1. Welcome to Baptist Board, a friendly forum to discuss the Baptist Faith in a friendly surrounding.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to all the features that our community has to offer.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon and God Bless!

Masonry It Really Is A Religion

Discussion in 'General Baptist Discussions' started by Forever Settled, Feb 11, 2019.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
Top Posters
Page 2 of 8
  1. JonC

    JonC Moderator
    Moderator

    Joined:
    Aug 28, 2001
    Messages:
    33,459
    Likes Received:
    3,563
    Faith:
    Baptist
    I get the hourglass (York Rite), but what are the wings?
     
    #21 JonC, Feb 12, 2019
  2. HankD

    HankD Well-Known Member
    Site Supporter

    Joined:
    May 14, 2001
    Messages:
    26,977
    Likes Received:
    2,536
    Faith:
    Baptist
    human existence is fleeting.
     
    #22 HankD, Feb 12, 2019
  3. Dave G

    Dave G Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jul 11, 2018
    Messages:
    5,858
    Likes Received:
    1,333
    Faith:
    Baptist
    I've read that, and the higher one goes in the rites, the more revealed is their "god".
    Anyone ever read William Schnoebelen's book?

    https://www.amazon.com/Masonry-Beyond-Light-William-Schnoebelen/dp/0937958387
    I have, and I thought it was a very interesting read... some of the contents have been corroborated by a personal friend of mine whose father was a 32nd degree Scottish Rite Mason.
     
    #23 Dave G, Feb 12, 2019
    Last edited: Feb 12, 2019
  4. Forever Settled

    Forever Settled Active Member

    Joined:
    Jan 29, 2019
    Messages:
    241
    Likes Received:
    45
    Faith:
    Baptist
    No , I haven’t most of my books are ones the masons published .
     
    #24 Forever Settled, Feb 12, 2019
  5. Forever Settled

    Forever Settled Active Member

    Joined:
    Jan 29, 2019
    Messages:
    241
    Likes Received:
    45
    Faith:
    Baptist
    “Freemasonry has a religious service to commit the body of a deceased brother to the dust whence it came, and to speed the liberated spirit back to the Great Source of Light. Many Freemasons make this flight with *no other guarantee of a safe landing than their belief in the religion of Freemasonry*" [Coil's Masonic Encyclopedia, p. 512]
     
    #25 Forever Settled, Feb 12, 2019
    Last edited: Feb 12, 2019
  6. Dave G

    Dave G Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jul 11, 2018
    Messages:
    5,858
    Likes Received:
    1,333
    Faith:
    Baptist
    According to the book, Bill Schnoebelen was a 32nd degree Mason.
     
    #26 Dave G, Feb 12, 2019
  7. tyndale1946

    tyndale1946 Well-Known Member
    Site Supporter

    Joined:
    Aug 30, 2001
    Messages:
    11,001
    Likes Received:
    2,396
    Faith:
    Baptist
    Previous Father In Law was a Mason of the Scottish Rite and after he died I had access to all his Masonic literature... How old is free masonry?... As old as Egypt!... Got the picture?... Mormon rituals are based on them!... I know in our church you can not be a member and be a member of any secret society, no exception... Speaking about Mason here is an interesting tidbit... Notable examples of Masons include Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball, John C. Bennett, HyrumSmith and Joseph Smith, Sr. In the early 1840s, a Masonic Lodge was formed by Latter Day Saints who were Freemasons. Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum became members of the newly-formed Nauvoo lodge... Brother Glen:)
     
    #27 tyndale1946, Feb 12, 2019
    • Informative Informative x 1
  8. Forever Settled

    Forever Settled Active Member

    Joined:
    Jan 29, 2019
    Messages:
    241
    Likes Received:
    45
    Faith:
    Baptist
    Thank the Lord for your church taking a stand against this occult organization........your church is a rare exception.
     
