The compass and square of Freemasonry is prominently displayed on the Chamber of Commerce plaque of most cities and towns

in America, and its influence can be felt in nearly every area of modern society. However, is the Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons merely a fraternal organization or a charitable establishment, as most people have been led to believe? Does Masonry really work towards the universal brotherhood of men of all creeds and nationalities, or does it secretly intend to instill in the minds of its initiates its own agenda of exclusivity? Do its teachings really compliment those of the Lord Jesus Christ, or does the Lodge exist to subvert the Christian Church and to lead men away from the Gospel? The truth may shock you...

Communion With the Gods

The Pagan Altar of Freemasonry
by Greg Loren Durand
since the fourth Day of the sixth Month in the Year of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus, The Christ Nineteen Hundred and Ninety-Nine

"The Dionysian Mysteries are intimately connected with the history of Freemasonry, and whose influence is, to this day, most evidently felt in its organization. Of all the ancient mysteries, they are the most interesting to the Masonic student.... One of the most precious advantages promised by their intitiation was to put man in communion with the gods." -- Albert G. Mackey "But I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils. Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord's table, and of the table of devils." -- the Apostle Paul

Copyright Information and Terms Governing Distribution

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This Work is copyrighted under The Christian common Law in the Year of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus, The Christ, Nineteen Hundred and Ninety-Nine and is the intellectual Property of the Author. Permission to reproduce this Document either electronically or by print out is hereby granted on the condition that this section is left attached and intact. Pursuant to the Eighth Commandment, distribution of this Document for a price or pirating of the information contained herein without the express and written Permission of the Author is hereby prohibited.

Introduction A Brief History of the Lodge

The Social Influence of Freemasonry The Masons now emphasize the fact that they do not foster any specific religious, political or enonomical creeds. As a result, the organization has constantly attracted more and more members. During the past ten years their membership has increased by almost a million.... About one out of every twelve adult American males is a Mason.(1)

From the charitable outreach of the Shriners' Hospitals, to the fraternal image portrayed by the Blue Lodge (Craft Masonry), and its affiliated organizations of Job's Daughters, Rainbow Girls, DeMolay, and the Order of the Eastern Star, few areas of modern society have escaped the far-reaching influence of the Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons. Its membership transcends all social and religious barriers, even expanding to include a multitude of professing Christians, and even many clergymen. Researcher and critic of Freemasonry Martin L. Wagner observed, "Masonry, with its numerous offsprings, is a powerful factor in our civilization. It is influencing our civic, our social, our family, and our moral and religious life far more than is generally realized."(2) Freemasonry exists today in 164 countries of the world. (3) More than 33,700 Lodges can be found around the world, at least 15,000 of which operate within the United States. (4) The roster of well-known Masons, both living and deceased, is seemingly endless. As many as fourteen United States Presidents have been Masons, including George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, and Gerald Ford. In fact, all but a few of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, as well as the majority of the framers of the United States Constitution, were Freemasons. Other celebrated Masons were and are the late "father" of the "positive thinking" movement, Norman Vincent Peale, actor Ernest Borgnine, Sir Winston Churchill, "Old West" heroes Christopher "Kit" Carson and William "Buffalo Bill" Cody, authors Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Mark Twain, and Rudyard Kipling, comedians W.C. Fields and Oliver Hardy, as well as Benjamin Franklin, Harry Houdini, Paul Revere, Roy Rogers, Robert Dole, J. Edgar Hoover, Gene Autry, Douglas MacArthur, Charles Lindburgh, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. (5) The layout of the District of Columbia was designed by French Freemason, Pierre Charles L'Enfante to depict various Masonic symbols. Even many of America's most familiar emblems are Masonic in origin. The design of the Great Seal of the United States, for example, is replete in Masonic symbolism. On the front is found the symbol of the eagle (originally a phoenix) with outstretched wings, clutching an acacia twig in one talon and thirteen arrows in the other. Above the head of the bird is what is known in Masonry as the "clouded canopy," within which are depicted thirteen stars which, when joined in two overlaying triangles, form what is commonly known as the "Star of David" -- yet another sacred Masonic symbol. The motto E Pluribus Unum ("out of many one") is an allusion to the Masonic claim that all the religions of the world will one day be seen as but imperfect expressions of the one true Religion -Freemasonry. On the so-called "reverse side" of the Seal we find two Latin phrases -- Annuit Caeptis and Novus Ordo Seclorum. The first phrase is translated, "He favors our undertaking." This phrase was taken from Virgil's epic poem, Aeneid, and refers to the pagan deity, Jupiter, which is represented by the "All-Seeing Eye" overseeing the construction of a novus ordo seclorum ("New World Order"), symbolized by the unfinished pyramid. It is interesting to note that this "reverse side" was virtually ignored since its creation in the eighteenth century, until it was placed on the United States "one dollar" Federal Reserve Note by ThirtySecond Degree Mason Franklin Delano Roosevelt at the suggestion of Henry A. Wallace, the Franklin
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Administration's resident occultist. This act followed Roosevelt's implementation of his "New Deal" with the declaration, "We could never go back to the old order." (6) The Origins of the Lodge Before we begin our investigation into the beliefs and ceremonies of the Masonic Lodge, it is imperative that we first explore its origins. In the Middle Ages, various groups of stone-cutters formed exclusive guilds in order to protect their trade secrets from outsiders. These were the "Operative Masons" -- descendants of the Phoenician stone and cedar cutters of Tyre and Sidon who were used to construct Solomon's temple and builders of the magnificent castles and cathedrals of medieval England. According to its own scholars, modern Freemasonry, or "Speculative Masonry," can be traced back to the founding of the first Grand Lodge in London in 1717. The individuals who formed this society were not themselves stone-cutters as were the Operative Masons, but mimicked the closed societies of the guilds and adopted many of the tools of the craft, such as the square, compass, trowel, and others, as secret symbols, or "landmarks," to which were attached mystical meanings. The esoteric meanings which were attached to these symbols will be examined in a later chapter. At first, protest arose amongst the Operative Masons that their ideas and practices were being pirated by men who had no working knowledge of the architectural trade from which they were being taken. An early publication entitled A Pocket Companion for Freemasons stated the objection as follows: "No man ought to attain any dignity in Masonry who has not, at least, a competent knowledge, in geometry and architecture; and if the sciences were more followed in the Lodges, what is unhappily substituted in their place would not prevail as it does." (7) Gradually, however, the number of Operative Masons began to dwindle until the Lodge memberships were largely, and often exclusively, made up of Speculative Masons. Consequently, what once served as a workman's guild for the protection of trade secrets soon was transformed into a stronghold for the philosophical "enlightenment" of the elite minds of humanity. Today, Speculative Freemasonry exists as a complex organization consisting of various levels of advancement known as "degrees." At the bottom of the Masonic ladder is what is referred to as the "Blue Lodge," which consists of the three degrees of Entered Apprentice, Fellowcraft, and Master Mason. From there, the individual Mason may elect to pursue additional degrees in either the Scottish Rite (thirty-two degrees and a thirty-third honorary degree) or the York Rite (nine degrees). Believing that the whole of the Masonic system is to be found in the Blue Lodge, most initiates never advance beyond the third degree of Master Mason. However, as acknowledged Masonic authority Albert Pike pointed out, the Blue Lodge degrees are but "as broken columns of a roofless Druidic temple...." (8) As we shall see, only vague indications of true Masonic doctrine are provided in the Blue Lodge, while the more bizarre teachings are reserved for the initiate as he gradually climbs the mystic "ladder" of the Lodge. The system of Freemasonry rests upon three foundational beliefs: the fatherhood of "God," the brotherhood of man, and the immortality of the soul.(9) These doctrines, as they are taught by the Lodge, will be examined in great detail and compared with the Bible in the following pages.

Endnotes
1. Robert J. Tyler, essay: "Freemasonry," World Book Encyclopedia, Volume XIII, pages 209-210. 2. Martin L. Wagner, Freemasonry: An Interpretation (self-published, 1912), page 23. 3. Reference: Kent Henderson, Masonic World Guide (Richmond, Virginia: Macoy Publishing and Masonic Supply Company, 1984). 4. Reference: H.V.B. Voorhis, Facts For Freemasons (Richmond, Virginia: Macoy Publishing and Masonic Supply Company, 1953). 5. Reference: Voorhis, ibid., pages 128-170. 6. Franklin D. Roosevelt, On Our Way (New York: The John Day Company, 1934), page 36. 7. A Pocket Companion For Freemasons, quoted by Charles W. Heckethorn, The Secret Societies of All Ages and Countries (New York: University Books, 1965), Volume II, page 9. 8. Albert Pike, Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry (The Supreme Council of the Thirty-third Degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry of the Southern Jurisdiction, U.S.A., 1962), page 106. 9. Reference: H.L. Haywood, The Great Teachings of Masonry (Richmond, Virginia: Macoy Publishing and Masonic Supply Company, 1971), page 99.

Chapter One
The Religion of Freemasonry
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Freemasonry is a Religion
Masonry is not a religion in any sense of the word.... Church membership is not a requirement, yet membership in any church is no bar to admission. There is nothing in the requirements of Masonry to prevent a Catholic, a Mohammedan, a Jew, a Buddhist, a Protestant, a Mormon, or any member of any religion from becoming a member (emphasis in original).(1)
According to Silas H. Shepherd, "There is nothing better understood among Masons than that [Masonry] is not a religion...."(2) Such is the usual response that will be given by most Masons when the Lodge is questioned by concerned friends and relatives or subjected to criticism by churches or other Christian organizations. However, the fact that Freemasonry is in fact a religious institution can be thoroughly documented from the writings of the most respected Masonic authorities themselves. Below are given only a few of the many quotes that are available on this subject from the published works of the Lodge: Every Masonic Lodge is a temple of religion; and its teachings are instructions in religion. (3) As Masons we are taught never to commence any great or important undertaking without first invoking the blessing and protection of Deity, and this is because Masonry is a religious institution.
(4)

