Saturday, March 13, 2010

John MacArthur preaches a false sermon

John MacArthur has tossed his hat into the ring and as we will see, he will fair no better than any of the others. I actually had thought better of him, but unfortunately, from the format of some of his quotes and the sources of them I found online, he may be too trusting and have been deceived by some of the antimasonic charlatans out there.

The Iowa Quarterly Bulletin, way back in April of 1917, says this (and this is their own publication), quote: "Masonry is a Divinely appointed institution, designed to draw men nearer to God, to give them a clearer conception of their proper relationship to God as their Heavenly Father, to men as their brethren and the ultimate destiny of the human soul," end quote.


Now that is a religion. Anything that says it's a divinely appointed institution, designed to draw men nearer to God, to give them a clear conception of their proper relationship to God, to men and the ultimate destiny of their human soul—that's a religion. Masonry is a religion even though they don't want to admit it.


Oh well, I guess if somebody said it somewhere, then it must be so. So, I'm sure that John MacArthur is going to happily join in Christian brotherhood with Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses? How about Jim Jones? Maybe David Duke? They all claim to be Christians and if they wrote down anything somewhere, then it just must be true for all Christians, right?. Sorry, I'm not going to drink that koolaid.

I'm not going to go any further with this quote, but there are several extremely pertinent questions to be asked about the context of this source in any scholarly discussion which John MacArthur fails to bring up, including actually citing page numbers for his quotes from M&D. As we will see, there is a good reason for this if one is being deceptive.

Albert Pike, who has been called by fellow Masons one of the most distinguished Masons the Western World has ever produced, has written one of their very important books called Morals and Dogmas. It's so important that it appears in their edition of the Bible. They have their own Bible known as the Hertel's Bible. And this is what he has written: "Masonry reverences all the great reformers. It sees in Moses, the Lawgiver of the Jews, in Confucius and Zoraster, in Jesus of Nazareth, and in the Arabian Iconoclast, great teachers of morality, and eminent reformers, if no more, and allows every brother of the Order to assign to each such higher and even Divine Character as his Creed and Truth require. We do not undervalue the importance of any Truth. We utter no word that can be deemed irreverent by anyone of any faith. We do not tell the Moslem that it is only important for him to believe that there is but one God, and wholly unessential whether Mahomet was His prophet. We do not tell the Hebrew that the Messiah whom he expects was born in Bethlehem nearly two thousand years ago; and he is a heretic because he will not so believe. And as little do we tell the sincere Christian that Jesus of Nazareth was but a man like us, or His history but the unreal revival of an older legend. To do either is beyond our jurisdiction. Masonry, of no one age, belongs to all time; of no one religion, it finds its great truths in all. To every Mason, there is a God; One Supreme, Infinite in Goodness, Wisdom, Foresight, Justice, and Benevolence; Creator, Disposer, and Preserver of all things. How, or by what intermediates He creates and acts, and in what way He unfolds and manifests Himself, Masonry leaves to creeds and religions to inquire," end quote.


Uh oh. There is something seriously wrong here. Several things in fact, so this one solid paragraph needs to be cut up to be addressed properly, but I wanted to show that this was one intact statement in MacArthur's lesson. I will point out here, that John MacArthur is using Pike without addressing the following sentence in the preface to Morals & Dogma (M&D): “Every one is entirely free to reject and dissent from whatsoever herein may seem to him to be untrue or unsound.

FYI, failure to deal with the preface of M&D is an immediate red flag to the discerning that you'd better put your hip waders on because it is going to get deep.


Albert Pike, who has been called by fellow Masons one of the most distinguished Masons the Western World has ever produced, has written one of their very important books called Morals and Dogmas. It's so important that it appears in their edition of the Bible. They have their own Bible known as the Hertel's Bible
.

