The chairman of the Bristol Magistrates who convicted two Christian preachers of a Public Order offence earlier this week is a leading Freemason, Christian Voice can disclose.
Robert Stacey convicted Michael Overd and Michael Stockwell on Tuesday 28th February. He handed down £2016 worth of fines and costs each. He even refused a stay of execution pending their appeal.
But we have discovered the retired laboratory manager holds office in the Royal Arch Provincial Grand Chapter of Gloucestershire and Herefordshire.
The magistrate, 69 this month (March 2017), has also been a director of the Staple Hill Masonic Hall in Shrubbery Road, Downend, Bristol.
Provincial Grand Scribe Ezra
In fact, the man who could not pronounce ‘Catholicism’ is ‘Provincial Grand Scribe Ezra’. In court, Mr Stacey could barely read his own writing. Nevertheless, in January, ‘Grand Scribe Ezra’ managed to send out an invitation to the ‘Annual Convocation of Provincial Grand Chapter’. This will be held at The Crypt School, Podsmead Road, Gloucester GL2 5AE, on Saturday 6th May 2017, at 11.15am. ‘Companions are requested to be seated in the Chapter by 10.50am’, says the invitation.
Royal Arch Freemasons love calling themselves by Biblical names. It is one way in which they invoke the rebuilding of the Second Temple in Jerusalem. So one Paul Diggins is ‘Provincial Grand Haggai’ while Michael Lettey is ‘Provincial Grand Joshua’. You will often find a ‘Zerubbabel’ and a ‘Nehemiah’ as well.
Freemason syncretism
Despite the Biblical allusions, the exclusive claims of Jesus in the same Bible are anathema to Freemasonry. Although Masons have to believe in ‘a Supreme Being’, their ‘Great Architect of the Universe’ encompasses all deities. The Provincial Grand Lodge of Gloucestershire says on its ‘politics and religion’ page, ‘a Freemason is encouraged to do his duty first to his God (by whatever name he is known) through his faith and religious practice.’
The United Grand Lodge of England says: ‘Every Freemason embarks on his own journey of self-discovery when he enters the organisation’. On the first page of a downloadable PDF it says in capital letters: ‘Freemasonry does not discriminate on grounds of … religion’. No, but you must have one, any one. All are equally valid.
Royal Arch Freemasonry
It is well-known there are ‘degrees’ in Freemasonry. The first three degrees take a member up to ‘Master Mason’ in a masonic ‘Craft Lodge’. But beyond and inside the Lodge lies the Chapter, the ‘Royal Arch’, with a further four degrees: Mark Master, Past Master, Most Excellent Master, and Royal Arch Mason. Robert Stacey appears in the picture to be wearing Royal Arch Mason Regalia.
There are around 3,300 ‘Craft Masons’ in the Gloucestershire and Herefordshire Lodges alone. It appears some 800 of them have been ‘exalted’ to the entry degree in the Royal Arch. Often the Lodge with its three ‘craft’ Masonic degrees is known as ‘Blue Lodge Masonry’ from its regalia. The Royal Arch is the ‘Red Lodge’ (although it is a ‘Chapter’ not a ‘Lodge’).
Mr Stacey as ‘Ezra’ is keen to help ‘craft masons’ ‘discover the “genuine secrets of a master mason” (and) the companionship of a Royal Arch Chapter’. In fact, he is at the front of an initiative ‘to make all master masons … aware of where the secrets can be found and to introduce the Royal Arch.’
The Bristol magistrate is no less than his Royal Arch Chapter’s recruiting sergeant.
(More info here in Royal Arch Cumbria’s Welcome Booklet).
Exaltation Ceremony to become Royal Arch Freemason
Royal Arch Masons like Mr Stacey wear a jewel at lodge meetings signifying their membership of this secret club within a secret club. We see the jewel in the Star of David in Stacey’s regalia. The ‘Exaltation Ceremony’ in which a mason joins the Royal Arch is set out in this link.