The most important article of furniture in a Lodge room is undoubtedly the altar.... It is a sacred utensil of religion, intended, like the altars of the ancient temples, for religious uses, and thus identifying Masonry, by its necessary existence in our Lodges, as a religious institution. Its presence should also lead the contemplative Mason to view the ceremonies in which it is employed with solemn reverence, as being part of a really religious worship. (5) There has been a needless expenditure of ingenuity and talent, by a large number of Mason orators and essayists, in the endeavor to prove that Masonry is not religion.... On the contrary, I contend, without any sort of hesitation, that Masonry is, in every sense of the word... an eminently religious institution -- that it is indebted solely to the religious element which it contains for its origin and for its continued existence, and that without this religious element it would scarcely be worthy of cultivation by the wise and good.... The tendency of all true Masonry is toward religion. If it make any progress, its progress is to that holy end. Look at its ancient landmarks, its sublime ceremonies, its profound symbols and allegories -- all inculcating religious doctrine, commanding religious observance, and teaching religious truth, and who can deny that it is eminently a religious institution?... Masonry, then, is, indeed, a religious institution; and on this ground mainly, if not alone, should the religious Mason defend it.(6) Like any religion, Freemasonry claims to be of divine origin, and therefore it seeks "to establish the true religion of the most high God."(7) Furthermore, while pretending to be the friend of all religions, the ultimate goal of Freemasonry is actually to destroy their basic belief systems and to replace them with its own "morals and dogma." The promise made to Entered Apprentices that Freemasonry will not interfere or contradict the individual's personal convictions is very misleading, for the true goal of the Lodge is to "strip from all religions their orthodox tenets, legends, allegories and dogmas,"(8) for "there is but one true religion, one dogma, one legitimate belief."(9) According to J. Blanchard: [W]hatever may be the religious forms imposed upon you by superstition at a period of your life when you were incapable of discerning truth from falsehood, we do not even require you to relinquish them. Time and study alone can enlighten you. But remember that you will never be a true Mason unless you repudiate forever all superstition and prejudices. (10) As admitted by Blanchard, the various religions of man, among which the Lodge classifies Christianity, are viewed by Freemasonry as "superstition." It is therefore necessary to note that a Mason must swear to "strive unceasingly for... the propagation of light [the teachings of Freemasonry] and for the overthrow of superstition."(11) Thus, while believing the lie that Freemasonry respects and upholds his religious beliefs, the individual Mason is deceived into swearing an oath to assist in the overthrow of those very same beliefs. Occultism in the Lodge
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"Freemasonry is not Christianity.... It does not meddle with sectarian creeds or doctrines, but teaches fundamental religious truth."(12) Having seen from Masonic sources themselves that Freemasonry is indeed a religion, one further question remains to be asked: If not Christianity, what religious worldview does it advocate, and from what source does it derive its doctrines? Although one Masonic monitor claimed that "the Holy Bible is given us as the rule and guide for our faith and practice," (13) other Masonic sources are more honest: ...Blue Lodge Masonry has nothing whatever to do with the Bible. It is not founded on the Bible. If it were, it would not be Masonry.(14) The Bible is an indispensable part of the furniture of a Christian Lodge, only because it is the sacred book of the Christian religion. The Hebrew Pentateuch in a Hebrew Lodge, and Koran in a Mohammedan one, belong on the Altar.... The obligation of the candidate is always to be taken on the sacred book or books of his religion, that he may deem it more solemn and binding; and therefore it was that you were asked of what religion you were. We have no other concern with your religious creed.(15) The prevailing Masonic opinion is that the Bible is only a symbol of Divine Will, Law, or Revelation, and not that its contents are Divine Law, inspired, or revealed. So far, no responsible authority has held that a Freemason must believe the Bible or any part of it. (16) Thus, the Lodge's use of the Bible, or any other "holy book," is merely to exploit the respect that entering candidates have for it and to thus bind their consciences more securely to their Masonic obligations. In this way, professing Christians can be deceived into swearing allegiance to a religious system that will ultimately lead them to reject the God of the Bible and accept the very things which Scripture clearly condemns. This is why the Bible can only act as a "symbol" in a "Christian Lodge," for if study of its contents were really encouraged by Freemasonry as claimed, no man could in good conscience remain a Mason. Freemasonry instead has its religious roots deep in the occult: All our historians, at least nearly all of them, agree that Freemasonry owes very much to certain occult societies or groups that flourished -- often in secrecy -- during the late Middle Ages, and even into the after-Reformation times. Chief among these were the Rosicrucians and the Knights Templar.(17) Another acknowledged source of the Masonic worldview is the ancient occult textbook of Jewish mysticism and witchcraft known as the Kabalah, which in Hebrew means "received tradition." Albert Pike wrote, "Masonry is a search after light. That search leads us directly back to the Kabalah. In that ancient medley of absurdity and philosophy, the Initiate will find the source of many [Masonic] doctrines." (18) From the Kabalah are derived such Masonic teachings as the eternal pre-mortal existence of the individual soul as part of the "Universal Soul," from which it has fallen and to which it may be reunited by realizing its inherent divinity. This very closely resembles the Hindu doctrine of reincarnation, or the transmigration of souls, which has been popularized in the West by the New Age Movement. Other teachings and beliefs of the Lodge include astrology, the veneration of Egyptian deities such as Isis and Osiris, as well as an unmistakable identity with the phallic worship of the ancient pagan fertility cults. These teachings, which will be extensively documented in this series, are thoroughly entrenched in occultism, and are, for that reason, to be shunned by the Christian.
Endnotes 1. Quoted by Ed Decker, The Question of Freemasonry (Saints Alive in Jesus, Post Office Box 1076, Issaquah, Washington 98027). 2. Silas H. Shepherd, Little Masonic Library (Richmond, Virginia: Macoy Publishing and Masonic Supply Company, 1977), Volume I, page 138. 3. Pike, Morals and Dogma, page 213. 4. Albert G. Mackey, A Manual of the Lodge: Monitorial Instructions In The Degrees Of Entered Apprentice, Fellow Craft, and Master Mason (New York: Clark Maynard Publishers, 1870), page 40. 5. Mackey, The Textbook of Masonic Jurisprudence: Illustrating the Written and Unwritten Laws of Masonry (New York: Macoy and Sickels, 1865), page 95. 6. Mackey, An Encyclopedia of Freemasonry (Chicago, Illinois: Masonic Historical Company, 1921), Volume I, pages 617-619. 7. J. Blanchard, Scottish Rite Masonry Illustrated (Chicago, Illinois: Charles T. Powner, 1979), Volume I, page 453. 8. Henry C. Clausen, Clausen's Commentaries on Morals and Dogma (The Supreme Council of the Thirty-third Degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry of the Southern Jurisdiction, U.S.A., 1981), page 157. 9. Pike, Morals and Dogma, page 285. 10. Blanchard, Scottish Rite, Volume II, page 264. 11. Blanchard, ibid., page 299. 12. Mackey, Encyclopedia, Volume II, page 618. 13. Masonic Monitor of the Degrees of Entered Apprentice, Fellowcraft, and Master Mason (Free and Accepted Masons of Arkansas, 1983), page 15. 14. George Wingate Chase Digest of Masonic Law (Boston, Massachusetts: Pollard & Leighton, 1874), pages 207-208. 15. Pike, Morals and Dogma, page 11.

16. Henry Wilson Coil, Coil's Encyclopedia of Freemasonry (Richmond, Virginia: Macoy Publishing and Masonic Supply Company), page 520. 17. H.L. Haywood, The Great Teachings of the Lodge (Richmond, Virginia: Macoy Publishing and Masonic Supply Company, 1971), page 94. 18. Pike, Morals and Dogma, page 741. 19. Quoted by H.L. Haywood, The Newly Made Mason (Richmond, Virginia: Macoy Publishing and Masonic Supply Company, 1973), page 211. 20. Mackey, Revised Encyclopedia of Freemasonry (Richmond, Virginia: Macoy Publishing and Masonic Supply Company, 1966), Volume II, page 847. 21. Malcolm C. Duncan, Masonic Ritual and Monitor (David McKay Company, Inc., n.d.), page 57. 22. Statement of the Ninth General Assembly of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, Rochester, New York, 2-5 June 1942. 23. L. James Rongstad, How to Respond to the Lodge (Saint Louis, Missouri: Concordia Publishing House, 1977), page 24.

