One of the most well-known and generous organizations is Freemasonry. Freemasonry, or simply Masonry, is one of the world’s oldest and largest fraternal organizations. Its full title is “Ancient Free and Accepted Masons.” It is a society of men dedicated to moral and spiritual values, with lodges and temples spread across the globe. Some of its branches include the Shrine of the Blue Lodge, the Eastern Star, Job’s Daughters, Rainbow Girls, DeMolay, and the Scottish and York Rites.
Freemasonry predates the cathedral buildings of the Renaissance period. Since Masonry is fundamentally linked to the craft of building, its origins can be traced back to the construction of Solomon’s Temple or even earlier, to the time of the Tower of Babel.
As mentioned earlier, the full title of Freemasonry is “Ancient Free and Accepted Masons.” Originally, any man engaged in the building craft was called a mason—this included quarrymen, dike builders, wallers, paviors, tilers, and cottage builders. However, there was a distinct class of builders who could both design and construct monumental public structures, such as cathedrals, churches, and mansions. These craftsmen were known as Free (operative) Masons—comparable to architects todayAs times passed, men who were not actual masons but were drawn to the fraternity’s principles joined its ranks. They became known as Accepted (speculative) Masons. As a result, many Freemasons throughout history were not builders by trade but were instead scientists, artists, or even famous personalities.
Notable historical figures who were Masons include Frederick the Great, Giuseppe Garibaldi, Giuseppe Mazzini, Napoleon Bonaparte, Benjamin Franklin, Sir Walter Scott, George Washington, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Louis Armstrong. In the Philippines, several revolutionary heroes were Masons, including José Rizal, Andrés Bonifacio, Emilio Aguinaldo, the del Pilars, and the Lunas.
However, there is much more to this ‘brotherhood’ than simply being a generous charitable organization of wealthy individuals. If Freemasonry truely what it publicly professes to be, then why did the Church condemn this brotherhood and forbid Catholics to join?
Freemasonry remains shrouded in mystery. It is time to uncover what lies behind its closed doors. To truly understand Masonry, we will analyze its own published documents—without citing any “anti-Masonic” sources—to reveal its true identity.
The following published documents by Masonic writers shall be our references:
- Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry by Albert Pike, Grand Commander, 1859-1891, published 1871
- The Lost Keys of Freemasonry by Manly P. Hall, 33rd Degree Mason, published 1976
- Encyclopedia of Freemasonry by Albert Mackey, published 1970
- Freemasonry – its Aims & Ideals by J.M. Ward
- Ancient Freemasonry by Frank E. Higgins
- Symbolism of Mystic Masonry by J.D. Buck
- Symbolic Teaching on Masonry & its Message by Thomas Milton Steward
- The Externalization of Hierarchy by Alice Basiley
- The Indiana Monitor and Freemason’s Guide, 1993 edition
- Meaning of Masonry, Lynn Perkins
- Kentucky MMonitor, 1946 edition
- The Louisiana Monitor, 1980 edition
Freemasonry – A Religion?
“Masonry is, in every sense of the word, except one, and that its least philosophical, an eminently religious institution that is indebted solely to the religious elements 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 the good.” (Encyclopedia of Freemasonry, p. 618)
“Every Masonic lodge is a temple of religion and its teachings are instructions. This is true religion revealed to the ancient patriarchs, which masonry has taught for many centuries and will continue to teach as long as time endures.” (Morals & Dogma, p. 213-214)
Through their own writings, it is clear that Freemasonry is a religion. But what kind of religion?
“Freemasonry is NOT CHRISTIANITY nor a substitute for it.” (Encyclopedia of Freemasonry, p. 618)
If Freemasonry is a religion but is not Christianity, whose teachings do they follow? Only Christians follow the teachings of Jesus Christ. Who founded this religion?
“It is true that Freemasonry is the parent of all religion.” (Ancient Freemasonry, p. 10)
“It (Masonry) is the universal, eternal, immutable religion, such as God planted in the heart of universal humanity. No creed has ever been long-lived that was not built on this foundation. It is the base and they are the superstructure.” (Morals & Dogma, p. 219)
Freemasonry claims that all religions of the world, including Catholicism, sprung from it. However, as Catholics, we believe that our Lord Jesus Christ is the Head of the Holy Church. All teachings and instructions come directly from Him and were handed down by the Apostles. As stated in Matthew 16:17-19:
“Jesus replied, ‘Simon son of Jonah, you are a blessed man! Because it was no human agency that revealed this to you but my Father in heaven. So I now say to you: You are Peter and on this rock I will build my community. And the gates of the underworld can never overpower it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of Heaven: whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven; whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.’”