In his book ‘The Brotherhood’, Stephen Knight laid a lot of Freemasonry bare. Of great significance is what happened when the two rival bands of freemasons, the Antients and the Moderns, united in 1813. They became the ‘United Grand Lodge of England’. Knight is quoted on a webpage as saying:
‘The Union’s acceptance of Royal Arch workings is of great importance~ for it completed in all essentials the structure of Freemasonry as it exists today. Just as the Moderns de-Christianised the movement, so with the acceptance of Royal Arch the Antients succeeded in introducing the undeniably occult – notably the invocation of the supposedly rediscovered long-lost name of God.’
Freemasons have often rubbished ‘The Brotherhood’ but they have rarely denied what is in it. This link is a good example of that approach.
Call for a Register of Freemasons
There was a follow-up to Knight’s book, ‘Inside the Brotherhood’ by Martin Short. It led to a call from the House of Commons Home Affairs Select Committee in 1997 for police officers, magistrates, judges and crown officers to publicly register their Masonic membership. Amid obstruction from the Freemasons, including from the United Grand Lodge of England, the initiative petered out.
Indeed, how many other local judges, police officers and prosecutors, not to say council officials and elected members, are ‘brothers’ of Stacey? How many are in the Gloucestershire and Herefordshire Lodge or even the corresponding Royal Arch Chapter? We have found and listed a few names here. If any are recognisable as men in public office please let us know. But there will be many others.
Occult name of God
The long-lost name of God in Masonry is supposed to be Jah-Bul-On. It is regarded as so sacred no Mason is allowed to utter it alone. Like all aspects of Royal Arch Freemasonry it is syncretistic, occult and ridiculous. Jah stands for the Hebrew name of God, ‘Bul’ for the Canaanite deities ‘Baal’, while ‘On’ refers to the Egyptian ‘Osiris’. Being absurd, of course, does not stop Royal Arch from being quintessentially evil. We read this interesting detail:
‘In 1989 it was announced that JAHBULON would soon be dropped from England’s Royal Arch Ritual. ‘Grand Scribe Ezra’ Higham denied this was in response to recent Christian condemnations. Journalists later visiting Freemason’s Hall overheard chortles that junking JAHBULON had invalidated the book “Inside the Brotherhood’ even before it was published. However on 4th March Clifford Longley (The Times religious affairs correspondent) wrote that by replacing JAHBULON with JHVH – meaning Jahweh, the Jew’s Holy Name for God -Masonry may be falling in “deeper waters than the Grand Lodge has yet realised… While to invoke a false God is idolatry, to invoke the Name of the True God falsely is blasphemy”.’
Blasphemous invocation of God
A lot of Masonic ritual is now ‘out there’ on the web and has not been denied by Masons. For example: ‘The Royal Arch degree catechism asks, “Are you a Royal Arch Mason?” To which the reply is made, “I – AM – THAT – I – AM.”‘
It goes without saying that to invoke the name of God from Exodus 3:14 is the height of blasphemy:
Exodus 3:13 And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is his name? what shall I say unto them? 14 And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.
Occult identification with Hiram
In another place, we read: ‘Fourth, continuing our tour of ritual, the third degree candidate plays the Masonic hero Hiram Abif (or Abiff) in a dramatic reenactment, wherein he identifies with Hiram in Hiram’s death, burial, and “raising.”‘ That is a complete rejection of the Lord Jesus. Every Christian identifies with Christ in his death, burial and resurrection. To invoke an employee of the king of Tyre who helped Solomon build the temple is a mockery. Furthermore, such a rite is deeply occult.
In fact, Masons have a special regard for Solomon, king Hiram and Hiram Abif, believing they possessed ancient secrets. Masonic documents show them to be obsessed by ‘secrets’ and believe they have some really important supernatural ones. As it happens, they describe themselves as ‘not a secret society but a society with secrets‘, as if that makes it better.
