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[RRD]

Watch Tower June 15, 1895
R1827 : page 143

In our judgment the majority of "secret societies" are merely beneficiary and have no secret schemes antagonistic to the general public welfare, the secret rites and ceremonies being merely "boys' play," occupying the time and attention of persons who have no greater aims than those which pertain to the present life. We note, however, that several Roman Catholic Societies seem to have schemes connected with the use of fire-arms, and are therefore to be classed as malevolent rather than benevolent.

We note also that the Order of Free Masons, if judged by its past history, has some secret object or scheme, more than fraternity and financial aid in time of sickness or death. And, so far as we can judge, there is a certain amount of profane worship or mummery connected with the rites of this order and some others, which the members do not comprehend, but which, in many cases, serves to satisfy the cravings of the natural mind for worship, and thus hinders it from seeking the worship of God in spirit and in truth--through Christ, the only appointed Mediator and Grand Master.

In proportion as such societies consume valuable time in foolish, senseless rites and ceremonies, and in substituting the worship of their officers, and the use of words and symbols which have no meaning to them, for the worship of God, in his appointed way -- through Christ, and according to knowledge and the spirit of a sound mind -- in that proportion these societies are grievous evils, regardless of the financial gains or losses connected with membership in them.

The New Creation, pages 580, 581:

This brings before us the whole question of orders, societies, etc., and what privileges the New Creation has in connection with such organizations. Is it right for them to be members of these societies? We answer that while Church associations are purely religious, and labor and beneficial organizations in general are purely secular, there are still other orders which combine the religious and the secular features. As we understand the matter, for instance, the Free Masons, Odd Fellows, Knights of Pythias, etc., perform certain rites and ceremonies of a religious kind. Let it be understood that we are not waging any warfare upon those who hold membership in these various orders, even as we are not waging warfare against the various sectarian religious systems. We place upon one level all of those which have any religious ceremonies, teachings, etc., and consider them all as parts of Babylon, some quarters or wards of which are cleaner, and others less clean, but all, nevertheless, full of confusion, error--contrary to the divine intention, as displayed in the organization of the primitive Church and the instructions, by word and example, given to it by the inspired Founder, and his twelve apostles.

We admonish the New Creation to have nothing whatever to do with any of these semi-religious societies, clubs, orders, churches; but to "Come out from amongst them, and be ye separate, and touch not the unclean thing." (2 Cor. 6:17) Their things, their worship, their teachings, their doctrines, are unclean to us, though they may not be unclean to themselves. The eyes of our understanding have been opened, and now to us all things appear in a new light, so that things which we once loved now we hate, and things which we once hated now we love.


What Pastor Russell Said
Question 317:2 (1910)

I am not judging at all, I am merely saying, so far as I can tell. But my understanding is, that all of these are bundles, and each bundle is getting tighter. Some of you know a great deal more about Freemasonry than I do, and I am not here to say anything against it, because I do not know anything to say, and I do not know as I would say it if I did know it. The Lord did not send me to preach against Masonry or Odd Fellowship, nor against Presbyterianism or Methodism. Our opportunity is to tell the truth, to preach the true gospel of Christ, and the Lord says that this message is to have its effects on the different hearts. Now, if you find yourself in any kind of a bundle, you know that is not the program so far as the wheat is concerned. The wheat is to he gathered into the garner; it is not to be put into bundles in the present life. The wheat is to be free. If you find yourself in any kind of a bundle, better get out of the bundle. Trust in the Lord, and be in harmony with Him, and this will take you out of all kinds of bundles and human organizations, I believe.