Freemasonry and the Doctrine of Universality
“Monotheism is the sole dogma of Freemasonry. Belief in one God is required of every initiate, but his conception of the Supreme Being is left to his own interpretation. Freemasonry is not concerned with theological distinctions. Thus, this is the basis of our universality.” (The Indiana Monitor, p. 41)
Freemasonry teaches the doctrine of Universality, which, simply put, promotes the brotherhood of all men under the fatherhood of one God. According to Masonic teachings, there is one God, and people of all religions worship Him, albeit under different names.
“The true Mason is not bound by any creed. He realizes, with the divine illumination of his lodge, that as a Mason, his religion must be universal. Christ, Buddha, or Mohammed—the name matters little, for he recognizes only the light and not the bearer. He worships at every shrine, bows before every altar, whether in a temple, mosque, or cathedral, realizing, with his deeper understanding of spiritual truth…” (The Lost Keys of Freemasonry, p. 65)
What is Wrong with the Doctrine of Universality?
As mentioned earlier, Freemasonry teaches monotheism, yet claims that men of all religions worship the same God under different names. To unify these names, Masons join in corporate prayer to the “Great Architect of the Universe” (GAOTU). However, a major issue arises with this concept.
Consider Islam as an example. Islamic doctrine explicitly states that Allah has no son, directly denying the Christian belief that Jesus Christ is the unique Son of God. Since the God of Christianity has a Son and Allah does not, how can they be the same GAOTU? Clearly, the god of Islam cannot be the same as the God worshiped by the Christian Church.
“Now, as Masons, we do not distinguish between these (Ashteroth, Vishnu, Dagon, Baal) but accept all as Brethren, recognizing the One God as our Heavenly Father, as revealed to us through the Light of Masonry.” (Encyclopedia of Freemasonry)
This statement makes it clear that the doctrine of Universality directly contradicts the teachings of the Church. In other words, it is heresy! What kind of ‘god’ allows the acceptance of Baal-worshipers and other pagan deities as brethren? In the Old Testament, God commanded Israel to completely destroy the followers of Baal. The prophet Elijah ordered the execution of 450 prophets of Baal. Yet, according to Masonic doctrine, they were Elijah’s brethren. Do you see the conflict?
Freemasonry and Jesus Christ
“Masonry reveres all great reformers. It sees in Moses, the lawgiver to the Jews; in Confucius and Zoroaster; in Jesus of Nazareth; and in the Arabian Iconoclast, great teachers of morality and eminent reformers—if no more. It allows every brother of the Order to attribute to each as many higher or even divine characteristics as his creed and truth require.” (Morals & Dogma, p. 525)
Masonic teachings claim that there have been many world saviors, as documented in the 1946 edition of the Kentucky Monitor, used by the Grand Lodge of Kentucky:
“All believed in a future life, to be attained by purification and trials; in a state or successive states of reward and punishment; and 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 Indians called him Chrishna; the Chinese, Kioun-tse; the Persians, Sosiosch; the Chaldeans, Dhouvanai; the Egyptians, Horus; Plato, Love; the Scandinavians, Balder; the Christians, Jesus; Masons, Hiram.” (p. XIV-XV)
Notice the parallel structure: Hiram is to Masons as Jesus is to Christians. This passage clearly places Hiram Abiff—whom Masons revere as a Master Mason during the building of Solomon’s Temple—in the same category as Jesus Christ. Freemasonry teaches that Hiram Abiff was unjustly murdered, buried, and later raised from the grave. This belief strongly implies that Jesus Christ is not unique.
Furthermore, Masonry teaches that people of all religions are sons of God.
“The ancient teachings were projected onto the earthly plane by great teachers—Avatars, divine messengers, Messiahs, way-showers, exemplars, elder Brothers—who, at the behest of the Great Architect, came into the flesh from the Celestial Lodge at different times and to different races of men. Jesus of Nazareth was sent to be a light to the world for some branches of the human race, but other branches have had, and continue to have, their Buddha, their Krishna, their Zoroaster, their Confucius, their Mohammed. Masonry declares that all people, regardless of religion or creed, are children of God, born into their particular traditions to derive whatever benefits and self-development they need.” (Meaning of Masonry, p. 54-55)
To claim that Jesus Christ is not unique and to equate Him with other religious figures like Krishna is heresy!
