www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life The Christian East & West What is the view of the Eastern Churches of Freemasonary?

Rum Orthodox,

The reason I was threatened...because according to this guy who threatened me, I "knew" too much about Freemasonry...because of former Freemasons' accounts to me...plus books, literatures, etc...and I asked more questions about the stuff I already know and it hit his nerves...so he threatened me...I was afraid for my life for a while...kept looking over my shoulders. Until this man died. Thank goodness.

I couldn't report to the authorities. You don't realize how POWERFUL these Freemasons are! They are totally infilterated everywhere...even in the Police Force. I mean they are EVERYWHERE!!!

As for the Knight Templars...the Popes in the past don't know them well...but later the popes would find out about them then start excommunicating them. The Knight Templars are up to no good either.

Sometimes the popes don't always know what's going on around him right then.

If you see female Freemason groups...you can see the inverted 5 star symbol...like Satanic groups do...

And there are many offshoots...with "evil" symbols... I can't remember what the offshoots are...but Shriners are one of them...which bears the Muslim symbol. And of course this female Freemason group..don't know the name..but I know the symbol..inverted star.

Do you guys ever WONDER WHY was President Kennedy assassinated???? HMMMMM??? There was a group...that in order for anyone to run for president of US...one must join a group...called Council for Foreign Relations (CFR)...which is packed with Freemasons...and he did join them but after the election..he left the group..and within few months..he was assassinated. And of course he was succeeded by one of the most heavily involved Freemason...Lyndon B Johnson, a 33rd Degree mason. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if LBJ planned it all out.

It's no wonder why "NOBODY" really "knows what really happened" during the assassination except those who were behind it...and God knows too. I believe that Oswald was a pawn...and I don't think he pulled the trigger.

But it's very very dangerous to talk openly about what you know about Freemasonry. I honestly don't know a whole lot because what I know is only a scratch of a surface. Besides that...the things I know...is useless now, since it already came to pass. And I have nothing to prove.

I think I'm kinda stupid to talk about these things here...ha! :rolleyes: Hmmm? But for the sake of the Truth!

SPDundas
Deaf Byzantines

No doubt about it: Mussalmani, Freemasons, Hellenic Pagan Revivalists, aliens from Pluto, and...and..who did I leave out?...oh yes, the perfidious Israelis...are conspiring to conquer..uh..Cleveland!

"Today Cleveland unt tomorrow ze vorld."

Is this what being a Christian does to people?

Why are so many Christians obsessed with fear and conspiratorial theories; just like some Muslims?

The Sufi Way is superior.

Vaya con Dios and good luck,

Allahu Akbar,

Abdur

[ 08-21-2002: Message edited by: traveler ]

Thanks spdundas for your story. Some people that I have encountered feel the same way you do. However, as for me I don't. The fear of God is way better than the fear of Satanism of Freemasonary. My deceased father was a mason and he was quite proud of it. I never understood when I was a child what the devils he was talking about. He had me convinced that Freemasonary was the sh_t! I inherited some of his Masonic books. One of them was a Bible with their symbol on the cover. As a kid he told me that there were secrets he could not reveal to me or anyone else except to a fellow Mason. I think I told him that he was full of it and asked him to show me some of their bodily gestures & handshakes. I say to myself if these so-called Christian Masons would spend enough time doing prostrations within the Church they would forget about being Masons. He did show me one or two movements but I forgot them. This is what I call kids games. May God have mercy on my father. I love very much.

I have been told to remain silence on my possession of these books. These intimidations do not work on me. I also have the "Satanic Verses" by Rushdie. I only have one thing to say to these mindless worshippers of Satan,"Come and get me you lunatics". lol

You know my dad made a choice. An ordained Baptist minister, he was very high in the masons. Would not enter the Shriners because of all the parties and alcohol. It had always been very important to him. Free Masonary is so rampant in the Baptist church.

One day he told me he had made a decision. That was in all of his years as a mason, he never knew anything about the type of debate that was going on involving the Masons and Christ. He had always understood that it was of God. But it had come to the point he could no longer take that chance.

He had quit. If there was the slightest possibility that it would take him away from Jesus then he could not be there. He still has that weird ring hanging on his key chain. But at least I know I won't have to put that apron over him when he dies.

So I can be at peace that his heart is not there, and he is truly walking with the Lord.

I think more men and women should look at it that way. If it has become so controversial, then the Lord is trying to say something. Wake up and pay attention.

Rose

Dear Lance and Columcille,

I'm afraid you've confused my confusing words!

The Masons of today have nothing in common with the Catholic Masons of yesteryear - to be sure.

The Knights of Columbus stepped in where the Catholic Masons left off, later of course, but they are organized on more or less the same basis.

The Templars certainly influenced the the medieval guilds, beyond that of the Catholic Masons. So many things in our western European society derive from contributions made by the Templars, even the game of chess, the banking system etc.

So the Knights of Columbus didn't evolve from the Freemasons. They and other groups do receive their inspiration from the earlier Catholic guilds among which were Masons - even Popes apparently belonged to them.

Secretive societies and guilds involving elites granting privileges to their members have been around for ages, in the Catholic Church and elsewhere.

And I always listen to the Church with respect to, well, everything!

Alex

The influence of freemassonry in the Orthodox Church exists (anyway, it isn't as strong as in the Western Church).

Do you remember Patriarch Justinian of Romania?

