"This is my son in whom I am well pleased."

Is this statement employed during any of the rituals? If so, I'm confused.

This statement is from John the Baptist's vision during the baptism of Jesus, which is God's own testimony to John as to Jesus' perfect righteousness in the sight of God.

Therefore, who has the authority to make such a statement about an initiate, and what makes the initiate qualify for such a statement?

Also, where spiritual authority is a function of righteousness, doesn't this, as part of the ritual represent a theft of sorts..?

Masons please help clarify my confusion on this issue, especially when Masonry claims no particular religious orientation. Thanks.

reply to post by NewAgeMan


I am not familiar with this quote being referenced in masonry. Do you know it's context to masonic tradition?

reply to post by network dude

I had heard it was part of one of the initiation rites or degrees. Guess I was wrong..?

reply to post by NewAgeMan


I thought you knew everything already?

Go read your Bible. It's all you need.

reply to post by NewAgeMan


I have never heard that one. Maybe it's in the 33rd degree ritual or the York Rite. I am only 3rd degree master and 32nd' Scottish Rite.

reply to post by NewAgeMan


"Man is a god in the making, and as in the mystic myths of Egypt, on the potter's wheel he is being molded. When his light shines out to lift and preserve all things, he receives the triple crown of godhood and joins that throng of Master Masons who, in their robes of Blue and Gold, are seeking to dispel the darkness of night with the triple light of the Masonic Lodge."

"The glorious privileges of a Master Mason are in keeping with his greater knowledge and wisdom...For him the Heavens have opened and the Great Light has bathed him in its radiance. The Prodigal son, so long a wanderer in the regions of darkness, has returned to his Father's house. The voice speaks from the Heavens, its power thrilling the Master until his own being seems filled with its divinity, saying, 'This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.' He [the Master Mason], in truth has become the spokesman of the Most High. He stands between the glowing fire light and the world. Through him passes Hydra, the great snake, and from its mouth there pours to man the light of God." (The Lost Keys of Freemasonry, Manly P. Hall, pages 92, 54-55, Macoy Publishing and Supply Co., Richmond, Va, 1976)

Satan proclaims himself to be God, but can't unless he can be allowed a proxy through mankind. Paganism is summed up by manly P. Hall as the pursuit of this same end-goal, which is the lie from the beginning. If you partake of knowledge, you can be like God.

As pointed out in my last few threads, this is a mirror reflection. Of course man has a destiny to be like Christ, but making ourselves God is not possible. We are Children of God, not God by our own making. The Father raises the children. This is why Paganism is so easy to fall for. It is a twisted truth in reverse.

Acts 17

24 “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. 25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. 26 From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. 27 God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. 28 ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’

The ritual minimizes Christ. We are only seen by God as acceptable through the one and only Himself. He is the way, the truth and the life.

reply to post by EnochWasRight

Through him passes Hydra, the great snake, and from its mouth there pours to man the light of God."

Sounds like a lot of dramatic hogwash for the Kundalini.

Originally posted by NewAgeMan
reply to post by network dude

 

I had heard it was part of one of the initiation rites or degrees. Guess I was wrong..?

The question to ask would reflect your premise in the OP. Do the Masons see Christ as their mediator to God? Can man be his own mediator to God?

This is what I would like to know from the Masons. I assume there might be a spread of answers since any religion that acknowledges God is acceptable.

From here, I would want to know if Jesus as mediator is rejected as part of their teachings? From what I have read, some lodges proclaim Christ. I depends on the Lodge, but others may answer better. I'm not a Mason.

reply to post by EnochWasRight

Can man be his own mediator to God?

Anyone can be their own mediator. Only the people who are frightened of opposing authority or fearful of what others will find on their own, will insist that Jesus is the only way.

reply to post by network dude


No sir, it's not in the York rite either.

reply to post by EnochWasRight


Being raised Catholic, I was taught I needed many mediators to talk to God. A Priest, and Monsignor, a Bishop, and a Pope. Then when I grew up, I realized how silly this whole system was. God made the Earth. God made everything on the earth. So why would he need all these middle men to speak to one of his creations?

I felt this way long before I became a mason. And even though you think you have vast knowledge of masonry, you don't. In the Blue lodge, we are taught the very basics. We are given "tools to work with" and we are given "designs upon the trestle board". It's up to us to decide what to build and how to build it. All the side orders, all the books, all the teachers, they just give their thoughts on what it all means. Their thoughts. We as individuals are tasked with coming up with our own thoughts. That being the greatest fear of the Church.

