2007-09-12 14:58:21 · 26 answers · asked by shiningStar 2 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Freemasonry is not a religion. Masons who treat it as such are mistaken. Freemasonry strongly encourages its members to belong to an established religion, although that is not a requirement for membership (only that a candidate profess a belief in a Supreme Being). Masonry is a fraternal organization that encourages morality and charity and studies philosophy. It has no clergy, no sacraments, and does not promise salvation to its members.
Read more.....http://web.mit.edu/dryfoo/www/Masonry/Questions/difficult.html
2007-09-20 14:55:56 · answer #1 · answered by Glory to God 5 · 2⤊ 0⤋
No opinion needed, absolutely not, if you worship the devil you cannot become a Freemason.
Now, to another point this is a loaded, imprecise question... to ask if someone believes in something means "do you believe this exsists". There are lots of people out there who worship the devil so that belief does exist; but you cannot be a Freemason if you worship the devil.
to some other responses:
* Freemasonry is not a religion and does not deal with salvation, or telling someone what belief they should hold. Many Freemasons are Christians and do believe that Jesus is God. The two are separate and compatible.
* Oddly enough, Mr. X has a point, the Satanists hate hearing people say Freemasons are Satanists :) Again, Freemasonry is NOT a religion, it does not seek to take the place of a religion.
* I agree, the vengeful Christians that say these have much to learn about Jesus' teachings, its a shame they cannot understanding and practice what the presume to teach others
* The term lucifer translates literally from the Latin as light bringer; it was originally a reference to Venus, the morning star, who led the sun into the sky; in literary worlds it means bringer of the truth and only in recent times has become synonymous with satan; another catholic fabrication against anyone they cannot have absolute control over. do a wiki search on "freemasonry and catholicism" and read for yourself why the bans came about (they originally did not name freemasonry but in 1983 they specifically named them) most of the "banned" groups are pseudo-mafia organizations that the church was afraid of and it lumped freemasonry in with them
* Again, morality is not the SOLE province of religion, freemasonry is not a religion just because it studies moral lessons from various religious traditions
* I wish I could live in a black and white world where "if you're not for god you are against god". The world is much bigger than you and your belief system, get over yourself...None of God's or Jesus' teachings are compatible with what you utter. Re-read your post and you will see how logcially flawed and childish it is.
* While many of the "founding fathers" were freemasons not all of them were and there is no masonic conspiracy
* uh, Pharoah was not a Freemason....the first use of Freemason came about in the 12-13th centuries... Pharoah "employed" operative masons, the operative masons were not slave owners or slave drivers
* Leo Taxil, do a wiki search on Taxil Hoax and you will learn the truth...
2007-09-12 23:26:08 · answer #2 · answered by cl_freemason 6 · 2⤊ 1⤋
Free Masonry requires a belief in the great architect, (a supreme being). As Father K. stated leanings are toward ancient religions, and mysticism, tied to the Old Testament.
Since the Lodge does not confess Jesus Christ, it is therefore not Christian, although many members profess Christianity. The only reason to join therefore is that the Lodge promises more than the Church does.
Our Confessional Lutheran Churches prohibit membership in ALL secret societies. The reason being if it is not for Christ, then it is against Christ. If it does not worship the devil directly, it still is pagan or heretical, depending on how you look at it. If I were to join the Lodge, excommunication would be automatic.
Mark
2007-09-13 00:27:06 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 3⤋
The claims for devil worship etc come from mis-represented quotes from a handful of books, inwhich the author wrote their personal views, not that of Freemasonry. Even with this said, the persons opinion referenced the term lucifer, the morning star, but due to the teachings of a certain religion lucifer is deemed to be the devil.
So those who wish to say Freemasons believe Lucifer is the morning star are sort of correct.
The error is in what these same people believe lucifer is.
Lucifer means "Morning Star".
The most common application to Lucifer is the planet Venus, it is the translation from the Greek word Hesperos.
The Greeks saw Venus as two different entities, the morning star, which they called Φωσφόρος, Phosphorus, the "Bringer of Light" or Εωσφόρος, Eosphorus, the "Bringer of Dawn"; when Venus appeared in the Sky before the Sun. And Hesperos (Ἓσπερος, the star of the dusk) when Venus appeared first in the night sky.
