Was CT Russell a freemason or not

by UnshackleTheChains 21 Replies latest watchtower scandals

• 

  UnshackleTheChains

  Ok

  Many people deny CT Russell was a freemason. I have read articles whereby some have found no evidence to prove he was one at any point in his life.

  However, given all the masonic symbols in the early publications including the use of the name Jehovah ( the name the Freemason's use to identify God), as well as the expressions used such as 'new world, new order' etc certainly raises suspicions.

  Then there is the article he wrote in the herald magazine outlining that he was a freemason (see the following video 40 seconds in).

  It really does make you think!

  https://youtu.be/AYkhfxBpROg
  
• 

  sir82

  Perhaps you could do a search on this site to find one of the 12,000 or so other threads that have raised this question.

  Spoiler: No, he wasn't.
  
• 

  joe134cd

  If you were after a yes or no answer I would say no he wasn’t. That been said however I certainly do think he was heavily influenced by free masonry. It’s a very similar situation with E.G.White the founder of the SDA.
• 

  Whynot

  Quiet a few have even called the Masonic Lodges and they couldn't find any records of Charles Taze Russell being one of them. I do know you can attend meetings without being a member and also be supportive by donating funds. At the least the Masons in my town run this way. They hold community fundraisers through a church.

  I think C.T. Russell was friends with several of them and supported them but was not an actual member
• 

  I Faded Twice

  Whats funny is if you call Watchtower they say they have almost No record of him ever being a JW either!

  lol
• 

  Nathan Natas

  NOT.

  WHO are you going to believe, some online crackpot XJW who you have never met, or ME,

  who has never lied to you?
• 

  Nathan Natas

  UnshackleTheChains said, "It really does make you think!"

  NO, it does not.

  If I draw a six-pointed star, does that make me a Jew?

  If I write an uppercase "T", does that make me a Christian?

  NO!

  The symbols of secret societies ARE NOT SECRET! ANYONE can appropriate them for ANY purpose, and

  Pastor Russell did just as the Apostle Paul did when he spoke extemporaneously on Mars Hill, announcing that he was there to preach "the unknown god" to whom an altar was erected!

  Was that altar erected for Yahweh? Hay-sus? NO!

  Likewise when CTR said he was a Mason; he was using hyperbole, or exaggerating, or LYING in order, he thought, to SAVE his audience.

  "That is not dead which can eternal lie,

  and in STRANGE eons, even death may die"
• 

  vienne

  Whynot, How do you know that Russell attended Masonic meetings and donated money? Please point me to your source.
  
• 

  TD

  UnshackleTheChains
  

  The author of that video is either dishonest of has some serious reading comprehension problems.

  Perhaps you do too, but I think you deserve the benefit of the doubt inasmuch as you probably haven't read the sermon all the way through for yourself and didn't get to the part where he states that, "...I have never been a Mason" and was only drawing an analogy between masonry and the pyramid nonsense to which he subscribed.
  
• 

  Finkelstein

  He was associated with the Masons, used their Halls at times to give public talks, but wasn't registered as one.

  He absorbed some of the Mason theology such as separation from mainstream Christendom, perhaps Pyramidology too .

  He once called himself a Freemason but did so as an analogous symbol of his own freedom from Christendom in his expressive theological concepts.