“At the altar of Freemasonry, all men bring their most votive offerings… Around it, men—whether they have received their teachings from Confucius, Zoroaster, Moses, Mohammed, or the founder of the Christian religion—just as long as they believe in the universality of the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man, meet upon a common level. The Jew returns to his synagogue, the Mohammedan to his mosque, and the Christian to his temple, each better prepared for the solemn duties of life by the associations in the universal brotherhood.” (The Louisiana Monitor, 1980, p. 133)
Notice that Jesus Christ’s name is deliberately omitted when referring to the founder of Christianity. Once again, Masonry equates Him with other religious leaders, rejecting His uniqueness and divinity.
“We do not undervalue the importance of any TRUTH. We utter no word that can be deemed irreverent by anyone of any faith, and as little do we tell the sincere Christian that Jesus of Nazareth was but a man like us or that His history is merely an unreal revival of an older legend.” (Morals & Dogma, p. 524)
“In the early Church, as in the secret doctrine, there was not one Christ for the world, but a potential Christ in every man. Theologians first made a fetish of the impersonal, omnipresent divinity and then tore the Christos from the hearts of all humanity to deify Jesus so that they might have a God-Man particularly their own.” (Symbolism of Mystic Masonry, p. 57)
Masonry is a false religion because it completely rejects the crucial doctrine of the divinity of Jesus Christ. It teaches that Jesus was merely a man and that His miracles were nothing more than myths.
In his seven-volume History of Freemasonry, Albert Mackey discusses various pagan gods and the people who worshiped them. Among those deities are Ashtaroth, Abraxas, Vishnu, Dagon, Nergal, and Baal. The text states:
“They were all figures of human origin in the mythological ages, designed as Saviors of men, each one emphatically the representative Christos, or Christ, of his particular nation and religious system, intended to restore the lost and fallen race of man.” (p. 1721, vol. VI)
If these pagan deities are considered saviors by Masons, then Freemasonry is not a true religion of God but rather a belief system aligned with the enemies of God!
Freemasonry and Lucifer
Who is Lucifer? To understand who Lucifer is, we turn to the Book of Isaiah:
“How art thou fallen from Heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the Most High. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.” (Isaiah 14:12-15)
Lucifer was the leader of the fallen angels who rebelled against God. As punishment, he was cast down to hell. He is also known as Satan, the Devil, or the Spirit of Darkness.
Over the years, some have alleged that Freemasons worship Lucifer or Satan. Their own writings appear to confirm this claim:
“When the Mason learns that the key to the warrior on the block is the proper application of the dynamo of living power, he has learned the Mystery of his craft. The seething energies of Lucifer are in his hand, and before he may step onward and upward, he must prove his ability to properly apply [this] energy.” (The Lost Keys of Freemasonry, p. 48)
“Lucifer, the light-bearer! Strange and mysterious name given to the spirit of darkness! Lucifer, son of the Morning! Is it he who bears the light? Doubt it not!” (Morals & Dogma, p. 321)
Though they acknowledge Lucifer as the “Spirit of Darkness,” they still claim that he is the guiding spiritual light of Freemasonry. Furthermore, Masons are said to harness the energy of Lucifer—suggesting the use of occult practices in their legendary ability to construct magnificent structures without modern technology.
The book Mysteries of Magic by Eliphas Levi states on page 428:
“What is more absurd and more impious than to attribute the name of Lucifer to the devil, that is, to personified evil? The intellectual Lucifer is the spirit of intelligence and love; it is the Paraclete, it is the Holy Spirit, while the physical Lucifer is the great agent of universal magnetism.”
This statement is a blasphemy against the Third Person of the Holy Trinity—the TRUE Paraclete. Lucifer can never be equal to the Holy Spirit!
Albert Pike, Grand Commander and Sovereign Pontiff of Universal Freemasonry, author of Morals & Dogma, borrowed from the writings of Eliphas Levi. In his Instructions to the 23 Supreme Councils of the World, recorded on July 14, 1889, he wrote:
“That which we must say to the crowd is—we worship a God, but it is the God that one adores without superstition.”
“To you, Sovereign Grand Inspectors General, we say this, that you may repeat it to the Brethren of the 32nd, 31st, and 30th degrees—The Masonic Religion should be, by all of us initiates of the high degrees, maintained in the purity of the Luciferian Doctrine.”
“If Lucifer were not God, would Adonay (the God of the Christians), whose deeds prove his cruelty, perfidy, hatred of man, barbarism, and repulsion for science—would Adonay and his priests calumniate him?”
