Freemasonry - From Darkness To Light

Video Transcript:

The World Through out the civilized world, particularly the Western world, diversity of bounds, we see diversity in our socio-economic, cultural and ethnic differences, but hidden beneath the surface away from the eyes of the casual observer, and the merely curious, is another society altogether, a society of secrets to coin their own phrase. This is the largely invisible world of free masonry. I'm Mike Mandel. For the next little while we'll be examining the beliefs, teachings, and practices of free masonry. We'll be speaking with former mason's and reviewing actual Masonic literature to try to gain an objective view of this hidden fraternal order. Our conclusions may prove to be quite startling, but in order to make this material coherent, it's essential to begin with an understanding of what free masonry is. Free masonry defines itself as being a system of morality. The basis of free masonry, which all mason's go through, is the blue lodge. The blue lodge being the first three degrees or levels of free masonry. Here to print us the first degree, fellow craft, the second degree, and master mason, the third degree. Most masons never go beyond third degree. Although if one chooses to go beyond the blue lodge, there are two routes that can be taken. One is the Yorkrite and one is the Scottishrite. Most masons who decide to go past the blue lodge, enter the Scottishrite a free masonry. The Scottishrite has 32 degrees. The 30 second can lead one into the Shriners if one so chooses. The 33rd degree, which does exist, is largely honorary. Author Ian Taylor has extensively researched the origins of modern free masonry. To many people, the very word free masonry evokes a sense of mystery, secret society, and so on, but in order to find out what they're all about, we need to know a little history. There were many humanist thinkers back in the 1500s who saw the corruption that there was in the Church of the Day, and they concluded that in order to get rid of that corruption, they would have to be a new world order. They had read Plato's Republic. Plato's Republic in the 1500s was now a popular work, and Plato too was a Greek philosopher living in the 5th century BC, and he too was totally fed up with the corruption that there was in government. He said, if we could have a group of wise men who were well paid to rule over the people, then there would be no corruption. It's a nice thought, but a rather naive one. We've seen such governments today, and they are totally corrupt. But nevertheless, there are still people today, many people who think that this is a good idea. This then was the agenda for the humanist thinkers back in the 1500s, but in order to do that, they had to first destroy the existing world order. The existing world order based upon the rules of God through the King and through the Church. But to even suggest this would have been seen to be heresy in its day, and they would have lost their heads quite literally. And so they had to go into a secret society. Now, the free masons in that day, these were craft masons. These were the men who actually built the cathedrals of the day. They were highly skilled men, and it was like an early trade union, and they wanted to keep the secrets of their skills to themselves. Good reasons for that. And so the humanist thinkers infiltrated into the craft Masonic lodges, and they then became the speculative masons. They were called speculative masons by the craft masons, because they wouldn't have known a square from a compass. They were just the humanists, the idealists, the academics. And so there are within the Masonic lodges today two types of masons. The craft Mason, who is the genuine Mason and cut stone and so on, and then there is the speculative Mason, and he's the humanist thinker. He's the person who has purposes to rebuild a new world order. And he's the author and lecturer Ron Carlson has dedicated two years to researching the subject of free masonry. Well, modern masonry actually began in the year 1717 in England. The lodge was formed, and many of these things were developed after 1717 in England, and then came to America and Canada as people migrated to North America during those years, and is widely established here in North America. It's estimated close to five million men are involved in free masonry here in North America, perhaps one million in the Shriners. What is masonry in the eyes of the free mason? What does the Mason view it to be? Well, you find that most mason is going to masonry, viewing it simply as a fraternal organization, Kevin and Van Spoi Scouts, because their father, grandfather was involved in masonry. And they get into it naively, not realizing that it is a religious organization designed for very specific spiritual purposes. Over the centuries, men has evolved a variety of religious beliefs and traditions. Some of these, such as Christianity, Judaism and Islam, are monotheistic. That is, they're based on the concept of one supreme deity. Others, such as Hinduism, are polytheistic, believing in many gods and goddesses. But one of the oldest religions is also the most universal, emerging virtually unchanged and geographically separated and radically diverse cultures. This is the religion of paganism, the worship of the moon goddess and the sun god, whether they're called ISIS and Osiris, Apollo and Diana, Surninosen or Radio or a host of other names. Paganism is the same mystical religion that first emerged in ancient Babylon thousands of years ago. But what is paganism got to do with free masonry? The ritual and theology of free masonry really originates from Egyptian paganism. And the reason for this is that as we find, in 1717, the rituals and theology were formalized and brought together and formed the grand lodge in England. The reason being that there were a great many lodges throughout England and throughout Europe at that time. They all had slightly different practices. These practices had originated from the origins of the speculative masonry, which of course was rosicrucionism. The rosicrucians believed in the hermetic and Egyptian traditions. And as we'll find in within free masonry we find Osiris, Donis and ISIS mentioned quite frequently. So of course these are the Egyptian pagan symbols, pagan gods. One of the rituals that was used in some of the lodges prior to 1717 and shortly after in fact was the ritual of the blood initiation right. This was where the little finger was cut and blood was shed and this was the new member doing that, making a blood covenant with the organization. What happens is when a mason joins the lodge, he first enters into what is called the blue lodge. And the very first thing that every mason is required to do is to go through a