"I Am Not Saying Anything Against Masonry"
There appeared in the January 31, 1983, issue of the Guardian an article, "It Is In Harmony With The Scriptures" and contained the statement which serves as the subject of this article. To see the thought sequence in which the statement occurred, please refer to the above mentioned issue.
Though I have never met the author of the article, I conclude that he is much older than myself since he states that the Otey-Briney Debate was conducted after he began preaching. Respect for my elders has ever been impressed upon me, and thus I intend no disrespect whatever for my brother, but I do feel that the statement, "I am not saying anything against Masonry," merits serious consideration.
Masonry in the church is a source of concern, and I do have something to say against it. The teachings of Masonry are such that it is inconsistent for a Christian to be a Mason. Even if we have no Masons in the church with which we are laboring, I know of no circumstance to which the saying, "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure," is more applicable than to the Lodge. Those who have become entangled in it have to be very honest with themselves if they are ever brought out of it; and we, therefore, need to teach the evils of it to those who stand a chance of getting involved.
There was a time when it might perhaps be said that Masonry was a secret order and that those of "the outer and profane world" knew nothing of it, but this is true no longer. Many of the books which are said to be "standard and recommended" in setting forth Masonry are obtainable. And while one may not find all of "the secrets" therein, he does not have to read far to find numerous points on which Masonry and Christianity are inconsistent, the proof of which is the aim of this article. All emphases in the quotations are mine unless otherwise indicated.
Masonry Is A Religion
Most of our brethren who are in the Lodge will deny that Masonry is either a religion or a religious institution in spite of plain Masonic statements to the contrary. The Kentucky Monitor by Henry Pirtle says,
"....as Masons we are taught that no man should ever enter upon any great or important undertaking without first invoking the blessings of Deity. This is because Masonry is a religious institution-..." (p. 28)
On page 718 of Morals and Dogma by Albert Pike, it is said,
"Masonry propagates no creed except its own simple and Sublime One; that universal religion, -taught by Nature and by Reason. Its Lodges are neither Jewish, Moslem, nor Christian Temples. It reiterates the precepts of morality of all religions."
Now while such quotes might be multiplied, space will forbid; and these are sufficient to show Masonry's concept of itself in this respect. But note that Pike says that the religion of Masonry is one taught by Nature and Reason. The religion of Christ is a religion taught by revelation. (Gal. 1:12)
Attributes Of The Masonic Religion
(1) New Birth. "It (initiation into the lodge, NEF) is a symbol of the agonies of the first death and of the throes of a new birth. . . There you stood.... seeking the new birth." (Ky. Mon. p. 26)
"There was to be not simply a change for the future, but also an extinction of the past; for initiation is, as it were, a death to the world and a resurrection to a new life." (Ibid. p. 27)
Shades of John 3:3-5 and Romans 6:1-6.
(2) Redeemer. "All antiquity...believed...in a Mediator or Redeemer, by whom the Evil Principle was to be overcome and the Supreme Deity reconciled to His creatures. The belief was general that He was to be born of a virgin and suffer a painful death. The Hindus called him Krishna; the Chinese, Kioun-tse; the Persians, Sosiosch; the Chaldeans, Dhouvanai; the Egyptians, Horus; Plato, Love; the Scandinavians, Balder; the Christians, Jesus; Masons, Hiram." (Ky. Mon. pp. xiv, xv)
And see this further:
"Then let us imitate our G.M.H.A. (Grand Master Hiram Abiff, NEF) in all his varied Perfection...and receive him as a kind messenger sent by our Supreme Grand Master to translate us from this imperfect to that all-perfect, glorious, and celestial Lodge above, where the Great Architect of the Universe presides, forever reigns." (Ibid. p. 152)
Shades of blasphemy! (See Col. 1:13; 1 Peter 2:9, etc.)
(3) Prayer "... — as Masons we are taught that no man should ever enter upon any great or important undertaking without first invoking the blessing of Deity. This is because Masonry is a religious institution...." And this statement calls forth another, "In the light of that lesson, prayer becomes a duty as well as the privilege of every Mason." (Ibid. p. 28)
Brethren sometimes compare prayer in the Lodge to prayer at the P. T. A. or other like organization, but there is a difference. Masonry says that prayer is a duty which grows out of its religious nature. Its prayers are Christless, offered only to the Grand Architect of the Universe lest there should be offense to Jews, Mohammedans, etc., in Masonry.
