Freemasons & the
Jesus Seminar
in
the
Southern Baptist
Convention
Lamentation
is often heard concerning the apostate condition of this denomination. However,
there seems to be a good reason for the choice of paths which the SBC is
travelling, namely important statistics regarding the membership of Freemasons
in the SBC, as published by Biblical Discernment Ministries:
"U.S.
membership [in the Masons] is claimed at about three million, with about five
million worldwide... The official magazine of Masonry in the U.S. is titled New
Age. Some church denominations are also led by avowed Masons (e.g., a 1991
survey by the Southern Baptist Convention Sunday School Board found that 14% of
SBC pastors and 18% of SBC deacon board chairs are Masons. It is also estimated
that SBC members comprise 37% of total U.S. lodge
membership.)"
37%
of 3,000,000 would have been 1,110,000 Masons who held membership in the SBC.
This estimate was for 1991. How many are there today? Also, how many Masons
attend SBC churches but do not hold formal memberships? And how many Masons
belong to other Christian denominations? (A Mason once informed us that the
Masons encourage their members to go to church.)
In
1993, Foundation Magazine carried an article exposing the failure of the SBC to
deal with the problem of Masonic members. The response of the 1993 convention to
a document titled "A Study Of Freemasonry" was approval of the following
recommendation, which represents the present compromised position of the SBC:
"In
light of the fact that many tenets and teachings of Freemasonry are not
compatible with Christianity and Southern Baptist doctrine, while others are
compatible with Christianity and Southern Baptist doctrine, we therefore
recommend that consistent with our denomination's deep convictions regarding the
priesthood of the believer and the autonomy of the local church, membership in a
Masonic Order be a matter of personal conscience. Therefore, we exhort Southern
Baptists to prayerfully and carefully evaluate Freemasonry in the light of the
Lordship of Christ, the teachings of the Scripture, and the findings of this
report, as led by the Holy Spirit of God."
THE JESUS SEMINAR
Considering
that over 1 million Freemasons belong to the Southern Baptist Convention, and
many hold positions of authority, it is not surprising that a Jesus Seminar
leader would be invited to address an SBC congregation. For details of this
landmark event, please refer to David Cloud's Way of Life Literature report:
Christ-Denier Speaks at Southern Baptist Church.
Presently
there are an abundance of books in bookstores which promote the thesis of the
Jesus Seminar: that the true message of Jesus Christ was suppressed by the early
Church but has been preserved in non-canonical works written by Gnostics ~
especially the Dead Sea Scrolls, which were discovered in Qumran in 1945, and
the Nag Hammadi Library, discovered in Egypt in 1947.
The majority of books promoting
these heretical manuscripts are of Masonic origin: The Hiram Key; The Dead
Sea Scrolls Deception; The Message of the Sphinx; Holy Blood, Holy Grail;
and Bloodline of the Holy Grail. (1)
The
Introduction to a popular volume of the Nag Hammadi Library rejects the
inspiration of two gospels that have been a part of the traditional Christian
canon:
"The
Jewish Christianity of the first generation in Galilee that developed the
collection of sayings imbedded in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke may well have
been considered heretical even by Paul and the Hellenists, and the feeling may
have been mutual."
The
Gospel of Mark is also suspect, according to the Masonic authors of Holy
Blood, Holy Grail, subsequent to the recovery in 1958 of the Gnostic Secret
Gospel of Mark near Jerusalem. (2)
Since
its inception in 1985, the Jesus Seminar has been preoccupied with discrediting
Jesus Christ as revealed in the Christian Scriptures and seeking to discover
"the historical Jesus" in the Gnostic scriptures. With three Gospels of the New
Testament now discredited, Jesus Seminar scholars have turned to a new gospel
which presents "another Jesus" who preaches "another
Gospel."
A
survey of the Jesus Seminar, available at the University of California at Santa
Barbara web site, mentions their "scholarly" translation of a new version which
includes the "recent archeological discovery" - the Gospel of Thomas:
"Part
of the project was also the preparation of a new translation of the gospels,
prepared by a group within the Seminar, known as "the Scholars Version." This
translation, and the work of the Jesus Seminar as a whole, includes the
non-canonical Gospel of Thomas, preserved in a Coptic version as part of the Nag
Hammadi Codices discovered in Upper Egypt in 1945...The results of all this work
appeared in 1993: The Five Gospels: The Search for the Authentic Words of
Jesus, by Robert W. Funk, Roy W. Hoover, and the Jesus Seminar, published by
Macmillan in New York."
Gnosis
means "knowledge" - specifically hidden or occult knowledge. The Gnostics taught
that Man may attain to the divine state through the knowledge of secret
mysteries. The Introduction to the Gospel of Thomas describes the Gnostic
message of "another Jesus."
"The
Gospel of Thomas in its oldest form, stressed the finding of wisdom, or of the
'Kingdom of the Father,' in the knowledge (gnosis) of oneself (cf. saying 3),
guided by the sayings of Jesus...The theme of recognizing oneself is further
elaborated in sayings (cf. 50, 51) which speak of the knowledge of one's divine
origin..."
Note
the variety of New Age concepts preached by the Gnostic Jesus of the Gospel of
Thomas:
(22)
"Jesus said to them, 'When you make the two one, and when you make the inside
like the outside and the outside like the inside, and the above like the
below, and when you make the male and female one and the same, so that the
male not be male nor the female; and when you fashion eyes in place of an eye,
and a hand in place of a hand, and a foot in place of a foot, and a likeness in
place of a likeness; then you will enter the kingdom." (As above, so below;
androgyny)
[NOTE:
According to The Message of the Sphinx, the "'Hermetic writings' (of the
Gnostic School of Alexandria, Egypt)...express the philosophy 'as above, so
below' and advocate the drawing down to earth of cosmic powers as an essential
step in Mankind's quest for knowledge of the divine and immortality of the soul:
'And I, said Hermes, will make Mankind intelligent, I will confer wisdom on
them, and make known to them the truth. I will never cease to benefit thereby
the life of mortal men; and then will I benefit each one of them when the force
of nature working in him is in accord with the movement of the stars.'"
