A few days back I made a statement on FaceBook about the Masons that seemed harsh. I want to say that I know that the Masons, the Shriners, and other groups who have their roots in both of these groups do a lot of great work. I do not want to down play the work they do or the common men involved. What I have shared was true even though it seemed harsh.
With this post I want to share a few statements by Christian leaders and get your response. Please click this link to read the statements.
1. [The Christian is not to compromise so as to obscure the distinction between good and evil, and is to avoid the errors of] those dreamers everything and prevent the order of nature. We will see some who are who have a spirit of bitterness and contradiction, who reprove so deranged, not only in religion but who in all things reveal their that it is the earth which shifts and turns. When we see such minds monstrous nature that they will say that the sun does not move, and we must indeed confess that the devil possess them, and that God sets their imprudence. When they are told: “That is hot,” they will them before us as mirrors, in order to keep us in his fear. So it is with all who argue out of pure malice, and who happily make a show of reply: “No, it is plainly cold.” When they are shown an object contradict the fact. And so it is that they are madmen who would try that is black, they will say that it is white, or vice versa. Just like the man who said that snow is black; for although it is perceived and known by all to be white, yet he clearly wished to to change the natural order, and even to dazzle eyes and benumb their senses.
2. A simple survey of the world should of itself suffice to attest a Divine Providence. The heavens revolve daily, and, immense as is their fabric, and inconceivable the rapidity of their revolutions, we experience no concussion — no disturbance in the harmony of their returns annually to the same point. The planets, in all their motion. The sun, though varying its course every diurnal revolution, hang suspended in the air were it not upheld by God’s hand? By what
wanderings, maintain their respective positions. How could the earth means could it maintain itself unmoved, while the heavens above are it? Accordingly the particle אף, in constant rapid motion, did not its Divine Maker fix and establish aph, denoting emphasis, is introduced — Yea, he hath established it.
3. "There is talk of a new astrologer who wants to prove that the earth moves
and goes around instead of the sky, the sun, the moon, just as if sitting still and at rest while the earth and the trees walked and somebody were moving in a carriage or ship might hold that he was clever he must needs invent something special, and the way he does it moved. But that is how things are nowadays: when a man wishes to be must needs be the best! The fool wants to turn the whole art of Luther (In response to the publication of the brief Commentariolus,
astronomy upside-down. However, as Holy Scripture tells us, so did Joshua bid the sun to stand still and not the earth."
4. "We Christians must be different from the philosophers [i.e. scientists] in the way we think about the causes of these things. And if some are beyond our comprehension (like those before us concerning the waters knowledge rather than either wickedly deny them or presumptuously above the heavens), we must believe them and admit our lack of interpret them in conformity with our understanding."
5. "Indeed, it is more likely that the bodies of the stars, like that of the sun,are round, and that they are fastened to the firmament like globes of creation." - Martin Luther, Luther’s Works. Vol 1. fire, to shed light at night, each according to its endowment and its Lectures on Genesis, ed. Jaroslav Pelikan (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1958), 42
Notes:
1.- John Calvin, (Sermon on 1 Corinthians 10:19-24, Calvini Opera Selecta, Corpus Refomatorum, Vol 49, 677, trans. by Robert White in "Calvin and Copernicus: the Problem Reconsidered", Calvin Theological Journal 15 1980, p233-243, at 236-237)
2. - John Calvin, Commentary on the Psalms: Volume IV, Ps 93:1
3. – Martin conversations) which appeared a decade before De Revolutionibus. This comes from Luther's Tablebook "Tischreden", or record of dinner-table
4. - Martin Pelikan (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1958), 30 Luther, Luther’s Works. Vol 1. Lectures on Genesis, ed. Jaroslav
5. - Martin Luther, Luther’s Works. Vol 1. fire, to shed light at night, each according to its endowment and its Lectures on Genesis, ed. Jaroslav Pelikan (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1958), 42
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