I must assume on such skimpy information that this refers to the John A. Hertel publishing company who published a number of Bibles and religious books. It was bought out in 1948 by Devore and Sons, Inc. and produces a number of “heirloom” style Bibles for several different fraternal groups, unions and family Bibles. I happen to own both of their current products, which have been published in the same format for decades. They merely include some Masonic history and other trivia in the same binding with a standard KJV of the Bible. The text of the actual Scriptures varies not one jot or tittle from any other KJV Bible of the same sub-version. John MacArthur implies here by context that this special Bible is somehow different from an orthodox Christian Bible. I know I immediately thought of the JW version which differs substantially from an orthodox Christian Bible. This is deception by omission or in plain speaking, a lie.

And this is what he has written: "Masonry reverences all the great reformers. It sees in Moses, the Lawgiver of the Jews, in Confucius and Zoraster, in Jesus of Nazareth, and in the Arabian Iconoclast, great teachers of morality, and eminent reformers, if no more, and allows every brother of the Order to assign to each such higher and even Divine Character as his Creed and Truth require.
(M&D pg 525)

We do not undervalue the importance of any Truth. We utter no word that can be deemed irreverent by anyone of any faith. We do not tell the Moslem that it is only important for him to believe that there is but one God, and wholly unessential whether Mahomet was His prophet. We do not tell the Hebrew that the Messiah whom he expects was born in Bethlehem nearly two thousand years ago; and he is a heretic because he will not so believe. And as little do we tell the sincere Christian that Jesus of Nazareth was but a man like us, or His history but the unreal revival of an older legend. To do either is beyond our jurisdiction. Masonry, of no one age, belongs to all time; of no one religion, it finds its great truths in all. To every Mason, there is a God; One Supreme, Infinite in Goodness, Wisdom, Foresight, Justice, and Benevolence; Creator, Disposer, and Preserver of all things. How, or by what intermediates He creates and acts, and in what way He unfolds and manifests Himself, Masonry leaves to creeds and religions to inquire," end quote.
(M&D pg 524)

I will note that there are some reasonable variation with the original text for clarity, for example, the first word in the first part is “It”, but that refers to Masonry, so the change to “Masonry” from “It” is reasonable.


However, then John MacArthur pulls a very strange thing. He runs two paragraphs together, normally not unreasonable for this purpose, but he puts the one on page 525 first and then appends the one on page 524 directly like it is one passage and skips all four of the intervening paragraphs. Why? It appears to be deceptive, especially without citations.


I underlined a few sentences to point out something Pike wrote in these two paragraphs and in the four intervening ones all repeating something Freemasons have been pointing out for centuries: that since it is not a religion (at least as John MacArthur and other antimasons
must have it be to have any case at all) that claims any special revelation, it does not judge between special revelations as an organization, but allows each individual to follow his own conscience. You know, that whole freedom of religion thing.

In other words, they say they believe in God but you can decide who He is, what He wants, and how to get to Him.


So, who do we ask? John MacArthur? The Pope? Sanhedrin? The local Wiccans? Secular humanists? Communists? The next panhandler we meet? Who tells us these things? Who makes us believe them?
Who decided for John MacArthur?

And then they claim all these secret words and they are told that when they come into Masonry they're not allowed to speak certain words. And if you've known a Mason you may have known the fact that he would not reveal those words but I would like to reveal them this morning.


Oh gee, we took an obligarion before God not to reveal them. So, I guess John MacArthur is inciting to sin, because to stand foresworn in such a case is taking the Name of the Lord in vain, at least for a Christian. So, Freemasons are “guilty” because they won't sin by breaking their obligation taken to God. Again, deception by omission, or a lie.


I'm going to skip over the discussion of the various words, not only because I'm going to honor my obligation taken before God, but it is some of the same old regurgitated stuff that antimasons who claim to be Christian have been peddling forever, also, there is something very disturbing in the next quote from M&D.


