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https://www.amazon.com/Pastor-Charles-Taze-Russell-Christian/dp/0802225039
Pastor Charles Taze Russell: An early American Christian Zionist by David Horowitz
This is a fascinating account of a neglected man and a neglected chapter in the history of Zionism.... David Horowitz' well-written book makes extremely interesting reading. I definitely recommend it....--Jeane Kirkpatrick Mr. Horowitz has performed an admirable service in restoring to public knowledge the story of this important Christian Zionist....--Benjamin Netanyahu
https://www.amazon.com/Sions-Army-Freemasons-Jeff-Wilkerson/dp/1519240791
The historical scope of Sion’s Army is quite extraordinary. It starts with the early history of Judaism and ends with the defeat of Napoleon. This book tracks the exploits of the followers of the shadowy Priory of Sion as they scheme to spin a web of intrigue in their pursuit of world domination. In the late sixteenth century, they invent their own form of Freemasonry to be used as their private army. As this book attests, in the eighteenth century the rapidly expanding Freemasonry movement played crucial roles in the conflagrations known as the American and French revolutions. If you really want to discover the mysteries of Freemasonry, you should read this book!
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Baker_Eddy#British_Israelism
There was a complex interaction between Christian Science and British Israelism, a belief which was popular during Eddy’s lifetime among a number of well known Christian Scientists.[117] Until her death, Eddy continued to keep an interest in British Israelism. Early members of the Christian Science Mother Church accepted the Anglo-Israel message of Mrs Eddy. However, after Eddy’s death in 1910, the Mother Church denied the validity of anything having to do with British Israelism, and any Christian Scientists supporting British Israelism in the Mother Church were excommunicated. Nevertheless, British Israelism remained attractive to many in the Christian Science movement after Eddy’s death. Since the Mother Church no longer wanted to teach British Israelism, a number of offshoot Christian Science churches and groups were set up to continue teaching British Israelism. For example, an English Christian Scientist named Annie Cecilia Bill (1859-1936) became convinced she was the true successor of Mary Baker Eddy. In 1912 Bill began an organization in England known as the Christian Science Parent Church. Bill moved to the United States after World War I, and in 1924 she established her Christian Science Parent Church in America.[118]
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https://www.amazon.com/Kabbalah-Masonry-Foundations-Freemasonry-ebook/dp/B072YTZ6LQ
[AUDIO BOOK] The Kabbalah of Masonry: Foundations of Freemasonry Series by William Wynn Westcott
Renowned Masonic scholar and author W. W. Westcott discusses the formula of masonic rituals and why secrets are an important part of that. He discusses the inclusion of the concept of legends in our rituals and why it is important to separate those legends from historical events. He discusses where some of our symbols came from and what part the Jewish Kabbalah played in the formation of freemasonry. He discussed the Tree of Life and the Hebrew letters as they relate to masonry. He also touches on the Hermetic and Rosicrucian traditions as well as Ancient Egypt and Ancient Greece.
https://adhc.lib.ua.edu/rel120/files/original/4afce06186e354bcd9a2c022519d3e9c.pdf
WASHINGTON.—Seattle (First Church): Masonic Temple Hall, Harvard and Pine Streets, 8 p.m., Sept. 10 and 11
https://sentinel.christianscience.com/shared/view/2kt8or6p7xo
In March, Rabbi David Louis, of Kiryat Gat, Israel, gave a remarkable account of healing at the noon Wednesday testimony meeting in the Original Mother Church. In the weeks following, Rabbi Louis visited with a number of new friends at the Church and The Christian Science Publishing Society, including Clerk Nathan Talbot and Editor in Chief Mary Trammell. His spiritual journey illustrates both the universal healing embrace of Christian Science and the Church Mary Baker Eddy founded. Below are excerpts from Mary Trammell's interview with the Rabbi for Sentinel Radio.
Rabbi Louis, could you give us a little background on your spiritual path? What made you become a rabbi?