I should, perhaps, say a cautionary word here to the effect that I would understand this would mean, for instance, that if I were a carpenter I would prefer to be at liberty, but if it were demanded of me that I should join a union before I could have work, and that I must pay so much of my money into that union's coffers, I should join. I should understand that I was making so much of a contribution to the general weal of the carpenters, and I would have no hesitation in the matter, because there is nothing of a religious kind there. There is nothing that would fetter my heart or mind. But if that organization should do anything I could not approve, I would feel perfectly free to withdraw at any time. So I would make that limitation. But, so far as wheat and tares are concerned, I think there are plenty of bundles all around you, and I notice, too, that these different worldly organizations, if we may so call them in contradistinction to church organizations, are also taking the same methods the church people are taking. It used to be very easy to withdraw from one of the churches and you could say, "I will thank you for a letter," and then they would take the letter and never deposit it, but burn it up, if they desired. And so with the Masons; they had a method by which anyone desiring to leave the order could ask for a demit and he would get that without any particular question. I have been informed that now this is changed somewhat. If you are a Presbyterian, and you wish a letter, they say, "To which church do you wish the letter addressed?" You say, "Oh, just make it out anyway." "Oh we do not do that now; we will give you a letter to a certain, particular church and it is to he deposited there--good when deposited there." And so I am informed that our Freemason friends are doing the same thing; they do not give demits now. If you wish to be transferred to another lodge they will transfer you, but they do not give demits now in the same way they formerly did.

A Brother: Brother Russell, I am a Mason and, unfortunately, hold a high position in the order, and I would like to make a little correction on that. A Mason is perfectly free to leave when he feels so disposed. No restraint whatever is placed upon him.

Brother Russell: I told you in the beginning that I did not know about it myself; I was only relating what a brother told me.

Another Brother: I was a Mason in a different jurisdiction from that of the brother. It may he all right in his particular jurisdiction, but it is not the same in other jurisdictions, as I know.

Brother Russell: You will notice that we never have anything to say against any of these. We have not said an unkind word about Freemasonry, and you never read anything unkind that we have ever said about it, and I do not wish to say anything unkind about Presbyterianism, or Methodism. I think that many of the dear friends in these denominations are good people, and I appreciate their characters. What I talk about sometimes is Presbyterian doctrine, and they talk about it, too. And I have read things they have said about Presbyterian doctrines far harder than anything I have ever said. I sometimes quote in the Watch Tower some things Presbyterians say about their own doctrine, and I occasionally quote in the Watch Tower something the Methodists say about their doctrine, because they say it stronger than I should wish to say it.

See also:
http://tinyurl.com/rl-masons

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[freyd]

For any who are interested enough to investigate what seems to be direct linkage between masonry, mormonism, the papacy and islam I offer a couple of links that are to say the least, sobering as they focus on the heavy use of symbolism by these groups. These symbols were not selected willy-nilly, and for no purpose as they have deep roots in antiquity and the occult, going all the way back, as far as I can tell, to the Tower of Babel and an open satanic conspiracy in rebellion against YHWH. To knowingly be a member of one of these "fraternal" groups while at the same time professing consecration, is in my estimation an abomination. One cannot  partake of the spirit of God and knowingly the spirit of the adversary without repercussions as God is not one to be mocked.

www.theforbiddenknowledge.com/chapter3/

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2134284036772812990

and thanks to Br Ron for:

http://reslight.net/witchcraft.html


 

[freyd]

The Morgan affair

William Morgan (1774 – 1826?) was a resident of Batavia, New York. After stating his intention to write a book exposing Freemasonry's "secrets", he was arrested, kidnapped, and then apparently killed in 1826. His disappearance sparked a public outcry, and launched the formation of a new political party and a powerful anti-Freemason movement in the United States

Note: Morgan's widow later became one of the plural wives of Mormon church founder Joseph Smith, Jr. According to claims, William Morgan was given one of the first official baptism for the dead into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Morgan attempted to join the Masonic lodge in Batavia, but was denied admission.[4] He is known to have received the York Rite Royal Arch degree at Leroy, New York, in 1825, and when a new chapter was being formed in Batavia, Morgan's name was on the list of petitioners for a charter. Allegedly, some Masons objected and a new petition was drawn up without Morgan on it.

Angered by his rejection, Morgan declared that it was his intention to publish a book entitled “Illustrations of Masonry”,[5] critical of the Freemasons and describing their secret degree work in great detail.