He has been criticized because of his easy way to accept the totalitarian regimmes and his uncharitable silence behind the persecution of his own people (he played an important role in the destruction of the Greek Catholic Church and the asssesination of members of the Old Calendar Church). Before the communists arrived, prominent members of the Church resigned or decided to retire because of the probable militance of Patriarch Justinian in massonic lodges.
This cannot be proved, but his conduct did prove that the influence of a secular humanism and the lack of christian values during his period, was very strong.

Do you remember Cyril Lukaris?
In the later 1800's he promulgated a cathechesis with calvinist doctrines that was condemned some years after. The cathechesis was the master piece of the Secretaryof Christian Affairs, George Mayer, a protestant who formed the first Massonic Lodges in Greece and Turkey. He had been a close friend of the Patriarch.

Since I am new to this discussion, I can agree that the Knights of Columbus is NOT a Masonic order. The first 3 levels of the Masonic order are the soldiers in the field and the higher orders are the the secretive order of the Freemasons. The Shriners are soldiers persay as many do charitable fundraising and also have several Hospitals that care for children. These men are the showcase for the exclusive higher levels that are the power and money behind the evil intentions of the freemasons.There are 3 papal encyclicals that I am aware of that have condemned freemasony as evil to the Catholic faith.It is a true statement that man cannot serve both God and the evil one. Peace

Dear Remie,

There is simply no evidence to suggest that Patriarch Cyril Lucaris was the author or was any way implicated in the promulgation of that Protestant confession of faith.

The Protestants and Catholics were out to either misuse him or else destroy him.

They succeeded in besmirching his name until today.

There is a local Orthodox cult of Lucaris where he is honoured as an "Ethnomartyr."

Hopefully, scholars may soon put formal pay to the nonsense of this Patriarch's "Protestantism" and he can be glorified as the Saint he truly was.

Alex

Oddly enough, we got on this topic at a party last year. An Orthodox priest in attendance said that he should not give Communion to a practicing Freemason because the practices and teachings of Freemasonry are not consistent with apostolic Christianity.

Dear Anne,

Yes, and I wonder why Protestant churches often allow their members to become Masons, as well as Orthodox and Catholic bishops?

I'm tearing up my application form as we speak!

Alex

I do have a friend who is a Mason. Nice Anglican fellah. Very community minded and generous to a fault with his time and talent and treasury. I tend to think that in the 21st century the Masons have grown into a club of benevolent (mostly old) fellahs like him who do a lot of good and charitable things, particularly for sick children. Their history is more shady.

Speaking for myself, I see little reason for so-called "secret societies" when there are plenty of perfectly good ones out in the public eye that one can join if one so chooses. Nevertheless, these organizations do seem to have appeal for a lot of guys.

Funny how things travel through the cyberworld we have here.

The topic of freemasonry came up on a mail list I am part of.

It appears that not only has the Catholic Church condemned membership with this group, but also the Greek Orthodox Church.

Here is something that was posted;

Statement On Freemasonry

The Synod of Bishops of the Orthodox Church of Greece
October 12, 1933

Freemasonry is not simply a philanthropic union or philosophical school, but constitutes a system which reminds us of the ancient heathen mystery-religions and cults- from which it has descended and is their continuation and regeneration. Such a link between Freemasonry and the ancient idolatrous mysteries is also manifested by all that is enacted and performed at its initiations.... Thus Freemasonry is a mystery religion quite different and separate, and alien to the Christian Faith. This is shown without any doubt by the fact that it possesses its own temple and altars and its own religious ceremonies.

The incompatible contradiction between Christianity and Freemasonry is quite clear. It is natural that various churches of other denominations have taken a stand against Freemasonry. Not only has the Western church branded for its own reasons the Masonic movement...to be incompatible with Christianity. Much more has the Orthodox Catholic Church, maintaining in its integrity the treasure of the Christian Faith, proclaimed against it every time that the question of Freemasonry has been raised. Recently the Inter-Orthodox Commission which met on Mount Athos and in which the representatives of all the Autocephalous (self-governing) Orthodox Churches took part, has declared Freemasonry to be a "false and anti-Christian system."

We declare that all the faithful children of the Church must stand apart from Freemasonry. With unshaken faith in our Lord Jesus Christ in Whom we have our redemption through His blood; possessing the truth revealed by Him and preached by His Apostles, partaking in the Divine Sacraments through which we are sanctified, we must not fall from the Grace of Christ by becoming partakers of other mysteries. It is not lawful to belong at the same time to Christ and search for redemption and moral perfection outside Him. For these reasons true Christianity is incompatible with Freemasonry.

Therefore, all who have become involved in the initiations of Masonic mysteries must from this moment sever all relations with Masonic lodges and activities, being sure that they are thereby of certainty renewing their links with our One Lord and Savior which were weakened by ignorance and by a wrong sense of values.

The Assembly of Bishops of the Church expects this particularly and with love for the initiates of the lodges, being convinced that most of them have received Masonic initiation not realizing that by it they were passing into another religion, but on the contrary from ignorance, thinking they have done nothing contrary to the Faith.... Recommending them to the sympathy, and in no wise to the hostility or hatred of the faithful children of the Orthodox Church, the Assembly of the Bishops calls them to pray with Her from the heart of Christian love, that the One Lord Jesus Christ, "the Way, the Truth and the Life" may illumine and return to the Truth those who in ignorance have gone astray.

Just thought this was interesting.

David