Master Mason Handbook (.PDF) Website and Question

reply to post by getreadyalready


Thanks for the info.
Yeah, understand all about those glitches, electronics and such.! Appreciate you letting me know. Sorry you lost your posts too. sux but I guess it IS good exercise for our fingers lol

reply to post by SeekerLou

As far as the inserts go, Doesn't the Bible say to not add or take away from it? Why are you ''adding to'' /putting inserts into the Holy Bible? This offends me also! It's more of a righteous indignation, if you will, for it goes against the Bible and MY faith. To me, it is very dishonoring to my Lord and his command, by putting rituals and such inside of it.

Which particular "Bible" are you offended by? The NIV? Original King James? New KJV? Study Bibles? Women's Bibles? Christian Standard? Modern Langauge? Children's Bibles? Catholic Bible, or full version with recovered scrolls?

If you are going to be offended by any particular Bible, I would think the Masonic one would be at the end of a very long list of offensive rewrites of the Bible. At least we display it proudly and attempt to interpret and understand it for the reason it was written. A rule and guide from God to man.

If you insist on righteous indignation, please be kind enough to spread it around liberally, including inside your own church where your own pastor has certainly highlighted, and underlined points he chooses to "interpret" for his flock, while omitting other inconvenient parts for his sermons. By your standards, every single sermon should suffer righteous indignation and ridicule.

I have Job 16:9 tattooed on my back, and the translation of it varies wildly from version to version, even drastically changing the meaning as to who is torturing me, in some version it is mine enemy, while in other versions it is mine God, while in reality, it is probably one and the same for the purposes of the passage, and they all work for my reasoning behind the tattoo.

Originally posted by SeekerLou
I can not elaborate any further on the Lord's prayer, other than what I already have.

Well, then don't expect any discussion on it, because nobody here has any idea what you're talking about.

reply to post by getreadyalready


I wasn't referring to study notes, glossaries, etc, that actually PERTAIN to the Bible.

And , Yes I am offended by other so called Bibles. Just because some are called translations, doesn't mean they ARE the Word of God.

I'm was referring to something FOREIGN that doesn't belong IN the King James period that has ritual instuctions! Now you tell me if that belongs? If you say it does, then I beg to differ.

Originally posted by SeekerLou
Just realized a link in the OP wasn't correct.
Here is the correct link that I wanted you guys to read. This will tell you the Hiram Abiff stuff and reveals some of the secret handshakes, etc I was wondering why no comments as to this!
.www.ephesians5-11.org...

Copyright 1996 Ephesians 5:11, Inc. Publication on another web site is prohibited.

Funny how they're claiming copyright on public domain texts. Heck, those aren't even their own original illustrations, they're the same ones drawn for Duncan's in 1866.

Woo hoo! Earthshattering revelation of secrets!

reply to post by SeekerLou

If you are a mason , then you should know what you guys do with the Lord's prayer. And I am pretty sure it was the Lord's prayer.

IMo,.I think your rituals (if that's what you call them) are very dark and strange, Would you like to elaborate on these things?

We used to recite the Lord's Prayer before every football game, and occasional wrestling match. I have heard it recited in haunted houses , and I heard it recited on several of the Youtube videos from the Joplin tornadoes, but I have never once heard it in a Masonic Lodge. I have never heard anything recited backwards in a Masonic Lodge, and if you want clarification of our rituals, they are written word for word and published in every mainstream bookstore in the country. Look for Duncan's Rituals.

I will give you the "strange" part. Our rituals are a little silly and corny if someone is just observing without actually trying to absorb the information. So much so that we offer a lecture after the ritual to put it all into perspective, so the lesson is not last on the initiate.

And no, we don't call them "rituals." We call them Degrees. There are only 3 degrees in Freemasonry. Everything after that is part of appendant bodies to Freemasonry, and technically isn't Freemasonry. For you as a devout Christian, the Scottish Rite appendant body follows the New Testament the most closely, and would be the most interesting for you.

Originally posted by SeekerLou
I'm was referring to something FOREIGN that doesn't belong IN the King James period that has ritual instuctions! Now you tell me if that belongs? If you say it does, then I beg to differ.

You realize that it's quite possible that King James himself was a Mason? I'd wager at least a few people on the committee that generated his translation were as well...

reply to post by JoshNorton


somebody must have overlooked in their reading...I did elaborate ... about ya'll reciting it and going around the room...and backwards at that!

reply to post by SeekerLou

I'm was referring to something FOREIGN that doesn't belong IN the King James period that has ritual instuctions! Now you tell me if that belongs? If you say it does, then I beg to differ.

The Bible is the Bible. If someone adds appendixes for other instruction, it doesn't alter the word of God and/or Jesus. It isn't any different than any other Study Bible, or Instructional Bible.

For the record, I have never actually seen a Bible with Masonic instruction in it. I have seen Masonic Monitors and books with Bible Verses quoted in them, but not the other way around.