(3)]
(30)
"Jesus said, 'When you disrobe without being ashamed and take up your garments
and place them under your feet like little children and tread upon them, then
[will you see] the son of the living one, and you will not be afraid." (sexual
rites of initiation)
(41)
"Jesus said, 'Whoever has something in his hand will receive more, and
whoever has nothing will be deprived of even the little he has." (cf., Rev.
13:16,17)
(50)
"Jesus said, 'If they say to you, 'Where did you come from?, say to them, 'We
came from the light, the place where the light came into being on its own accord
and established [itself] and became manifest through their image..." (divine
origin of man)
(61)
"Salome said, 'Who are you, man, that you...have come up on my couch and eaten
from my table. Jesus said to her, 'I am he who exists from the undivided. I was
given some of the things of my father." (Jesus not co-equal with
God)
(70)
"Jesus said, 'That which you have will save you if you bring it forth from
yourselves. That which you do not have within you [will] kill you if you do
not have it within you." (god within)
(72)
"[A man said] to him, 'Tell my brothers to divide my fathers possessions with
me. He said to him, 'O man, who has made me a divider?' He turned to his
disciples and said to them, 'I am not a divider, am I?" (ecumenical
unity)
(77)
"Jesus said, 'It is I who am the light which is above them all. It is I who am
the all. From me did the all come forth, and unto me did the all extend. Split a
piece of wood, and I am there. Lift up a stone, and you will find me there."
(pantheism)
(114)
"Simon Peter said to them, 'Let Mary leave us, for women are not worthy of life.
Jesus said, 'I myself shall lead her in order to make her male, so that she too
may become a living spirit resembling you males. For every woman who will make
herself male will enter the kingdom of heaven." (androgyny)
Gnosticism
first began to threaten the doctrinal purity of the early Church and became
fully developed as a major heresy in the second century A.D. Paul seems to have
been dealing with an early form of Gnosticism in the book of Colossians, with
references to a religious system that attempted to devalue the person of Jesus
Christ and undermine His redemptive work by promoting a combination of Greek
speculation (2:4,8-10), Jewish legalism (2:11-17), and Oriental mysticism
(2:18-23). The theme of Colossians is the complete sufficiency of Jesus Christ,
rather than forbidden knowledge, for every spiritual and practical need of the
believer.
Today,
the Gnostic heresy is enjoying a worldwide revival. Other denominations, such as
the United Methodist Church, are allowing speakers from the Jesus Seminar to
address congregations. By promoting the doctrines of the Jesus Seminar and
Freemasonry, apostate Christendom has become a major vehicle for the
dissemination of Gnosticism.
The
Gnostic Renaissance has not been spontaneous, but is the result of premeditated
infiltration of Christian churches. Theosophist, Alice Bailey, revealed that
plans to form a fifth column within ALL denominations were laid early in this
century:
"Very
definitely may the assurance be given here that, prior to the coming of the
Christ, adjustments will be made so that at the head of all great organizations
will be found either a Master, or an initiate who has taken the third
initiation. At the head of certain of the great occult groups, of the Freemasons
of the world, and of the various great divisions of the church, and resident in
many of the great nations will be found initiates or Masters." (4)
"The
Christian church in its many branches can serve as a St. John the Baptist, as a
voice crying in the wilderness, and as a nucleus through which world
illumination may be accomplished. I indicate the hope. I do not assert a fact.
Its work is intended to be the holding of a broad Platform. The church must show
a wide tolerance, and teach no revolutionary doctrines or cling to any
reactionary ideas. The church as a teaching factor should take the great basic
doctrines and (shattering old forms in which they are held) show their true and
inner spiritual significance. The prime work of the church is to teach, and to
teach ceaselessly, preserving the outer appearance in order to reach the many
who are accustomed to church usages. Teachers must be trained; Bible knowledge
must be spread; the sacraments must be mystically interpreted, and the power of
the church to heal must be demonstrated.
"The
three main channels through which the preparation for the new age is going on
might be regarded as the Church, the Masonic Fraternity and the educational
field. All of them are as yet in relatively static condition, and all are as yet
failing to meet the need and to respond to the inner pressure. But in all of
these three movements, disciples of the Great Ones are to be found and they are
steadily gathering momentum and will before long enter upon their designated
task." (5)
- Christopher Knight & Robert Lomas, The Hiram
Key, Element Books, 1996.
Michael Baigent, Richard
Leigh, The Dead Sea Scrolls Deception, Element Books, Touchstone Books,
1993.
Graham Hancock &
Robert Bauval, The Message of the Sphinx, Three Rivers Press,
1996.
Michael Biagent, Richard
Leigh & Henry Lincoln,Holy Blood, Holy Grail, Dell Publishing,
1982.
Laurence Gardiner,
Bloodline of the Holy Grail, Element Books, 1996.
- Holy Blood, Holy Grail, p. 320.
- The Message of the Sphinx, pp. 132, 270.
- Alice Bailey, Initiation: Human & Solar,
Lucis Publishing, 1922, pp. 61-2.
- Alice Bailey, The Externalisation of the
Hierarchy, Lucis Pub., 1957, pp. 510-11