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Well, I was born Jewish in Peoria, Illinois, and my parents gave me whatever Jewish education was available. During my college years was the time of the Vietnam War, and I was in a major university that was kind of the center of turbulence. There were great popular movements of students, of searching for the Eastern religions, and many people coming back to their own religious roots. I approached many of the different religions until I came to my own. I studied in the rabbinical seminary in New York, and then came to Israel, got married, and was ordained as a rabbi in the field of the Kabbalah Jewish metaphysics. In all the years since, I was occupied with teaching Kabbalah, and also was a professional musician.
Tell us about the Kabbalah.
The Kabbalah is a language for discussing spirituality. With music you have seven notes, and through the combination of those notes all the music is made. In discussing spiritual things, the Kabbalah provides a language. There are ten spheres. We can speak about complete materiality, partial materiality, partial spirituality, complete spirituality. In that sense the Kabbalah is perfectly attuned to divine Science, which goes to the complete spirituality in which matter is recognized as not existing.
How then did you encounter Christian Science?
Four years ago my elderly father was suffering from the final stages of terminal cancer, and I went to be with him.
He had moved to his home, he had 24-hour nursing, he was connected to tubes. I went outside to walk in the neighborhood. And there's a sign—Christian Science Reading Room. And the sign said the Reading Room was open two hours a day, and it happened that I was there at that time. I went in. I didn't know anything at the time about Christian Science as such. I did know of the existence of Christian Science from my student years. Every major airport had a Christian Science Reading Room, so I'd had an opportunity to look at the books. And I knew that there was such a thing as healing. Anyway, I sat with the lady in this Reading Room, and told her about my father. I don't remember the ideas that were expressed as such, but I went home immediately, and told my father, "You're going to recover completely."
When I visited the Reading Room, the people there, wonderful people, were not offering me any kind of intellectual ideas as such. It was the kindness, and the prayerfulness. It was the atmosphere, the gracefulness, the graciousness. Now in retrospect, it is clear to me that probably those Scientists were praying.
I love the way you put it—that you felt the atmosphere, the love, the healing, the prayer.
Every day I went back to the Reading Room, and when it was Sunday, I went to the service. On the third day, my father perked up and he wanted to eat. He hadn't eaten for three months. So we brought him yogurt and ice cream. On the fourth day he wanted to eat scrambled eggs and pancakes, and I started going back and forth to the supermarket.
By the fifth day he was getting up out of bed. He wanted to come to the kitchen to eat. With a walker and the nurse by him, he's eating in the kitchen. By the sixth day he was sitting in front of his television set in the living room. On the sixth day he decided he wanted to get his affairs back in his hand. He'd given all of his affairs to his lawyer. To do that legally he had to prove that he was now capable.
So we went to the hospital for a checkup on the seventh day. Then he walked into the bank with a walker with the applause of all of the people there. It was really a fine moment. He got his affairs back in his hands. We went home to his house and got a phone call from the hospital that he was completely healed of all of what he had suffered from. And indeed he was. He lived on happily and healthily for another year.
And that was my introduction to Christian Science. All of his doctors and all of the people that knew him came over to the house, and everybody was astounded. What I actually witnessed here was a true resurrection. This changed my life. I decided that Christian Science is truth and that I intend to find out what it is, study this, devote my life to this. And that's exactly what I've done.
How did you study it? I imagine you got into Mary Baker Eddy's book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures.
Not at first. I didn't know about Science and Health. All I knew was there was a Christian Science Reading Room and that my dad was completely recovered. I went back to Israel, and looked at the Internet. Eventually I realized Christian Science is centered in Boston.
Boston is where the headquarters of the Church is. But Christian Science a worldwide movement.
But I knew that Boston was the center, and I said that must be the place to start. So, a number of months later, I came to this very building [The Christian Science Publishing Society], and I went into The Mary Baker Eddy Library. I asked around for a Christian Science practitioner. And someone directed me to a spiritual healing center on Massachusetts Avenue, which is open to the public. It's called Solutions through Prayer.
