Author: KNIGHT, CHRISTOPHER; LOMAS, ROBERT
Title: The Second Messiah: Templars, the Turin Shroud, and the Great Secret of Freemasonry
Description: Shaftesbury, Dorset: Element Books Ltd, 1998. 1862042489. First Printing. Hard Cover. ISBN: 1862042489. One hundred years ago, an amateur was allowed to photograph the Shroud of Turin. The negatives he produced of that famous image captivated the Christian world and strengthened their belief that it carried the imprint of Christ's face and body. In The Second Messiah, authors Knight and Lomas, who are Freemasons, build a meticulous case against this theory. Although they use recent scientific data that proves the linen shroud could not have predated medieval times, they go well beyond proving it is not the burial shroud of Jesus. The Second Messiah not only pinpoints the exact moment in history during which the Shroud of Turin took the imprint, it actually names the man whose image the Shroud holds.Like any good mystery story, this one begins in medias res. The opening chapters recount centuries of suppression of certain "truths" of Freemasonry by the English Grand Lodge, which led the authors to believe that secrets were being kept from other Freemasons in the service of a Christian agenda. To the uninitiated, this might seem like petty in-fighting within the membership of a clandestine club. Read on. The authors soon paint a larger history of the Knights Templar, the Crusaders who were the originators of modern Freemasonry, and their oppression and eventual eradication by the Roman Catholic Church. The torture and martyrdom of Jacques de Molay, the last Grand Master of the Knights Templar, are at the center of this remarkable book's search for historical authenticity.In their introduction, the authors propose that "History seems not so much a record of past events, more a catalogue of preferred beliefs expounded by people who have a vested interest." One of their purposes in writing this book is to show how Freemasonry's rituals and secrets were twisted and used by the Catholic Church to persecute the Knights Templar and their followers. The chapter entitled "The Tarot and the Templars" fascinates with its explanation of how the allegorical cards were used by the Knights to instruct members in the secrets of Freemasonry, and how the Church misinterpreted the meanings of the Tarot and outlawed it.At the conclusion of their well-documented search for the origins of the Shroud of Turin and the Great Secret of Freemasonry, Knight and Lomas say they reached a "new vantage point," from which they see "people huddled together with their eyes squeezed shut _ all facing inwards and repeating the same words, "This is the only highground, there can be no other." After publication of this painstakingly researched and utterly convincing book, it will be hard for readers, Freemasons or otherwise, to keep their eyes and their minds closed.. Both the volume and the unclipped dust jacket are in perfect, pristine condition; unread, unmarked, tight, square, and clean. AS NEW/AS NEW.. 8vo 8" - 9" tall. 259 pp. As New in As New dust jacket .

Keywords: 1862042489 Shroud of Turin; Knights Templar; Freemasons; History; Religion; Messiah; History Religion & Mythology


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