Incompatible with Christianity
Dr. D. R. Denman, an Anglican scholar, once himself a mason, shows how opposed Masonry is to Christianity. Everyone outside Masonry is held to be ‘in darkness’. But Jesus Christ said his followers are no longer in darkness, but in the light:
John 8:12 Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.
Dr Denman wrote: “Christ and the Craft are fundamentally opposed to one another. Well I remember the wave of nausea as I stood an initiate outside the Masonic Lodge and heard myself referred to as a poor candidate in a state of darkness who by God’s help was seeking the light. God’s grace had already shone in my heart to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ: this I knew, and as I stood there listening to the first utterance of Masonic ritual I was aware of rampant evil.
“In vain, I sought for some acknowledgement of the Light of the World in the worship and ritual of the degrees that followed. There was nothing. The sense of blasphemy had become, by the middle of the Third Degree ceremony, so overwhelming that I was moved to protest and to leave the Temple, never to return.”
What is ‘the craft’ of masonry?
And what are those ‘secrets’? Freemason websites speak of their charitable work, of brotherly love, of moral improvement. They speak of their ‘Craft’. But they never say what the ‘Craft’ is that they are learning. It certainly isn’t stone-masonry. That may be the imagery, but Masonic lodges are not teaching their 1st Degree Apprentices how to cut a block of limestone or make a trefoil window out of it.
The Masonic Lodge of Education says: ‘Masonic education helps you attain a basic education in the craft.’ It states ‘much like King Solomon’s wisdom in biblical times of laying a strong foundation for his Temple (edifice); our full understanding of the Masonic Craft becomes necessary to fully embrace its rays of light.’ That sounds esoteric. The ‘Masonic Craft’ has clearly parted company with the building trade. But what has it become?
Occultism and New Age Mysticism?
The website admits: ‘your Lodge Library contains absolutely nothing really helpful with which to train a new brother to bring him up in the Craft.’ Which continues to beg the question: What is ‘the Craft’? No-one ever says. That may be because it is ‘secret’, and that itself is suspicious. Or it may be because it is occult, more to do with, dare we say it, witchcraft than construction. If not witchcraft, we are in the realm of arcane mysteries, with cross-over into New Age ‘revelation’.
It is always better to source from Masonic sites not those opposing it. One Grand Chapter site speaks of ‘ancient rituals’ and admits: ‘There is also an esoteric side of Ancient Craft Masonry’. It talks of symbols having ‘an exoteric meaning’ and ‘esoteric symbolism’. The site admits: ‘Some of the symbolism in Craft Masonry originates in the ancient mystery traditions of the world. Hermetism, Philosophy, Kabalistic, and Alchemical, for example, share many of the same symbols with Freemasonry.’
So Freemasonry encompasses (if the expression does not fall too awkwardly in the context of their well-known symbolism above) occultism, idolatry and blasphemy. Above all it denies Jesus Christ, the only one who can set them free.
Stacey should not have sat
Moreover, it was a Royal Arch Freemason, Robert James Stacey, ‘Grand Scribe Ezra,’ who made criminals of two Christian evangelists. He found them to be ‘abusive’ and ‘disorderly’. Their crime? To contend in public that only by the name of Jesus Christ could men be saved. Such a claim was a great personal challenge to him. Royal Arch Masonry claims itself to be the way, to have the truth and the light and to lead to abundant life.
Stacey should have recused himself over such a blatant conflict of interest. Ironically, a Christian District Judge, legally qualified, declined to hear the case for exactly that reason. But a Royal Arch Freemason, steeped in anti-Christian occultism, would be severely prejudiced against the Christian message. Christ confronts everything he believes in. It destroys all his ‘secrets’. How would he ever be capable of reaching an impartial verdict?
Two magistrates sat either side of him, Josephine Ramsden and Gerard McDermott. It is disappointing they went along with Stacey in the guilty verdicts despite the circumstances and clear case law presented.
