Freemasonry (Part 2)

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Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

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No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the

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Apostle Paul said, but we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

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In short, if you like smooth, watered down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn't for you.

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By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we're called by the divine trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her

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King. Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Welcome to No Compromise Radio ministry. My name is

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Mike Abendroth, and today we're talking about masons. What about Freemasonry? I'm not talking about the people that work with stones.

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I'm not talking about that kind of masonry. I'm talking about Freemasons when it comes to the group, when it comes to the secret society, when it comes to the handshakes, when it comes to Secret Dakota ring type of special groups.

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All of us want to be in special groups. I think that just is par for the course.

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Why? Because that's how God has made us. We are to be around other people. We are to be around those who have the same goals and aspirations that we do.

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That's why the church is important. I think of the popular movie back in the day, I don't know if it's any good now, so I'm not recommending you to see it.

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It's that whole deal when before you were a Christian, you saw something, you have a memory of it, but then after you're a Christian and you rewatch it and you realize how horrible it was.

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But I remember The Shining with Jack Nicholson. Nicholas, the golfer goes crazy in the mansion in Colorado.

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Jack Nicholson, Nicholas, he at Stephen King's movie goes crazy because he's in that house alone.

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It doesn't do you any good to go be in a monastery or isolate yourself. You are to be part of a group.

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You are supposed to be around other people so you can do the one another, so you can love them, so you can help them. That is the life of Christ and that is

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Christ's command to us, love your neighbor as yourself. So I don't condemn people for wanting to be in a premier sports team for their kids or their kids are in a special academic society or there's a special group for sports.

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People wanna be part of a club. People want to be involved, recognized. I don't say that's wrong, but when it's in a group that is non -Christian, it has the source of authority not found in the

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Bible alone. It has the wrong view of Jesus. He is not, according to the Masons, the eternal God of the universe who alone provides salvation.

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And when salvation is not based on the perfect life of Christ and his perfect death confirmed by the resurrection and now

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Jesus, the great high priest, grants us access to the Father alone, he grants access.

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When you've got the wrong view of Scripture, wrong view of Jesus, wrong view of salvation, call me old -fashioned, but I cannot support that.

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It is no longer a club when it turns into an idolatrous cult competing for the loyalty of the

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Christian heart. Little children, keep yourself from idols, and that is 1

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John 5, verse 21. It is a counterfeit fellowship group.

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It is a false ministry, and I do not want you to commit spiritual adultery by saying

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I'm going to be a Christian, but since the movie National Treasure's really cool and my dad was a

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Mason and George Washington was a Mason and Teddy Roosevelt was a Mason and Ben Franklin was a

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Mason, therefore I'd like to be a Mason too. I'd like to be a Mason because I can help kids and I can give money to the children's hospital and we can do good deeds.

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Well, that's not reason to join together with the Masons because they are a religious organization.

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They are a spiritual group. Again, when I got here in 1997 in Massachusetts, there were a lot of Masons at the church.

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There are no longer any Masons here, not because I ran them out necessarily, although I tried to tell them that they should leave the

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Masonic group that they're in. Problem is, if you try to reveal secrets of the

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Masonic order, you're in big trouble. You have to make an oath and swear, quote, in the presence of Almighty God, end quote, to never reveal these things that you have learned when you have an oath as the entered apprentice, you quote, binding myself under no less penalty than that of having my throat cut across, my tongue torn open from its roots and my body buried in the rough sands of the sea.

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Should I ever violate this, my entered apprentice obligation, so help me

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God, end quote. That should make you afraid to enter an organization like that.

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Remember, different than the mystic cults of the Bible day, different than the

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Gnostics, different than anyone else, the Christian worldview, the Christian command, the

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Christian edict by our King is to go tell everybody everything.

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This is not an esoteric society. This is not for the leaders, no special stuff, and then you slowly, through your

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Dianetics, engram removal therapy, you can come to higher levels of clear and you can actually get past clear.

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No, Christianity is you get everything. We have a book for you and it's called the Bible and all the revelation of God that you need is found in that book.

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You have a natural revelation, which you can see with your eyes and the stars and the sun and the moon, and you can also have that, you have that supplemented, not also, you have that supplemented with exact things that God has thought and said so that you can know everything you need to know about God.

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We have a sufficient scripture. And so you say, well,

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I want to be a Mason. By the way, this is No Compromise Radio Ministry. My name is Mike Ebendroth. We're talking about Freemasonry today.

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I think overall, what I would say is this. If you know a Freemason, you ought to evangelize that person because they have put

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Jesus and his deity and his unique exclusive atonement and his propitiatory sacrifice to the side so they can get together with men to do good deeds for the society.

