Bethesda Shalom

Ritual within Masonry is an elaborate and cleverly concealed and crafted teaching system which consists primarily of allegorical drama steeped in mystery, symbolism and mythology, involving secret grips, passwords and oaths. Those being initiated into each degree are required to learn their lines so as to be able to take part in the ritual ceremony. Key to the power that ritual plays in Freemasonry is the hidden truths that are sought to be communicated through the rituals to the initiate.  In this teaching we examine the ritual of the first degree - the Entered Apprentice Degree.  We dig beneath the surface of this ritual in order to reveal its true interpretation! Download the notes for this teaching below  http://traffic.libsyn.com/bethesdashalom/6c_Freemasonry_Pt3.pdf

One of the more controversial areas surrounding Masonry is the oaths of secrecy that Masons are required to swear upon initiation into the various degrees and more specifically, the ritual penalties attached to the breaking of these oaths. This teaching explores these oaths as they to pertain to the first three degrees and beyond!  Should any professing Christian swear such oaths? Whenever it is put to Freemasons that Masonry is a religion, the overwhelming majority take strong objection and insist that Freemasonry is not a religion. If it follows that Freemasonry is a religion, how can a Christian be a member of both the body of Christ and the body of Freemasonry?  Indeed as we shall see, Freemasonry is the religion of universalism.  Download the notes for this teaching below  http://traffic.libsyn.com/bethesdashalom/6b_Freemasonry_Pt2.pdf

When one thinks of Freemasonry, what thoughts immediately spring to mind? Are they positive thoughts or are they negative thoughts? For some they think of charitable works, good citizens of society, morally upstanding individuals. For others they think of a good old boys club - you scratch my back I’ll scratch yours. For others still, they think of conspiracy, corruption and perjury, a secret society, worshippers of Lucifer! I want from the very start to be clear about the aims of this teaching. It is not my aim to delve into the many fruitless conspiracy theories that abound on the matter via the internet. It is rather my aim to answer one most important question relevant to this teaching on the cults, namely, is Freemasonry compatible with Christianity?  Download the notes for this teaching below  http://traffic.libsyn.com/bethesdashalom/6a_Freemasonry_Pt1.pdf

Proverbs 23:26

Hebrews 11:6

Mark 10:46-52

1 Peter 4:8  

Paul Williams spoke at The Sanctuary Conference 2013   

Roy Daniel spoke at The Sanctuary Conference 2013   

In this second part of the teaching on replacement theology, we continue to refute the position put forward by those holding to this teaching.  We end by looking at the possible implications both theologically and ethically of holding to replacement theology.  Download notes (pdf)http://traffic.libsyn.com/bethesdashalom/5b_Replacement_Theology_Pt2.pdf

Replacement Theology in its simplest form teaches that the Church has replaced national Israel as the new people of God.  God’s plans and purposes no longer lie with national Israel, but the Church.  Replacement Theology teaches that it is the Church that now inherits the promises formerly given to Israel.  The term Replacement Theology is fairly new in theological studies.  The more historic and traditional term is “Supersessionism”; a descriptive term denoting the superseding nature by which the Church has replaced Israel.  Proponents of Replacement Theology teaches that apart from repentance and faith in Christ thus leading to an incorporation into the Church, the Jewish people have no future, hope or calling in the plan of God.  In this teaching we take a look at the history of replacement theology and seek to define our terms looking at other variations of this teaching.  We end this teaching by looking at some of the arguments that are put forward by proponents of replacement theology and seek to refute

The Khazars were a semi-nomadic Turkic people who around the 7th century A.D, occupied Khazaria, a land that lay between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, what today would spread across Georgia and into parts of Russia, Poland and Eastern Europe.  At this time there were Jewish communities from the diaspora who had settled in Khazaria and made it their home.  It is also a fact that during the middle-ages, some of the Khazar ruling elite and royalty converted to the religion of Judaism.  However, it is at this point where the ‘Khazar theory’ dramatically departs from historical fact.  The theory sets forth the claim that not only a minority of the Khazars converted to Judaism but in fact the whole Kingdom converted to Judaism!!  The theory says that the Khazars were a white race of people who upon conversion to Judaism then migrated to Germany in the middle ages and then to surrounding European countries to become what we know as Ashkenazi Jews which today constitutes the majority of Jews worldwide.  Those th