A Christian Science practitioner is there, and anyone from the public is welcome to go in and speak to him or her. So that's what I did. And I spoke to the practitioner there, and he began prayer treatments for me. And then we were in communication with e-mail after I returned to Israel.
And by that time had you gotten into Science and Health?
I bought one from the practitioner. And he was sending me passages from Science and Health. He stayed with me in those early times as a guide.
And were there some particular passages in Science and Health that really resonated with you?
My first spiritual task was to resolve what appeared to be a dichotomy between my Jewish religious life and my deep interest in Christian Science. How did these two fit together? Certainly on an experiential level it was clear to me that they did. But I had to have some kind of platform to stand upon. So I came upon the passage that starts at the bottom of page 360 in Science and Health with a brilliant metaphysical, logical explanation of what exactly is the common denominator, the interface between Christian Science theology and Jewish theology.
Will you read the passage for us?
"... to-day, Jew and Christian can unite in doctrine and denomination on the very basis of Jesus' words and works. The Jew believes that the Messiah or Christ has not yet come; the Christian believes that Christ is God. Here Christian Science intervenes, explains these doctrinal points, cancels the disagreement, and settles the question. Christ, as the true spiritual idea, is the ideal of God now and forever, here and everywhere. The Jew who believes in the First Commandment is a monotheist; he has one omnipresent God. Thus the Jew unites with the Christian's doctrine that God is come and is present now and forever. The Christian who believes in the First Commandment is a monotheist. Thus he virtually unites with the Jew's belief in one God, and recognizes that Jesus Christ is not God, as Jesus himself declared, but is the Son of God."
So what did that mean to you?
We're looking at the three words, God, Christ, and Jesus, from three different perspectives—from the perspective of the Jew, the Christian, the Christian Scientist. The Christian will group the three in one group; God, Christ, and Jesus are indistinguishable. Jesus is God, the Christ is God, the Christ is Jesus and so on. This is unacceptable to the Jewish thought because Jesus is a man. We don't want to deify man. But Christian Science takes this list—God, Christ, and Jesus—and distinguishes between them in a completely unique way. First of all, Jesus is distinguished from God. Jesus was the man, the reflection of the Christ. The Christ in Christian Science is "the ideal of God now and forever." The Christ is God's idea of man, the perfect man. That's what the Jewish concept of the Messiah is also, the perfect man. So now we see that Christian Science, which agrees that Jesus is not God, agrees perfectly with Judaism, which says the same thing. The Jews will say, "Well, then, what is the Christ? Don't you think it's the same as Jesus?" And Christian Science says, "No. The Christ is in all of us. It's eternal. It's God's eternal thought of man."
Christ Jesus was a rabbi who kept the Jewish commandments. And now in my life, Christian Science is illuminating my Jewish metaphysical thought so that, for me personally, it's one thing. There's one God.
"I decided that Christian Science is truth and that I intend to find out what it is, study this, devote my life to this. And that's exactly what I've done."—RABBI LOUIS
What is it about Christian Science that most touches your heart?
Before I knew about Science, I had some frustrations that were disturbing me spiritually. I had a rebellious son. I responded as a stubborn father. Basically this created a situation of very serious estrangement which I suffered from enormously, and I'm sure he did too. One of the first things that I learned in Science was about love and the centralness of love in healing and in prayer.
So I made for myself a daily session, sometimes for hours, of closing myself into my room and sitting and loving my son. I didn't even know where he was. I was just sending my waves of love through spiritual space to him. After a certain amount of time, we talked on the phone, for the first time in several years. It took another month and another conversation, and then we had dinner together. We embraced each other, and it was gone. The whole estrangement was gone.
How did the family react to your study of Christian Science?
Mainly what my wife saw was how things were working out. She saw how I got it back together with my son. When that problem was resolved, she was already with me. She encouraged me to go back to America to look for a Christian Science teacher.