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And again, some of those deeds are actually good in comparison to what others do in society that are bad.

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Compared to God, of course, they're not good because without faith in Christ, it's impossible to please

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God. God says you do works in light of Christ's great work for you.

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So you believe in that. You take God's word for his great substituentary atonement of Jesus Christ.

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And then in light of what God has done for you, you respond with good works. But good works before faith always models things up because then it makes

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God relegated to some advisor, to some grand architect, if I could use those words.

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So once you say Jesus is put to the side, you are in big trouble.

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Now, I see how this pulls men in. Society has become so emasculated.

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So society has emasculated men. Femininity trumps everywhere. Look at a movie and the guys are always the dopey ones.

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The guys are always the ones that do stupid things. Of course, guys are dopey and guys do stupid things, but it's not a universal thing.

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Girls are dopey and girls do stupid things as well. And we have a society that we live in today. The view of God is cut.

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The view of men is cut. We have a view that just brings

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God down and brings men down. And the problem in society today,

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I don't think is that men behave badly. I think is that men aren't worshiping the

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God of the universe. And so here I see why there's a pull for the Masons because it does bring out the courage in a man.

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It does bring out the philanthropy of a man. It does bring out, I'd like to be in a club and he doesn't want to go to church because the pastor's preaching effeminate doctrine, man -centered doctrine, and the pastor himself is effeminate.

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So why show up? Here you have a group of men who want to do things for other people.

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The bad news is it says in one of their pamphlets, Freemasons are a fraternity of brothers who assist or attempt to follow our creator's plan for us and to help each man be the best man that he can be.

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In different languages, the creator is known by different names. I'm going to read this and now you tell me if there's something missing with this from this list.

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He may be called God, Allah, Jehovah, Yahweh, I am that I am, and others.

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I don't hear any Jesus talk there, do you? There's nothing there that says, and Jesus. And if it did, that'd be just as bad, but here they don't even want to talk about the deity of Christ.

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No talk of the Trinity, no talk about substitutionary atonement. Because deep down, what do Masons know?

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At least those who are the architects, who are the initiators of this, the leaders in Freemasonry, they know quite well the claims of Christ Jesus.

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And just like the caller we had a couple weeks ago who was upset that the Buddhist was challenged because her

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Buddhist faith was a damning doctrine of demons. And Jesus is the only God. He is the only one who has achieved access to God the

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Father. And if you want to go to heaven, you're going through Jesus or no one. And Jesus is not a way.

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He is the only possible way forever to get to heaven. And if you don't like it, well,

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I never thought you would like it because it is a repugnant doctrine to carnal men, to natural women, to those who have not been given spiritual insight, especially in our day and age today.

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You mean to tell me that Jesus is the only way? You mean to tell me, you mean to tell me?

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Well, this is exactly what the Bible teaches. So for men who want to do something good and admirable and serve and help,

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I commend you, but you have to believe in Christ Jesus first and in light of God's great and generous grace through Christ Jesus, embodied in Christ Jesus, the incarnate

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God of the universe. Then you respond to his great grace by helping other people, but you don't help other people by calling

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God the Father of all when the Bible doesn't teach that. You don't do people any good when you say

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Allah or these other names for God is fine. You can still be a good

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Hindu and be a good Freemason. This is not what we're going to do. Christianity is for all, it's just not for the select.

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It's not just for men, it's for men and women and everyone else. And so today on No Compromise Radio, we're talking a little bit about Freemasonry.

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I understand why people want to join Freemasonry, but it is a spiritual organization.

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In their pamphlet, whether it be the social, philosophical, the spiritual, the historical, or simply a sense of community with others, you will find within Freemasonry that part of you which you seek.

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Aye, aye, aye. So what I'd like to do today is talk a little bit more about Freemasonry.

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And I don't want you to bow down before a man called the worshipful master.

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I don't want you to take false oaths before a false God. I don't want you to somehow believe the local

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Freemason group that says this isn't a religion when at the highest levels, Masonry is considered not just a religion, by the way, but as Joseph Fort Newton says, that Masonry is not a religion, but religion, not a church, but a worship in which men of all religions may unite.

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See, that's in Religion of Masonry, page 10 and 11. This tower of Babel, all unite.

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We don't care, God, that you said that Jesus is the only way and we have to believe in him and confess that Jesus is

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Lord. We don't want that. We want to unite another way. This is Tower of Babel. You don't have to go very far.

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Open your Bibles to Genesis chapter 11 and you'll understand Freemasonry. This uber religion, this super religion, something that transcends all religions and that they can all get tucked under.

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No wonder it is so dangerous. But you throw the national treasure movie in, the guy who was the main voice there is used for the

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Mason's radio ads. And it sounds good. It sounds noble. It sounds right.