Chapter Two
The Lodge and Jesus Christ
The Centrality of Christ in Scripture In the sixteenth chapter of Matthew's Gospel we find the following discourse between the Lord Jesus Christ and His disciples: When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesaria Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am? And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets. He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona; for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven (verses 13-17). Our Lord's question also has great relevance to any individual or group today claiming to proclaim divine truth. His central role in the Christian faith cannot be ignored or downplayed even to the slightest degree if such claims are to be accepted as true. A deficient doctrine of Christ immediately identifies the proponent as a false prophet who is to be avoided at all costs. In this matter, there can be no middle ground and no room for compromise. In the Bible, Jesus Christ is revealed as the second Person of the Holy Trinity -- the eternal Word who "became flesh" (John 1:14) in order to "seek and save that which was lost" (Luke 19:10). Scripture is very clear in declaring, "Neither is there salvation in any other," and that "there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved" (Acts 4:12). Jesus Himself declared, "I am the way and the truth, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father but by me" (John 14:6). We are now obliged to determine whether or not Freemasonry can stand up to the biblical test and whether or not its religious claims can be accepted. Masonic authority George Oliver claimed that Masonry "exists to assist or to support the church."(1) Albert Mackey likewise asserted that "there is nothing in [Freemasonry] repugnant to the faith of a Christian."(2) Finally, Malcolm C. Duncan wrote the following speech for the initiation of clergymen into the Lodge: You, brother, are a preacher of that religion [Christianity], of which the distinguishing characteristics are universal benevolence and unbounded charity. You cannot, therefore, but be fond of the Order and zealous for the interests of Freemasonry, which, in the strongest manner, inculcates the same charity and benevolence.... [W]hoever is warmed with the spirit of Christianity, must esteem, must love Freemasonry. (3) Due to assurances such as these, many churches have allowed practicing Masons to not only remain as members of their congregations, but even to hold positions of church leadership. Consequently, many ministers, elders, deacons, trustees, and Sunday School teachers hold degrees in the Lodge. Nevertheless, the overall consensus of the Reformed and Lutheran churches has always been a denunciation of Freemasonry as "definitely anti-Christian,"(4) and a "Christless religion" that is "totally incompatible with Christianity."(5) Indeed, these assessments are proven to be accurate when the Lodge's attitude toward Jesus Christ is revealed. Why Christ is Ignored in the Lodge
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We erect temples for virtue.... There is no symbolism of the Order more sublime than that in which the speculative Mason is supposed to be engaged.... [This is] the construction of a spiritual temple, alluding to that material temple which was erected by his operative predecessors at Jerusalem. The difference in this point of view, between operative and speculative Masonry is simply this, that while the former was engaged on Mt. Moriah in the construction of a material temple of stones, the latter is occupied from his first initiation to his last in the construction, adornment, and completion of the spiritual temple of his body.(6) From his initiation as an Entered Apprentice on up into the highest degrees of Freemasonry, the individual Mason is told that his sworn duty is to construct, through public service and adherence to the doctrines of the Lodge, a "spiritual temple" -- his own good works being the building material. This goal is allegedly based upon the following passage from the Bible: "...[Y]e also, as living stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God...." (1 Peter 2:5) The remainder of the verse is invariably omitted -- "by Jesus Christ." The true Christian knows that it is only through the atoning work of the Savior in his behalf that his works of righteousness are acceptable to God the Father, for apart from faith in Jesus Christ and in the redemption of the cross, all religious endeavors are as worthless as "filthy rags" (Isaiah 64:6). It is disturbing, therefore, to find this very necessary clause of 1 Peter 2:5 ominously absent when the verse is quoted in Masonic proceedings. This, wrote Albert Mackey, is a "slight but necessary modification." (7) The Masonic Lodge likewise deletes the Name of Jesus Christ from 2 Thessalonians 3:6 and 3:12 when these verses are quoted in the Masonic ritual. In the "tolerant" religious atmosphere of the Lodge, "the name of Jesus Christ doesn't amount to much,"(8) because it supposedly promotes "sectarianism" -- the ultimate evil in the worldview of Freemasonry. In the words of W.L. Wilmshurst: "...[I]n regard to [Jesus Christ] we adopt the excellent principle of silence, lest at any time there should be among us those trained in other than the Christian faith, and to whom on that account, the mention of the Christian master's name might be an offence." (9) This "excellent principle of silence" assumes a sinister meaning when older Masonic literature is consulted: ...[W]henever a minister prays in the name of Christ in any of our assemblies, you must always hold yourself in readiness, if called upon, to cut his throat from ear to ear, pull out his tongue by the roots, and bury his body at the bottom of some lake or pond. Of course, all this must be done in secret, as it was in the case of that notorious man [William] Morgan, for both law and civilization are opposed to such barbarous crimes, but then, you know you must live up to your obligation, and so long as you have sworn to do it, by being very strict and obedient in the matter, you'll be free from sin. (10) Modern Masons would no doubt object that such an attitude is no longer cultivated in the Lodges of today, or that such language is merely figurative. Though it is doubtful that offenders are actually in danger of such horrible retribution, many former Masons have testified that the underlying aversion to the mention of the Name of Christ within the Lodge certainly has not changed at all. Because Masons have rejected the chief Cornerstone of the Christian faith (1 Peter 2:6-8), their so-called "spiritual temples" are corrupt and unstable right down to the very foundations. The Mason's endeavors to perfect himself, regardless of how sincere, are therefore in vain, and will ultimately subject him to the judgment of God and the destruction of his soul: Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. And everyone that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the same: and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it (Matthew 7:24-27). According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon. For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 3:10-11). One of Many "Way Showers" Theologians first made a fetish of the impersonal omnipresent divinity; and then tore the christos from the hearts of all humanity in order to deify Jesus, that they might have a God-man peculiarly their own.(11)
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In the Lodge, Jesus Christ is viewed as being neither God nor Savior, but merely as one of many "exemplars," or teachers of the ultimate truth of Freemasonry. According to one Masonic source: "Our science in its universality limits our conception to no one exemplar. Take the nearest and most familiar to you, the one under whose aegis you were racially born and who therefore may serve you best...." (12) Along these same lines, Manly P. Hall stated: The true disciple of ancient Masonry has given up forever the worship of personalities.... [A]s a Mason his religion must be universal: Christ, Buddha or Mohammed, the names mean little, for he recognizes only the light and not the bearer. He worships at every shrine, bows before every altar, whether in temple, mosque or cathedral, realizing with his truer understanding the oneness of all Spiritual Truth.... No true Mason can be narrow, for his Lodge is the divine expression of all broadness. There is no place for little minds in a great work. (13) In other words, the Lord Jesus Christ is to be honored as a "way shower," along with Buddha, Mohammed, Krishna, or any other historical or mythological religious leader. No longer is Christ the "one mediator between God and men," as 1 Timothy 2:5 declares, for He is but one of many who endeavored to "enlighten" mankind to the "universal religion" of Freemasonry. In fact, according to J.D. Buck, if one will but "drop the theological barnacles from the religion of Jesus," one is left with pure Masonic teachings. (14) This attitude towards the uniqueness of Christ is very significant, for its underlying implication is that man is not dependent upon divine intervention for his salvation, but is capable of achieving "self-perfection" by his own efforts. In the words of Albert Churchward: ...[The exemplar] did such and such things for the glory of his father, but not to save the souls of men from having to do them. There was no vicarious salvation of imputed righteousness. [The exemplar] was the justifier of the righteous, not the wicked. He did not come to save sinners from taking the trouble to save themselves.(15) The comments of J.D. Buck are similar: "Every soul must work out its own salvation.... Salvation by faith and the vicarious atonement were not taught as now interpreted, by Jesus, nor are these doctrines taught in the esoteric scriptures. They are later and ignorant perversions of the original doctrines." (16) As we have seen, Freemasonry views the "sectarian creeds or doctrines" of the Christian faith ( i.e. the Deity of Christ, the Vicarious Atonement, the total depravity of man, the sovereign grace of God and His election of sinners to salvation, etc.) as "theological barnacles" that were added by the Church to distort and conceal the "fundamental religious truth" of the inherent divinity and self- perfectibility of mankind apart from regeneration. This foundational Masonic teaching will be examined in greater detail later, but suffice it to say at this point that no true Christian, much less a minister of the Church of Jesus Christ, has any business associating himself with such an anti-Christian organization nor entering an oath-bound covenant with any of its members: Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? and what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty (2 Corinthians 6:14-18).
Endnotes 1. George Oliver, quoted by H.L. Haywood, The Newly Made Mason (Richmond, Virginia: Macoy Publishing and Masonic Supply Company, 1973), page 211. 2. Mackey, Revised Encyclopedia of Freemasonry (Richmond, Virginia: Macoy Publishing and Masonic Supply Company, 1966), Volume II, page 847. 3. Malcolm C. Duncan, Masonic Ritual and Monitor (Chicago, Illinois: Ezra A. Cook Publications, Inc., 1923), page 57. 4. Statement of the Ninth General Assembly of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, Rochester, New York, 2-5 June 1942. 5. L. James Rongstad, How to Respond to the Lodge (Saint Louis, Missouri: Concordia Publishing House, 1977), page 24. 6. Mackey, quoted by Jack Harris, Freemasonry: The Invisible Cult in Our Midst (Chattanooga, Tennessee: Global Publishers, 1983), pages 15-16. 7. Mackey, Mackey's Masonic Ritualist: Monitorial Instructions in the Degrees from Entered Apprentice to Select Master (New York: Clark & Maynard Publishers, 1867), page 172. 8. Masonic Handbook, page 184. 9. W.L. Wilmshurst, quoted by W.J. McCormick, Christ, the Christian, and Freemasonry (Belfast, England: Great Joy Publications, 1984), page 46. 10. Masonic Handbook, page 74; quoted by C.F. McQuaig, The Masonic Report (self-published, 1976), page 3. Captain William Morgan, alluded to in this quote, left Freemasonry after thirty years of membership, and exposed the organization in his book, Illustrations of Masonry (Ezra A. Cook Publications, Inc., 1926). Following his mysterious disappearance, his body was later found at the bottom of a lake in upstate New York. Twenty

years later, Henry L. Valance confessed to being one of the three men selected by lot in the Masonic Lodge of Batavia, New York to carry out Morgan's murder. 11. J.D. Buck, Symbolism of Freemasonry: Mystic Masonry and the Greater Mysteries of Antiquity (Chicago, Illinois: Ezra A. Cook Publications, Inc., 1925), page 57. 12. Quoted by McCormick, Christ, the Christian, and Freemasonry, page 44. 13. Manly P. Hall, The Lost Keys of Masonry (Richmond, Virginia: Hall Publishing Company, 1924), pages 94-95. 14. Buck, Symbolism, page 119. 15. Albert Churchward, quoted by McCormick, Christ, the Christian, and Freemasonry, page 45. 16. Buck, Symbolism, page 57.

Chapter Three
The Masonic Doctrine of God
The All-Inclusive Deity of Freemasonry Freemasonry's lodges are erected to God.... Symbolically, to "erect to God" means to construct something in honor, in worship, in reverence to and for him. Hardly is the initiate within the West Gate before he is impressed that Freemasonry worships God. (1) Let no man enter any great or important undertaking without first evoking the aid of Deity.... The trust of a Mason is in God.(2) Having established that Freemasonry is indeed a religion, it should not surprise us that "worship" is conducted within the walls of the Lodge. However, since we are told that "Freemasonry is not Christianity," the question before us is, Just who is worshipped as "God" by Masons? According to Allen E. Roberts, "In his private devotions a Mason will pray to Jehovah, Mohammed, Allah, Jesus, or the deity of his choice."(3) In the lower degrees of the Blue Lodge, Freemasonry purposely attributes many ambiguous names to what it refers to as "God" to avoid offending any of its members. Among these names are "The Great Architect of the Universe," "The Governor of the World," "The Nameless One of a Thousand Names," etc. One Masonic periodical stated: [The Mason] prays to the Grand Artificer or the Great Architect of the Universe. Under that title men of all faiths may find each his own Deity. Failure to mention any deity by name is not denial, but merely the practice of a gracious courtesy, so that each man for whom the prayer is offered can hear the name of his own deity in the all inclusive title of Great Architect. (4) Freemasonry at its entrance level in the Blue Lodge degrees is polytheistic because it claims to give equal honor to the deities of all religions. However, as a man advances into the higher degrees of either the York Rite or the Scottish Rite, it becomes apparent that this is yet another deception employed by the Blue Lodge. According to Albert Pike, "Among all the ancient nations there was one faith and one idea of Deity for the enlightened, intelligent, and educated and another for the common people." (5) The truth is that Freemasonry is tolerant only of those concepts of God which either conform to its own, or can be molded to do so. Of course, the true Christian would not find himself welcome within the Lodge simply because the Bible teaches that there is but one God and no other. Indeed, the Scriptures describe Yahweh as a personal and jealous Deity who condemns the worship of any other god as idolatrous and deserving of death. It is no wonder, then, that Henry Wilson Coil denounced the "ancient tribal Hebrew Jahweh" as a "partisan, tribal God," (6) amd stated that "monotheism... violates Masonic principles."(7) However, the face of Freemasonry changes once a man advances beyond the Blue Lodge. Martin Wagner wrote: In its doctrines concerning the divine eminence Freemasonry is decidedly pantheistic, partaking of the various shades of that view of the divine. God (the Great Architect) is the great "soul" of the universe, and the universe is the garment in which he is clothed. The Masonic view of the revelation of God, in the lower degrees, is deistic, but in the higher degrees it becomes pantheistic. The writings of Garrison, Buck, Pike, and other eminent Masons show this unmistakably. It is this particular pantheistic conception of deity which has passed from India
9

