Latest / Worldview Matters With David Fiorazo / Freemasonry Beliefs, Practices, and Symbols

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Freemasonry Beliefs, Practices, and Symbols · Worldview Matters With David Fiorazo

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Welcome to World View Matters, discussing controversial issues, discerning current events,
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defending biblical Christianity, no topic, off limits.
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And now, here's your host, David Fierazzo.
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Hello, and welcome, friends, new world order, you can see what's on my brain, to World
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View Matters.
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Hey, we're going to jump right into it.
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We are doing part two today on free masonry with Pastor John Pennell.
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If you want to look at the first show, guys, part one was October 9th, so almost three
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weeks ago, roughly, we did a pastor's perspective of the religion, and it is a religion, or a cult
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if some, you want to address it that way of free masonry, so that was just a few weeks
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go part one.
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So today on part two, we're going to talk a little bit more about some of the beliefs
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practices, and in particular, some of the symbolism, some of the symbols they use.
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So I want to bring in one of my favorite pastors, and it is John Pennell from Calvary Chapel,
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Lakeville, Illinois, and he's been there for, gosh, John, when did you start there in
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the 80s or 90s?
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1999.
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1999, okay.
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And also tell us about WLGS radio, you got that going several years ago as well, right?
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Yeah, we have a low power radio station that primarily initially was just broadcasting
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100 watts to our community, but now with all the technology that we have, we're able
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to stream live anywhere in the world, and yeah, we're just still building, and seeing
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what God will do with that ministry.
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Actually, I turned it over to a couple in our church.
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I'd been pretty much the program director for 15 years, but I turned it over after
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breaking my neck.
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I decided it was time to let some things go.
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And so we're in a new phase of WLGS right now.
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Delegate, delegate, wait a minute, wait a minute, it's hard to let some of those things
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go.
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I would imagine after all those years, but guys, you can go to CCLV, that's calvary
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chapel Lakeville.org, and there's a link there for the radio station.
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You can stream online from anywhere, sermons and music.
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But again, this is part two today on Freemasonry.
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If you want to listen to part one in John's testimony, a little perspective from his father
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being Freemason himself, before he got saved and before he became a pastor, and how John
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growing up in the home of a dad who was a Freemason going to the building, will
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talk about that in just a little bit.
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Before we get into the origins of Freemasonry, just a brief review, some bullet points from
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a couple weeks ago on part one here.
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This is according to God's questions and some of the notes we were talking about last
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time, John.
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Freemasonry, Eastern Star, other similar secret organizations seem to be harmless fellowship
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gatherings.
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Many of them appear to promote a belief in God, but Freemasonry, which is by the way,
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is also called the craft, interesting.
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It does not have a belief in the one true God, rather each man must act with courage,
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fidelity and devotion to his God, and that could be one of any deities.
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Freemasonry teaches the existence of a supreme being, so whoever that may be, and could
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be the God of Islam, Hinduism, any other religion will do.
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By swearing the Masonic oath and participating in the rituals of the lodge, if you're a Christian,
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you're perpetuating a false gospel.
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Even if the Christian Mason knows the truth and believes in Christ, other lodge members
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are trusting in Freemasonry's plan of salvation to get to heaven.
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And by his membership in a synchrotistic organization, the Christian has severely compromised
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his witness, if you are part of Freemasonry, and because it contradicts the clear teachings
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of Scripture, which we went through, some of them last time on part one of this program,
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World View Matters with Pastor John Penel.
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So bottom line, a Christian should have absolutely no connection with Freemasonry after you know
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what it's about.
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So John, let's go back to the origins, unless you want to give an overall, just your thoughts
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and what I just shared.
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Yeah, it kind of blows my mind.
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I am a real Mason, in fact, that I'd laid brick for 20 years and built a lot of the buildings
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and structures around the Chicago land area.
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But you go back to the origins of Freemasonry, and we always refer to it as the lodge or
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the Masonic lodge in our home when I was growing up.