And did Primary class instruction in Christian Science help?
That put things on an entirely new footing. That brought clarity, an overall vision of what the entire scope of Christian Science is. Recently, I felt it necessary to discuss Christian Science openly with my children. So we had a family gathering in which all of my grown children, my six children, and my two sons-in-law and my daughter-in-law and the whole family, the wider family, were all together. They were prepared that Dad had a speech to make. I told them what I was doing, about healing. I told them that in no way does Christian Science interfere with my Jewish observance. Christian Science is universal. It illuminates anything and everything. If I'm a rabbi, I become an illuminated rabbi. If you're a businessman, you're an illuminated one.
Or if you're in some other religion, right?
Christian Science extends to all religions because it is a meta-religion. As is I think widely known, Mrs. Eddy didn't originally intend to start a religious denomination. She thought that the Christian world would accept the teachings. It didn't work out that way; the world was not yet prepared for such a thing. So she started the Christian Science Church. But Christian Science is universal. And I expressed this to my children. They understood me. So they're all behind me. My sons-in-law are rabbis. One is the head of a rabbinical seminary. My two sons are also rabbis. And they all said, "Go for it, Dad. It's just fine." It was beautiful.
So you feel there is a receptivity to Christian Science in Israel?
The only thing I have to be careful about is this point: that Jesus Christ is not God. Once that is understood, there is no problem according to Jewish law or theology. Christian Science is unique in this understanding. Israel in general is wide open to healing. I'm certain that God will bring the understanding of what healing is in Israel, and that promises to be a truly glorious thing.
What do you see as the role of Christian Science in the whole world?
Divine Science is the infinite revelation of God's thoughts in a way that any human being, any man or woman who so desires and is willing to devote the time and effort to study, can understand. We have, as Mrs. Eddy states so beautifully, the "conscious, constant capacity" for understanding God. We're all prophets of God, in the sense that all of us can hear God's Word. He speaks to us all the time. We just have to learn how to hear His language. We also have to learn how to pray. Wanting goodness, wanting infinite goodness, is prayer. God Himself will take your desire and uplift it and turn it into a prayer. That's His work.
That has strong implications for world peace—and for peace in the Middle East.
Absolutely. The Middle East has the characteristic of being the kind of microcosm of the whole world. Israel itself is a microcosm—all the religions, all the civilizations, all the cultures in the world are all packed together in a country not so much larger than the greater Boston area. But if Christian Science is understood among the Jewish people, and the Christian people, and the Arabic, the Islamic people in our area in the Middle East—then that's a good laboratory for it to be understood in the world. There's one God, one Truth, one goodness. And the Science is the Science—scientific.
And what do you see as your role as a Christian Scientist who is also a rabbi?
Certainly my immediate goal has two sides. One, to go home to Israel and to take what I've learned and live in Israel. And in a quiet way, in a simple way, in a neighborly way, look for opportunities to say a good word. The kids are really ready for it in Israel. There's a great liberality on spiritual matters, and a great searching.
And the other aspect of my interest is to speak to Christian Scientists, which is an entirely different world, because they already know the truth and the Science. I would like to speak to Christian Science youth, and to encourage them, to show them how vast and what an instrument of understanding it is for them in whatever career they would take. Mary Baker Eddy touched the point that no one, no one, has touched. I studied metaphysics for 40 years. There cannot be in my view the world peace without an understanding of Mary Baker Eddy's writings, her life—what she went through. By understanding these things, you're linking yourself to the unique expression of God's thought for our times in the most modern, the most immediate sense. I am truly dedicating my lifework to making that point clear to my own countrymen and to the rabbis I'm associated with.