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But it is as made up as Batman is. Superman, it's a made up thing. And they go to 1

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Kings chapter 7 with Haram Abiff, the builder, and they make the

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Bible say things it doesn't even say. The Bible doesn't say anything beyond some simple gifted bronze worker in Solomon's temple.

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But they make this allegory with Haram Abiff. And he was a chief builder of Solomon's temple and the grandmaster.

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And some of the people wanted to know a secret word associated with the master Mason's degree. And Hiram didn't want to tell them.

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So they assassinated him and they buried his body in the temple. You know, garbage and rubbish.

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They found his body. Assassins were discovered. They were put to death for what they did.

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Solomon raised up Haram from the dead. And during this ritual of the master

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Mason, the candidate plays the person. Haram Abiff is killed, is raised to life again all the while blindfolded.

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Like I said, you can make up anything you want. It's a free country, but that's like Batman. That's like Batman, where Batman gets some secret superpowers or Spider -Man has some powers from the spider.

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And you just make stuff up. I mean, it's creative. It's smart because you start with the

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Bible. You use Bible words. You have Bible oaths, Bible concepts of there's a

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God who rules everyone, superintending. And then you spin off.

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I don't want you to be a Mason. Why? Because I think everybody there does horrible things?

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No, because I think it has horrible consequences to faith because you can't be a

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Christian and call yourself a Mason. What do I mean by that statement? Well, you could be, but you could be duped.

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But you should know enough to say, I just ought not to call myself a Christian anymore because this is in direct opposition to my

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Christianity. This great architect of the universe, I cannot address.

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Listen to the following prayer in the opening of the

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Master Mason degree. By the way, if it's not religious, why do they pray? Most holy and glorious Lord God, the great architect of the universe, the giver of all good gifts and graces, in thy name we assemble.

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And we beseech thee, O Lord God, to bless our present assembling and to illuminate our minds that we may walk in the light of thy countenance.

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And when the trials of our probationary state are over, be admitted into the temple, not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

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So isn't that interesting? We'll just cut and paste things from the New Testament, but we won't talk about Jesus at all.

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Now, maybe you say, well, we do at our lodge. Well, are you really supposed to? And if you do talk about Jesus, then why don't you obey him?

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Why don't you obey him? And don't tell me that Calvin called God an architect. He did, but it was in a different context.

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And you can't take the context of the phrase and say that's the way

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Calvin talked about the architect. It's the exact same ways as the Masons.

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No, that isn't true. Why is there an extra book? The Volume of the Sacred Law.

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Why does that contain spiritual and moral light, quote, to rule and govern our faith when we need the

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Bible? What about the afterlife? What do the Masons believe about the afterlife? Quote, the lamb has in all ages been deemed an emblem of innocence.

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He therefore who wears the lamb skin as a badge of masonry is thereby continually reminded of that purity of life and rectitude of conduct, which is essentially necessary to gaining admission into the celestial lodge above where the super supreme architect of the universe presides.

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That's works righteousness. That's stealing the concept of substitutionary atonement from Genesis through Deuteronomy and then the

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New Testament, John chapter one. How about the gavel, common gavel lesson? Quote, the common gavel is an instrument made use of by operative

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Masons to break off the rough and superfluous parts of stones, the better to fit them for the builder's use.

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But we as free and accepted Masons are taught to make use of it for the more noble and glorious purpose of divesting our hearts and consciences of all the vices and superfluities of life, thereby fitting our minds as living stones for that spiritual building, that house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

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So you can reject Jesus Christ as the only God and Savior and still be a

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Mason and still worship God. Doesn't that make you say, hmm, I have a few other statements from rituals and monitors regarding salvation.

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Quote, the covering of the lodge is no less than the clouded canopy or stardecked heaven where all good free

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Masons hope at last to arrive. Well, I have news for you. Here's a newsflash.

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All good Masons will not make it. No good Masons will make it because there are no good Masons. Romans chapter three says there's no one good.

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That's why we need a Savior, the good one. Hey, good teacher, the man said, the rich young ruler to Jesus, Jesus said, why do you call me good?

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Because I'm God, because there's only one good one, God alone. By the rough ashlar, a stone, we are reminded of our rude and imperfect state by nature by the perfect ashlar of that state of perfection at which we hope to arrive.

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See what they do is they'll take concepts like substitution and atonement and then torque it. Here's another one.

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Yet that all seeing eye, this is an emblem of the great grand architect, whom the sun, moon and stars obey and under those watchful care, even comets perform their stupendous revolutions, pervades the most in most recesses of the human heart and will reward us according to our merits.

