JOHN CALVIN & THE GREAT ARCHITECT OF THE UNIVERSE
Friday, April 20, 2012 at 12:50PM NOTRadio Question From Listener:
“A particular bibllical worldview curriculum states that John Calvin called God
the ‘Great Architect’ and ‘the Architect of the Universe’. Is this pre-freemasonry?
Did the masons use this phrase before or after Calvin? To be honest with you, I don't
know a lot about Calvin. Thanks, Marie”
CJP Response:
Dear Marie,
It may be that Calvin used the term, which sounds very similar to the one
used by the Freemasons. In a proper sense, the God of the Bible is both "great"
and He is the "architect" or designer of the universe, even as He is of all things
in heaven and in earth. The term itself is not necessarily improper. But it depends
on how a person means it. For example, Freemasons also use the word "God"
the same as Christians do. But to them, "God" is a reference to an un-defined being
that could be any of a number of persons: Buddha, Krishna, Allah, Zoroaster, etc.
And this is the way in which they believe the term "the Great Architect of the
Universe." The Masons specifically use this term so that "God" can be whatever any
person wants him to be. Yet this is not at all the sense in which the term was
applied by Calvin. He clearly defended the Person of the God of Abraham, Isaac and
Jacob, the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the God of the Bible.
As believers, we use the name "Jesus" -- but in the New Testament, the apostle Paul
warned of those who come preaching "another Jesus" (2 Cor. 11:4). And by this we
recognize that just because a person uses the name of Jesus, does not necessarily
mean they are referring to the Jesus of the Bible. Yet we as Christians do not share
their guilt, even though we use the same name to define the Savior of the world.
Also, remember the time in which Calvin is writing. Calvin died in 1564, many years
before what is called "modern Masonry" was established. Sir Francis Bacon, who
was born in 1561 (three years before Calvin died), is known as the "first Grand
Master of modern Masonry," and so it would seem that the Freemasons hijacked this
terminology some time later. Remember that the Masons and the Rosicrucians are
said to have "reclothed their original ideas in a garment of Christian phraseology"
(Manly P. Hall, "The Secret Destiny of America" p. 77). So it makes sense that the
Freemasons would look for terminology that would sound Christian in order to
avoid being shunned for their pagan beliefs.
I hope this helps.
God bless,
Chris
Reader Comments (1)
John Calvin writes on very hard to understand issues, and the term used will be connected to a context of explanation of sorts.
A parable.
I myself often find theological issues easy to understand, when I address Father as The Great Software Engineer, where creation is a virtual reality. Such parables are a help to understand certain issues, and not some dogma. If in half a century, the Freeprogrammers of the Pirate Party Anonymous Wikileaks, go explain whatever, don't go nail me on my parable.
Jesus would use parables often, because many things in the Kingdom of Heaven are very hard to explain. Creation is a continual process, where certain children of God are put inside creation, and play with the things of the Father. Jesus has explained this at best, when He said, I can only do the things, that I see my Father do. This is the experience of any Child of God. And don't think that such a thing is a believe, it took me 20 years to find the Kingdom of God. The result is, that no one understands your experience, once the Kingdom that Jesus would preach is found.
At any case, Jesus would mention the Kingdom 151 times in the Gospel, the last time that I would do a search on Kingdom in an on-line Bible for the word Kingdom. Kingdom of Heaven and also Kingdom of God are used, to address the repentance that Jesus would teach. When looking for the word Christian, it is found once, and several times in plural form. But not in the Gospel, but in the letters by the Apostles. Preaching the Kingdom of God, as Jesus would do since the moment He was baptised by John the Baptist, was not done by the Apostles. Jesus gave very beautiful parables, in an effort to describe the way to the Kingdom of God. No one but me is preaching it today. Maybe the latter explains how far off preachers preaching other stuff are from the purpose that brought Jesus to Earth.
For as far as freemasonry goes, it sounds to me as an infiltrated workers union, that is made useless.
My sources for that opinion, are that the Wild Beggars of the Sea would create the armies of Reformation with many building workers, while unions or guilds had an important role in organizing the men for battle. Therefore, these unions where infiltrated immediately, by Jesuits , and taken over. The dates given by Chris Pinto in the answer above, seem to fit my opinion on freemasonry very correctly, because the Reformation wars that would win, that I address, over here where I live, where in 1572.
My sources are in Dutch, but for some one that is interested to use on-line translation, great stories on the victory in Reformation with lots of illustrations over here:
http://members.home.nl/tettero/ZuidHolland/Lumey.htm
Important history, never put in film. Unless maybe Pirates of the Caribbean by Walt Disney. There are some ships today build from that time though, and clothing is made clear from the paintings. If people over here go make a film out of these stories, they will not mention the Hedge Preaching, the terrible way people where murdered by the Roman Catholics in this 80-years Civil war. Catholics have taken back their former lands thanks Napoleon Bonaparte, and lie to the children here that the war of independence from popery, was a war against Spain. Sounds sad maybe. But to me knowing the facts, it is great to know what was hidden for me by the papists. The war described in the linked page above, or actually the victory where the Duke of Alba would loose his glasses, as it is said, was a civil war of independence, where the Catholic armies where supported by Spanish armies. Real independence, that was brought abroad also to America, until it was destroyed in 1776 in your country. Because since the American Constitution was drafted, Catholics where allowed every where, while Catholicism was prohibited in Holland form 1572 to 1795, the invasion of Napoleon Bonaparte. The same as Japan. In Britain, today it is still illegal for a Roman Catholic to enter parliament, for as far as I would understand. Still some remains of this short victory are found in the post-reformed nations.