And the same is true for Christian Scientists who already know this beautiful Science. They should also appreciate what they've got. Young people may not see what a great gift they have already in their hands. So I would emphasize how precious is this work of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. How precious and valuable it is for the culmination of the aspirations of all of humanity. It is a law of God. |css
https://www.timesandseasons.org/index.php/2022/08/masonry-and-mormonism/
Masonry and Mormonism
by Chad Nielsen • August 1, 2022 • 13 Comments
The relationship between Freemasonry and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is a subject of controversy for members of the Church. In the near future, two important studies of that relationship are slated to be published – Method Infinite: Freemasonry and the Mormon Restoration by Cheryl L. Bruno, Joe Steve Swick III, and Nicholas S. Literski, which will be available on 9 August from Greg Kofford Books (which discusses possible influences of Freemasonry on Joseph Smith’s ministry throughout his life) and Freemasonry and the Origins of Latter-day Saint Temple Ordinances by Jeffrey M. Bradshaw, which is anticipated to be released the same day by the Interpreter Foundation (and which analyzes the relationship of Freemason rituals and Latter Day Saint temple rituals). Last week, two interviews related to these books (one with Cheryl L. Bruno and one with Jeffrey M. Bradshaw) were published on the Latter-day Saint history and theology blog From the Desk. What follows here is a co-post to the two interviews.
Jeffrey Bradshaw summed up the crux of the concern that members of the Church have when approaching Freemasonry. He wrote:
There are elements of the Nauvoo temple ordinances—for example, some of the signs and tokens and related language—that are almost identical in form to those used in Masonic rites. Since Freemasonry is an 18th century creation, similarities like these seem to undermine Joseph Smith’s claims that the temple ordinances are ancient.
The same applies to the Restoration in a broader context.
Yet, each author approached the idea open to the possibility that the Prophet Joseph Smith was indeed influenced by Masonry, and each is okay with that to one degree or another. Cheryl L. Bruno, for example, wrote that:
Masonic ritual was created very purposefully to illuminate Christian ideas and to symbolically bring a human being into the presence of God. Joseph Smith used many of these same techniques in both the Latter-day Saint priesthood structure and in our most sacred rituals.
The knowledge of Masonic use of symbol and ritual gives Latter-day Saints a key to understanding what is happening in our most sacred ordinances. Members of the church often don’t have the same kind of preparation that Latter-day Saint Masons had before they experienced the endowment, and thus it can be very disorienting. I found that learning the Masonic meanings behind certain symbols or rituals made my temple experience more understandable and enjoyable.
But even further than this, a more complete understanding of Masonry’s effect on Mormonism can help us comprehend an early version of our history that may seem strange and foreign to the modern Latter-day Saint. I find the beauty of the esoteric side of Mormonism shines strongly when illuminated by the light of its Masonic antecedent.
Jeffrey Bradshaw likewise expressed his opinion that:
Revelation is something like Creation. God doesn’t create things or ideas in the minds of prophets ex nihilo, but rather tends to make use of pre-existing materials—organizing and shaping unorganized matter until “it is good” in His sight. …
Divine revelation is precisely the means by which God helps to shape and organize our understandings of these pre-existing materials into a more correct result. And, along the way, God intends us to be active collaborators with Him in the process. …
From this perspective, divine revelation and Joseph Smith’s participation in Freemasonry are not competing explanations for the origins of temple ordinances. Rather they are, along with other important elements such as the revelations he received during his Bible translation project, complementary parts of the same interwoven process.
On the one hand, the Prophet’s awareness of temple- and priesthood-related matters spurred his interest in learning more about certain aspects of the Bible and Freemasonry and his encounters with Freemasonry and the Bible served as a catalyst to prayerful inquiries about temple-related topics. I believe that through revelation prophets can come to know ancient things that would otherwise be unknown to them.
There are ways to approach the subject of Masonic influences on the Prophet’s ministry and, by extension, our religion without rejecting the divinity of that religion.
Now, one thing that has part of the discussion about that influence over the years is that Joseph Smith officially became a Freemason in 1842, but many of the ideas that show potential Masonic influence came earlier than that time period. There are logical explanations for that, however. As Bruno explained:
In modern times, we just don’t realize what a cultural influence Freemasonry had in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Virtually everyone would have had some experience with Masonry, whether it was through having a close relative or friend who was a Freemason, reading the newspapers, or attending public lectures.
