Can a Christian be a member of OES.

[Floatingaxe]

This is nothing but a cult. Do a study on the rituals and you'll find they are very simular to witchcraft rituals. Think about something..........do you want to be a part of a secret society? Is the gospel of Christ a secret gospel that only the elite can hear? Why are all religions welcomed and worshipped as one god?

There are many things on the internet to study that can keep ya going for days. Dive in with prayer for wisdom, knowledge and understanding.

Peace to ya,

Brian

Right on!

[Eliyahuw]

This is nothing but a cult. Do a study on the rituals and you'll find they are very simular to witchcraft rituals. Think about something..........do you want to be a part of a secret society? Is the gospel of Christ a secret gospel that only the elite can hear? Why are all religions welcomed and worshipped as one god?

There are many things on the internet to study that can keep ya going for days. Dive in with prayer for wisdom, knowledge and understanding.

Peace to ya,

Brian

Christians went underground for many years and used secret symbols, ect to identify themselves with other christians.

We will see it happen again when christians are killed and persecuted for their faith in the future.

Also christians preform rituals. Just walk into any catholic church and you have rituals being preformed. Most churches have communion. Thats a ritual too. Baptism is a ritual

The point is no one is saying waht is wrong with the OES. Just generic broad views going on.

[gypc]

This is nothing but a cult. Do a study on the rituals and you'll find they are very simular to witchcraft rituals. Think about something..........do you want to be a part of a secret society? Is the gospel of Christ a secret gospel that only the elite can hear? Why are all religions welcomed and worshipped as one god?

There are many things on the internet to study that can keep ya going for days. Dive in with prayer for wisdom, knowledge and understanding.

Peace to ya,

Brian

Christians went underground for many years and used secret symbols, ect to identify themselves with other christians.

We will see it happen again when christians are killed and persecuted for their faith in the future.

Also christians preform rituals. Just walk into any catholic church and you have rituals being preformed. Most churches have communion. Thats a ritual too. Baptism is a ritual

The point is no one is saying waht is wrong with the OES. Just generic broad views going on.

I said........."Do a study on the rituals and you'll find they are very simular to witchcraft rituals" The deal is.....if a religion is doing rituals that are contrary to the Bible then it's...........uh......not christian!

Click on this link, scroll down and push play!!!!

edit*

[Iryssa]

It's all cultish and we should avoid it.

So is the cult of christianity. Why should we avoid it?

Oh boy...another word issue...here's something I posted a while ago:

You can try to explain it away, but christianity IS a religion, and all religions are cults. Your arguments are specious and easily dissimulated.

I just want to clear a couple things up here:

First of all, I'm going to assume you're going by the dictionary definition of a cult. In which case, your'e probably right, religion could almost be synonymous with cult. However, beyond the dictionary definitoin of "cult," the word is used to describe something that is beyond religion. The distinction between religion and what we Christians (and others) tend to term a "cult" can be seen in this list (I hope Smalcald doesn't mind if I borrow something he posted ):

Well cults have some specific markers, not just bad doctrine.

1.) Separating believers from family and close friends

2.) Sleep deprivation

3.) Charismatic leadership who can speak only the truth and are somehow "anointed" by God especially among men

4.) Hell if believers leave for any other Christian group

5.) All that are not part of this group are doomed

6.) Lack of transparency in leadership finances and lifestyle.

7.) Leaders who live in luxury because somehow they are "ordained" to do so, while members must toil.

8.) Leaders who refuse to have people over them in the form of Elders, a Church board, denomination or even doctrine. Leaders do not serve the congregation and who can be released by the congregation, but see the congregation as an extension of their own personal ministry. The congregation serves the leader, and not vice versa.

9.) Criticism of leadership is not allowed under any circumstance, AND criticism means that the member has a spiritual problem.

10) A continual focus on earning and generating new tithes, money or new converts who will gather more tithes and money.

So no, in that case, the word "cult" does not apply to every religion.

Second. Christianity is a religion...it's also not ONLY a religion (keep in mind I'm speaking from the point of view of a Believer). Religion does not usually include relationship with ones god. Ours, however, does. In Christianity, we have a real and personal relationship with our Saviour.

NO i said the Cult of Christianity. People are in major denial about it.

A cult of Christianity is a group of people, which claiming to be Christian, embraces a particular doctrinal system taught by an individual leader, group of leaders, or organization, which (system) denies (either explicitly or implicitly) one or more of the central doctrines of the Christian faith as taught in the sixty-six books of the Bible.

Oh! *laugh* well, in that case, you should really have said "A cult of Christianity" instead of "THE cult of Christianity" the first time...because there's more than one. I assumed that because you said "the cult of Christianity" you were referring to Christianity itself as a cult: it's a subtle difference created by the use of the word "the." I probably only picked up on it because I'm a grammar freak (sometimes being a nerd can really get in the way ).

Anyway, you're right...there are those...Mormonism, JWs, plus a plethora of individual groups out there that aren't as universally recognized. We should be avoiding those just as much, though.

[Eliyahuw]

It's all cultish and we should avoid it.

So is the cult of christianity. Why should we avoid it?

Oh boy...another word issue...here's something I posted a while ago:

You can try to explain it away, but christianity IS a religion, and all religions are cults. Your arguments are specious and easily dissimulated.

