upon the first time someone asks about it. However, numbers have been in decline for some years now so I understand that people are being asked to join sometimes.

I don't see anything profitable about a Christian to join a Masonic lodge.

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Mark
Deacon at an SBC church
Atlanta, GA
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Atlanta Evangelical Perspectives Examiner

The other night I read a brief chapter on the Masons by a Mason and it sound like the Joe Smith doctrine of progressive godhood-ism or whatever they called it.

I'm not interested.

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Conscience may lash us, but it cannot replenish a languishing life. Conscience may be God's word and minister to you, telling you of your faults and your follies and your destitution. It may point out, but it will never supply you. Christ must give you new life. Hart has well expressed it: "He to the feeble and the faint, His mighty aid makes known; and when their languid life is spent, supplies it with His own." - J. K. Popham

I seek no other thing than to bring the body of believers closer together in a bond of love; my last desire is to forfeit the well-being of the body for correctness of knowledge. However, I cannot tolerate evil. I hate the deceitfulness of organizations like freemasonry because of the ill-effect they have on our brotherhood.

It is wrong when, in the local church, respecting a person's choice to practice freemasonry has superiority over being truthful with them about the reality behind their practice! If it is taboo to raise one's voice against such darkness in a local church, where is true fellowship? where is having the same mind, the mind of Christ? where is love?

Freemasonry IS a religion; they have a set of practices dictated by a set of beliefs, as well as heirarchy and symbolism, which bring its followers to supposed higher intimacy and greater illumination with "The Great Architect of the Universe." THESE PEOPLE ARE IN BONDAGE, and it brings sorrow to my soul when I see a fellow Christian in such a yoke, neglecting the freedom and joy which is found only in Christ! And I should be silent about this and those associated with it for the sake of following a commandment? Blasphemy. If a discussion about freemasonry falls apart because of false claims about its members, what a devastation!, the conversation should flourish because... look at what we were saved from, and look what others aren't saved from. I find greater love in suffering humiliation for exposing another's sin for his own benefit than the sort of love which comes from people "liking me" because I never open my mouth about their error. Billy Graham should know the reproach he brings on Jesus' name through his association with Freemasons, Presidents, and Catholics. There is no avoiding this.

And, I did wrong in blatantly stating, without any solid evidence, that Billy was a freemason. But, I never said he was a Catholic, either. My point is not to prove whether he is a freemason, or prove that he is a Catholic, but rather shine light on his ultra-apparent yoke with these people. Should a Christian who has been given such influence portray Christ the way he does? He has multiple freemasons at high positions in the BGEA and sacrifices sound doctrine for unity with the Papacy; what a departure from the old Billy, eh?

I did not mean to bring this whole discussion back to life, but wanted to state that I am not seeking vainglory in posting these things, but rather informing all in love, praying that some will understand that it is not "easy" to be a Christian in a church that literally praises Billy Graham and is willfully blind to what he stands for now.



I want to throw this quote into the mix:

"No one owns God, just as surely as no one owns "truth." Not one among us can be truly certain about the nature of God, so "Great Architect of the Universe" is a particularly apt reference to the Deity, as the reference acknowledges both the design and the designer without staking a claim on some exclusive jurisdiction. Deists, Christians - both Catholic and Protestant - Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists, and men of many other faiths have been welcomed into our Fraternity. One point of commonality is their belief in the one God. Masons believe there is one God and one God only. Masons also know that since time immemorial, people have employed many different ways of seeking and expressing what they know of God, of their experiences and relationship with that which transcends all knowing.

Though the Deity has been called by many sectarian names through the ages, perhaps Lao-Tzu's description of the "Tao" or "the Way" best clears away the robes, trappings, trumpery, and shadows surrounding the mystery to which we bow with reverence.

In the first chapter of the "Te-Tao Ching," it is written: The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao. The name that can be named is not the eternal name. The nameless is the beginning of heaven and earth. The named is the mother of ten thousand things. Ever without desire, one can see the mystery. Ever desiring, one can see the manifestations. These two spring from the same source but differ in name. This appears as darkness. Darkness within darkness. The gate to all mystery.

Masonic use of the title "Great Architect of the Universe" is our reverential denotation of the Deity, of that eternal name which cannot be named." (SOURCE: California Freemason Online, The Meaning of "the Great Architect of the Universe")

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Matthew Philip Miller | Reformed Baptist, SBC
Student of Theology at Trinity College of Florida

Iniquities prevail against me; As for our transgressions, You will provide atonement for them. Blessed is the man You choose, And cause to approach You, That he may dwell in Your courts. We shall be satisfied with the goodness of Your house, Of Your holy temple.
Psalms 65:3-4 (NKJV)

Mattew1034:

You just made some excellent points about Masons in the church.

Once upon a time when I had decided to leave the Presbyterian mainline for good, and take my family with me, we went shopping for a good reformed and evangelical church.

One church we visited, at the conclusion I told Mrs. J, we are not coming back here. This place is crawling with Masons. I knew that as a former Mason who had repented and renounced it by demitting from the lodge. I can spot them a mile away.

From the worship, and especially from the sermon, I had the impression of a very weak pastor whose hands were tied. I suspected that either he was clueless, or that he was allowed to say certain things and not others. I was like, we're out of here.

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~Jay~
Husband of ENS, father of J II. | Indian Trail, NC
disabled - cancer
Communicant Member, Precentor | Presbyterian Reformed Church of Charlotte, NC | Presbyterian Reformed Church

zzzzzz ...

I once visited an SBC Church where they were having an "Honor the Masons Day". I scurried out pretty quick.

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Brad
Member- Eagle Heights PCA
Winchester, VA

Pro 16:33 The lot is cast into the lap; but the whole disposing thereof is of the LORD.

Isa 8:20 To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.