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It's basically a trade guild that went wild back in Europe with the great cathedrals and castles
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that they were building, and it kind of innocently formed a way to protect their members, but
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once all the castle building kind of came to a close and they were unemployed Mason's
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and they had their lodge to upkeep.
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They began to allow others to join the lodge to come alongside.
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So you had your operative Mason's, which meaning that you know how the late brick and stone
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and the speculative or accepted Mason's, they began to accept other members into their
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organization, and it really, the allurements of that was that of brotherhood of charity
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and of good works.
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And so it has this basis behind it, as you read through a lot of the Masonic information.
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It really comes down to a number of things, of course, but good works of works or salvation
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method that is found in the lodge.
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Many lodges would say we are not a religion and we're just a fraternity of brotherhood
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and good works, but you look into some of the things that they do within their lodge,
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the pledges that they make, it definitely qualifies many ways as a religion, as a cult,
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which I believe it is in the world today.
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And so very dangerous and something I believe, yeah, first you should stay away from it.
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So one thing we didn't talk about last time, by the way, that was a picture of your building
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in Illinois, the one on the right, is that correct John?
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Yeah, one is a postcard drawing, the other one is just the only photograph I could find
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on it, but as a small boy, you know, probably before I was a teenager, I just remember running
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around in that building, it was fascinating to me.
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And I've read some of the comments from the last show that we did and some of the people
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saying that, you know, it's an evil organization and talk about the wickedness of it.
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And to be honest with you, I have no bad memories of the Masonic lodge.
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I have nothing, you know, in my mind where I can point back and say, you know, that was
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no good. My problem is, as I grew older and began to get deep into the word of God, I understood
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that it was a counterfeit gospel, that it was another gospel, and it was not compatible
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with the gospel message of Jesus Christ.
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And so I realized that there are those who have very hard memories concerning the lodge
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and the impact that it had upon their family.
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I'm not coming from that perspective, but I do come from the perspective of knowing that
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it goes against God's word, and that it is something that Christians should shy away
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from.
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And isn't that the bottom line, the spiritual aspect of this?
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You cannot be saved by works no matter how philanthropic, no matter how generous, you know,
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you cannot be saved, that will not lead you to the path to the one true God and to salvation.
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So let's talk briefly, John, we didn't mention the Shriners.
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The last time we talked, there's maybe some confusion about that.
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They do a lot of good works.
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They fund a lot of the hospitals around the country, right, the children's hospitals,
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the Shriners.
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So these aren't evil men necessarily.
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They're deceived if they are going through all the secret rituals and everything within
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the lodge itself and worshiping a different deity, but they do a lot of good work.
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And atheists can do a lot of good work.
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So talk about that briefly.
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Yeah, I, from what I know about the Shriners was pretty much what many of us do as far as
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we see the commercials on TV about the hospitals and we see them on their motorcycles, their
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little gocarts, they haven't frayed in communities with the, the fizzes, the hats that they wear
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and they seem to be a fun group, a fun organization.
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My dad was invited to become a member of the Shriners.
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He never took it to that level and I have no idea why.
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It always bothered me that the symbolism behind the Shriners is certainly Islamic and that
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kind of bothered me as a Christian.
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It's like, why do we want to mess with symbols that are of another God or that worship at
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different God?
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And that was always puzzling to me, although I have no answer for it.
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It was puzzling to me as far as something that it was what we should stay away from.
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You look at that and think, well, that's from a different religion and that goes back
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to masonry as long as you confess that your belief in God, it doesn't matter what God
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you worship in this world, you just have to believe that there is a higher being.
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And so the danger of forming a brotherhood with people who believe in worship other
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gods, when at times that brotherhood then becomes stronger, I say, for the Christian stronger
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than their faith or their church that they participate in.
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For example, in my hometown, I grew up in in Zion, Illinois, one of the pastors at one
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time preached against masonry.
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And he told his congregation that you need to get out of it if you're involved in it.
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And I don't know if he did it unknowingly, but he soon discovered that many of the members
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of his church were pre-masons.
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And so he was quickly confronted and said, you either need to denounce the things that
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you had said or we're going to pull our membership from your church.
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We would not denounce.
