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APOLOGETICS |
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What Does the Masonic Lodge Teach Its
Members About Jesus?
By
Dr. John
Ankerberg and Dr. John Weldon |
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"Holiness to the Lord." –Motto on the
official seal of the Grand Lodge of New York
Masonry claims that it does not offend a
Christian’s belief about Jesus Christ. For example: "We
do not say to Christians that Christ was a mere man,
whose life’s story is only a revival of similar older
[pagan] stories. To do any of these things would be
irreverent. We utter no such words." 1
But Masonry does teach that Jesus Christ was
merely a man. Concerning the denial of Christ’s deity we
may note the observations of Masonic leader Jim Shaw.
Shaw was a 33rd degree Mason, a Past Worshipful Master
of the Blue Lodge, Past Master of all Scottish Rite
bodies, and a Knight Commander of the Court of Honor. He
acknowledges that official Masonic doctrine maintains
that, "Jesus was just a man. He was one of the
"exemplars," one of the great men of the past, but not
divine and certainly not the only means of redemption of
lost mankind."2
The Masonic Maundy Thursday Ritual of the
chapter of Rose Croix states officially, "We meet this
day to commemorate the death [of Jesus], not as inspired
or divine, for this is not for us to decide." 3
One Mason told us, "Jesus and Krishna are the same!"4
In his
spiritual darkness or ignorance, the Christian Mason may
choose to believe that Jesus was God and Savior of the
world, but this is not Masonic truth. Those who consider
themselves enlightened Masons hope that their
unenlightened Christian brethren will realize that
all specific dogmas about Christ are in error. As
Clausen emphasizes, Masons hope to "strip from all
religions their orthodox tenets, legends, allegories and
dogmas."5 This is why the Masonic scholar
Albert Pike asserts that Jesus was "a great teacher of
morality"—but no more.6
So Masonry teaches that Jesus was only a
man. Why does Masonry say that, and thereby offend the
beliefs of Christians? It does this because it does not
wish to offend the religious sensibilities of
non-Christian Masons, those members of other faiths who
deny that Jesus is the only Incarnation of God and
Savior of the world. The unique nature and mission of
Christ is denied by Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims and Jews.
In order to not offend these people, Masonry offends
Christians.
Masonry excludes all particular biblical
teachings about Christ, such as His Incarnation,
redemptive mission, death and resurrection. In fact,
there is no biblical truth about Jesus Christ affirmed
anywhere in Masonry. Mason Edmond Ronayne confesses:
Freemasonry
"carefully excludes" the Lord Jesus Christ from the
Lodge and chapter, repudiates his mediatorship,
rejects his atonement, denies and disowns his gospel,
frowns upon his religion and his church, ignores the
Holy Spirit, and sets up for itself a spiritual
empire, a religious theocracy, at the head of which it
places the G.A.O.T.U.—the god of nature—and from which
the one only living and true God is expelled by
resolution....7
Although
there are many possible beliefs that Masons hold about
Jesus, one of the more prevalent beliefs can be traced
to Masonry’s ties to the ancient mystery religions. Many
Masons believe that the biblical teaching of Christ as
God and Savior is merely a corruption of "similar," more
"pure" stories in some of the earlier pagan religions.8
These Masons teach that the New Testament is a
corrupted version of such stories and that Christianity
as normally interpreted by the Church is false. In fact,
many of these Masons are offended that Christianity
teaches that only Jesus is God. They prefer a more
mystical Christ, a Christ who recognizes that all men
are divine.9
For example, Dr. R. Swineburne Clymer, M.D., recognized
as a high Mason, teaches in The Mysticism of Masonry
(1900, p. 47):
In deifying
Jesus, the whole humanity is bereft of Christos as an
eternal potency within every human soul, a latent
(embryonic) Christ in every man. In thus deifying one
man, they have orphaned the whole of humanity [of its
divinity].10
But none of the Masonic teachings about
Christ agree with what Jesus taught about Himself and
with what the Church has maintained for 2,000 years. If
Masonry does not even respect the teachings of Jesus,
how can it claim to be a tolerant religion?
Notes:
1 Henry
Clausen, Clausen’s Commentaries on Morals and Dogma
(The Supreme Council, 33rd Degree, Ancient and
Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, Southern
Jurisdiction of the USA, 1976), p. 159.
2 Jim Shaw
and Tom McKenney, The Deadly Deception: Freemasonry
Exposed by One of Its Top Leaders (Lafayette, LA:
Huntington House, 1988), pp. 126-127.
3 Ibid., p.
127, cf. Henry C. Clausen, Practice and Procedure
for the Scottish Rite (Washington, DC: The Supreme
Council, 33rd Degree, Ancient and Accepted Scottish
Rite of Freemasonry Mother Jurisdiction of the World,
1981), pp. 75-77.
4 Cf.,
The Kentucky Monitor, 1946, p. xv.
5 Clausen,
Clausen’s Commentaries on Morals and Dogma, p.
157.
6 Albert
Pike, Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted
Scottish Rite of Freemasonry (Charleston, SC: The
Supreme Council of the 33rd Degree for the Southern
Jurisdiction of the United States, 1906), p. 525.
7 Edmond
Ronayne, The Master’s Carpet; Or Masonry and
Baal-Worship—Identical (np., nd. Distributed by
Missionary Service and Supply, Rt. 2, Columbiana, OH
44408), p. 87.
8 Shaw and
McKenney, The Deadly Deception, p. 127; Pike,
Morals and Dogma (1906); Jack Harris,
Freemasonry: The Invisible Cult in Our Midst
(Chattanooga, TN: Global, 1983), pp. 102-103. For a
refutation, see our Ready with an Answer
[Harvest House, 1997].
9 Cf.,
Corinne Heline, Mystic Masonry and the Bible
(La Canada, CA: New Age Press, 1975), pp. 19, 22, 47,
90-91.
10 Harris,
Freemasonry, p. 102.
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Copyright 2006, Ankerberg Theological Research Institute |