Morgan announced that a local newspaper publisher, David Cade Miller, had given him a sizable advance for the work. Miller is said to have received the entered apprentice degree (the first degree of Freemasonry), but had then been stopped from advancement by the objection of one or more of the Batavia lodge members.[3] This would have given him motivation to join with Morgan. In fact, it appears that Morgan had entered into a $500,000 penal bond with three men: Miller, John Davids (Morgan's landlord) and one Russel Dyer.[4]

If the local Masons had simply ignored Morgan's actions, that would have been the end of the matter. But some members of the Batavia lodge responded to Morgan's “betrayal” by publishing an advertisement denouncing Morgan, and several attempts were made by unknown individuals to set fire to Miller's newspaper office.[4]

When these efforts failed, a group of Masons gathered at Morgan's house claiming that he owed them money. On 11 September 1826, Morgan was arrested: according to the law, he could be held in debtor's prison until the debt was paid. Learning of this, Miller went to the jail to pay the debt. After several failed attempts, he finally secured Morgan's release.

A few hours later, Morgan was arrested again, now for another apparent loan he had not paid back and for supposedly stealing clothing. He was jailed again, this time in Canandaigua. On the night of 11 September, someone appeared, claiming to be a friend of Morgan's and offering to pay his debt and have him released. Morgan was taken to a carriage that was waiting for him outside the prison. The next day, the carriage arrived at Fort Niagara.[3]

There are several tales of what happened next. The most common one is that Morgan was taken in a boat to the middle of the Niagara River and drowned.[1] A man named Henry L. Valance allegedly confessed to his part in the murder in 1848 and his deathbed confession is recounted in chapter two of Reverend C. G. Finney's book The Character, Claims, and Practical Workings of Freemasonry.[6] A badly decomposed body washed up on the shores of Lake Ontario about a month after Morgan left the jail, but it was positively identified as the body of a Canadian, Timothy Monroe.[7] Freemasons deny that Morgan was killed, saying instead that he was paid $500 to leave the country. There have been numerous reports of Morgan being seen in other countries, but none has been confirmed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Morgan_(anti-Mason)

[hitcherman]

Would like thoughts on the term "grand Master" being referred to God!

I know Christ is termed as our Grand Master but Jehovah?

[freyd]

Makes me suspicious about mason influence among jw's. According to their Bible, the term/phrase for "grand master" they footnote as from the Hebrew "adho·nav" which I do not find on the internet, yet in the verses that "grand master" appears it is Strongs 113 "adown" in the KJV and is only denoted "master." Along with their subliminal artword, it seems to point to something, doesn't it? Will investigate further. On another note, was googling yesterday and came to a BS website, click and see what you get.  www.biblestudents.ca/pages/newsletters/newsletter_2006_november.html - 29k - 

[hitcherman]

Freyd said:
Makes me suspicious about mason influence among jw's. According to their Bible, the term/phrase for "grand master" they footnote as from the Hebrew "adho·nav"

That was my thoughts also,

Hosea 12:14:
14 E´phra·im caused offense to bitterness, and his deeds of bloodshed he leaves upon his own self, and his reproach his grand Master will repay to him.”

Here is the link to the footnote on this verse which is from the NWT with references
http://www.flickr.com/photos/24639618@N04/2391687410/

This is the only translation that I could find that speaks of Jehovah as a grand Master.
What I find rather strange is that while adown can include term's such as master, Lord, it did not mention grand,if anything "great" would have been a more accurate rendering.
What seems to be inconsistent however is their footnote of Zephaniah 1:9
the verse reads like this:

"9 And I will give attention to everyone that is climbing upon the platform in that day, those who are filling the house of their masters with violence and deception."
 If I'm not mistaken Masters in this verse are refering to men
yet the footnote in this verse says this: see link below
http://www.flickr.com/photos/24639618@N04/2398704006/
So if I am reading correctly here, in Hosea 12:14 grand Master is referring to Almighty God ....yet in Zephaniah 1:9 the footnote speaks of men using the same term?

I have read that Mason's like to view themselves as God's, [Grand Master] maybe I'm reading too much into it.