through the secret doctrines of the Kabbalah into the modern speculative Freemasonry.... In Masonry, a god distinct from the life of nature has no existence. (8) Wagner was absolutely correct in pointing out that Freemasonry becomes blatantly pantheistic as it begins to place greater emphasis in the higher degrees upon the "one true God" or the "religion of Nature." According to Manly P. Hall, the true Mason knows that the essence of divinity is to be discovered in every "plant, animal, mineral, and man... and [he] recognizes the oneness of life manifesting through the diversity of form." (9) Freemasonry teaches that behind this "diversity of form" is one connected "Life Principle," or the "Spark of God" in all living things, and that the Mason must strive to hasten the day when "the crystallization of form with its false concepts is swept away, [and] one great truth [Freemasonry] remains." (10) In his Encyclopedia of Freemasonry, Albert Mackey spoke of the "Divine Spirit," or anima mundi ("soul of the world"), and described this "immaterial force" as "the source of all physical and sentient life." (11) Former Sovereign Grand Commander Henry C. Clausen further substantiated this as a Masonic belief when he wrote the following commentary on the Twenty-Eighth Degree of the Scottish Rite: "This is a Kabalistic and Hermetic Degree of the greatest antiquity, dealing with the primal matter of all things.... What we see in this life are reflections of things that exist in the invisible spiritual world.... [There exists] an underlying divinity in all things." (12) Though Freemasons are encouraged in the lower degrees to pray to "Jehovah, Mohammed, Allah, Jesus, or the deity of his choice," the purpose of the higher degrees is to teach the participant that these are all in fact false gods and inadequate caricatures of the "One True God": "Every religion and every conception of God is idolatrous, insofar as it is imperfect, as it substitutes a feeble and temporary idea in the shrine of that Undiscoverable Being [of Masonry]."(13) As the Mason progresses higher into the Royal Arch degrees of the York Rite, he is eventually given the "true name of God," and must swear a solemn oath never to reveal it to those outside of his degree of initiation, even at the peril of his own life. This secret name -- "Jah-Bul-On" -- is a composite of the Hebrew Tetragrammaton (YHWH, "Jehovah" or "Yahweh"), "Baal," and "Osiris." The identity of this "Undiscoverable Being" will become obvious as we proceed. The Ancient Worship of the Pagan Sun-God "...All things owe their origin to Only One Thing.... The father of that Only One Thing is the Sun; its mother is the Moon."(14) This quote was taken from the Tabula Smaragdina, an ancient tablet of Hermetic occultism, which was cited by occultist Manly P. Hall in his book, The Lost Keys of Masonry, as one of the many possible origins of the Masonic concept of "God." The evidence is strong that Freemasonry is indeed a modern revival of pagan sun worship. The worship of the sun originated in the days just after the Flood of Genesis with Nimrod, son of Cush, whom the Bible tells us was the emperor of the first world empire, and who supervised the construction of the infamous Tower of Babel, which became the symbol of the ancient pagan religion (Genesis 10:8-10, 11:1-4). According to Babylonian myth, Nimrod was brutally murdered and was subsequently reincarnated into the body of his son, Tammuz. This was symbolized in Chaldean lore by the setting of the sun in the west, and its rising in the east. Eventually, the sun actually came to be worshipped as the Supreme God, author of light and of life, and the religion thereof was diversified amongst the ancient civilizations under various appellations following the scattering of "the sons of Adam" (Genesis chapter 11; Deuteronomy 32:8). To the Moabites, the sun-god was known as Chemosh (1 Kings 11:33), to the Ammonites, he was Molech (1 Kings 11:7), to the Egyptians, he was Osiris or On (Genesis 41:45), and to the Assyrians, he was Baal. Though Scripture repeatedly condemned participation in such idolatrous worship (Exodus 34:14), the chosen people of Israel were especially warned by God against involvement in the veneration of Baal, whose barbaric rituals involved self mutilation (1 Kings 18:28), ritual prostitution (Judges 2:17; Jeremiah 7:9; Amos 2:7), the offering of infants as burnt sacrifices (Deuteronomy 12:1-4; Jeremiah 19:4-5), and many other heinous acts. Through the practice of human sacrifice, as well as a variety of barbaric secret ceremonies, the participants believed themselves to have become initiated into the "Mysteries," thereby securing their place among the gods after death. God's abhorrence of the religion and practices of sun-worship, which is found to be at the root of all forms of occultism, was demonstrated on numerous occasions in the Old Testament when He judged and severely punished the nation of Israel for her constant apostasy into this very thing (Deuteronomy 8:19-20). Freemasonry is directly descended, by the admission of its own scholars, from the worship of the sun-god, Baal. Albert Mackey, one of the leading authorities on Masonic doctrine, made the following observation: [Baal] was the chief divinity among the Phoenicians, the Canaanites, and the Babylonians.... The Sabaists understood Baal as the sun, and the Baalim, in the plural, were the sun, moon, and the
10

stars, "the host of heaven." Whenever the Israelites made one of their almost periodical deflections to idolatry, Baal seems to have been the favorite idol to whose worship they addicted themselves.... Hence we see that there was an evident antagonism in the orthodox Hebrew mind between Jehovah and Baal. The latter was, however, worshipped by the Jews, whenever they became heterodox, and by all the Oriental or Shemite nations as a supreme divinity, representing the sun... as the ruler of the day.... In brief, Baal seems to have been wherever his cultus was established, a development or form of the old sun-worship.(15) One would think that after making such an accurate observation of the "antagonism" between the worship of the true God, Jehovah or Yahweh, and that of the pagan sun-god, Baal, Mackey would have attempted to distance Freemasonry from the latter. However, the opposite is actually the case: Our brethren met on the highest hills, and the lowest valleys, the better to observe the approach of cowans and eavesdroppers, and to guard against surprise. So then, because our ancient brethren -- the old sun-worshippers -- met on the highest hills to worship Baal, or the sun-god, and Freemasonry being that same worship revived, it must necessarily follow, that Masonic Lodges must be held in the highest rooms of buildings, to carry out the coincidence (emphasis added).(16) It is certainly no "coincidence" that the Bible speaks of the "high places of Baal" (Numbers 22:41; Deuteronomy 12:2-3; Jeremiah 19:5), which Mackey admitted above were the inspiration of what are now Masonic Lodges. Consequently, the temples of Freemasonry are everywhere adorned with symbols of Baal and other heathen deities, as are also the ceremonial aprons and additional regalia worn by Masons during their secret rituals. It is also significant to note that Masonic temples are constructed with the altar facing due east. Again, Mackey explained: The orientation of the Lodges or their position east and west is derived from the universal custom of antiquity. The heathen temples were so constructed that their length was directed towards the east, and the entrance was by a portico at the western front, where the altar stood so that votaries approaching for the performance of religious rites, directed their faces toward the east, the quarter of sunrise. The primitive reason for this custom undoubtedly is to be found in the early prevalence of sun-worship, and hence the spot where the luminary first made his appearance in the heavens was consecrated in the minds of his worshippers as a place entitled to peculiar reverence. (17) Seated upon an elevated chair against the eastern wall of the Lodge is the Masonic officer known as the "Worshipful Master." We learn from Masonic writers that this man's position and title are clear indications that he represents the pagan sun-god to which all initiates must bow: "As the sun rises in the east, to open and govern the day, so rises the Worshipful Master in the east... to open and govern his Lodge, set the Craft to work, and give them proper instructions."(18) It is interesting that all this corresponds exactly to one of the "detestable things" that was revealed to the Prophet Ezekiel in a vision: Then he brought me to the door of the gate of the LORD's house which was toward the north; and, behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz [the son of Baal]. Then said he unto me, Hast thou seen this, O son of man? turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations than these. And he brought me into the inner court of the LORD'S house, and, behold, at the door of the temple of the LORD, between the porch and the altar, were about five and twenty men, with their backs toward the temple of the LORD, and their faces toward the east; and they worshipped the sun toward the east. Then he said unto me, Hast thou seen this, O son of man? Is it a light thing to the house of Judah that they commit the abominations which they commit here? for they have filled the land with violence, and have returned to provoke me to anger: and, lo, they put the branch to their nose. Therefore will I also deal in fury: mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity: and though they cry in mine ears with a loud voice, yet will I not hear them (Ezekiel 8:14-18). The Occult Reversal of God and Satan In the occult, Satan (or Lucifer) has traditionally been associated with the sun, the harbinger of spiritual light. Esoteric philosophy teaches that it is this "great being," not the God of the Old Testament, that was the true redeemer and benefactor of mankind in the Garden of Eden and who later possessed the body of Jesus of Nazareth to rescue the Jews from their idolatrous worship of Ilda-Baoth (Jehovah), and to instruct them in the truth of man's
11

inherent or potential divinity. For example, occult medium Helena P. Blavatsky wrote in her book, The Secret Doctrine: Once the key to Genesis is in our hands, it is the scientific and symbolic Kabbala which unveils the secret. The Great Serpent of the Garden of Eden and the "Lord God" are identical.... (19) Stand in awe of him, and sin not; speak his name with trembling.... It is Satan who is the god of our planet and the only god.... When the Church, therefore, curses Satan, it curses the cosmic reflection of God.... In this case it is but natural... to view Satan, the Serpent of Genesis as the real creator and benefactor, the Father of Spiritual mankind. For it is he who was the "Harbinger of Light," bright radiant Lucifer, who opened the eyes of the automaton [Adam] created by Jehovah, as alleged; and he who was the first to whisper, "In the day ye eat thereof, ye shall be as Elohim, knowing good and evil" -- can only be regarded in the light of a Saviour. An "adversary" to Jehovah... he still remains in Esoteric Truth the ever loving "Messenger"... who conferred on us spiritual instead of physical immortality.... Satan, or Lucifer, represents the active... "Centrifugal Energy of the Universe" in a cosmic sense.... Fitly is he... and his adherents... consigned to the "sea of fire," because it is the Sun... the fount of life in our system, where they are purified... and churned up to re-arrange them for another life; that Sun which, as the origin of the active principle of our Earth, is at once the Home and the Source of the Mundane Satan....(20) In Morals and Dogma, Albert Pike, a professed Luciferian, wrote: To prevent the light from escaping at once, the Demons forbade Adam to eat the fruit of "knowledge of good and evil," by which he would have known the Empire of Light and that of Darkness. He obeyed; an Angel of Light induced him to transgress, and gave him the means of victory; but the Demons created Eve, who seduced him into an act of Sensualism, that enfeebled him, and bound him anew in the bonds of matter.... To deliver the soul, captive in darkness, the Principle of Light, or Genius of the Sun, charged to redeem the Intellectual World... came to manifest Himself among men.... It but put on the appearance of a human body, and took the name of Christ in the Messiah, only to accommodate itself to the language of the Jews. The Light did its work, turning the Jews from the adoration of the Evil Principle, and the Pagans from the worship of Demons. But the Chief of the Empire of Darkness caused Him to be crucified by the Jews (emphasis in original). (21) According to Pike, it was the demons, not God, that barred Adam from the Tree of Knowledge, thereby perpetuating his spiritual ignorance (compare to Genesis 2:15-17). However, an unnamed "Angel of Light" persuaded him to rebel against the "demonic" command (compare to Genesis 3:1-4), and, as a result, Adam was "enlightened" and initiated into the "true religion," which, of course, is supposedly that of Freemasonry. This "Angel of Light" later assumed the appearance of a man (compare to John 1:1, 14) in order to act as redeemer of mankind, turning the world from its worship of the Edenic "demons." We find the enigmatic "Angel of Light" identified by the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 11:14 as none other than Satan himself. Is this indeed the god to whom Masons ultimately owe their allegiance? Elsewhere in the same volume, Pike answered in the affirmative: "Lucifer, the light-bearer! Strange and mysterious name to give to the spirit of darkness! Lucifer, Son of the Morning! Is it he who bears the Light, and with its splendors intolerable, blinds feeble, sensual or selfish souls? Doubt it not!" (emphasis in original). (22) To the non-Mason, the above statement would appear to be somewhat cryptic; indeed, such was the intention of the author. However, when we remember that initiates into the religion of Freemasonry regard it as "the Light," it becomes apparent that Lucifer, the "light-bearer," is therefore the custodian, or guardian, of Freemasonry. Consequently, the Mason is assured by the writings of Manly Hall that "the seething, surging energies of Lucifer are in his hands," and that, before he will be allowed to advance in the Lodge, "he must prove his ability to properly apply [this] energy."(23) Likewise, Henry C. Clauson told his fellow Masons, "[W]e have within us an infinite, unlimited source of power," and that when this "power" is channeled by Masons worldwide, "we would have achieved a true New Age" wherein there will be "no more wars, no more crime; [and] Brotherly love and life would be lived in all God's glory."(24) Such lofty ideals and pious platitudes notwithstanding, the power sought by the Mason is clearly satanic, not divine, and the "New Age" he seeks to advance is the kingdom of the Devil
12

(Revelation, chapter 13).