    #28 Forever Settled, Feb 12, 2019
  9. JonC

    JonC Moderator
    Moderator

    Joined:
    Aug 28, 2001
    Messages:
    33,459
    Likes Received:
    3,563
    Faith:
    Baptist
    There quite a few notable Masons (I think it was "in fashion" at one time to belong to a "secret society"). Here are a few more:

    George Washington
    Andrew Jackson
    Teddy Roosevelt
    Franklin Roosevelt
    Harry Truman
    Dwight Eisenhower
    Gerald Ford
    James Monroe
    James Polk
    James Buchanan
    Andrew Johnson
    James Garfield
    William McKinley
    Howard Taft
    Warren Harding
    Buzz Aldrin
    Robert Burns
    Mark Twain
    Sir Walter Scott
    John Wayne
    Clark Gable
    Glenn Ford
    Peter Sellers
    W.C. Fields
    Red Skelton
    Roy Rogers
    Norman Vincent Peale
    Mozart
    Beethoven
    Sousa
    Charles Mayo
    Douglas MacArthur
    John Pershing
    Omar Bradley
    Audi Murphy
    William Westmoreland
    Sam Houston
    Benjamin Franklin
    Paul Revere
    John Hancock
    Robert Dole
    Ty Cobb
    Cy Young
    Arnold Palmer
    J. Edgar Hoover
    Lewis Armistead

    Since Christianity seems to be swaying in popularity, I wonder if the decline of the Freemasons (and other "secret" societies) are a product of our "changing times"?

    Is there a more contemporary list of Freemasons?
     
    #29 JonC, Feb 12, 2019
  10. JonC

    JonC Moderator
    Moderator

    Joined:
    Aug 28, 2001
    Messages:
    33,459
    Likes Received:
    3,563
    Faith:
    Baptist
    I see this more and more (my last few churches took the same stance and a church one town over split over the issue).

    I am actually surprised the group still exists. We just moved (about six months ago) and I've seen a couple of large lodges (or temples, I'm not sure if they were a blue lodge or belonged to a rite). We went to Tybee Island last weekend (it was cold) and at the light house parking lot there is a Shriners temple. I just wonder how large the organization is these days.
     
    #30 JonC, Feb 12, 2019
  11. tyndale1946

    tyndale1946 Well-Known Member
    Site Supporter

    Joined:
    Aug 30, 2001
    Messages:
    11,001
    Likes Received:
    2,396
    Faith:
    Baptist
    If you've never read Dan Brown he is full of Masonic Symbolisms... Clem Kadiddlehopper you bad boy... He always signed off his program with Good Night and may God Bless... What God was he talking too?... The thing about the Masons is they are world wide... And you thought they were the ones driving around in their little cars with the funny hats in parades:rolleyes:... Brother Glen:)

    Would one of you brethren post a Shriner parade with little cars?... Thanks Brother Glen
     
    #31 tyndale1946, Feb 12, 2019
  12. Forever Settled

    Forever Settled Active Member

    Joined:
    Jan 29, 2019
    Messages:
    241
    Likes Received:
    45
    Faith:
    Baptist
    I am encouraged to hear you know churches that take a stand opposing this wicked group.

    If you do a little checking you will be shocked at how many SBC pastors....deacons...and church staff and members are masons. The numbers are staggering.
     
    #32 Forever Settled, Feb 12, 2019
  13. JonC

    JonC Moderator
    Moderator

    Joined:
    Aug 28, 2001
    Messages:
    33,459
    Likes Received:
    3,563
    Faith:
    Baptist
    Actually, the churches I was speaking of are Southern Baptist. The SBC today is not "pro-freemason". But when I was young most of the deacons were freemasons (I don't know about the pastor, but I remember going to a decons home and he had a grandfather clock with the mason symbol).

    Decades ago I was a member (joined to see what it was about). There were a few pastors back then (if I remember correctly, most were Methodist or Church of Christ).
     
    #33 JonC, Feb 12, 2019
  14. Forever Settled

    Forever Settled Active Member

    Joined:
    Jan 29, 2019
    Messages:
    241
    Likes Received:
    45
    Faith:
    Baptist
    I’m sure it varies depending on what part of the country one is in .
    The last word I had was the SBC left it up to an individual to decide if they wanted to be a mason....things maybe different now.

    U.S. membership in the Masons is claimed at about three million, with about five million worldwide.

    Some church denominations are also led by avowed Masons (e.g., a 1991 survey by the Southern Baptist Convention Sunday School Board found that 14% of SBC pastors and 18% of SBC deacon board chairs are Masons.

    It is also estimated that SBC members comprise 37% of total U.S. lodge membership.

