PARALLELS IN THEIR BELIEFS
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•Abraham & Melchizedek had progressed to a high degree in God's secret Order.
RUSSELL Chapter 8 will touch on Pastor Russell's belief in this. Another reference would be the Overland Monthly, p. 105. There Russell discusses how the Order of Aaron transfers to the Order of Melchizedek. In a related issue, the Urim and Thummin, Russell felt that these shined on and off to give the high priest a yes or no answer. Vol. I, Studies in the Scriptures, p. 49 and What Pastor Russell Said, p.728. MASONRY Joseph Smith Jr. seems to have learned some of these items from the Masons. "It is generally supposed that the Essenes were the custodians of this knowledge and also the initiators and educators of Jesus. If so, Jesus was undoubtedly initiated in the same temple of Melchizedek where Pythagoras had studied six centuries before." "...why is He (Jesus) referred to in the New Testament as 'called of God an high priest after the order of Melchizedek'? The words 'after the order' make Jesus one of a line or order of which there must have been others of equal or even superior dignity." Masonic, Hermatic, Qabbalistic and Rosicrucian Symbolical Philosophy, p. CLXXVIII.