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And so the whole lot of them up and moved and went to a different church in town.
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And I know where they're at now, too.
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But it shows that for the mason's brotherhood of the Masonic lodge was stronger than faith
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in Jesus Christ.
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They were ready to walk away and they did walk away.
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And again, just red flags all over the place when you think about this.
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Yeah, that is such an important point when something becomes stronger, any bond, any
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love, any relationship, or practice stronger than your relationship with God and Christianity.
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Wow.
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That brings me to a quote that you shared with me in some notes you sent from the grand
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lodge of the state of Illinois, John.
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It says masonry is definitely not a religion.
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Come on.
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But it says it's one of the few forums where men of every religion can come together.
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And although lodge is open and closed with a prayer and masonry teaches morality, it
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is neither a church nor a religious body.
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And they say it's open to all men who believe in a supreme being.
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Well, in the first show we did with you, John, we already pretty much debunked that it
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is extremely religious.
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Many would say it is a religion.
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And yet some can still deny that.
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That's a little confusing.
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So are there leadership there?
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Do they really not think they're religious or a religion?
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Are they trying to be disingenuous or do they really not think they're a religion?
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So when you look into the Masonic lodge of free masonry, you find that there are so
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many varied opinions concerning the lodge itself.
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And they would call the men who write about the lodge, theologians of the lodge.
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So there are so many different writings that you can get involved with.
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So it really depends on maybe your state lodge, every state in the United States has a grand
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lodge.
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And then you have the individual lodges in various cities throughout our country.
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And it really depends on what they follow, but they do not view it.
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And the lodge that my dad was part of, do not view it as a religion, but they think it
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comes alongside to kind of support the faith that we have in Christ.
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One of the things I think is interesting to me that there are, my dad was a 32 degree
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Mason in the Scottish right.
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And there's another division called the York right and they don't have 32 degrees.
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But most mason's only get past the blue lodge.
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The blue lodge is the first degrees of masonry.
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And one of the things that interests me, when you enter in the very first degree, it's
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called the entered affrontess.
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And they actually removed the heel of a shoe that exposed their heel.
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They roll up a pant leg, they roll up an arm, they bear their chest.
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And one of the things the removing of the foot is the recognition that the entered apprentice
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is on holy ground.
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Now what does that remind you of?
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Where do you ever hear and scripture of somebody removing their shoes because they're on holy
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ground?
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Moses.
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And yet, yes, we have Moses going to the mountain.
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He's removing his shoes.
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He's on holy ground.
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But when you go into the lodge as entered affrontess, the very first degree, you come into a very
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similar pattern where you are standing before what they would say, the worshipful master,
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you're standing toward the east because that's where the sun rises and where light comes
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from.
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And so these are really just deceptive practices that they have in a recognition as they
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will come to the altar.
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They'll be the Bible, they'll be the square, they'll be the compass.
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Now you just had up on the screen, my dad's badge that he would wear.
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And for this show, we thought we would talk through the various symbols.
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Just on my dad's badge that one of my sisters had, I even totally forgot about this, but
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I was fascinated by it when I was a child.
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I used to go sneak into his drawer when I knew it was kept and just kind of look at it,
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but not really understanding anything about it.
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Other than these are the symbols of the Masonic lodge or some of the symbols.
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And we were going to take a few minutes just to kind of talk through some of these things.
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Well, we'll do that as soon as we take a quick break.
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We were with John Pennell talking about free masonry.
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And we'll talk about the square and the compass, the letter G, whether that's the great
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architect of the universe or narcissism or something else.
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We'll talk about that and the level and more when we come back on World View Matters.
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Today's show is brought to you by Harbinger's Daily.
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World News Biblically Understood.
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Stay informed at harbingerstaley.com.
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So John Pennell, a cult can be described as an unorthodox system of religious beliefs
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and rituals.
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And that certainly sounds like some of this what we're talking about, but let's go right
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to the square and the compass.
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Tell us what does that mean to them?
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So we have the square and the compass that they, this is part, this is on the altar.
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So the very first degree as the entered a princess, that's what they call the first degree.
