Grand Master’s Message

Sir Knight David J. Kussman, GCT Grand Master of the Grand Encampment of Knights Templar

To the Sir Knights of the Grand Encampment Knights Templar, USA. Greetings in the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ!

My beloved Knights,

I love the celebration of Christmas, especially when it turns my focus to the incarnation of the Divine Warrior who would come and rescue us from the kingdom of darkness.

Though we may sing, “Silent Night, Holy Night, All is Calm, All is Bright,” our theology suggests more than that was going on that night. Hell was raging. Satan was fuming. The demons were preparing for the greatest confrontation between the powers of evil and the power of God.

Way back in the Garden, God had ordained that hostility would exist between Satan and those whom God had created, in His image, to worship and serve Him. The Old Testament narrative portrays that hostility in the frequent attempts of various enemies to destroy the people of God. Repeatedly, Yahweh fights for His people and delivers them. He chooses warriors like Gideon and David who fight the enemies of God and His people.

As we read these narratives and study the New Testament, we realize that a great spiritual hostility lay behind these physical battles between nations. The attempts to eliminate the people of God were designed by Satan to thwart the coming of the One whom God promised would come and “crush the head” of Satan. The Lord’s sovereign and powerful interventions on behalf of His people renewed hope that the ultimate Divine Warrior would come and defeat the great foe of humankind.

Christmas is the birth of a King, a Warrior King, a Divine King.

Though He is the Prince of Peace he comes, not to appease or accommodate evil, but to destroy evil and to crush the evil one. He is born to defeat sin, Satan, and death. The life and ministry of Jesus vividly portray the confrontations He had with Satan and the demonic world. Unlike the first Adam, Jesus comes through every time as one who triumphs over evil.

Satan was relentless in His attacks against this One called “the Son of God,” and within the eternal plan of God Satan

is allowed to incite the mob to kill Jesus. Death would be Satan’s final vanquishing of the Divine Warrior. Death was Satan’s last and most powerful weapon to bring against Jesus. However, little did Satan know that God would use this powerful weapon of death to be the very means by which Satan himself would be defeated. Satan unleashed his great fury in the death of Jesus only to have it recoil and crush the great enemy of humankind.

Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. – Heb 2:14-15 (ESV)

As members of our beautiful Christian fraternal order, it is important for us to remember our purpose and our beautiful heritage. This season I implore you to share publicly with your family, friends, and brothers in Christ the importance of our purpose in our Savior’s legacy and celebrate the birth of the King of Kings.

Up from the grave He arose with a mighty conquest of His foes. He arose a victor from the dark domain, and He lives forever with His saints to reign. He arose. He arose.

Hallelujah Christ arose!

Lady Kim and I wish for and your families this Christmas Season that peace the world discovered at that first Christmas. May our Lord and Savior continue to bless each of you in His own incredibly special way.

Merry Christmas!

Our journey continues…

David J. Kussman, GCT Grand Master