Post by * irenic *Here are some links, including one which will tell you what freemasons think
of themselves - http://jmm.aaa.net.au/articles/13036.htm (now that's a novel
place to start eh :-)?
If you're evangelical-to-fundamentalist you'll assert that 'freemasonry is
incompatible with Christianity'. If you're 'mainline/liberal' you'll hear
something like this: 'I have generally found Freemasons to be people with
integrity and with a heightened sense of commitment to the community.'
http://jmm.aaa.net.au/articles/11758.htm
That type of morality is not mutually exclusive. There are atheists who
fit that description, too. Yet, since one cannot be an atheist and be a
Freemason, the Freemasons themselves are Fundamentalist.
I think the question should not be "should a Christian be involved with
Freemasonry", but rather, "_why would_ a Christian feel the need to be
involved with Freemasonry." Notwitthstanding Christ's injunction during
the Sermon on the Mount against the swearing of oaths, this isn't the
Lyon's Club. Freemasonic ritual is full of occultic and pagan
symbolism. The entrance board to the largest town in the small country
where I am from has an upside down pentagram on it to symbolize the
presence of a Masonic Lodge in the town. This is the same community
that was in a serious uproar over changing the name of a local junior
high school sports team called The Devils, but then I had passed by
this sign for years before I noticed it. Of course, the neo-pagans say
that the Satanists took and perverted the original symbol of the
inverted pentagram for their own use. Sure, it doesn't represent Satan
worship to the Masons, but the fact is that it is an occultic symbol.
As for the Freemasonic symbolism on the US $1 bill, the US Treasury
site says that the Star of David was designed there to acknowledge
Jewish financiers of the Revolutionary War, and that seems like a
convenient explanation. However, the six-pointed star is also an occult
symbol, the Star of Repham (or Rephaim). This Seal of Solomon figures
heavily in Masonic ritual vis-a-vis the first Mason, the designer of
Solomon's Temple, Hiram Abif, who was brutally murdered by co-workers
who would steal his secret knowledge. One doesn't have to read
"Fundamentalist" Christian anti-Masonry books to find out about this.
There are plenty of secular sources that explain it. Besides,
especially with the popularization of the occult in the past few years,
so-called secrets aren't too secret anymore.
So I repeat my assertion, why would a Christian want to be involved in
a paganistic club full of occultic symbolism and ritual? If you've
already been baptized as a Christian, why would you go through a
Freemason's death and resurrection ceremony, a ritual steeped in
occultic symbolism? For what purpose does this advance your walk as a
Christian? When you have tasted meat, why do you return to drinking
milk?