Many of the important men in town—doctors, lawyers, clergymen, and political figures—were Masons. Joseph Smith’s uncles, cousin, brothers, most likely his father, and many associates were Masons.
Bradshaw also noted that:
A ready source of information about Masonry for the young Prophet would have been the exposés of the anti-Masonic movement, whose epicenter was not far from the Smith home. He must have discussed Masonic ideas and controversies with his contemporaries—including the sudden, suspicious disappearance of anti-Mason William Morgan in 1826.
Thus, there are ways in which Joseph Smith could have come to know about Masonry prior to becoming a Freemason himself.
As far as the extent of Masonic influences on Joseph Smith, the different authors do disagree on the extent of that influence. Jeffrey Bradshaw, for example, wrote that “evidence of Masonic language and ideas in the Book of Mormon and the Book of Moses is generally unconvincing” and that:
I think it’s futile to try to determine the source that provided the initial spark of inspiration for a given element of the temple ordinances.
For example, did the original idea for special temple clothing come from Freemasonry?
Or did it come from the Bible?
Or was it due to Joseph Smith’s creative genius?
Or was it pure revelation?
Though we sometimes have pretty good hints about such things, it is ultimately a dead-end approach because we simply don’t have the complete set of data we would need to answer these questions reliably. …
I described thirty-one elements of the temple ordinances one by one in light of precedents in the Bible, ancient sources, and Freemasonry. …
For each element, I determined whether it better resembled something from Freemasonry or from antiquity. …
With respect to most of these elements, there is very little overlap. …
There were other elements of the Masonic rites where I was able to find some kind of relationship to the temple ordinances. More will surely be found as time goes on. In three instances, it was my judgment that the rites of Freemasonry had a stronger relationship to the element of the Nauvoo temple ordinances in question than did the Bible and ancient sources: ritual gestures, ritual language patterns, and the sacred embrace.
Cheryl Bruno, on the other hand, leans more on the idea that Masonic influence was pervasive throughout Joseph Smith’s life:
Midrash is a Jewish form of Biblical interpretation that explains or fills in gaps in the scriptural record. Often, Joseph Smith used this technique, adding Masonic legend and ideas to expand the Bible and to create new texts.
Our book comments on each form of Latter-day Saint scripture (Joseph Smith’s translation of the Bible, the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, and the Egyptian papers) and gives examples of Masonic midrash found therein. It’s quite fascinating to see so many Masonic ideas within our familiar religious texts. …
Some authors have portrayed Joseph Smith as anti-Masonic early in his life, while changing his mind later when he joined the Lodge in the 1840s. We reject the idea that Joseph was ever anti-Masonic. Rather, he spoke against what he considered “apostate” or “spurious” Masonry.
He believed Masonry had degenerated and he had been called to restore it to its pure form. Joseph Smith as a Masonic restorer provides astonishing insights into what Joseph was trying to accomplish with Latter-day Saint institutions such as the Danites, the Relief Society, the Anointed Quorum, and the Council of Fifty, as well as non-Mormon institutions such as the Nauvoo Masonic Lodge.
It also shows that Joseph’s remarks, behaviors, and perspective on Masonry were consistent and fundamentally unchanged throughout his prophetic ministry.
The extent of the influence will likely continue to be a matter of controversy and discussion, since it’s difficult to pick apart Joseph Smith’s thoughts and understand where precisely every idea that he expressed came from.
For more on Freemasonry and its relationship with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, head on over to the Latter-day Saint blog From the Desk and read the interviews by Cheryl L. Bruno and Jeffrey M. Bradshaw.
See My Brother Blog But Harmless As Doves 7th Day Adventism, Anti-Masonry & Nazism www.ButHarmlessAsDoves.blogspot.com PLEASE SUPP...