[hitcherman]

btw Freyd the link to the wts website was a doosey, wonder what gives?

[RRD]

Would like thoughts on the term "grand Master" being referred to God!

I know Christ is termed as our Grand Master but Jehovah?

The term "adonai", and its variations, is actually a plural form of adoni, "my lord." Thus adonai actually means "my lords."

However, in the Bible, Masoretes chose this form to separate adoni ("my lord") from adonai ("my lords"). In the original Hebrew, the two words are spelled exactly the same, since the adonai is formed by adding to adoni a small "vowel point". These "vowel points" are not part of the original Hebrew, and did not come into existence until several centuries after Jesus died, thus the original Hebrew shows no distinction between "adoni" and "adonai". Thus, what happened is that the Masoretes simply added vowel points whenever they thought adoni referred to God, and this is how we came to have forms of adonai in the Hebrew manuscripts.

The Masoretes used adonai as a "plural intensive" to designate God as the supreme "Lord". When used in singular setting as a "plural intensive", a plural form takes on the element of superiority or "grandeur", thus it could be rendered as "Grand Master," "Grand Lord," "Supreme Lord," "Supreme Master," "Great Lord," or "Great Master," and perhaps some other ways that would designate either the superior or supreme. Usually, the NWT renders the forms of adonai as "Sovereign Lord", which does take into account the plural intensive usage in the Hebrew.

Because of the false Jewish doctrine that pronounce the holy name was a sin, Adonai also became an oral substitute for the holy name of God, and thus became a "name of God," although, scripturally, it is not a "name" of God, in the sense that "Yahweh" is his name.

I do not know of anyplace, however, that the term "Grand Master" is ever applied to Jesus. Some trinitarians point to Psalm 110:1, but they have to change "adoni" there to "adonai", and claim that the Masoretes made a mistake in this verse by not adding the vowel point. It is their claim that the Masoretes should have added the vowel point to adoni in Psalm 110:1 in order to make it adonai. And, then, based upon this assumption, they offer Psalm 110:1 as proof that Jesus is Yahweh.

Christian love,
Ronald

[RRD]

On another note, was googling yesterday and came to a BS website, click and see what you get.  www.biblestudents.ca/pages/newsletters/newsletter_2006_november.html - 29k -

The domain, www.biblestudents.ca used to belong to the Winnepeg Bible Students. Probably what has happened is that the class failed to keep the domain name registered, and one of the JWs purchased the registration of the domain, and has redirected it to the Watchtower site. Probably a sly trick on the part of one of the JWs.

The only other option I can think of at present is that the site has been sabotaged in some way so as to redirect it to the Watchtower site.

Christian love,
Ronald

[RRD]

Makes me suspicious about mason influence among jw's. According to their Bible, the term/phrase for "grand master" they footnote as from the Hebrew "adho·nav" which I do not find on the internet, yet in the verses that "grand master" appears it is Strongs 113 "adown" in the KJV and is only denoted "master."

Most references only give a part of the story about adonai (adonay).

http://bible.crosswalk.com/Lexicons/OldTestamentHebrew/heb.cgi?number=0136
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of_God_in_Judaism#Adonai
http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=52&letter=N#168
http://focusonthekingdom.org/articles/BD86.htm
http://focusonthekingdom.org/11.htm
http://www.mindspring.com/~anthonybuzzard/adonai.htm
(For reference only -- I do not necessarily agree with all conclusions given by the above authors.)

Christian love,
Ronald

[hitcherman]

Thanks for that lesson in the hebrew language Bro Ronald, personally I don't feel at all at ease addressing Jehovah with grand Master but thats just me.
I guess its easy to read something into it which is not neccessarily their,Sovereign Lord seems more fitting.
Christian love Jeff.

[RRD]

Along with their subliminal artword, it seems to point to something, doesn't it?

