The Lodge—“This Foreign Plant upon Holy Soil”
This article examines the historical controversy over Freemasonry membership that prompted Reformed churches in 19th-century Holland to withdraw and establish the Christian Reformed Church. Cammenga traces the origins and development of Freemasonry, its religious eclecticism, and the theological concerns that led Dutch Reformed leaders to view lodge membership as incompatible with Christian faith and practice. The resource provides important context for understanding a significant ecclesiastical separation rooted in Reformed convictions about worldliness and Christian separation.
Unsettling Reports Among the issues that prompted a number of the churches of the Holland Classis of the Reformed Church in America (RCA) to withdraw and establish what would become the Christian Reformed Church (CRC) was the issue of lodge membership, particularly the lodge of the Freemasons. The Freemasons is the oldest and best known of the lodges. This fraternal organization had its origins, as best as can be determined, in the early 1700s. Likely the organization sprang up among the...
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