A register of Freemasons in public life must surely now become compulsory.
Michael Overd and Michael Stockwell have appealed to the Crown Court. The last time that happened, the Crown’s case collapsed. It will again. What happened last time is still a good read! Street preaching is legal!
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How does one stop this argument from proving too much? Who IS qualified to hear a case like this? Any judge is going to be either pro-Christian or anti-Christian in some way. Ditto re. those represented by the prosecution, including Muslims and Buddhists, maybe homosexuals too. No judge can personally represent ALL these categories, nor be truly neutral about them all simultaneously.
Exactly so, Dan.
I am sure you are aware that Albert Pike, known by some as the father of modern Freemasonry, in 1889 issued ‘instructions’ part of which were: “To you, Sovereign Grand Inspectors General, we say this, that you may repeat it to the Brethren of the 32nd, 31st and 30th Degrees – The Masonic religion should be, by all of us initiates of the high degrees, maintained in the purity of the Luciferian doctrine”. Pike goes on to maintain that Lucifer is God, the equal of the Christian God and that, “the true and philosophic religion is the belief in Lucifer, the equal of Adonai; but Lucifer, God of Light and God of Good, is struggling for humanity against Adonay, the God of Darkness and Evil.” (Taken from ‘The Craft and the Cross’ by Ian Gordon Chapter 15 ‘A Search for the Roots’)
So now we know that the ‘supreme being’ or ‘great architect of the universe’, mentioned above by you, is Lucifer.
You will also no doubt be aware that part of the Masonic oath is that they will ‘prefer’ fellow Freemasons, which must make it difficult to be impartial as a magistrate, or in many other walks of life.
I am not, and never have been, a Freemason, although I have a forebear who was. However, I have been made aware of the ‘dangers’ of the Craft from a Christian perspective.
mgak
This may explain a lot. The two evangelists were accused of being “disorderly”, but it was the crowd to whom they were preaching that were disorderly! smh
Do not despair. Remember we know Our God. The Lord Jesus. We know he is the only true God. He is Sovereign and no one can thwart his purpose.
The truly Born Again, Bible believing Christian has no fear of the weird beliefs or actions of such as Free Masons. The Lord has promised his protection for all his elect. We may find it hard to understand sometimes but that is where faith grows, when we trust the Lord in circumstances we cannot understand nor see clearly – most clearly stated in Romans 8 v 28.
Interesting comments on the Masons’ worship of Lucifer as “god of light”. Don’t they realise that is exactly how a warning reference is made to him in 2 Cor. 11 v 14 (except his masquerading is “as an angel” not as a god.
As with all sinners, we should pity them.
Great research and an excellent article.
There is no way that he should have presided over this case as there was no way that he could do so impartially.
There was a major conflict of interest which he should have realised and acknowledged. A formal investigation into this should take place and if he is found to have breached the code of ethics what applies to Magistrates then he should be struck off.
The conviction should also be quashed and a new trial should take place before 3 new magistrates.
But there would be a major conflict of interest if the magistrate was a Christian, a Muslim, or an atheist. Who do you think should have been chosen ?
One of each, perhaps ? But were the three magistrates ALL freemasons ? Could perhaps the other two have influenced him ? (Of course, they might not both have been the right kind of Christian either).
Oddly enough, the last time Michael Overd was convicted in the Magistrates’ Court it was by a Muslim District Judge. And then the Crown’s case collapsed at ‘half-time’ in the Crown Court. See our story here. Interesting, isn’t it? Muslim judge hears case and finds preacher guilty. Freemason judge hears case and finds preachers guilty. But Christian judge recuses himself! No evidence Gerry McDermott is a freemason … but then again, we don’t have that list the Home Affairs Select Committee called for, do we?
This explains the obvious anti-Christian bias from the bench.
One hopes when this goes to appeal that the judge who hears the case is not a mason. It is well known that freemasonry is from the devil, and this news only confirms that this whole case has been satanically inspired.