Thursday, December 16, 2004
ROSICRUCIAN CONCEPTION OF GOD
A Christian ministry devoted to helping those caught in a cult offers an analysis of the Rosicrucian concept of God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. It's not Catholic by a long shot. Here is the passage on Christ:
"The Rosicrucian Philosophy", page 181, says of Christ, "the Christ spirit which entered the body of Jesus when Jesus Himself vacated it, was a ray from the cosmic Christ. We may follow Jesus back in His previous incarnations and can trace his growth to the present day." Also, "The Rosicrucian Cosmo Conception" mentions, "...The Son is the highest initiate of the Sun". Again we see that the "Jesus Christ" of the Rosicrucians is not the Jesus Christ of the Bible, who is eternally God (John 1:1), our Creator (Col. 1:16), and the only source of salvation (John 14:6) Reincarnation is likewise a false, Eastern philosophy directly opposed to the Bible truth of the resurrection, followed by judgment, (see Hebrews 9:27). The Jesus Christ of Christianity is eternal, not reincarnated, God manifest in the flesh (Matthew 1:23, not some "cosmic spirit".
The Father and Holy Spirit are equally strangely conceived.
I found this interesting:
In the Rosicrucian mail-order lessons, new members (called Neophytes) are taught to petition the "Forty-two principal gods...
From the USCCB website:
Neophyte: One who has been initiated at the Easter Vigil. The term comes from the Greek word meaning new plant, as in a new sprout on a limb/branch.
It's possible I've forgotten, but I don't think that term, "neophyte", was used in the Church prior to Vatican II. The USCCB website also lists the word "mystagogy" and defines it:
The fourth and final period of Christian initiation of adults, which is from Easter to Pentecost. The U.S. National Statutes envision an extended mystagogy for one year.
This word, too, came in with Vatican II.
This Rosicrucian website also uses the word:
For example, the title of the poem certainly invites one to explore the possible meanings of the Rose within the esoteric tradition of Rosicrucian mystagogy.
I've often wondered whence came these RCIA words. Could be coincidence, I suppose. Alternatively, the Rosicrucians could have gotten it from the Catholics.
Manly P. Hall, claimed as a Masonic historian by some Masons and rejected by others, associates Sufi mystics with the Rosicrucians:
The Mysteries of Egypt and Persia that had found a haven in the Arabian desert reached Europe by way of the Knights Templars and the Rosicrucians. The Temple of the Rose Cross at Damascus had preserved the secret philosophy of Sharon's Rose; the Druses of the Lebanon still retain the mysticism of ancient Syria; and the dervishes, as they lean on their carved and crotched sticks, still meditate upon the secret instruction perpetuated from the days of the four Caliphs. From the far places of Irak and the hidden retreats of the Sufi mystics, the Ancient Wisdom thus found its way into Europe.
I wonder if Bugnini sought out those Sufi mystics when he was posted to Iraq after Vatican II. Considering how often he is accused of having been a Mason, it does seem oddly coincidental that he would be sent there.