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On the altar will be the Bible, will be the square and will be the compass.
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And these are settled, obviously, of actual building, right?
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You have a compass that we didn't use as me as the birth mason.
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We didn't get into this, but you can think of it as a draft or using a compass or maybe
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if you're crafting a stone and you want to have it drawn out, of course you'd use that.
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The square was something that we would always use on the job site, but they have it
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that they brought it into a spiritual level and the representation of the compass itself,
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reminding them that there is a spiritual world.
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And then the square representing that physical or earthly plane.
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And so they're in their saying it's not a works for salvation or organization,
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but from the very gikgo, they are using these two devices to really speak about to the individual
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that entered a furnace once again, that he has up to that point been physically in darkness,
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but he will as he progresses through the various degrees of the lodge come into enlightenment
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more and more.
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And so these are tools that they, I mean, not physical tools, obviously, but they represent
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that of the earthly plane to the spiritual plane and that you're to progress through your
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different degrees until your spiritual outweighs the physical that you grow spiritually in
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your life.
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And so it is something that we realize that it's works, right?
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It's works for salvation and Paul teaches us that that is something that, you know, salvation
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is not by works, but it is through faith in Jesus Christ.
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And so there is that capacity of boasting Ephesians 2, 8, 9 reminds us that we've been saved
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through faith and not of works, not of ourselves, unless anyone should boast.
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And there is that kind of going through the degrees, there is that boasting that can take
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place in us.
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Yes.
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Yes.
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So, John, we've got to pick up the pace just a little bit and that's on me because I just
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wanted to get into some of the other details.
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But if, guys, if you can bring up that photo of John's dads, the square in the compass
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with the moon and the letter G, right under his name, John A. Penel right there, John,
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the letter G, great architect of the universe, some say it stands for geometry, some say it
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stands for the supreme being, still others believe it stands for noses, which is, you know,
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short for noctisism, knowledge.
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John, tell us a little bit about the letter G.
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Well, that's the odd thing.
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I said there's many different theologians of the Masonic logic, so they can't even agree
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what the G stands for, and so there are these three various opinions, whether it stands
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for God, whether it stands for geometry because of the square in the compass and the actual
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working physical side of the Masonry.
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But I was very interested in the noses, you know, standing for knowledge because we know
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it's scripture that in first John, John was writing against noctisism of his day.
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And this casing down knowledge to grow closer to God.
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And so if it does, and they can't agree on what it does agree with, but then again, it
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would stand for noses for knowledge that there is this gaining of knowledge to find salvation.
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So once again, just another red flag that we find in the Masonic logic that makes things
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very suspicious.
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Okay, and second Peter 318, Peter ends his letter by saying, grow in the grace and knowledge
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of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, not worldly knowledge.
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But John, we got to move on to the blazing star, the Masonic blazing star.
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Tell us a little bit about this.
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What does that mean to them?
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So they have the great light and the lesser light, which is the sun and the moon.
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And they have a variety of opinions on the star itself.
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They have a variety of opinions on a lot of things, but representing God as the light
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of all the universe, they could represent the sun.
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They even would say that it represents.
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And here's another guiding of knowledge represents the star Bethlehem, the wise men needed
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to be guided to the baby Jesus.
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So here in the Freemasonry that it is the blazing star guiding them to the spiritual path
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of the supreme being.
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And so I believe that in the compass of my dad's badge that he wore, that the blazing star
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is actually the screw that holds the compass together as you look at it, it has that emblem
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of the star itself there.
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So that's why I put that one in there because I call the symbolism that they have in the
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badge of that.
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Well, I think it's important to mention a scripture that you shared with me in an email.
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Our first John 4 verse 2 says, by this you know the spirit of God.
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Every spirit that confesses Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God.
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And every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not
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of God.
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And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard is coming and now is already
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in the world.
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Because some of them believe that spirit is bad or the flesh is bad, spirit is good.
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Can you explain that briefly before we move on to the level?
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Yeah, that goes back to gnosticism and some would say in the I guess the greater knowledge
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of gnosticism itself that Jesus taken come in the flesh.