Pike in his Morals and Dogmas further says, "To achieve salvation the Mason must first attain a solid conviction founded upon reason, that he has within himself a spiritual nature, a soul that is not to die when the body is dissolved, but is to continue to exist and advance toward perfection through all the ages of eternity, and to see more and more clearly, as it draws nearer unto God, the light of the Divine Presence," end quote.
(M&D pg 855)

This one is frightening. It also accounts for my belief that John MacArthur labors under a deceptive influence, mainly because of the sources of this modified quote from Pike. Notice that above, “Masonry” replaced “It” in a quote, which was legit and reasonable because the “It” in question was Masonry. In this quote, “it” has been replaced by “salvation”. Ok, fine, except in this case, the subject is
NOT SALVATION!!!!

This is an outright lie preached by John MacArthur. Here is the preceding paragraph from M&D (pg 854-5) for context (emphasis in original):
"Freemasonry is the subjugation of the Human that is in man by the Divine; the Conquest of the Appetites and Passions by the Moral Sense and the Reason; a continual effort, struggle, and warfare of the Spiritual against the Material and the Sensual. That victory, when it has been achieved and secured, and the conqueror my rest upon his shield and wear the well-earned laurels, is the true Holy Empire."

I'm not going to dissect that passage or its further context in philosophical terms, because that is not the purpose of this forum and I have read the preface to M&D, however it is not teaching salvation in any terms I'd acknowledge as a basis for discussion. It might fit into Proverbs 1:7 where “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge...”, but that is only the beginning, not the end of salvation.


And then Pike says: "At the Masonic altar, the Christian, the Hebrew, the Moslem, the Brahmin, and the followers of Confucius and Zoroaster, can assemble as brethren and unite in prayer to the one God.
(M&D, pg 226) The chaplain of the Masonic Lodge who prays as the voice of the lodge, does not pray in the name of the Carpenter of Nazareth or the name of Jehovah or the name of Allah. He prays to the Grand Artificer or the Great Architect of the Universe. Under that title men of all faiths may find each other his own deity. Failure to mention any deity by name is not denial but merely the practice of a gracious courtesy, so that each man for whom prayer is offered can hear the name of his own deity in the all inclusive title of Great Architect," end quote. (STB 8-58)

I'm trying something different here. The above is one quote by John MacArthur, supposedly by Pike from M&D. However, such is not the case and another lie is exposed. The first part as far as I can find by searching online is the partial opening clause of a sentence that begins: “Masonry, around whose altars the Christian, ...” instead of “At the Masonic altar,”. Of course, this alteration in the actual text makes it a complete sentence for MacArthur to segue into his next sentence, supposedly from the same author, the same book and the same thought, but it was not.


It comes from a Short Talk Bulletin from August 1958 titled “Some Misconceptions about Freemasonry” (LOL!) and since Pike was dead decades before 1958, another author. So John MacArthur is caught out in a lie again.


I underlined a common Masonic point that all antimasons who claim to be Christian must avoid at all costs, that NO deities are mentioned by name as deities. Why? Simply because Freemasonry does not judge between special revelations, which means it cannot confirm or deny any of them as the one, true, living God.


Well, I think you understand, that's enough…that's enough, frankly, to sicken anyone because that's a Satanic false religion. It says, “Yes, we believe in the true God,” but it reduces Him to a wrong form. It worships Him in a wrong manner and with a wrong heart attitude. It is unacceptable. And there are myriads of such unacceptable kinds of worship. And destiny is determined by that. You may think you're worshipping God, but you're not.


Actually, I agree with John MacArthur here.


It is enough
, because the Gospel and Church of Jesus Christ does not need to be defended by lies or liars.

Scripture itself says that “no lie is of the truth” and tells us who the father of lies is.


John MacArthur, a man whose teaching I have respected for a number of years has been led into deception by a false spirit or has chosen to become a teacher of false doctrine.


John MacArthur, lies to “defend” God and Christianity told as a sermon during a worship service is worshiping Him in a wrong manner and with a wrong heart attitude. It is unacceptable.


John MacArthur has shown himself to be capable of practicing one of the myriads of unacceptable kinds of worship.


John MacArthur may think he is worshiping God by speaking lies, but he is not.