“Yes, Lucifer is God, and unfortunately Adonay is also God. For the eternal law is that there is no light without shade, no beauty without ugliness, no white without black. The absolute can only exist as two gods: darkness being necessary for light to serve as its foil, just as the pedestal is necessary for the statue, and the brake for the locomotive.”
“Thus, the doctrine of Satanism is a heresy; and the true and pure philosophical religion is the belief in Lucifer, the equal of Adonay. But Lucifer, God of Light and God of Good, is struggling for humanity against Adonay, the God of Darkness and Evil.”
From these words, we can clearly see who the god of Freemasonry is. Notice how they twist the truth—declaring Adonay, our God, as the god of darkness and evil. Such blasphemy!
Finally, we turn to the words of Satan himself. Anton LaVey, the founder of the Church of Satan, wrote in The Satanic Rituals: Companion to the Satanic Bible (p. 21):
“Satanic ritual is a blend of Gnostic, Cabbalistic, Hermetic, and Masonic elements.”
On page 58, LaVey further reveals:
“Masonry contains numerous manifestations of Satanism, namely the goat, the coffin, the death’s-head…”
Masonic Rituals
Masonic ritual is centered on the recovery of the “Lost Word,” believed to be the name of God, supposedly lost with the murder of Hiram Abiff, the architect of Solomon’s Temple. The Royal Arch Degree ritual reveals the secret name of the Masonic deity: JAOBULON.
- “Jao” is the Greek word for Jehovah.
- “Bul” is a rendering of Baal.
- “On” refers to Osiris, a deity from the Babylonian mysteries.
In Masonic teachings, the name appears as “J.B.O.” in secret rituals. The oath states:
“We three do meet and agree—in peace, love, and unity—to keep the Sacred Word and never to divulge it, until we three, or three such as we, do meet and agree.”
Thus, no Royal Arch Mason can pronounce the full sacred name alone.
What Freemasons really worship, then, is a three-headed monster—an abomination far removed from the Holy Trinity, so blasphemous that it imperils the eternal soul of anyone who dares to utter its name in ritual worship.
Candidates for the Royal Arch Degree kneel at the “Altar of Obligation,” with arms bound, heads bowed, and hands resting on the altar. They are required to swear:
“To assume a most powerful binding oath, inseparably uniting yourself with us. Once taken, it can never be retracted or departed from.”
The oath itself is four pages long and includes terrifying penalties, such as:
“Having my eyeballs pierced to the center with a three-edged blade.”
Additionally, during the ceremony, the candidate is asked:
“Brother Inspector, what are you?”
He responds:
“I AM THAT I AM.”
Sound familiar? In the Bible, when Moses asked God for His name, God replied:
“I Am that I Am.” and He said, “Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel. I Am hath sent me unto you.” (Exodus 3:14)
Yet, in this Masonic ritual, a mere man claims the divine name of God Himself!
Master Mason, a God in the Making?
“Man is a god in the making, and like the mystic myths of Egypt, he is being molded on the potter’s wheel. When his light shines forth to uplift and preserve all things, he receives the triple crown of godhood and joins the ranks of Master Masons who, in their robes of blue and gold, seek to dispel the darkness of night with the triple light of the Masonic Lodge.”
“The glorious privileges of a Master Mason correspond to his greater knowledge and wisdom… For him, the heavens have opened, and the Great Light has bathed him in its radiance. The Prodigal Son, long a wanderer in the realms of darkness, has returned to his Father’s house. A voice speaks from the heavens, its power thrilling the Master until his very being seems infused with divinity, declaring: ‘This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.’ The Master Mason, in truth, has become the spokesman of the Most High. He stands between the glowing firelight and the world. Through him passes Hydra, the great serpent, and from its mouth pours forth the light of God to mankind.” (The Lost Keys of Freemasonry, pp. 92, 54-55).
The Verdict
After carefully examining their doctrines through their own published writings, it should now be abundantly clear that Freemasonry is a deceptive and anti-Christian organization, far different from the image it seeks to portray. The evidence is overwhelming. Freemasonry is deeply rooted in Luciferian doctrine, blasphemy, and occultism. Through their own writings and rituals, they have revealed their true allegiance—not to the God of the Bible, but to Lucifer, the so-called “Light-Bearer.” This revelation may offend many Masons, but we would rather speak the truth than remain silent and allow more men to be deceived by this anti-Christian society.
