W.D.,
Your letter, technically, is addressed to Jacob, however, the signoff says:
Now, would anyone care to answer the questions as they are asked, without leaving over any of them, and without attempting to redirect into issues not asked?
Therefore, I assume it in order for "anyone" to respond
Almighty and Eternal Jehovah!
There is nothing wrong with this as it stands, but will it really apply to Masons as a whole? Let's look at the further statements to see the answer.
***Jehovah is not the God of anti-Christian religions, I don't care how you try to phrase it away, it just will not work
Seems to me if anyone is ducking around the issues or questions, it is you. The original question concerning this whole point was, "you can't find Jehovah mentioned in lodge ritual." Jacob has now shown that you can. So now "Jehovah is not the God of anti-Christian religions" gets thrown in as a new twist, so you can reframe it as it suits you.
Since "the brethren here assembled" may be of Buddhist, Zoroastrian, Pantheist, or even Pagan religions, this can not be speaking of "brothers" in Jehovah, since these religions reject Jehovah. By this, we then find that the opening statement becomes disqualified as it cannot apply to all Masons, nor to all men.
Spoken, of course, as one who has already determined (incorrectly) that these men come together under one religion. They do not, they come together fraternally. Brotherhood of Man is a brotherhood of creation, not of preferred religion.
From what we know of Masonry's acceptance of the above false religions, the question must be asked, "Of what "one mind" are these men called to be "one in name and heart", since we now know that it is not Jehovah, and even moreso that it is surely not Jesus Christ?"
One in brotherly love, relief, and truth. And I can pretty much predict which one you will attack.
May the Master be firm, prudent, and discreet in discharge of his duties, and as the glorious Sun gives light to the day, may he be enable to enlighten the Lodge, and conduct all things aright!
This is not as you replied, but calls for the 'Master' to enlighten the Lodge.
How can a Christian be enlightened by anything but God's Word? No man is called to enlighten another in such as this!
Everything I've seen on the subject says the same, that in Masonry, "light" = "knowledge." Now anyone can enlighten someone else by informing them of knowledge they did not have previously. You make more of this than is there.
Remember all those non-Christian and anti-Christian religions that Masonry welcomes befor you start chunkin' Scripture around here
My, what a low regard for Scripture, I'm shocked, especially coming from a premier Scripture-chunker. Your statement is irrelevant anyway, as you yourself are disregarding the fact that most members in this country would be described as Christian, all other religions are extreme minorities here. But that's not why I say the statement is irrelevant. The challenge you offered was, "only God is a pillar of strength." Scripture soundly refutes you on the point, God has made many people "pillars of strength," and many are called exactly that by Him:
"And I for my part have made you today a fortified city, an iron pillar, and a bronze wall, against the whole land" (Jeremiah 1:18).
"If I am delayed, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and bulwark of the truth." (1 Tim. 3:15)
"And when James and Cephas and John, who were acknowledged pillars, recognized the grace that had been given to me, they gave to Barnabas and me the right hand of fellowship, agreeing that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised." (Galatians 2:9)
“He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he will not go out from it anymore; and I will write on him the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God, and My new name.” (Rev. 3:12)
May the Deacons be constant as the hours,
Only God is "constant as the hours", which He Himself ordains! Again a "puffing up" of man before a Holy God.
You seem to read this with a narrowed view, "constancy" here is simply "faithfulness"--and how it comes to be "puffing up" when this is a prayer asking God for it is a mystery.
and the Tiler be as the eye of a kind Providence which watches unseen over all the works of creation;
A man "be as the eye of kind Providence"?
A man be as He that "watches unseen over all the works of creation"?
What you seem to miss is that the language is more poetic in nature than anything else. Prayer is offered that the master be
enabled to enlighten "
as the glorious Sun gives light to the day" (simile); "May the Wardens be pillars of Strength" (metaphor); "May the Deacons be constant
as the hours" (simile); "and the Tiler be
as the eye of a kind Providence" (simile). Simple language of poetry, "to
be" something is the language of metaphor, "to be
like (or
as)" something is the language of metaphor. Not surprising, either, that an organization that employs such highly symbolic rituals and objects would also use the
language of imagery.
Christians cannot share any duties to God with such ungodly religions, because they have different "gods"
No one "shares" his/her duties to God, they are his/her own.
"But let each one examine his own work, and then he will have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another. For each one shall bear his own load." (Galatians 6:4-5)
Truth is truth, and can not be ignored here. To apply such a prayer in the name of Jehovah God on behalf of men that reject Him in worship and practice is blasphemy of that Holy and Perfect Name!
You forget one thing: if they reject this name, or object to its being there in the ritual, then wouldn't they demit? In spite of your bluster about blasphemy (a mischaracterization), no one is rejecting the name. You keep drawing this false picture of a lodge full of mostly "Buddhist, Zoroastrian, Pantheist, or even Pagan religions"--so I put forth the challenge now, can you find one single lodge in this country where that is so? I dare say you will be hard pressed to find a single professing "Zoroastrian" in any lodge. And don't come back with a triumphant "AHA!" even if you find one, because that would be such a far cry from the nature of U.S. Grand Lodges as to be farcical. You were a lodge member yourself once, I assume you know better, and therefore are guilty of
intentional and persistent misrepresentation on this point. We are discussing, after all, from a basic viewpoint of U.S. lodges, since every time it comes down to specifics, those specifics involve various U.S. lodges. We have had quotes from KY lodge, from Nevada, from TN, from SC, from FLA, etc. etc. Given the overwhelming majority that Christianity has held since this country's beginnings, by Masonic definition there is not a Grand Lodge in this country that would not be considered a "Christian" lodge, with the Holy Bible as its VSL, and any other VSL requested would be placed on the altar only by individual request, and even then in
addition, not
in place of, the Holy Bible.
(and that's one more re-frame of the actual picture or question at hand)
How can Christians utter such words to unite them to ungodly religions that reject the very God Whose Name this prayer invokes?
Yet another reframe of yours. Masons do not unite to religions, they unite to other Masons--and that fraternally, not religiously.
The Temple presented in Kings and Chronicles is the true one, stop trying to change what I have stated. The one is Masonry is the false one; the two are not the same.
When all is said and done, true or false is irrelevant; "temple" is ultimately a symbol of the body. ("Do you not know that your body is a temple?", 1 Cor. 6:19).
3. Only One God created all, but you will not find Him in Masonry.
***Since Muslim, Buddhist, Panthiest, Pagan, and many others that reject the God that is revealed in The Word, and this "god" of Masonry welcomes them, it is not Jehovah God of The Bible.
Since the Holy Bible is the VSL of (as far as I know) any lodge you will find in the U.S., and since it is the source of the name "Jehovah," I'm afraid the burden of proof is still on you to prove otherwise, which so far you have not. The "Muslim, Buddhist, Panthiest, Pagan, and many others" that you continue to repeat is, as I've already shown, a false construction when used of U.S. lodges in general, and the TN lodge in particular, since that one is where this began.
Like a letter with the right name, but the wrong address, such a prayer is vain and returns empty and hollow.
(1) The ritual used the name "Jehovah," a refererence to the same name of God affirmed in the Bible as given to Moses;
(2) Freemasonry nowhere claims that God lives anywhere other than heaven;
(3) Therefore:
right name, right address
TW
