Wednesday 16 November 2011

Orange Order Duplicity

The BBC Spotlight programme (15/11/11) highlighted the issue of whether or not it was acceptable for Orangemen to attend services in the Roman Catholic church at which the Mass was being said/observed/celebrated, etc.  I read through the Qualifications of an Orangeman, and they appear to me to be Binitarian and not Trinitarian. Let me quote directly from the Orange statement:

An Orangeman should have a sincere love and veneration for his Heavenly Father, a humble and steadfast faith in Jesus Christ, the Saviour of mankind, believing in Him as the only Mediator between God and man.


I seem to be missing something important here.  They mention the heavenly Father and Jesus Christ - the Saviour of mankind (a good Calvinistic term used frequently by John Calvin in his evangelistic sermons). But there is no mention of the Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the Blessed Holy Trinity.

This seems to me to be saying that you can be a member of the orange order without believing in the Triune God.  If that is the case, and it seems to be so, then the orange order cannot with any justification or credibility claim to aligned to the reformed faith, which is distinctly Trinitarian.

Even the Roman Catholic church is Trinitarian in its doctrine of God, which makes it closer to the Christian faith than the Orange Order.  It is quite staggering that this religious order, which is not Trinitarian, can then condemn members who have attended the Roman Mass which is!

It is also interesting that those who support the politicians who attended the Roman Mass are themselves from ecumenical churches, and some of those who oppose such attendance are also from ecumenical churches.  I wonder what this says about those churches, and about those who oppose Romanism in all its forms who are members and/or ministers in those churches!

Further, can those within orange-ism who say they stand for reformed religion assure me that every minister and church in their denominations are truly and biblically reformed in the doctrine and practice?   That is, are all their ministers Gospel men and are all their congregations Gospel congregations?  If not, they are non-reformed (some of them might even be anti-reformed!), therefore orangemen should not participate in their services of worship, mass or no mass.

The one single desideratum that differentiates the reformed church from the non-reformed forms of religion is the place given to the Gospel and to Gospel principles within those churches. 

For the record, I agree with the official position of the Orange Order with its opposition to the doctrines of Rome and any other unreformed religions.  For anyone to give any credence or credibility to the idolatrous and blasphemous religion promoted by Rome et al cannot claim to be a consistent Christian or even Protestant. 

The Orange Order has got to get its own house in order and its act together before it takes actions against it own members.  What does it need to do?  First, it needs to ensure that its members are true Christians and not church Christians. Second, it must change its qualification to reflect a truly Christian viewpoint.  Third, it must assess its membership for genuineness and root out all those adulterers, blasphemers, liars, extortioners, cheats, idolators, non church attenders, swearers, foul-mouthed, etc.

If the Order was to start here, and address these points, it just might gain some credibility in the eyes of those who are not in it.

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