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Some Christian critics of Freemasonry, often evangelical Christians, and all the Orthodox Christian Churches claim that Freemasonry involves the worship of Satan. [87] Such claims are often supported by quoting, misquoting, or quoting out of context various individuals, both Masonic and non-Masonic, but not Masonic ritual itself.
Freemasonry is the oldest fraternity in the world and among the oldest continued organizations in history. [4] Modern Freemasonry broadly consists of two main recognition groups: Regular Freemasonry, which insists that a "volume of sacred law", such as the Bible, the Quran, or other religious scripture be open in a working lodge, that every ...
The history of Freemasonry encompasses the origins, evolution and defining events of the fraternal organisation known as Freemasonry.It covers three phases. Firstly, the emergence of organised lodges of operative masons during the Middle Ages, then the admission of lay members as "accepted" (a term reflecting the ceremonial "acception" process that made non-stone masons members of an operative ...
Except for rare exceptions, Masonic rites are most of the time under the control of Grand Lodges for the first three degrees then under the control of a concordant body for any upper degrees. [2] [3] The most practiced rite in the world from the Entered Apprentice degree is the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite. [4]
"At one level, Freemasonry had spiritually disavowed Catholicism, seeming to be a surrogate religion, without dogmas, which would replace Catholicism. If that were not enough to ensure enmity, it called for concordats, secular education, public cemeteries, abolition of regular clergy and Jesuits , political liberty, etc.
Masonic myths occupy a central place in Freemasonry.Derived from founding texts or various biblical legends, they are present in all Masonic rites and ranks. Using conceptual parables, they can serve Freemasons as sources of knowledge and reflection, where history often vies with fiction.
[59] [60] After the condemnation of Freemasonry by Pope Clement XII in 1738, Sultan Mahmud I followed suit outlawing the organization and since that time Freemasonry was equated with atheism in the Ottoman Empire and the broader Islamic world. [61] The Islamic anti-Masonic opposition in the Muslim world has been reinforced by the anti-clerical ...
The whole system is transmitted to initiates through the medium of Masonic ritual, which consists of lectures and allegorical plays. [2] Common to all of Freemasonry is the three grade system of Craft or Blue Lodge freemasonry, whose allegory is centred on the building of the Temple of Solomon, and the story of the chief architect, Hiram Abiff. [3]