Cara Coffey's Review - From Mason To Minister

Neil McKinlay wrote a very poignant testimony of his life story growing up in Scotland in his book, From Mason to Minister, Through the Lattice. I learned a lot about that wonderful land as well as Canada and Australia because of his testimony. I appreciated yet again the drawing power of our Lord Jesus Christ as Mr. McKinlay shared his life with us. He also interspersed his book with his own poetry, and this lent a romantic air to this volume.

In the preface of From Mason to Minister, Through the Lattice, Mr. McKinlay explains how he did not write “the ordinary” of what is generally offered concerning freemasonry. He doesn’t make a case against it or for it, but he tells instead his testimony and how he was drawn to becoming a Mason but then how he left it in 1990 as a result of his soul searching for God and the Savior, Jesus Christ.

I appreciated the gentle approach this author has taken with freemasonry because it shows the confusion which is rampant about the belief systems of that organization and the mixture of Christianity with it. I also learned that there are some differences in other countries concerning freemasonry and it was refreshing to get a glimpse of someone else’s life in this regard. Although, I did not consider this book well organized; there was not continuity. It seemed to jump from one topic to another.

Mr. McKinlay’s publisher also wrote a note assuring us this was a helpful book because it does not attack freemasonry but instead gives us assertion that this book is, “…a reasonable explanation for how apparently godly men might have associated themselves with an organization now so widely associated with the occult.” (Gerald Christian Nordskog, p188). I trust the Lord can speak through this gentle testimony to some within the ranks of freemasonry, and my hope is that these men will turn to the Lord and forsake it as wholeheartedly and completely as Mr. McKinlay testifies to us that he did.

See on Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/Mason-Minister-Through-Lattice/dp/0982707479/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1322079421&sr=1-1
See review at Good Reads
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/236223017