    37% of 3,000,000 would have been 1,110,000 Masons who held membership in the SBC. This estimate was for 1991. How many are there today? I don’t know.
     
    #34 Forever Settled, Feb 12, 2019
    • Agree Agree x 1
  15. Logos1560

    Logos1560 Well-Known Member
    Site Supporter

    Joined:
    Oct 22, 2004
    Messages:
    6,213
    Likes Received:
    405
    Faith:
    Baptist
    When I was obtaining KJV editions for comparison, I obtained a 1940 Holman KJV edition.

    It turned out that it was a Masonic Edition of the KJV.

    Its title page stated:
    Masonic Edition
    Temple-Illustrated

    The Holy Bible
    The Great Light in Masonry
    containing the Old and New Testaments
    According to the Authorized or King James Version together with Illuminated Frontispiece, presentation and record pages and helps to the Masonic Student.

    On the copyright page, it has copyright dates in 1924, 1925, 1929, 1930, 1933, 1935, 1939, 1940
    so several editions of it may have been printed.

    On the next page, for the Masonic Belief, the first two statements are as follows:

    There is one God, the Father of all men.
    The Holy Bible is the Great Light in Masonry, and the Rule and Guide for faith and practice.
     
    #35 Logos1560, Feb 12, 2019
  16. Ziggy

    Ziggy Well-Known Member
    Site Supporter

    Joined:
    Jul 13, 2004
    Messages:
    1,162
    Likes Received:
    163
    Faith:
    Baptist
    Note that Holman publishers back then were not part of the current SBC Broadman-Holman group, which only occurred more recently when Broadman purchased the rights to the going defunct Philadelphia publishing house's name.

    By the way, I once owned a KJV published by Zondervan (back when it supposedly was thoroughly evangelical) expressly for the Christian Science church. Go figure that one.
     
    #36 Ziggy, Feb 12, 2019
  17. HankD

    HankD Well-Known Member
    Site Supporter

    Joined:
    May 14, 2001
    Messages:
    26,977
    Likes Received:
    2,536
    Faith:
    Baptist
    How many were just "dues payers"?
     
    #37 HankD, Feb 13, 2019
    • Agree Agree x 1
  18. church mouse guy

    church mouse guy Well-Known Member
    Site Supporter

    Joined:
    May 23, 2002
    Messages:
    22,050
    Likes Received:
    1,857
    Faith:
    Baptist
    Correct me if I am wrong but the SBC met in Indianapolis on the 1990s and studied the issue. The conclusion was if you are not a member, please don't join. If you are, you can stay if necessary because in many small towns the Masons control the economy. My Dad belonged but never attended and always expressed outrage at the annual dues. I threw all of their stuff away and he did not have one of their closed funerals. The older generation tended to belong more than the younger. Here in Indianapolis there are a few segregated lodges as well as a very large Scottish Rite building downtown, which is dark and dirty inside where a bad auditorium is used for public concerts.
     
    #38 church mouse guy, Feb 13, 2019
  19. JonC

    JonC Moderator
    Moderator

    Joined:
    Aug 28, 2001
    Messages:
    33,459
    Likes Received:
    3,563
    Faith:
    Baptist
    I don't know. I know many were active as some were over their lodges and many (most of the supreme justices that were Masons....which I didn't list) were active in the Scottish Rite.

    But as an older Freemason (who became a dues payer only) told me, it used to be fashionable. He was from a larger city and they held socials, dances, ect. So the focus was on charity and being a type of "socal club" (for him anyway).

    I suppose many were active, but I doubt most took it as a religion (I don't think most viewed it as we do now).
     
    #39 JonC, Feb 13, 2019
    • Agree Agree x 1
  20. JonC

    JonC Moderator
    Moderator

    Joined:
    Aug 28, 2001
    Messages:
    33,459
    Likes Received:
    3,563
    Faith:
    Baptist
    They did issue accept a report (I think 1993 ?).

    They determined the teachings of Freemasonry not compatible with Christanity or SBC doctrine.

    The econonomic link to Freemasonry us not a part of the SBC report. They did not suggest current Masons remain Masons. But this an "issue of conscious". For many Masons the conclusions were foreign to their experience.

    With the SBC it is up to the local church.
     
    #40 JonC, Feb 13, 2019
    • Like Like x 1
Page 2 of 8
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
Loading...