Endnotes 1. Carl H. Claudy, Foreign Countries: A Gateway to the Interpretation and Development of Certain Symbols of Freemasonry (Richmond, Virginia: Macoy Publishing and Masonic Supply Company, 1971), page 23. 2. George Simmons and Robert Macoy, Standard Masonic Monitor of the Degrees of Entered Apprentice, Fellowcraft, and Master Mason (Richmond, Virginia: Macoy Publishing and Masonic Supply Company, 1984), page 17. 3. Allen E. Roberts, The Craft and its Symbols (Richmond, Virginia: Macoy Publishing and Masonic Supply Company, 1974), page 6. 4. Short Talk Bulletin (The Masonic Service Association of the United States), Volume XXXVI, Number 8, page 7. 5. Pike, Morals and Dogma, page 206. 6. Coil, Encyclopedia, page 516. 7. Coil, ibid., page 517. 8. Wagner, Interpretation, pags 286, 309-310. 9. Hall, Lost Keys, page 93. 10. Hall, ibid., pages 94, 95. 11. Mackey, Encyclopedia, Volume I, pages 60, 179, 240. 12. Clausen, Commentaries, pages 203-204, 210-212. 13. Pike, Morals and Dogma, page 516. 14. Tabula Smaragdina, quoted by Hall, Lost Keys, page 33. 15. Mackey, Encyclopedia, Volume I, page 88. 16. Mackey, Manual, page 43; see also Mackey, Encyclopedia, Volume I, page 325. 17. Mackey, Manual, page 55; see also Mackey, Encyclopedia, Volume I, pages 226-227, 452. 18. Duncan, Ritual, page 15. 19. Helena P. Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine (Pasadena, California: Theosophical University Press, 1963), Volume I, page 414. 20. Blavatsky, ibid., Volume II, pages 234, 235, 243, 245. 21. Pike, Morals and Dogma, page 567. 22. Pike, ibid., page 321. 23. Hall, Lost Keys, page 76. 24. Clauson, Commentaries, pages 157-158.

Chapter Four
The Symbolism of Freemasonry
The Deceptive Nature of Blue Lodge Symbolism In order to fully comprehend Freemasonry it is important to become familiar with its many symbols, as well as the esoteric meanings behind them. Indeed, this is precisely where the mystery religion of the Masonic Order finds full explanation. In the words of Masonic authority, Allen E. Roberts, "...Symbolism is the lifeblood of the Craft.... It is the principal vehicle by which [we are taught] Masonic philosophy and moral lessons." (1) Likewise, Albert Mackey stated, "Freemasonry is... a system of doctrines which [are] taught by allegories and symbols." (2) Again, "In Freemasonry, all the instructions in its mysteries are communicated in the form of symbols." (3) It should be noted, however, that the true interpretation of the various symbols of Freemasonry are not to be found in the lowest three degrees of the Blue Lodge -- Entered Apprentice, Fellowcraft, and Master Mason. In fact, there is deliberate deception in the Lodge with regards to Masonic symbolism as it appears in these lower degrees, which is not discovered by the initiate until he advances into the higher degrees of either the York Rite or Scottish Rite. Albert Pike, former Grand Commander and respected authority on the symbolism of Freemasonry, made the following admission: The Blue Degrees are but the outer court or portico of the Temple. Part of the symbols are displayed there to the Initiate, but he is intentionally misled by false interpretations. It is not intended that he shall understand them; but it is intended that he shall imagine he understands them. Their true explication is reserved for the Adepts, the Princes of Masonry.... It is well enough for the mass of so-called Masons, to imagine that all is contained in the Blue Degrees; and whoso attempts to undeceive them will labor in vain, and without any true reward violate his obligations as an Adept.... The symbols of the wise are the idols of the vulgar, or else as meaningless as the hieroglyphics of Egypt to the nomadic Arabs. There must always be a commonplace interpretation for the mass of Initiates, of the symbols that are eloquent to the Adepts. (4) Likewise, Henry C. Clausen admitted, "It must be apparent that the Blue Lodge... degrees cannot explain the whole of Masonry. They are the foundation.... An initiate may imagine he understands the ethics, symbols and
13

enigmas, whereas the true explanation of these is reserved for the more adept." (5) In the Encyclopedia of Freemasonry, Albert Mackey rightly traced such esotericism back to the mystery cults of the past, particularly those of Egypt: The priesthood of Egypt constituted a sacred caste.... Their doctrines were of two kinds -- exoteric or public, which were communicated to the multitude, and esoteric or secret, which were revealed only to a select few.... That secret portion of Masonry which is known only to the initiates is distinguished from exoteric Masonry... which is accessible to all who choose to read the manuals and published works of the Order.... [Masons are] divided into two classes, according to the degree of initiation to which they had attained, as being either fully admitted into the society, and invested with all the knowledge that the Master could communicate, or as merely postulants, enjoying only the public instructions of the school, and awaiting the gradual reception of further knowledge. This double mode of instruction was borrowed... from the Egyptian priests, whose theology was of two kinds -- the one exoteric, and addressed to the people in general; the other esoteric, and confined to a select number of the priests.
(6)

The Sexual Meanings of Masonic Symbols Along with the Bible, or whatever "holy book" is employed in each particular Lodge, are two other "Great Lights" -- the Square and the Compass. Together, these three comprise the "Furniture" of the Lodge. (7) Blue Lodge Masons are taught that the significance of the Square is to remind them of honesty in their dealings with other men as well as the necessity of defending the honor of the teachings and ceremonies of the Lodge. (8) The Compass, on the other hand, designates the "circumscription of the heart," and serves to teach Masons to exercise temperance and the control of their desires. (9) These are, however, deliberate misrepresentations of these two symbols which is designed to conceal their true meaning from the lower degrees. Former 33rd Degree Mason James D. Shaw gave the proper explanation as it is known to Royal Arch initiates: The real meaning of these "great lights"... is sexual. The Square represents the female (passive) generative principle, the earth, and the baser, sensual nature; and the Compass represents the male (active) generative principle, the sun/heavens, and the higher, spiritual nature. The Compass, arranged above the Square, symbolizes the (male) Sun, impregnating the passive (female) Earth with its life-producing rays. The true meanings, then are two fold: the earthly (human) representations are of the man and his phallus, and the woman with her receptive eteis (vagina). The cosmic meaning is that of the active Sun (deity, the Sun-god) from above, imparting life into the passive Earth (deity, the earth/fertility goddess) below and producing new life. (10) Thus, from these two symbols alone, we see Freemasonry's undeniable relationship to the fertility cults of ancient paganism. The symbols of the sun and the moon, which are also associated with the compass and the square, have likewise played a vital role in the architecture of Masonic temples. These are representations of the pagan god Baal, and his female consort, Astaroth (Asherah or Easter), who is referred to in the Old Testament as the "queen of heaven" (Jeremiah 44:17-19), and was worshipped by the ancients as the patron goddess of fertility and motherhood.(11) According to the Babylonian tradition of the Kabalah, the moon is symbolic of the feminine, or the shekinah aspect of deity. Initiates into the Eleusyian Mysteries, as well as those of Ceres, were referred to as regenerated "children of the moon," and believed themselves to be the spiritual offspring of the metaphysical union of the solar and lunar principles of nature. It was for this reason that the moon was often depicted with an open door in its side, which was symbolic of a productive womb. (12) Counterparts of these two deities can also be found in countless other occult-based world religions and traditions as well, all represented by the sun and the moon (and/or the earth). (13) These include Osiris and Isis in Egyptian mythology; Mahadeva, or Shiva, and Bhavani, or Kali in India; Dionysis and Rhea in Greek mythology; and Lucifer and Lilith in the more modern Theosophical and New Age philosophies advanced by the writings of Alice Bailey, Helena Blavatsky, Aleister Crowley, and other practitioners of white and black magic. Several occult traditions, such as the "Jewel in the Lotus" of Tantric Yoga, also venerate sexuality, and view coitus as the highest expression of spiritual union with the combined male and female aspects of the Absolute. This is precisely the reason that sexual immorality has been so consistently rampant in the various branches of paganism, for it is the direct result of mankind's universal rejection of the knowledge of the True and Living God and his consequential degeneration into worship of the creation (Numbers 25:1-3; Romans 1:18-27).
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The Occult Meaning of the Five-Pointed Star Another Masonic symbol which carries implicit occult connotations, is the five-pointed star, otherwise known as the pentacle. In its upright position, with one point up and two points down, this symbol represents the "morning star," or Lucifer, as well as goodness and light, and serves to beckon man to discover his inherent or potential divinity.(14) However, in its inverted position, with two points up and one point down, it represents evil and darkness, and ultimately symbolizes the sensual temptations of man's baser nature which hinders the spiritual development and evolution of the esoteric initiate. (15) In this latter form it is most often seen in connection with Satanism and black magic.(16) There is also a deeper, sexual meaning of the symbol of the pentacle in occult philosophy. According to researcher Martin Wagner, the five-pointed star is a symbol of creation, or the male/female generative principle of nature.(17) The points of the upright star represent the figure of a man with outstretched arms and legs, (18) and the pentagon thus formed in the center of the star by the intersection of the five lines, is therefore symbolic of the male reproductive organ.(19) Consistent with the dualism so prevalent in the occult, the five-pointed star in its inverted position represents the female aspect of nature, with the pentagon formed in the center symbolizing the reproductive organs of the woman. This particular esoteric meaning explains why the inverted pentacle, enclosed in a circle (the pentagram or the "Baphomet") is often used in the "Black Mass" of Satanism and black magic. Here, the "altar," significantly situated in the west of the ritual site beneath the inverted star, normally consists of the prostrate body of a nude woman, who supposedly fulfills the role of the "passive receptor," or the "earth mother." (20) The pentacle in its inverted form is also used as the official motif of the Order of the Eastern Star, which is an organization designed primarily for the female relatives of Masons in good standing. These women are falsely led to believe that the inverted pentacle is symbolic of the Star of Bethlehem and that the five points correspond to the five virtues of womanhood: integrity, industry, fidelity, faith, and patience.(21) In reality, however, it is an extremely vulgar symbol of the moon goddess of fertility, as she lies prostrate, awaiting impregnation by her celestial mate, the sun-god. It is perhaps also important to mention here that the rituals of the Order of the Eastern Star are presided over by a "Worthy Patron" and a "Worthy Matron," who sit side by side against the eastern wall of the lodge, (22) thus representing the heathen deities of the sun and the moon. Of equal significance in Masonic symbolism is the hexagram, or the six-pointed star, which J.D. Buck admitted in his book Mystic Masonry is merely another form of the compass and square. (23) Again, sexual intercourse is here depicted by the upright triangle, representative of the male phallus, or the "active principle," placed over the inverted triangle, representative of the female vagina, or the "passive principle." (24) Often misidentified as the "Star of David," this occult symbol is instead known by Masonic and other esoteric authorities as the "Seal of Solomon."(25) However, that this "Solomon" is not to be confused with the Israelite king spoken of in the Bible, is made quite clear in Masonic literature: All true Masons have come into the realization that there is but one Lodge and that is the Universe. There is but one Brotherhood and this is composed of everything that moves or exists in any of the planes of Nature. He realizes that the Temple of Solomon is really the Temple of the Solar Man, Sol Om On, the King of the Universe manifesting through his three primordial builders. (26) This name is a composite, Sol-Om-On, the names of the sun in Latin, Indian [Hindu], and Egyptian, and is designed to show the unity of several god-ideas in the ancient religions, as well as those of Freemasonry. It is a glyph which indicates the unity of the god-ideas of these various cults, a coordination of their deities and expresses the Masonic idea of the "unity of God" as it was conceived of in these religions.(27) The Male/Female Dualism of the Masonic Deity In 1868, the Supreme Council of the Ancient and Accepted Rite of Lusanne revealed the true identity of the Masonic god: "Freemasonry proclaims as it has ever proclaimed from its origin, the existence of a Creative Principle, under the name of Great Architect of the Universe." (28) Albert Pike further explained: Our adversaries numerous and formidable as they are, will say and will have a right to say that our Creative Principle is identical with the Generative Principle of the Indian and Egyptian, and may be symbolized as it was symbolized anciently by the linga [penis]. To accept this in lieu of a personal God is to abandon Christianity and the worship of Jehovah, and to return to wallow in the styles of Paganism.(29)
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Albert Pike was certainly not alone in tracing the theology of Freemasonry back to the phallic worship of the pagan cults of the past. In his book Symbolism of Freemasonry, Albert Mackey also observed: Phallus representation of the virile member [the male sex organ]... was venerated as a religious symbol very universally by the ancients. It was one of the modifications of sun-worship, and was a symbol of the fecundating [impregnating] power of that luminary. (30) Elsewhere, Mackey wrote: The Phallus was in imitation of the male generative organ. It was represented usually by a column which was surmounted by a circle at its base, intended for the eteis or female generative organ. This union of the phallus and the eteis... was intended by the ancients as a type of the prolific powers of nature which they worshipped under the united form of the active or male principle and the passive or female principle.(31) An example of the obelisk to which Mackey referred as the symbol of this pagan worship of the male sex organ may be seen in the Washington Monument in the District of Columbia. The cornerstone of this massive stone structure was laid by members of the Grand Lodge of the Washington, D.C. on the fourth of July, 1848. Grand Master Benjamin B. French delivered an address at the ceremony wearing the same Masonic apron worn by George Washington himself during the laying of the cornerstone of the Capital. In attendance at the dedication of the monument were several notable public figures, including Dolley Madison, the wife of second U.S. President and framer of the Constitution, James Madison. Given the predominant Masonic influence on early American history, it is important to note that this worldfamous obelisk rises into the air from the very center (pentagon) of the inverted pentacle which is formed by the layout of the Capital City. Though many well-meaning, but ignorant Christians have attempted to prove that the "Founding Fathers" of the American Republic were worshippers of the True God, their affiliation with the Lodge and their undisguised veneration of its symbols betrays their faith to have been nothing more than a thinly disguised Baalism.(32) In conclusion, Martin Wagner observed: This creative or generative principle is that mysterious force or energy which renews the earth in springtime, and quickens all animated nature; that energy, force, or power which perpetually dying, renews itself in new, similar yet different forms.... This dynamic, procreative, productive power or energy in nature and especially in man maintaining a perpetual self-identity, Freemasonry conceives of as the divine nature, as the deity immanent in nature, and it is this life force or energy that it deifies, venerates and worships under the name of Great Architect of the Universe. This is the God of Freemasonry.... In the Christian view, the creative principle of the reproductive power in nature through sex agencies, is a product of God's power implanted there, and not God Himself, nor a part of God. It is the result, or rather it obtains throughout all time by virtue of the word of God, "Be fruitful and multiply" (Gen. 1:22), and will remain operative until He shall recall it. The perpetual selfidentification in the successive generations of offspring is due to and involved in the divine fiat, "after his kind," beyond which the generative forces in animate nature cannot go. That word is the expression of His will and by the perpetual life generating entities. To deify this power, and adore and worship it, instead of Him who implanted it, is to worship the creature instead of the creator. (33)
Endnotes 1. Allen E. Roberts, The Craft and Its Symbols: Opening of the Door to Masonic Symbolism (Richmond, Virginia: Macoy Publishing and Masonic Supply Company, 1974), page ix. 2. Mackey, The Symbolism of Freemasonry : Its Science, Philosophy, Legends, Myths, and Symbolism (Chicago, Illinois: Charles T. Powner Company, 1975), page 10. 3. Mackey, Encyclopedia, Volume II, page 752. 4. Pike, Morals and Dogmas, page 819. 5. Clausen, Commentaries, page 148. 6. Mackey, Encyclopedia, Volume I, pages 232, 249. 7. Reference, Mackey, ibid., page 287. 8. Reference: Duncan, Ritual, page 36; see also Mackey, Encyclopedia, Volume I, page 174. 9. Reference: Duncan, Ritual, page 36; see also Mackey, Encyclopedia, Volume I, page 174. 10. James Shaw and Tom McKenney, Deadly Deception (Lafayette, Louisiana: Huntington House, 1988), pages 143-144; see also Pike, Morals and Dogma, pages 850-851. 11. Reference: Mackey, Encylopedia, Volume I, page 88; ibid., Volume II, pages 491, 560. 12. Reference: Arthur E. Waite, A New Encyclopedia of Freemasonry (New York: Weather Vane, 1970), page 111. 13. Reference: Pike, Morals and Dogma, page 377.

