@gamewell:
Wow you are defending Masonry to the degree most Catholics would defend Jesus Christ and the Church. Good on you. “Liars?” You basically said to Ralphinal that his statements were not the truth or half-truths. So what exactly does that make Ralphinal’s statements to you since they are not true? Ralphinal is speaking truth; you are dissimulating.
Yes, I know Scottish Rite and York Rite are appendant bodies. Fine. But it’s absolutely hilarious of you to disown them as having any relation to Freemasonry (even to Blue Lodge)…You just have neither confirmed nor denied whether you have gone on the higher degrees after a couple of years in Blue Lodge. Most die-hard masons do and I’m sure you will if you haven’t already. Some Masons here have. One stipulated he had 32nd Degree Scottish Rite, so I quoted from the idiotic lecture given therein about how reaching this Highest Degree in Scottish rite contained a lecture on “telepathy and esoteric psychology” -
The Holy Secret and
Magic. Clausen’s Commentaries on Morals and Dogma (The Supreme Council, 33degree, Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, Southern Juriscdiction of the U.S.A., 1976), pp.157-58 What rubbish! Would you not agree talking of magic and mental telepathy is not rubbish in Scottish rite? What would you say?
Again my original question was also on the oaths. Are they blasphemous or not? Christians are only to give oaths to serious matters (i.e. court appearance) You are pledging on the Holy Bible (the sacred book) to keep trivial secrets the cost of which revealing would be your self-mutilation. What did God ever do to get involved in such ridiculous mumbo-jumbo. You as an Episcopalian would, I assume, agree God’s name should not be used in vain so why is it in the
Temple? Ever wonder why the oaths are so bloody gamewell? Just fun and games? No, because if a Mason were to lose his tongue, have his entrails burned, or head chopped off, or whatever idiotic penalties have been thought up in the past, this scared fellow Masons to no end as it was believed an incomplete body could not rise from the dead. It’s the Masonic punishment to condemn a man without any hope of an afterlife. That’s the provenance, and Grown Men do fear these penalties to this very day, whether enforced or not, to the point they still are wary of breaking them. CAF members who were once Masons have confessed as much. Heck, the Masons made them swear to this bloody gory stuff using the Holy Bible - wow, fantastic use for our Holy Book.
O.K. if for now, let’s stick to Blue Lodge rituals then. In the Entered Apprentice Initiation in the Masonic
Temple, the candidate gets a shirt with one sleeve, one pant leg, and a slight-opening over his chest. He is hoodwinked and a noose (cabel-tow) placed on his neck. He is blinded and is symbolically in the darkness. The Stewards then hands him over to the
Senior Deacon (talk about religious overtones - Deacons) until at last he kneels at the
ALTAR! in his Masonic
Temple, and places his hand on the Bible (blasphemy to use the Bible for these type of oaths) where all the fun and games and secrets and bloody penalties can be pronounced with the initiate keeping his hand on God’s Word.
Now the Catholic Church maintains these oaths are blasphemy? How are they not?
In many U.S. Lodges, the initiation apron is carefully put away and stored,
and later in life placed in the Masonic’s coffin upon death. My Catholic family members keep rosaries and are given Crosses once they pass away in their coffins. The reason the apron is kept by Masons is because that initiation ceremony marks his initiation from blindness to Masonic Light. Up until then, Masonry teaches that they were in the darkness (hence the blindfold in the ceremony).
I assert that no man is in the darkness who follows Christ available to all. Nobody needs Masonic light available to a few to confuse the Real Light of Jesus Christ. These secret steps amount to Gnosticism, secret knowledge, to be kept by the brothers, and only the brothers. We as Christians wait for Christ’s light and are not in need of any Masonic ceremony curing us of our blindness.
A Mason is also commonly required to memorize a series of questions and answers about his degree. Guess what it is called? A
Catechism. Nice touch that. The Master Mason degree initiation takes place in the
Sanctum Sanctorum, the “Holy of Holies” in the Temple. The similarities to religion are for all there to see: Altars, Temples, Deacons, the “
Holy of Holies” You either see these as religious ritual or you avoid the truth.
So I leave asking this (the first question you still have
NOT answered:
- Are the oaths in Masonry blasphemy or not in using God’s Holy book to promise self-mutilation? - Simple question;
- How much Masonic mumbo-jumbo do you believe gameplan? Do you personally believe as some Masons did here not too long ago that Speculative Masonry had its start with the Pyramids of Egypt and the Temple of Solomon? Do you actually buy that gobbledygook? Do you believe Freemasonry can actually trace its roots to the Temple of Solomon (Hiram Abif). Do you believe as some Masons have argued that Moses was a Mason and Jesus Christ too? Many Masons believe this on the basis of what they learn in lodge. Poor souls. Can Freemasonry be traced back to the Temple of Solomon in your view?
I see flashbacks of another thread.