Some of us are happy to just be Christians and not look too deep for answers, others will continue searching until they expire. The Bottom line is you don't know nearly as much as you think you do since you keep trying to put Masonry into a neat little box. It's dynamic yet amazingly static. Duality at it's finest.


edit to add;
I see Christ as the son of God, sent here to teach us how to love God. That may negate my claim of being a Christian, but so be it. If and when he returns, he will do so as the son of God yet again. Some masons have different beliefs on that subject, just as other religions do.

Originally posted by AfterInfinity
reply to post by EnochWasRight

 

Can man be his own mediator to God?

Anyone can be their own mediator. Only the people who are frightened of opposing authority or fearful of what others will find on their own, will insist that Jesus is the only way.

Hermetic Philosophy says the same IE that The One Creator communes with all
Yet I think the meaning of Christ references being as Christ IE attaining a state of Gnosis or knowing IE Being as Christ

Yet Dante a Christian of 1300 spoke of ones arrow falling short of the mark if one shunned the Mother's knee IE Mary or Sophia perhaps or in my opinion ones female aspect as in Ying Yang.
Though Dante speaks of St Bernard being then the intermediary or testing ground

We are all sons of the Creator yet could be said to be his Grandchildren.
The Cosmos is said to be the child or mind/thoughts of The Creator
The Sun is the child of the Cosmos and Grandchild of the Source/Creator/God or whatever name you apply to hold the meaning intended

I am eclectic in my Philosophy and mutable in my describing it.
Yes I know that any can commune with The Creator as it was so intended and the common sense and the only Intelligent way.

However rather than parrot archaic ways of speaking it is more honorable/ honest to find your own voice and words to describe your understanding or you may be taken for a Parrot

reply to post by artistpoet


Sophia is the ancient Greek word for wisdom. Perhaps that clears matters a little.

Originally posted by AfterInfinity
reply to post by artistpoet

 

Sophia is the ancient Greek word for wisdom. Perhaps that clears matters a little.

Yes She is a symbol for one's own inner potential as are all gods and goddesses of true philosophy
Yet I use a small g for God with a big G is the one Creator and we his offspring

Originally posted by NewAgeMan
Is this statement employed during any of the rituals? If so, I'm confused.

This statement is from John the Baptist's vision during the baptism of Jesus, which is God's own testimony to John as to Jesus' perfect righteousness in the sight of God.

Therefore, who has the authority to make such a statement about an initiate, and what makes the initiate qualify for such a statement?

Also, where spiritual authority is a function of righteousness, doesn't this, as part of the ritual represent a theft of sorts..?

Masons please help clarify my confusion on this issue, especially when Masonry claims no particular religious orientation. Thanks.

I have never heard this spoken, nor have I come across it during Lodge.

reply to post by NeutralGuard

Thanks. It's from the Manly Hall interpretation then, nothing more.

It was rather disoncerting to me to think that was part of any of the degrees, which would represent a type of theft and laying on of an authority which doesn't exist, except from above, to the son Jesus Christ, when one is baptised into his death and resurrection life, as a transformative principal of spiritual and psychological evolutionary growth and well being.

Glad to know it wasn't stolen!

Thanks for your help, and the others, much appreciated.

reply to post by NewAgeMan

Glad to know it wasn't stolen!

Well, thank goodness Christianity wasn't stolen! I'd hate to think that the vast majority of its myths can be found in Sumerian faiths predating Jesus by over a thousand years...and subsequently stomped out by over-zealous Romans.

You know, just saying.

I guess the only question remaining, which perplexes me to no end, is how the Masonic "frame" doesn't recognize in the Temple of Solomon, and the twin pillars of a severe Justice, and a tender Mercy, the Great Work of Jesus Christ, as God-sent..

Same goes for how the Jews cannot see that in Yeshua Messiah was made manifest the glorious jewel in their own crown..

reply to post by NewAgeMan


Because you're still wearing the blindfold they took off years ago. There's a reason the Church hated the Masons.

reply to post by AfterInfinity

..or for that matter how some people, with all the information available to them, where others did the work to bring it forward, cannot see and recognize that in Jesus Christ's Great Work is represented the capstone at the apex and crossroads of human history and spiritual mythos.

Setting aside all anti-religious bias and sentiment, what's so wrong with the love of God made manifest in time and history in the form of a passover? that it makes no compromise with sin and evil making of God an all-good, all-loving God, is that the problem, that it leaves us divided or at odds re: our sexual nature?