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14. Reference: Hall, Lost Keys, page 122; see also Mackey, Encyclopedia, Volume II, page 553. 15. Reference: Pike, Morals and Dogma, page 305. 16. Reference: Richard Cavendish, The Black Arts (New York: Perigee Books, 1967), page 242; see also Anton S. LaVey, The Satanic Bible (New York: Avon Books, 1967), page 136. 17. Reference: Wagner, Interpretation, page 114. 18. Reference: Cavendish, Black Arts, page 242; see also Blavatsky, Secret Doctrine, Volume I, page 219. 19. Reference: Wagner, Interpretation, page 109; see also Buck, Symbolism, page 40. 20. Reference: LaVey, Satanic Bible, page 135. 21. Reference: Robert Macoy, Adoptive Rite Ritual (Richmond, Virginia: Macoy Publishing and Masonic Supply Company, 1928), page 17; see also Mackey, Encyclopedia, Volume II, page 910. 22. Reference: Macoy, Adoptive Rite Ritual, page 27. 23. Reference: Buck, Symbolism, page 40; see also Mackey, Encyclopedia, Volume I, page 351. 24. Reference: Mackey, ibid., Volume II, page 801. 25. Reference: Cavendish, Black Arts, pages 242-243. 26. Hall, Lost Keys, page 93. 27. Wagner, Interpretation, page 97. 28. Supreme Council of the Ancient and Accepted Rite of Lusanne, quoted by Wagner, ibid., page 84. 29. Pike, quoted by Blavatsky, Isis Unveiled (Pasadena, California: Theosophical University Press, 1960), Volume II, page 377. 30. Mackey, Symbolism, page 352. 31. Mackey, Manual, page 56; see also Mackey, Encyclopedia, Volume II, page 560. 32. Let the Reader remember Pike's admission that Masons have abandoned "Christianity and the worship of Jehovah," and have returned "to wallow in the styes of Paganism." It is significant that, while nearly all the original thirteen American States explicitly acknowledged either the Lordship of Christ, or at least the truth of the Old and New Testaments and the Christian faith, there is absolutely no such acknowledgment in the Constitution for the United States of any sovereignty higher than "We the People." Furthermore, the binding of public officers by an oath of obedience to Jesus Christ is forbidden in Article VI, Section 3. The Masonic doctrine of pluralism is also evident throughout the document, as its framers sought to create a republic in which the various political factions would be in constant competition with one another and would thereby neutralize themselves and thereby reveal their underlying political unity. The absolute failure of Masonry's substitution of religious and political pluralism for the biblical requirement of personal faith in and national covenanting with Christ was finally made manifest in terrible bloodshed of the so-called "Civil War" of 1861-1865 when the last vestiges of biblical federalism were stripped away from the American political system and the several States of the former Union were absorbed into one centralized and overtly pagan State (see Gary North, Political Polytheism [Tyler, Texas: Institute for Christian Economics, 1989]; Greg Loren Durand, America's Caesar: Abraham Lincoln and the Birth of a Modern Empire). 33. Wagner, Interpretation, pages 85, 89-90.