Most churches these days use the NIV Bible. Most Masonic Lodges still use the Original KJV, mostly just because we are sticklers for tradition, and the Bible that has been on the Altar in the Lodge for the last 50 or 100 years is not going to be replaced just because some new fangled version has come out. But, technically, for any true and devout Christian, the NIV version is supposed to be the most literal and accurate representation of the original language of the Bible. The KJV has some obvious conflict of interest in its translation, because of the politics of its time.

Originally posted by SeekerLou
reply to post by JoshNorton

 

somebody must have overlooked in their reading...I did elaborate ... about ya'll reciting it and going around the room...and backwards at that!

And it said to do that in the Masonic bible that you found? I'd like to see the exact verbiage they used...

reply to post by SeekerLou


We also do not go around the room backwards. In fact, I was once sitting in the Sr. Deacon chair, and I presented the flag to the altar, and then I made the egregious error of taking a step back from the altar. A few of our old veterans almost had a heart attack, and I was quickly instructed that the flag of our country never retreats. You are never, never, never to take a step backwards while presenting our flag.

Masonic initiates are always walking forward during the degree work, and the recitation and instruction is all done going forwards as well. It really wouldn't serve any purpose to recite it backwards where nobody could understand it would it? That just seems silly to me.

reply to post by JoshNorton


even IF so, God is capable of using this man for HIs higher pupose in having the translation made. He's not the one who actually translated ya know, Getting a little off topic here ...but had to comment.

reply to post by JoshNorton


Time permitting, I will see what I can do about that. It has been years but if this person still has that Masonic Bible, I will copy word for word,

Originally posted by SeekerLou
even IF so, God is capable of using this man for HIs higher pupose in having the translation made. He's not the one who actually translated ya know, Getting a little off topic here ...but had to comment.

Well, it's not like God had anything to do with King James's motivation for commissioning a translation. It was purely a political move on his part to wrest power away from Rome.

reply to post by JoshNorton


Do you not think that God still has control of things? I thought you believed in a god.

KJV - Romans 8:28
28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

How is it that you act as you know the workings or mind of God himself and His ways? His ways are higher than mere mans ways.

You guys are supposed to be moral honorable upstanding citizens in the communities. and I question why you have to do this to my Lord's prayer, and.who you are worshiping.

reply to post by SeekerLou


Though Masonry neither usurps the place of, nore apes religion, prayer is an essential part of our ceremonies. It is the aspiration of the soul toward the Absolute and Infinite Intelligence, which is the One Supreme Deity, most feebly and misunderstandingly characterized as an "Architect." Certain faculties of man are directed toward the unknown-thought, meditation, prayer. The unknown is an ocean, of which concsience is the compass. Thought, meditation, prayer, are the great mysterious pointings of the needle. It is a spiritual magnetism that thus connects the human soul with the Deity. These majestic irradiations of the soul pierce through the shadow toward the light. It is but a shallow scoff to say that prayer is absurd, because it is not posssible for us, by means of it, to persuade God to change His plans. He produces foreknown and foreintended effects, by the instrumentality of the forces of nature, all of which are his forces. Our own are part of these. Our free agency and our will are forces. We do not absurdly cease to make efforts to attain wealth or happiness, prolong life, and continue health, because we cannot by any effort change what is predestined, it is not the less our effort, made of our free will. So, likewise, we pray. Will is a force. Thought is a force. Prayer is a force.

Originally posted by network dude
reply to post by SeekerLou

 

But don't worry, it you post something you shouldn't, you will get a knock at the door quite fast.

Just curious if that was to be a threat .. If so,
Believe me I have no fear, for a better than Under Dog is here

Originally posted by SeekerLou
reply to post by JoshNorton

 

somebody must have overlooked in their reading...I did elaborate ... about ya'll reciting it and going around the room...and backwards at that!

The degrees are difficult enough. Nobody does anything backwards. What color is the sky where you come from?

A note to everyone,

Appreciate the responses to the thread. Let me say that I never stated that the handbook was a secret. What I was referring to was the other link.

You are right, all secrets have been exposed from what I gather , and from the ex-masons, as someone stated, probably waaay before the internet.

Too, I understand and respect your stance in wanting to defend your ''craft'', as I wish to defend my faith.

At the same time, I , if my memory fails me about that Lord's prayer being backward, I'll be the first to appologize and ask forgiveness. The rest of my stance still goes. IMO, I think you are caught up in something that you don't even realize as it appears good to you. Please keep in mind that there are masters of deception out there. And why would other Christian folk come out of them and proclaim the things they do if there were nothing to it . Lucifer from what I gather is actually your enlightener......I care about you, think of like as a parent who wants to save a child from a stranger with a cookie, it appears good, doesn't it? But it is NOT. or playing with fire - it may be pretty to look at it but you can get burnt. Know what I'm trying to say.? I humbly ask of you to please consider and read the Ephesians site www.ephesians5-11.org... and some of the testimony of others. I'll shuddup now. Thanks.

reply to post by scooterstrats

The degrees are difficult enough. Nobody does anything backwards. What color is the sky where you come from?

hmmm. well let's see, Today it so happens to appear a very dull chemically grey color. How about yours?