I just want to clear a couple things up here:

First of all, I'm going to assume you're going by the dictionary definition of a cult. In which case, your'e probably right, religion could almost be synonymous with cult. However, beyond the dictionary definitoin of "cult," the word is used to describe something that is beyond religion. The distinction between religion and what we Christians (and others) tend to term a "cult" can be seen in this list (I hope Smalcald doesn't mind if I borrow something he posted ):

Well cults have some specific markers, not just bad doctrine.

1.) Separating believers from family and close friends

2.) Sleep deprivation

3.) Charismatic leadership who can speak only the truth and are somehow "anointed" by God especially among men

4.) Hell if believers leave for any other Christian group

5.) All that are not part of this group are doomed

6.) Lack of transparency in leadership finances and lifestyle.

7.) Leaders who live in luxury because somehow they are "ordained" to do so, while members must toil.

8.) Leaders who refuse to have people over them in the form of Elders, a Church board, denomination or even doctrine. Leaders do not serve the congregation and who can be released by the congregation, but see the congregation as an extension of their own personal ministry. The congregation serves the leader, and not vice versa.

9.) Criticism of leadership is not allowed under any circumstance, AND criticism means that the member has a spiritual problem.

10) A continual focus on earning and generating new tithes, money or new converts who will gather more tithes and money.

So no, in that case, the word "cult" does not apply to every religion.

Second. Christianity is a religion...it's also not ONLY a religion (keep in mind I'm speaking from the point of view of a Believer). Religion does not usually include relationship with ones god. Ours, however, does. In Christianity, we have a real and personal relationship with our Saviour.

NO i said the Cult of Christianity. People are in major denial about it.

A cult of Christianity is a group of people, which claiming to be Christian, embraces a particular doctrinal system taught by an individual leader, group of leaders, or organization, which (system) denies (either explicitly or implicitly) one or more of the central doctrines of the Christian faith as taught in the sixty-six books of the Bible.

Oh! *laugh* well, in that case, you should really have said "A cult of Christianity" instead of "THE cult of Christianity" the first time...because there's more than one. I assumed that because you said "the cult of Christianity" you were referring to Christianity itself as a cult: it's a subtle difference created by the use of the word "the." I probably only picked up on it because I'm a grammar freak (sometimes being a nerd can really get in the way ).

Anyway, you're right...there are those...Mormonism, JWs, plus a plethora of individual groups out there that aren't as universally recognized. We should be avoiding those just as much, though.

Yep there are those too. But today christianity has morphed into a cult of its own. Just look on any tv channel on sunday morning starting with schuler going on down to ole Rev errrr rand Earnst Angley. Hay-eel thim lawd! sheesh.

Anyway, uhm the cult of christianity is soooooo afraid of taking a stand against one thing or another.

Christ said he would rather them be cold or hot, lukewarm he's just going to spit them out!

[Iryssa]

Yep there are those too. But today christianity has morphed into a cult of its own. Just look on any tv channel on sunday morning starting with schuler going on down to ole Rev errrr rand Earnst Angley. Hay-eel thim lawd! sheesh.

Anyway, uhm the cult of christianity is soooooo afraid of taking a stand against one thing or another.

Christ said he would rather them be cold or hot, lukewarm he's just going to spit them out!

There are many like that, too. I don't think it's wise to make such a generalization, though: not everyone is like that.

[Eliyahuw]

Yep there are those too. But today christianity has morphed into a cult of its own. Just look on any tv channel on sunday morning starting with schuler going on down to ole Rev errrr rand Earnst Angley. Hay-eel thim lawd! sheesh.

Anyway, uhm the cult of christianity is soooooo afraid of taking a stand against one thing or another.

Christ said he would rather them be cold or hot, lukewarm he's just going to spit them out!

There are many like that, too. I don't think it's wise to make such a generalization, though: not everyone is like that.

No not everyone, but there is a very large percentage. A majority of our churchs have been infiltrated with the new age religion. Even the RCC has been infiltrated as we have most recently heard that the pope declared the bible was not inerrant nor God breathed.

So were seeing the new religion being born, and this is the one which will become the "whore" spoken about in Revelations.

[RustyAngeL]

I was petitioned for the OES years ago, but turned it down due to my biblical beliefs. Personally I would stay away from it. My husband WAS a 32nd degree mason for many years but also denounced it due to his biblical beliefs.

My grandfather was a 32nd masson also. However my dad never got involved either. I would stay away from it too.

[jesusaveslives77]

I see that everyone is saying stay away from it, but you're not saying why. You say something about rituals, but my little girl is a girlscout and they have rituals that they perform. I clicked on the link to where they were comparing oes to withcraft, but some of the same things they were saying sounded like a college initiation to me.. So are greek faternities and sororities bad, and should we stay away from them also?

[KarenJo5]

I guess I am the only one here who is a member,and as I said it does not go against the Bible. Yes, there are ritualistic words spoken, but all of it is Bible based.

As Jesusaveslives said there are rituals performed in many organizations, and that in itsself does not make it bad or against God.

I was able to join the OES because my Grandaddy was a Master Mason. You must be related to a past or present mason to join. There was no finer Christian man than he was, In fact he was there with me when I was lead to the Lord.