About ten years ago, an ex-JW by the name of Darek Barefoot sent me a book, Jehovah's Witnesses and the hour of darkness: Occult subversion and blind faith in the Watchtower Society, that he had written supposedly giving proofs of demonic occult symbolisms hidden in the artwork of the Watchtower publications. Whether the "hidden" artwork being shown was simply the result of a deliberate act on the part of the artists, I cannot say for sure. Some of these do appear to be deliberate, such as:
http://www.sixscreensofthewatchtower.com/images/rampic.JPG

If this is a true reproduction of what was actually printed by the Watchtower, the ram in the picture could hardly have been an accident, but whether it was meant to be associated with ARIES of the zodiac would have to be added assumption. Nevertheless, the lampshade appears to have some lettering, although I am not sure what it would mean. While I do not believe the Zodiac nor the signs of the Zodiac, are in themselves, demonic, they have been used extensively in demonic occultic practices.

Nevertheless, on the side of caution, and to avoid the possibility of wrongly-accusing anyone, I refrain from any accusations and I approach speculations concerning this with great caution.

Nevertheless, if it was deliberate, I highly doubt that the leadership of the Watch Tower Society had anything to do with it.

After reading the book I mentioned, and examining the methods by which he found most of such alleged demonic symbolisms, I came to the conclusion that one could take the artwork, for example, of Dore, and, using similar methods, find all kinds of things that could be "seen" as "hidden" in the artwork.

Ex-JW Randall Waters presents his opinion at:
http://www.freeminds.org/history/subliminal.htm

Christian love,
Ronald

[hitcherman]

Greetings Bro Ronald,
I have a history with that particular illustration from the Liveforever book ;D
That was the book I studied prior to my baptisim in 1983 and I must admit if I saw that picture of the ram while studying it then it went completely over my head.
However just over a year ago I saw that pic on a website so I got my Liveforever book out and sure enough their it was for all to see.
Was it  a picture of their pet ram I thought? ::)
I took the book to my mothers and she saw the ram as plain as the nose on her face.
Interestingly I was and still am a forum member of "e-watchman exposed" a group of staunch Jw's who  were once caught up in the e-watchman saga,following every last word of the man ...like I did until I smelt a rat.
Having said that, I approached forum members on e-watchmanexposed  with the picture and asked them what they saw on the side table next to the lamp.
NOT ONE of them saw a ram's head!!!
Of course what followed was a tirade of "how dare you suggest" etc etc.
This may sound silly,however in order to prove to myself that I was of sound mind and  not reading anything into the picture I cut it out and drove down to a major shopping mall,I walked up to 11 people and presented them with the picture and casually asked them what  was the picture of next to the lampstand, 10 out of the 11 said ram without hesitation, one lady even said thats the sign of the zodiac,I replied how do you know she said because thats my star sign.
The one who was not sure, thought it was a trick question and so named some other animal think it was a wilda beast ;D
Anyways I went back to the forum with this poll that I had taken, the majority wanted to hang me from the nearest yard arm,one admitted that if it was a ram then it was nothing more than a sick joke from the writing dept, one brother who lean's to the extreme right and obviously an ultra conservative[in jw doctrine] said he showed it to his wife and she said,"well if you have a wild imagination you could just about make it into anything you want to"
Unfortunately that spoke volumes to me ......even if it was inserted by some rogue bro from the art dept, the very fact that they would not allow their minds to admit to it scared me .....the reason being ....thats how I used to be.In total denial of anything and everything  except what was printed in the watchtower .....it really scared me to see how one can switch off and not see something that is obviously their as the rest of the world could see it.
Christian love Jeff.

[hitcherman]

I notice your link to that photo seems to not be working anymore Bro Ronald,so I found the one that I cut out and have posted it on flickr,go to the link and you will see close up of the ram's head, if you scroll down their is another of the complete photo.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/24639618@N04/

[freyd]

The link was working yesterday, but go to http://www.sixscreensofthewatchtower.com/3subliminalimages.html to see the whole site. Of course they want to paint Br Russell, the brethren and the jw's with the same paint brush. It is just inconceivable how things like that artwork could just slip thru the cracks. But the adversary does blind.  Like on p 159 of the Revelation Book.