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That was what the Apostle John was specifically writing about that Jesus Christ did come in
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the flesh.
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So it was just a way for the church to know if someone would say, let's put it this way.
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It made me think of the Jehovah's Witness.
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If you deal with Jehovah's Witnesses when they come to your door and they start talking
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about the year 1918, you will explore that.
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They will say, well, that's when Jesus Christ returned in the secret place.
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It's like, well, that goes against the Bible.
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When he comes again, every eye will see him.
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It does not say when he comes again, he's going to be in a secret place.
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So we have those forms of gnosticism in our world today in various religions in our
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world.
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It's also in the Masonic lodge.
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Wow.
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A lot of denial about Jesus, what he did that he lived that he appeared to his disciples
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after the resurrection, he even ate food to prove that he was a flesh and bone body.
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And he even said, a spirit does not have flesh and bone as you see I have to the people
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that he appeared to.
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But John, we've got to move on to the level briefly, just a couple of moments left.
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Tell us about that.
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And my dad's badge, it was a little blue stone, but it looks just like that without the
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color on there.
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And it's basically the Mason saying, we all come to Masonry on the same level.
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Well, that's true.
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According to the Word of God, all of a sudden, fall short of the glory of God, and the
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wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
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And they are taking the perspective of coming at that same level to build the spiritual
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side where we need to come to the Lord, just saying that we are depleted apart from God.
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And we need Jesus.
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So I think we need to just kind of wrap it up.
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Your boy went by fast and sorry, we couldn't spend a little bit more time on each one of
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these.
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And there's a lot more symbols.
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There are other practices and rituals that some of them we talked years ago, you and
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I did about some of these things they did.
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And the mystery and the secretism, Christianity, there's no mystery.
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They want it to be out in the open, shout it from the rooftops, share the gospel of the
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Lord Jesus Christ, the truth of Jesus Christ.
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But it says, you said at the end there, you shared a couple of verses.
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One of them is when we respond to some people who are deceived, who are caught maybe in
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a cult, maybe in their own religion of works, whether it's free Masonry or something else,
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we need to make sure our speech is seasoned with grace and that we approach them.
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Just with sensitivity because some people sincerely think they're doing a lot of good, John,
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your encouragement as we close.
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Yeah, that comes from blotches for six that we are seasoned with grace, which self, and
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when we talked to others, and I put that in there because there was a Mason that came
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to our church once he wore his hat, so I knew he was a Mason.
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Our very first conversation was at the end of it, I said, you need to make sure that you
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keep Jesus the main thing.
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And this man, when he was dying the last time I talked to him, he told me, Pastor John,
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you're right. And I said, right about what?
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He said, nothing else matters with Jesus.
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So we need to be able to present Christ in the way that doesn't cause people to go away,
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but actually are drawn into Christ.
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And in that one example, I was able to do that.
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Wow, we might just have to do another show, John.
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There's more to get through, but I just appreciate you and just sharing.
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And friends, go back to October 9th.
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If you go to worldviewmatters.tv at Freedom Project there, check out our first show on
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Freemasonry, John's Pastors perspective. His story growing up with a dad who was
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Freemason, and you'll get more background on that.
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And some other things that we didn't get to recap today.
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But John, God bless you, brother, and continued good work there at Calvary Chapel Lake Villa,
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Illinois. Thank you, brother, and keep up the good work yourself.
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All right, thank you so much. Guys, well, I just am so blessed by the people I get to talk to,
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and this wraps up Pastor's Week here on Worldview Matters. It's been such a blessing this week,
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if you missed any of the previous shows, whether that be Dean Dwyer from Australia, Dr. Andy Woods from
27:56
Texas. We just thank you for tuning in for supporting the show. And gosh, oh, also I just
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just forgot Joe Shemmel from Seamy Valley, California. And we're just thankful that we can talk
28:10
to men of God who are of sound doctrine and know the truth and speak the truth in love.
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But we appreciate that and continue to share your comments and share the show on social media.
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Well, as always, God bless you and keep speaking the truth about things that matter.