Here's PROOF that Charles Taze Russell Was NOT a Pennsylvania Freemason (page 2)

VM44

Lady Queenborough's book "Occult Theocracy" apparently is based upon very poor research, and and should not be used as a reference.

http://freemasonry.bcy.ca/anti-masonry/miller_e/occult_theocrasy_notes.html

Her obvious errors and lack of citations make it unreliable as a guide to the societies and movements listed in the table of contents.

Charles Taze Russell?
Claims have been made that "Paster" Russell (1852/02/16-1916/10/31), founder of the International Bible Students Association — forerunner of the Jehovah's Witnesses — was a freemason; that the banner on the front of early issues of the Watchtower contained masonic symbols; and that Russell's gravestone bears a masonic cross and crown symbol.
Russell was not a freemason. Neither the symbols found in the Watchtower nor the cross and crown symbol are exclusively masonic. And the cross and crown symbol does not appear on his gravestone in the Rosemont United Cemetery, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania — it appears on a memorial erected some years later.
In an address delivered in a San Francisco masonic hall in 1913, Russell made positive use of masonic imagery by saying, "Now, I am a free and accepted mason. I trust we all are. But not just after the style of our masonic brethren." He further develops this idea: "true Bible believers may or may not belong to the masonic fraternity, but they are all masons of the highest order, since they are being fashioned, chiselled and polished by the Almighty to be used as living stones in the Temple Built Without Hands. They are free from sin, and therefore accepted by the God of Heaven as fit stones for the heavenly Temple." Later in this address, Russell stated quite clearly that "I have never been a mason." Those who claim Russell was a freemason quote this address out of context without noting the rhetorical imagery.
Although Russell wrote about the pyramids and the Knights Templar, the pyramids are not a part of Freemasonry and Russell's understanding of the relationship between the modern Knights Templar and Freemasonry displays an outsider's ignorance of both organizations.

Smiles

I am still trying to figure out what the Egyptian/Masonic "winged disc" symbol was doing on the Stanley Theater.

EndofMysteries

Any pictures of the winged disc on the Stanley Theater? Was this prior to the purchase of it or after? Was it ever removed?

That symbol was also on the cover of one of the books....lthe finished mystery.

blondie

All my Studies in the Scriptures have this symbol

As well as the Finished Mystery.

As to the Stanley Theater, the WTS bought it long after it was built and the disk was already on it. It is a historical building and the WTS was required to keep it on the building.

That symbol is the Egyptian Sun God RA, who is associated with Horus. No one has ever even tried to explain to me what this symbol was doing on the front cover of jw literature at the time they were supposedly "chosen" by Christ. to represent God on earth.

Coffee

blondie

Added: in 1921 the WTS printed the books wihout the disk after an article

In 1921 the Golden Age published an article by Morton Edgar of Pyramidology fame (who they later would denounce for his involvement with pyramidology) on Egyptian mythology. In it he mentions the winged-sun-disk and its occult and pagan religious meanings. He wrote:

How rejoiced the poor groaning creation will be when Christ, the true "Sun of Righteousness," shall arise with healing in his wings. (Malachi 4:2) What a contrast to that cruel "sun" of unrighteous- ness, which arose with death in his wings. Malachi's allusion to the "wings" of the sun is evidently derived from the well-known symbol of the sun-god in Egypt and Assyria. Above the doors of the ancient temples and tombs in these countries, there is usually to be seen a representation of the sun-god, in the form of a round disc with wide-spread wings.
Along with the sun as the great fire-god, the serpent was connected. Owen says: "In the mythology of the primitive world, the serpent is universally the symbol of the sun". (Owen, apud Davies's Druids, in note, p. 437) In Egypt the commonest sign of the sun, or sun-god, is a disc with a serpent around it. (Bunsen, Hieroglyphics, Vol. 1, p. 497) The original reason for the connection of the serpent with the sun appears to have been that, as the physical world receives its light from the sun, so the serpent was held to have been the great enlightener of the spiritual world, by giving mankind the knowledge of good and evil. This, of course, like all idolatry, is an absolute perversion of the truth; but it serves to identify the sun-god with Satan. [4]

With this identification of the symbol with Satan the Society stopped putting it on its literature. Copies of the Studies in the Scriptures for example starting approximately at this time had a different cover design and did not have the symbol on it.

http://www.seanet.com/~raines/disc.html

mentallyfree31

Thanks Barbara and Blondie for this information. I have heard much speculation about Russell being a Mason. I'm glad to see the facts.

-MF31-

Billen76

Thank you for the information, ms. Barbara Anderson.

However, the letter only answers that C.T. Russell never were a member of the Pennsylvania lodge, the English or the irish lodges. (or, he does not appear).

I allways get suspicious when I get answers with possible loopholes. Is it possible, that C.T. Russell once were a member of another lodge in USA other than in Pennsylvania?

BabaYaga

Bookmarked. Thank you Barbara and Blondie (et al) who keep us straight around here!

cameo-d

Andersoninfo: "NO, CHARLES TAZE RUSSELL WAS NOT A PENNSYLVANIA FREEMASON!"

Tricky bit of wording here, people. The operative word is PENNSYLVANIA! And while Russell may not have been a PENNSYLVANIA Freemason, he could very well have been a mason in another jurisdiction! Here's proof! (I hate sly wording.)

Grand Lodges and Grand Orients are independent and sovereign bodies that govern Masonry in a given country, state, or geographical area (termed a jurisdiction). [12] There is no single overarching governing body that presides over worldwide Freemasonry; connections between different jurisdictions depend solely on mutual recognition. [13]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freemasonry

If you dig you will find that some Lodges are considered "Clandestine".

Here's PROOF that Charles Taze Russell Was NOT a Pennsylvania Freemason

VM44

Smiles

EndofMysteries

blondie

coffee_black

blondie

mentallyfree31

Billen76

BabaYaga

cameo-d

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