(4) Creed. "Masonry propagates no creed except its own most simple and Sublime One; that universal religion, taught by Nature and Reason....It extracts the good and not the evil, the truth, and not the error, from all creeds...." (Morals and Dogma, p. 718)
(5) Salvation. Our brethren who are in the lodge vehemently deny that Masonry teaches salvation through the lodge, but the quotations from "standard and recommended" works which teach such are superfluous.
"The Covering of a Lodge (emp. theirs, NEF) is no less than the clouded canopy or starry-decked heaven, where all good Masons hope at last to arrive.... and the Mason who is possessed of that virtue (charity, NEF) in its most ample sense may justly be deemed to have attained the summit of his profession...figuratively speaking, an ethereal mansion veiled from mortal eye by the starry firmament...." (Ky. Monitor, p. 41)
"The Speculative Mason, therefore, is a moral builder for eternity, fitting immortal nature for that spiritual building which shall exist when.... the glory and greatness of earth shall have been forgotten." (Ibid. p. 73-74)
And again, Hiram Abiff is said to have been sent "to translate us from this imperfect to that all-perfect, glorious, and celestial Lodge above, where the Great Architect of the Universe presides, forever reigns." (Ibid. p. 152) My question is, "How much clearer could it teach salvation?"
(6) An altar of worship. The Kentucky Monitor (p.95) speaks of "one common altar of Masonry, on which the Veda, Shastras, Sade, Zend-Avesta, Koran, and Holy Bible shall lie untouched by sacrilegious hands, and at whose shrine the Hindoo, the Persian, the Assyrian, the Chaldean, the Egyptian, the Chinese, the Mohammedan, the Jew and the Christian may kneel and with one united voice celebrate the praises of the Supreme Architect of the Universe."
(7) Light. "....you have sought Light in Masonry ...There you stood without our portals, on the threshold of this new Masonic life, in darkness, helplessness, and ignorance.... you came inquiringly to our doors.... asking a withdrawal of the veil which concealed the divine truth from your uninitiated sight." (Ibid. p. 28)
Can you imagine a Christian, one already in the light (Jno.. 8:12; 1 Pet. 2:9), either seeking light In the lodge or saying this to an initiate who is also a Christian?
(8) Divine origin. "....King Solomon, inspired by the Deity, conceived that grand idea which culminated in speculative Masonry...." (Ky. Monitor. p. 94-95)
(9). Baptism. In discussing the Prince of Mercy (26), Pike in Morals and Dogma writes,
"Qu. What are the symbols of the purification necessary to make us perfect Masons?
"Ans. Lavation with pure water, or baptism; because to cleanse the body is emblematical of purifying the soul; and because it conduces to the bodily health, and virtue is the health of the soul, as sin and vice are its malady and sickness..."
(10) The Lord's Supper. Again from Pike, p. 539.
"Qu. What is to us the chief symbol of man's ultimate redemption and regeneration?
"Ans. The fraternal supper, of bread which nourishes, and of wine which refreshes and exhilarates, symbolical of the time which is to come, when all mankind shall be one great harmonious brotherhood....And thus, in the bread we eat, and In the wine we drink to-night....To our Jewish brethren, this supper is symbolical of the Passover: to the Christian Mason, of that eaten by Christ and His Disciples, when celebrating the Passover, He broke bread and gave it to them...."
Here, Matthew 28:28-28 is brokenly quoted. But let me further illustrate this idea. Life Magazine, October 8, 1958, carried a "pictorial essay in color" on The U. S. Masons. One of the pictures was of 18 (Knight of Rose Croix) Masons celebrating the "Feast of the Paschal Lamb," a ceremony "combining Jewish Passover and Christian observance" in which thirteen Masons representing "participants at the Last Supper" are seated at a cross-shaped table.
Much, much more might be said, but this is sufficient to show that Masonry is a religious institution and being such is inconsistent with the one pure and undefiled religion of Jesus Christ practiced by members of His body. Let the Christian be content to do "all in the name of the Lord Jesus" (Col. 3:17) having "no fellowship with (the) unfruitful work of darkness (Masonry), but rather reprove" it. (Eph. 5:11)
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