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Does that sound like Christianity to you? Rewarding us according to our merits.

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How about this? The Grand Lodge of Kentucky at one time saw in this identification with Hiram, something that is very interesting.

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Here's the introduction, 1946 edition of the Kentucky Monitor. All believed in a future life to be attained by purification and trials in a state of successive states and rewards of punishment, reward and punishment and in a mediator, a redeemer, by whom the evil principle was to be overcome and the supreme deity reconciled those creatures.

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The Hindus called him Krishna, the Chinese Qianzi, the Persians, my, my

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Chinese is bad, Soshish, the Chaldeans, Adu Vanai, the

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Egyptians, Horus, Plato, Love, Scandinavians, Balder, they actually had a temerity to not say this, the

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Christians, Jesus, Masons, Hiram. You don't you wanna run from that? If you're a kid listening to your dad's a

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Mason, you ought to pray for your father. That's the most loving thing you could do and tell him, dad, this goes exactly against Christianity.

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It doesn't take long to figure out. You don't have to be some kind of Scottish Rite 33rd level to know the scoop that this is not biblical.

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And so why would you do that? You have one life to live. God created you to serve him and serve

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Christ Jesus. Why would you do something opposite? And I've got maybe a bigger problem on No Compromise Radio today.

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How about Christians that wanna link arms with Masons? Doesn't 2 Corinthians 6 say something about that?

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But before I get there, and I don't know if I'll have time, here's some quotations from funeral services from different lodges, grand lodges.

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Most glorious God, after our departure, hence in peace and thy favor, we may be received into thine blessed everlasting kingdom and there join in union with our friend.

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He has passed out of love, out of human hearts, to a higher, better love, out of dim lights of a lodge on the earth to a brighter, glorious lodge above.

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We have the assurance that thou has taken to himself his soul. Masons believe sincerely that when life on earth comes to a close, the soul is translated from the imperfections of this mortal sphere to that all perfect, glorious, and celestial lodge above.

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And the list goes on. Lots of scripture language, lots of Bible talk, but the center of the

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Bible, Jesus Christ, is no longer given preeminence.

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He is just given a seat at the table. So it's kind of like the UN. Everybody comes to the table. When Jesus would take that table and flip it upside down, just like he did in the temple, and say that he is the

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Messiah. If there are two messiahs, well, okay, then go worship one of them.

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But there's one Messiah, one God who would cloak himself with humanity so he might identify with us, yet never sinning, never disobeying his parents, never thinking untoward thoughts with his mind about ladies, perfectly obeying

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God, reflecting perfectly God's holy and righteous and just law and mind and nature and attributes and character and this great

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God, Jesus Christ, didn't deserve to die because he never committed a sin. The wages of sin is death.

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He never committed a sin, never once. He was unpolluted, undefiled. He was holy.

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He was spotless. And yet he dies a vicious, cruel death of a criminal.

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And he does that because God the Father placed the sins of all those who would ever believe upon Jesus and then treated

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Jesus as if he committed those sins. So that then through the non -contributory faith that we have in God, in Christ Jesus, then

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God treats us like we perfectly obeyed the law just like Jesus Christ did even though we didn't.

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But God treats us that way. And that is called imputation. Christ's righteousness imputed to our account, our sins imputed to Christ's account.

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And then God raised him from the dead and the response should be, I want to worship you, believe you, repent of my sins and from my sins and make sure

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I go around telling everybody else about the only God, about the one God, about the one

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God who sent his son Jesus Christ to die for sinners, to ransom them, to redeem them.

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And so all this kind of fluff when it comes to Masons, and is it compatible with Christianity?

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The answer is no. And the answer is we're not better than Masons. Maybe some

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Masons do more good on the earth than Christians do, but that's not the point now, is it? The point is you need to run away from Masons.

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And if people are trying to dabble with it because they want to find their masculine identity, it's the local church where men are needed.

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That's one of my great passions in life is to equip men for gospel ministry. And I want more men at Bethlehem Bible Church than there are women, and that in fact is the case.

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And the way I love the women, there are many ways, preaching the gospel, et cetera, but the way I want to love the women the most is to grab ahold of the men and have the gospel change them and shape them and have them live out the gospel in such a way that the wives say, man, that's a godly man.

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I'm happy about that. God, thank you for giving me such a man. So my name's Mike Abendroth, info at nocompromiseradio .com.

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If you'd like to write us, just a couple part series quickly on Masonic Lodges. If you want to watch natural treasure find, just don't believe it.

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No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

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Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life -transforming power of God's word through verse -by -verse exposition of the sacred text.

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Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at six. We're right on route 110 in West Boylston.

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You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

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The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE, its staff or management.