Chapter Five
The Masonic Doctrine of Man
The Fatherhood of God and Brotherhood of Man Masonry is a Divinely appointed institution, designed to draw men nearer to God, to give them a clearer conception of their proper relationship to God as their Heavenly Father, to men as their brethren and the ultimate destiny of the human soul.(1) The three main pillars that support the ideological structure of the Lodge are said to be the "Fatherhood of God, the brotherhood of man, and the immortality of the soul."(2) Since the Masonic concept of deity is nothing more than a thinly disguised worship of human sexuality, it then follows that, since all men are sexual creatures, they all must be considered as "offspring" of the same "universal Father" and are thus "spiritual brothers." This concept lies at the very foundation of the Lodge's goal to unite men of all religions under its own roof, in preparation for the "New World Order." In the words of J. Blanchard: ...[T]he object of Scotch Masonry is to overthrow all kinds of superstition [ i.e. Christianity], and that by admitting in her bosom on the terms of strictest equality, the members of all religions, of all creeds and of all countries, without any distinction whatever, she has, and indeed can have, but one single object and that is to restore to the Grand Architect of the Universe [the generative principle]; to the common father of the human race those who are lost in the maze of impostures, invented for the sole purpose of enslaving them.(3) In the Masonic mind, it is both an "imposture" and "enslaving" to deny that all men are of common spiritual stock and that God "dwelleth in all [and] with all...."(4) In fact, the Masonic "tools" -- the square, level, and the plumb -are said to represent this "natural equality of the human family." (5) We will now examine the first of these two doctrines -- the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man -- as they relate to one another. We will deal with the third -- the immortality of the soul -- in the next chapter. In the opening ceremony of the Scottish Rite, initiates are given the following charge: "Believe that there is a God; that he is our father; that he has a paternal interest in our welfare and improvement; ...that he has destined us
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to a future life of endless progress toward perfection and a knowledge of himself." (6) On the surface, it would seem that Masonry directs its adherents to worship a transcendent "higher power." This, however, is not true. In fact, it can be proven that the religious beliefs of the Mason are actually an internal quest for enlightenment and fulfillment of his own self-will. According to Mason W.L. Wilmhurst, "Masonry... is a system of religious philosophy in that it provides us with a doctrine of the universe and of our place in it. It indicates whence we are come and whither we may return."(7) Wilmshurst went on to explain that "the study of man leads to a knowledge of God, by revealing to man the ultimate destiny at the base of human nature." (8) To this, Henry Clausen added, "We must return to a faith in man himself."(9) As is the case with any pagan religion, man and his own potential is really the focal point and true recipient of the worship offered to "God" in the Lodge. The Masonic "doctrine of the universe" therefore places man squarely in the center and elevates him as an object of worship whereby he becomes "the measure of all things." However, as we have seen, "spiritual enlightenment" in the Lodge is really nothing more than a revival of the base carnality of ancient paganism. The Biblical Doctrine of the Fatherhood of God Although the Bible does indeed teach the "Fatherhood of God" and the "brotherhood of man," the manner in which it does so bears little resemblance to the doctrines promulgated by the Masonic Lodge. According to the Scriptures, only those whom God has chosen "before the foundation of the world" (Ephesians 1:4), for whom Christ died to redeem, and whom the Holy Spirit regenerates and indwells, may rightly be called the children of God. The intent of the following verses is unmistakable: But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: which are born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God (John 1:12). For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father (Romans 8:14-16). The Apostle Paul was also clear in stating that we "are all children of God by faith in Christ Jesus" (Galatians 3:26). Only those who have been adopted by God into His eternal family (the Body of Christ or the Christian Church) may refer to one another as "brother" under the embracing Fatherhood of God (Hebrews 2:11). There is, however, a sense in which all men are physically and spiritually related, but the Scriptures make it clear that they are united in and to Adam, the progenitor of the human race, and are thus partakers of his fallen and corrupt nature (Romans 5:12). In fact, all men, unless they are born again by God's Spirit, are referred to by Scripture as "sons of Adam" (Deuteronomy 32:8), "children of [their] father the devil" (John 8:44), "sons of the wicked one" (Matthew 13:38), and "sons of disobedience" (Ephesians 2:2). Consequently, the only "natural equality" of men that the Bible recognizes is that all are "by nature children of wrath" (Ephesians 2:3), and thus are "alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart" (Ephesians 4:18). The Masonic Lodge as a Modern Tower of Babel Freemasonry's goal of "uniting all mankind in one vast brotherhood" (10) is certainly nothing new. Secret societies and pagan religions throughout history have had similar goals, as does the so-called New Age Movement of today. However, all these efforts to build a New World Order based on human efforts and secular principles of law can be traced back to the Tower of Babel: And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech. And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there. And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar. And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded. And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech. So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city. Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth (Genesis 11:1-9).
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Constructed approximately one hundred and forty years after the Flood under the leadership of Nimrod (Genesis 10:8-10), the Tower of Babel was the focal point of the universal brotherhood and religion of the ancient worshippers of the sun, the pre-eminent god among the other celestial gods (the stars and planets). There is strong evidence to indicate that this tower was built specifically for astrological purposes, because it provided the necessary elevation above the dusty atmosphere of the Babylonian desert to permit a clear view of the stars and thus enable the builders to chart their progress across the heavens. God responded to the construction of the Tower of Babel, not only by destroying it, but also by scattering its builders over the face of the earth and confusing their languages. The consolidation of all mankind into a single political community under the religious umbrella of pagan sun-worship was only one of the reasons this was done. The underlying theme of the Tower of Babel story is that fallen man does not wish to submit himself to the sovereignty of God, and will use every means available to him to rebel against his Creator. The Tower of Babel, constructed of stone and mortar, was merely an outward manifestation of the monument which sinful man, if left to himself, will inevitably attempt to erect to himself in his own heart. God cannot but respond in judgment against such a usurpation of His throne (Isaiah 42:8). With all this in mind, it is not surprising to discover that Masonic authorities look rather favorably upon the Tower of Babel incident. In his book, A New Encyclopedia of Freemasonry, Arthur E. Waite described the Tower as an early "Masonic enterprise," and even referred to Nimrod as "the Grand Master of all Masons." (11) Albert Mackey likewise named Nimrod as one of the founders of Masonry, and went on to describe the Tower of Babel as "the Gate of God."(12) According to Mackey, the universal worship of the true God was lost when the Tower was destroyed by his evil counterpart, and, thus, without the light of the principles of Masonry, the nations were dispersed into "darkness and ignorance."(13) Freemasonry seeks to unite all men spiritually, but it utterly rejects the Scripture's declaration that such can only be accomplished through common faith in the Lord Jesus Christ (Ephesians 2). God did not allow His enemies to fulfill the desire of their sinful hearts in the eleventh chapter of Genesis, and, since His righteous nature never changes, Masons have no grounds to invoke God's blessings on their own similar endeavors. It is without question that the Masonic Lodge, claimed by its own scholars to be a resurrection of the Tower of Babel, is a satanic brotherhood and must be rejected and avoided by Christians. (14)
Endnotes 1. Iowa Quarterly Bulletin, April 1917, page 54. 2. Tract: "Freemasonry, A Way of Life" (Baltimore, Maryland: The Grand Lodge of the State of Maryland, n.d.). 3. Blanchard, Scottish Rite Masonry, Volume II, pages 263-264. 4. Blanchard, ibid., page 282. 5. Raymond Lee Allen, Tennessee Craftsmen or Masonic Textbook (Nashville, Tennessee: Tennessee Board of Custodian Members, 1963), page 26. 6. Liturgy of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry for the Southern Jurisdiction of the United States of America, Part Two (The Supreme Council, 33rd Degree, Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, Southern Jurisdiction, 1982), page 137. 7. Wilmhurst, Meaning of Masonry, page 74. 8. Wilmhurst, ibid., page 121. 9. Clausen, Commentaries, page xviii. 10. Blanchard, Scottish Rite Masonry, Volume II, page 277. 11. Waite, Encyclopedia, page 181. 12. Mackey, Encyclopedia, Volume II, page 513. 13. Mackey, ibid., Volume I, pages 88-89. 14. There is an interesting side-note to this subject of the Tower of Babel. According to Genesis 10:11, after the destruction of the Tower, Nimrod went on from the land of Shinar to build the city of Ninevah in Assyria. The reader will remember that the Assyrians were also worshippers of the pagan sun-god, whom they named Baal. It is apparent that Nimrod had not learned his lesson and did not repent of his rebellion against God, for he reattempted at Ninevah what he had done in Shinar -- the establishment of a pagan civilization. It was to the city of Ninevah that God later sent His prophet Jonah saying, "Arise, go to Ninevah, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me" (Jonah 1:2). Though God threatened this pagan "brotherhood" with the same fate as Babel (Jonah 3:4), their response to the Prophet's message was quite different than that of their founder: For word came unto the king of Ninevah, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Ninevah by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing: let them not feed, nor drink water: but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands. Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not? (Jonah 3:6 9) This is the repentance that God requires of all men, Mason and non-Mason alike. What the king of Ninevah did when he "laid his robe from him," all men must also do by renouncing the self-will that rules their hearts, and by submitting themselves to the rulership of the True and Living God and His Son, Jesus Christ. The Scripture hold forth God's mercy to those who sincerely do so: "And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not" (Jonah 3:10).

Chapter Six
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The Masonic Doctrine of Salvation

