Cuan a écrit:

On Fri, 24 Sep 2004 10:56:32 GMT, Jean Guernon
<jguernon@globetrotter.net> wrote:

Barbarossa a écrit:

Freemasonry Proven to Worship Lucifer

TITLE: FREEMASONRY PROVEN TO WORSHIP LUCIFER
[snip]

*****.
http://web.mit.edu/dryfoo/www/Masonry/Questions/difficult.html

What about allegations that Freemasonry is Satanic or pagan?

Most of these are complete fabrications; the rest are misunderstandings
of the institution and its rituals. A number of forgeries and alleged
exposes of Masonry were created during the last century. Most of the
claims of "Satanism" in Masonry can be traced to one or two of these
fraudulent sources. Other such allegations are simply made-up claims
about what various Masonic emblems and symbols stand for.

For example, it is sometimes claimed that the letter "G" found in the
Master Mason's jewel, along with the Square and Compasses, is a
substitute for a phallic symbol. But there is nothing in Masonry to
support such a statement; it is complete fiction. The letter "G" stands
for God (it is used by Masons who speak other languages due to the
modern origins of Masonry in English-speaking countries); in the
Scottish Rite, the Hebrew letter yodh, which is the first letter of the
Tetragrammaton, or Ineffable Name, plays the same role.

Another example that came up recently was a discussion of the Blazing
Star. This is one of the "ornaments" of a Lodge, introduced in the
Entered Apprentice degree. A non-Mason insisted that

Masons "worship" the Blazing Star
the Blazing Star is somehow to be identified with Lucifer (based on the
verse Isaiah 14:12)
the Blazing Star is the "false dawn" that can then be identified with a
false light (in competition with the true Light of Jesus)
and that therefore Masons engage in devil worship.
Here are the facts:

Isaiah 14 is a chapter with a prophecy against the kings of Babylon,
specifically Nebuchadnezzar. The quoted verse is rendered, in my Bible,
"Day-star, son of the morning, how hast thou fallen?" In this passage,
the prophet alleges that the arrogant king of Babylon has thought
himself as glorious as a celestial body, but that the destruction of the
kingdom of Babylon shall surely bring him back to earth. The word here
translated as "day-star" is, in Hebrew, "heyleyl," and refers to the
planet Venus. The ancient Greeks and Romans both used different words
for this planet when it appeared in the morning sky from its appearance
in the evening sky. The Greeks called it Hesperus in the evening and
Phosphorus in the morning; the Romans called it Venus in the evening and
Lucifer in the morning. Hence, the translation of the Hebrew, via Greek,
into Latin (i.e, from the Hebrew to the Septuagint to the Vulgate),
naturally would introduce the word "Lucifer" as the correct Latin
translation of the Hebrew.
The term "Lucifer" as a name for the Devil or Satan, cannot be traced
any farther back than the Middle Ages, and was only widely popularized
by Milton's epic poem, "Paradise Lost."
The Minnesota Masonic Manual (as one source on the lectures of Masonry)
clearly identifies the Blazing Star as emblematic of the Star of
Bethlehem, hardly a "Satanic" reference. It has nothing to do with the
planet Venus.
The Blazing Star is mentioned for about 30 seconds in a lecture some
20-30 minutes in length (it depends on jurisdiction) in the first degree
of Masonry only, an amount of attention that could scarcely be described
as "worship."
The "false dawn" is not heralded by Venus, but is a phenomenon produced
by the Zodiacal Light, a band of dust lying in the plane of the Earth's
orbit, which most prominently appears as a skyglow before sunrise in the
fall (the false dawn) and after sunset in the spring, but can only be
observed under ideally dark conditions.
In other words, the allegation about Masonry in this case combines many
errors: Taking a portion of a single verse of the Bible out of context,
misinterpreting its translation, misunderstanding an astronomical term,
misidentifying a Masonic emblem with an astronomical object, and
mischaracterizing the importance of a symbol in the ritual. Perhaps all
of this can be attributed to ignorance, but since the facts are easy to
obtain, one is forced to wonder about how such allegations come to be
and to persist.

Assertions about "pagan" material in Masonry may stem from the study of
material from the ancient world in some of the degrees. But this is not
paganism (the worship of idols, natural objects, or polytheistic
human-like deities). In fact, many of the early teachings of the Church
depended heavily on the works of such "pagan" philosophers as Plato and
Aristotle; Christianity has absorbed such pagan elements as the
Christmas tree, the name Easter (from a pagan fertility goddess), and
the actual date of Christmas (pre-empting the Roman's pagan winter
solstice festival of the Saturnalia). Indeed, the mythos about the fall
of Lucifer from heaven to the underworld is of pagan origin, derived

from the Graeco-Roman legend of Hephaestus (Vulcan) who fell from Mt.

Olympus to the nether regions, where his forges were located, and in
ancient art is depicted as lame from the fall. There have been many
thinkers and learned men in cultures other than that of the West in the
Judaeo-Christian era, and it is not "paganism" to study them.
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I don't know why you demonize this organization. Why you look only at
conspiracy site and pollute us with their propaganda, and never look at
what reliable site have to say.

I've posted articles from university .edu domains to you too, and
you've dismissed them as lies in the past.

Not about this *****.