Venus 'overtakes' the Earth every 584 days as it orbits the Sun. As it does so, it goes from being the 'Evening star', visible after sunset, to being the 'Morning star', visible before sunrise.
It is not the modern use of the term Lucifer.
Lucifer was then attributed to fallen Angels, not one but all fallen angels.
It wasn't until modern to late Medieval Christian times that Lucifer was associated to one fallen angel commonly associated with Satan, the embodiment of evil and enemy of God. It became a part of Christian legend and folklore and as we can see from the answers previously provided, people are blind followers to what they are told.
Reference to Lucifer and Freemasonry is most often attributed to the writer Albert Pike, with numerous mis-quotes from his book Morals and Dogma, another common masonic writer often, again misquoted, is Mackey.
Freemasonry even before Speculative times was a study of the Sciences, including Astronomy and those Freemasons who delve into the literal aspect of studying these sciences are fully versed in what Lucifer is, how the term came about, and how the term is mis-used in todays world thanks to legends taught in a religion.
Freemasons do not "believe" Lucifer is anything, especially not Lucifer of the Christian church ie Satan, they know that Lucifer is a name from ancient times associated with Venus and this understanding does not change from start to finish!!
For a look at the detail regarding the term Lucifer please see wikipedia for a more indepth explination.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/lucifer...
The details regarding Lucifer and Freemasonry I detail, is what I learnt as a Freemason so I think I can talk with legimate truth over those who read kook sites on the internet.
2007-09-13 03:18:39 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 2⤋
They believe that you can worship any god or demon and still be a Mason. They expect Christians to conform to that in order to join their cult. Thus it is impossible for a Christian to be a Mason. The oaths they take are forbidden in the Bible, by no less than Jesus, si when a Mason tells me he is a Christian I know that he is trying to deceive or that he is deceived himself. Then I try to point him to the truth. I have had a few leave the Masons after extensive prayer and ministering from the Word of God/
2007-09-19 18:50:05 · answer #5 · answered by cowboy_christian_fellowship 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
This is a fact. Not they do not worship a Devil... any Devil... Their whole thing was to help others, but it became a fellowship that the elite joined, and because of much controversy made it into a secret society. I have read about them and married someone who is a member. We keep no secrets and I enjoy learning about them as well.
2007-09-12 15:29:55 · answer #6 · answered by Rev. Kaldea 5 · 2⤊ 2⤋
This idea started as a 19th century HOAX--a prank played on the Catholic Church by an atheist, who got the Vatican to believe such nonsense. The hoaxer's name was Leon Taxil. (sp?)
Some Masonic literature refers to "Lucifer" in its original Latin meaning of "light-bringer." No relation to Satan. Masons are required to believe in God, but members of all religions are accepted, and disputes over religion are forbidden at lodge meetings.
2007-09-12 22:22:21 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 2⤋
"LaVeyan Satanism is a faith and philosophy based in 1966 via Anton LaVey. Its teachings are in accordance with individualism, self-indulgence, and "eye for an eye fixed" morality, with impact from Friedrich Nietzsche and Ayn Rand, on an identical time as its rituals and magic draw heavily from occultists such as Aleister Crowley. Borrowing Crowley's terminology, its adherents define Satanism as a "Left-Hand direction" faith, rejecting classic "proper-Hand direction" religions such as Christianity for their perceived denial of life and emphasis on guilt and abstinence. unlike Theistic Satanism, it does not actually worship devil, yet extremely makes use of "devil" as an emblem for persons's organic inner desires."
2016-11-15 02:20:39 · answer #8 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Do not get involved in freemasonry, when you get up into higher rankings it becomes something that isnot Christian at all. This is not an opinion, just fact.
2007-09-20 14:52:04 · answer #9 · answered by victor 7707 7 · 0⤊ 2⤋
Freemasonry from its very beginning is from the Egyptian Architects, who built the Pyramids. Egyptians were not Jewish, they enslaved the Jews to build the Pyramids, thus "Exodus".
2007-09-12 17:51:18 · answer #10 · answered by dd 4 · 0⤊ 2⤋