Salvation Through Masonic Morality Masonry confronts the fact of death with the greater fact of faith in the immortality of the soul. Masons believe sincerely that when life on earth comes to a close, the soul is translated from the imperfections of this mortal sphere, to that all perfect, glorious and celestial lodge above, where God, the Grand Architect of the Universe, presides. (1) To achieve [salvation] the Mason must first attain a solid conviction, founded upon reason, that he hath within him a spiritual nature, a soul that is not to die when the body is dissolved, but is to continue to exist and to advance toward perfection through all the ages of eternity.... (2) We now come to the third doctrine of the Lodge -- the immortality of the soul. A common argument is that Freemasonry cannot be considered a religion because it offers no plan of salvation to its adherents, but merely teaches men how to be happy in this life. This, again, is completely false. The Masonic Lodge does indeed present a very clear salvific formula, which is, as will be shown, in direct conflict with that of the Bible. According to Albert Pike, "Step by step men must advance toward Perfection; and each Masonic Degree is meant to be one of these steps."(3) As we have seen, the individual soul is viewed by the Mason as "a spark of universal deity" that has been separated from its source by the darkness of ignorance. Thus, Masonry is described by its own authorities as "a system of morality," by which, if strictly obeyed by the initiate, will ensure his advancement into the "celestial Lodge above." Salvation, then, according to Freemasonry, is available only to those who have lived upright and moral lives. However, the question needs to be asked, Whose morality? Although Masonry claims to be a system of morality, it fails to adequately define the term, and instead leaves it up to the individual Mason to decide for himself what constitutes an acceptable moral code: What is moral to one man may be immoral to another. Each man must decide for himself what the word encompasses, taking into account the moral standards of the society in which he lives.... He must set his own standards, his own principles. It can be dangerous to apply his standards in judging another person.(4) Human experience, both individual and racial, is the one final authority in morals.... Wrong is whatever helps human life, and tends to sustain or increase human happiness. There is but one way to learn what it is that hurts or helps and that is by experience.... Acts are not right or wrong intrinsically, but according as their effects are hurtful or helpful. The purpose of right living is not in order to render obedience to some code, or to some supposed authority, but to enable a man to live richly, healthfully, happily.(5) Thus, a Mason is "saved" by adhering to the standards that he sets for himself according to what his own experience tells him is "hurtful" or "helpful." In such a system, who can be lost? Who can ever criticize the behavior of another as being evil if nothing is "right or wrong intrinsically"? If morality is merely defined as that which is "helpful" to either oneself or others, then atrocities such as the Jewish Holocaust can be justified because they were supposedly committed with the "good" of the German people in mind. Adolf Hitler believed that the Jews were preventing the Aryan race from advancing into godhood, and he therefore concocted his "Final Solution" to rid Europe of the hated "race defilers." What was "hurtful" to an estimated six million Jews was supposedly "helpful" to a far greater number of Germans, and indeed, the entire Aryan race. Can the Mason be consistent with his own "system of morality" by condemning the actions of Hitler and the Nazis? Indeed, he cannot be. This kind of approach to morality is the underlying cause of the rampant spread of homosexuality and abortion in America. No true Mason can condemn either of these things as long as homosexuals are "happy" engaging in sodomy, and abortions are performed to prevent the "inconvenience" that an unwanted child would bring to its mother. God's Law, The Christian Basis for Morality In Matthew 5:17-18, the Lord Jesus said, "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am come not to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Til heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled." Those who have been redeemed by Christ and have therefore lived
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in obedience to the Law through the empowerment of the indwelling Holy Spirit, will receive the gift of eternal life in the presence of God. However, every man who has not lived in subjection to the Law, but has done "that which is right in his own eyes" (Judges 17:6), will be condemned by God's holy standard and will suffer eternal separation from His Kingdom. Masons, who claim Jesus Christ as one of their "exemplars" (without mentioning His Name, of course), nevertheless betray themselves to be His enemies when they completely reject the Law which He executed (the Old Testament) because of its "narrow limits" and, in its stead, embrace the "law of nature." (6) The latter is defined in Masonic terms as "simply the natural inclination of human nature acting without let or hindrance." (7) Like every other form of humanism, Freemasonry teaches the "self-actualization" of man. In other words, since each man is inherently good and knows right from wrong instinctively, he should be free from all moral restraint to act according to his own good nature: There comes a time in the individual growth of every living thing when it realizes with dawning consciousness that it is a prisoner. While apparently free to move and have its being, the struggling life cognizes through ever greater vehicles its own limitation. It is at this point that man cries out with ever greater power to be liberated from the binding ties which, though invisible to mortal eyes, still chain him with bonds far more terrible than those of a physical prison. (8) Manly Hall was simply giving expression here to the inward lament of every unregenerate heart. Fallen men have ever conspired amongst themselves to overthrow the sovereignty of the True and Living God and the reign of His Son, Jesus Christ, saying, "Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us" (Psalm 2:3). Despite the declaration of Scripture that each man will be judged according to his deeds (Romans 2:5-10; Revelation 20:12-13), the Mason is instructed that he "can refuse to believe in a capricious Deity that metes out favors and punishments according to rules and regulations." (9) The Mason is also taught, from the first degree onward, to strive to liberate himself from the "binding ties" of biblical Law, which Hall described as "far more terrible than those of a physical prison." This struggle is symbolized by the cable tow which is fastened around the neck (Entered Apprentice), the right arm (Fellowcraft), and the waist (Master Mason) of the candidate during the initiation ritual of each degree of the Blue Lodge, and which is only removed when he receives each degree and has thereby joined the company of the "enlightened." At this point, the Mason "no longer follows the direction of others," but "is inspired by the Divine within himself" and becomes "a Priest-King after the Order of Melchizedek, who is above the law."(10) However, having freed himself from the alleged tyranny of God's revealed Law, the Mason will soon find himself in bondage to the very real tyranny of the Worshipful Master, who, as the vicegerent of the sun-god (Satan), rules the Lodge with the power "of an absolute monarch,"(11) as well as to the cruel slavery of his own sinful nature (Romans 6:16-23). According to the Bible, the heart of man is the fountain of "evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies" (Matthew 15:19), and is "deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked" (Jeremiah 17:9). There is no freedom in the rejection of God's written instructions for mankind, but only misery for the individual and turmoil and ultimate destruction for society. Freemasonry falls under the condemnation of Romans 13:2, for it leads its members to despise biblical Law and thus to subvert biblical government and attempt to replace it with the anarchy of moral subjectivism: The ethics of Masonry when the veil is removed, is decidedly immoral, and subversive of the divine order.... If these principles were to animate mankind, the state, the family and the church, and all the moral relations, ties and duties now universally recognized as right and proper would be overthrown and broken down, and society again would wallow in the styles of paganism. (12) Masonic Salvation by Human Effort But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) and hath raised us up together, and made us to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: that in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast (Ephesians 2:4-9). Nothing is more essential to the Christian Gospel than the doctrine of salvation by grace through faith. According to the Scriptures, the work of salvation consists of the Father's sovereign election of His people (Ephesians 1:3-4), the Son's redemptive work in their behalf (verse 7), and the Spirit's sanctification and preservation of the same (verses 13-14). Salvation from sin is "the gift of God" from start to finish. Though all men are responsible to
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repent and believe the Gospel, the Bible teaches that even the repentance and faith of the elect are graciously given to them by God. Therefore, to teach that man contributes anything, even merely the exercise of "free will," to his own salvation is to teach contrary to the Scriptures, and to bring down upon oneself the condemnation of God (Galatians 1:6-9). Freemasonry, on the other hand, claims that it knows better than the Scriptures, for it teaches that it is up to each and every man to "divest [himself] of original sin,"(13) and to diligently obey "the statutes and rules of the [Masonic] order, which in the end will make them deserving of entering the celestial Jerusalem." (14) According to one Mason: Freemasonry has been teaching for centuries... the capabilities of man to reach a higher level of perfection through education and training.... The philosophy of Freemasonry is to make man the master of his own destiny, to show him that there also is an immortality on earth brought by his actions; that he can, through his own efforts... inscribe his name in the "Book of Life." (15) We can also see this philosophy expressed in the following prayer of the Thirteenth Degree of the Scottish Rite: "We beseech thee that our thoughts may be engaged in the grand work of our perfection, which when attained will be an ample reward for our labor.... Grant that all our proceedings may tend to our glory.... Bless and prosper our works, O Lord." One of the most important pieces of Masonic regalia is the lambskin apron. This attire is worn by all Masons to remind them of "that purity of life and conduct which is necessary to obtain admittance into the Celestial Lodge above...."(16) Every Mason is buried with his apron, for without this "badge of Masonry,"(17) he cannot enter the "Celestial Lodge." The reader will remember that the Masonic god is really nothing more than a personification of the "generative principle" of nature, or the glorification of the male sex organ. It is therefore important to note that the lambskin apron covers the loins of each Mason. This is a clear indication that the Mason strives throughout his life to become morally acceptable to nothing more than a pagan idol, which, strangely enough, is his own sexuality. Though Masons consider their good works "deserving of divine approval," (18) the Bible upon which many of them have sworn allegiance to the Lodge says quite the opposite. Freemasons believe that "by a pure and blameless life... [God] will be pleased to pronounce [them] just and upright Masons," (19) but the Scriptures teach otherwise: "But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away" (Isaiah 64:6). Whereas Christians cling to the redemption which Christ purchased for them with His own Blood and to His righteousness which has been imputed to them, Masons look forward to the day when they will "receive their reward by being conducted to a throne at the right hand of the All Puissant, having been purified by washing their robes in their own blood."(20) It is indeed true that "none but the pure of heart can be admitted to the Holy Tabernacle in the heavens,"(21) but the question needs to be asked of the Mason, Who is pure of heart? Let us allow the Bible to answer that question: As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: there is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: their feet are swift to shed blood: destruction and misery are in their ways: and the way of peace have they not known: there is no fear of God before their eyes (Romans 3:10-18). If unregenerate man has, as the Bible teaches, "no hope, and [is] without God in the world" (Ephesians 2:12), then upon what grounds may the Mason possibly hope to be saved if he rejects the only Name "under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved" (Acts 4:12)? According to Henry Wilson Coil, "Freemasonry has religious service to commit the body of a deceased brother to the dust whence it came, and to speed the liberated spirit back to the Great Source of Light. Many Freemasons make this flight with no other guarantee of a safe landing than their belief in the religion of Freemasonry." (22) This statement is a sad commentary on the spiritual plight of every devoted Mason, for that upon which he depends for his salvation, will ultimately earn him damnation and eternal separation from God. It is ironic indeed that Masonic authorities claim that the Lodge commands "each of its votaries that he diligently study [the Bible] to learn the way to everlasting life."(23) According to the Scriptures, the way to everlasting life is found only in Jesus Christ, not in membership in an occult fraternity (John 14:6). The mercy of God in electing men for salvation through faith in His Son is the only "passport for our admission into the Celestial Lodge above." (24) The warning of the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 3:11 is clear: "For other foundation can no man lay than that is
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laid, which is Jesus Christ." Freemasonry, which worships a pagan god, denies the Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ, as well as His atoning sacrifice in behalf of His people, and places mankind at the center of the universe, is so contrary to the most basic doctrines of Christianity that no man may rightly claim to be a Christian as long as he is a member of the Masonic Lodge: Be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? and what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? and what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty (2 Corinthians 6:17 18).
Endnotes 1. A Masonic funeral address, quoted by Harris, Invisible Cult, page 135. 2. Pike, Morals and Dogma, page 855. 3. Pike, ibid., page 136. 4. Roberts, The Craft, page 428. 5. Haywood, Great Teachings, pages 38-39. 6. Mackey, Masonic Jurisprudence, page 502. In speaking of "the law of nature," the Mason has in mind natural law rather than the true Law of nature which the Reformed faith has historically taught is the knowledge of the Law of God inherent in every man's conscience. 7. Wagner, Interpretation, page 493. 8. Hall, Lost Keys, page 51. 9. Clausen, Commentaries, page 157. 10. Hall, Lost Keys, pages 87-88. 11. Carl H. Claudy, Introduction to Freemasonry (Washington, D.C.: The Temple, 1984), Volume II, page 92. 12. Wagner, Interpretation, page 482. 13. Blanchard, Illustrated, Volume II, page 209. 14. Blanchard, ibid., page 32. 15. Charles Lacquement, article: "Freemasonry and Organized Religion," The Pennsylvania Freemason, February 1989, page 7. 16. Allen, Craftsmen, page 17. 17. Allen, ibid. 18. Henry Clausen, Beyond the Ordinary: Toward a Better, Wiser and Happier World (The Supreme Council, 33rd Degree, Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, 1983), page 7. 19. Duncan, Masonic Ritual, page 132. 20. Blanchard, Illustrated, Volume I, page 453. 21. Blanchard, ibid., Volume II, page 134. 22. Coil, Encyclopedia, page 512. 23. George Simmons and Robert Macoy, Standard Masonic Monitor of the Degrees of Entered Apprentice, Fellowcraft, and Master Mason (Richmond, Virginia: Macoy Publishing and Masonic Supply Company, 1984), page 21. 24. John Seville and James Gould, Guide to the Royal Arch Chapter (Richmond, Virginia: Macoy Publishing and Masonic Supply Company, 1981), page 72.

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Harris, Jack, Freemasonry: The Invisible Cult in Our Midst (Chattanooga, Tennessee: Global Publishers, Inc., 1983). Haywood, H.L., The Great Teachings of Masonry (Richmond, Virginia: Macoy Publishing and Masonic Supply Company, 1971). Haywood, H.L., The Newly Made Mason (Richmond, Virginia: Macoy Publishing and Masonic Supply Company, 1973). Heckethorn, Charles W., The Secret Societies of All Ages and Countries (New York: University Books, 1965). Henderson, Kent, Masonic World Guide (Richmond, Virginia: Macoy Publishing and Masonic Supply Company, 1984). Lacquement, Charles, article: "Freemasonry and Organized Religion," The Pennsylvania Freemason, February 1989. LaVey, Anton S., The Satanic Bible (New York: Avon Books, 1967). Liturgy of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry for the Southern Jurisdiction of the United States of America, Part Two (The Supreme Council, 33rd Degree, Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, Southern Jurisdiction, 1982). Mackey, Albert G., The Textbook of Masonic Jurisprudence: Illustrating the Written and Unwritten Laws of Masonry (New York: Macoy and Sickels, 1865). Mackey, Albert G., Mackey's Masonic Ritualist: Monitorial Instructions in the Degrees from Entered Apprentice to Select Master (New York: Clark & Maynard Publishers, 1867). Mackey, Albert G., A Manual of the Lodge: Monitorial Instructions In The Degrees Of Entered Apprentice, Fellow Craft, and Master Mason (New York: Clark Maynard Publishers, 1870). Mackey, Albert G., An Encyclopedia of Freemasonry (Chicago, Illinois: Masonic Historical Company, 1921). Mackey, Albert G., Revised Encyclopedia of Freemasonry (Richmond, Virginia: Macoy Publishing and Masonic Supply Company, 1966). Mackey, Albert G., The Symbolism of Freemasonry: Its Science, Philosophy, Legends, Myths, and Symbolism (Chicago, Illinois: Charles T. Powner Company, 1975). Macoy, Robert , Adoptive Rite Ritual (Richmond, Virginia: Macoy Publishing and Masonic Supply Company, 1928). Masonic Monitor of the Degrees of Entered Apprentice, Fellowcraft, and Master Mason (Free and Accepted Masons of Arkansas, 1983). McQuaig, C.F., The Masonic Report (self-published, 1976). Morgan, William, Illustrations of Masonry (Chicago, Illinois: Ezra A. Cook Publications, Inc., 1926). North, Gary, Political Polytheism (Tyler, Texas: Institute for Christian Economics, 1989). Pike, Albert, Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry (The Supreme Council of the Thirty-third Degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry of the Southern Jurisdiction, U.S.A., 1962). Roberts, Allen E., The Craft and Its Symbols: Opening of the Door to Masonic Symbolism (Richmond, Virginia: Macoy Publishing and Masonic Supply Company, 1974). Roosevelt, Franklin D., On Our Way (New York: The John Day Company, 1934). Rongstad, L. James, How to Respond to the Lodge (Saint Louis, Missouri: Concordia Publishing House, 1977). Seville, John and Gould, James, Guide to the Royal Arch Chapter (Richmond, Virginia: Macoy Publishing and Masonic Supply Company, 1981). Shaw, James and McKenney, Tom Deadly Deception (Lafayette, Louisiana: Huntington House, 1988). Shepherd, Silas H., Little Masonic Library (Richmond, Virginia: Macoy Publishing and Masonic Supply Company, 1977). Simmons, George and Macoy, Robert, Standard Masonic Monitor of the Degrees of Entered Apprentice, Fellowcraft, and Master Mason (Richmond, Virginia: Macoy Publishing and Masonic Supply Company, 1984). Voorhis, H.V.B., Facts for Freemasons (Richmond, Virginia: Macoy Publishing and Masonic Supply Company, 1953). Wagner, Martin L., Freemasonry: An Interpretation (self-published, 1912). Waite, Arthur E., A New Encyclopedia of Freemasonry (New York, New York: Weather Vane, 1970). Wilmshurst, W.L., quoted by W.J. McCormick, Christ, the Christian, and Freemasonry (Belfast, England: Great Joy Publications, 1984).

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