initiation ceremony. It's called the inner to apprentice degree. And in that initiation ceremony, he will be stripped of much of his clothing. A blindfold will be placed over his eyes. A noose will be placed around his neck. And he will be brought to the door of the Masonic lodge. And there a person will greet him and usher him in. And there he will come before an altar. And every mason stands before an altar. And there behind the altar is a man called the Worshipful Master of the Lodge. Today we find that when the new member joins the organization, he kneels, he's blindfolded, he's bare-breasted, and the master of the lodge touches his left breast with a sharply pointed sword. And they are then required with this blindfold over their eyes to take a blood oath, not reveal the secrets of masonry, or they will lose their life. Every mason puts a sum to a sroth. And he swears a blood oath, not to reveal the secrets of masonry or have his throat cut from ear to ear, his bow is ripped open and given to the beast of the field. And these pagan blood oaths are taken to swerve them to secrecy so they will not reveal the secrets of what they will learn as they progress through the Masonic Lodge. Now most men will go into the Scottish right and progress on through 32 degrees. And in each one of those degrees, they give worship to different gods and deities, Egyptian gods, Persian gods, Greek gods. And they go through a series of rituals. Now much of this is covered up by symbols and allegories so that mason's as they go through it, don't fully understand what they're doing. In the blue degrees and initiate is initiated into the Egyptian trinity of the ancient mysteries of Egypt. And this Egyptian trinity is hidden from the initiate. He does not know at all what he is being initiated into. It's not even mentioned. But if they would read their authoritative books which explain the symbols and the allegories, it becomes very obvious what they're involved in. They're involved in pagan idolatrous worship. Much of it based upon the Kabbalah, which is the ancient Jewish book of the Akal. It is based on Egyptian paganism and the worship of nature. It is really what it is. It is based on the worship of the male regenerative power, the female regenerative power, okay, and the product. Any historian will readily agree that paganism is and was essentially a nature religion. Its rituals were intentionally designed around the phases of the moon, the seasons and the vernil equinox, etc. Rituals were developed to encourage abundant crops, usually by seeking the blessing of the sun, the giver of warmth, and the counterbalance of the moon, the timepiece for planting and harvesting. From this duality of worship, the sun and moon, light and darkness, active and passive, male and female. Paganism developed fertility rights based upon the sex act and more specifically, the reproductive organs themselves. This is one of the reasons why Masons, when they enter the lodge, are required to put on a white lamb skin apron. Masons wear this white lamb skin apron as a covering of what they ultimately believe is the Masonic deity, what they call the generating principle of life. You know, they wear the square and compass and in the center is a G. You see it on the Masonic lodges where they have the square and compass with the G. Some Masons will tell you it means the geometric, the geometry of the universe or it means God. Actually, their own books say it's a generating principle of life that the compass or the square represents the female and the compass coming down upon her represents the male that impregnates the female. And this generating principle, the male organ, is what brings immortality in life. You see when they talk about immortality, they are talking about recreating life through the sexual act. And this is what they are covering with the white lamb skin apron. This is why a woman can never be a Mason. She does not have the generating principle of life, which they probably wear on her lapel as a square and compass in the G. Freemasonry uses Egyptian pagan symbols quite often and we can see that. And one that comes to mind is the obelisk. The obelisk is a tall pillar in stone, tapered and square in section with a pyramidian on top. And that was used among the Egyptians as a resurrection symbol. The idea was it was actually a phallic symbol. It stood tall and erect and it was used to procreate and one was resurrected through one's offspring. And that was the argument. Well, the same thing applies today and we find that where Freemasons are buried for instance, very often it'll be a obelisk that's used as a grave marker. Sir John A. McDollard, first prime minister of Canada or George Washington, first president of the United States, their grave markers both contain obelisks and sometimes even the obelisk will even contain the compass and square to indicate quite clearly where they're coming from. But can this really be true? It seems incredible that Freemasonry, this system of morality may actually be veiled paganism and only lightly veiled at that. The point within a circle is one of the more prominent Masonic symbols. Past Grandmaster Albert Mackie teaches in his symbolism of Freemasonry, page 353, the point within a circle is derived from sun worship and is in reality a phallic origin. It is a symbol of the universe, the sun being represented by the point, while the circumference is the universe. Mackie states further in his manual of the lodge, page 56, the phallus was an imitation of the male generative organ. It was represented usually by a column which was surmounted by a circle at its base. The point within a circle 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. Paganism recognized and worshiped these powers as the creative force in nature. Albert Pike was Grand Commander of Scottish Right Freemasonry in the 1800s. From his book Morals and Dogma, the sun and moon represents the two grand principles of all generations, the active and passive, the male and female, both shed their light upon their offspring, the blazing star or Horus. These Masonic authorities agree that the symbols of Freemasonry are occultic and derived from paganism. The alleged occultic rituals and symbolism that are central to Freemasonry were tremendously significant to me personally. I had been deeply involved in the many facets of the occult, including witchcraft for a number of years. Witchcraft is the religion of paganism. It's the worship of the sun god and the moon goddess in various forms. I was involved in the occult for about 12 years. Steve Warren was a practicing member of a couple of witches. For me, that is, I was constantly on a day-to-day basis reading, searching, as well as practicing arts such as devination, getting in contact with the dead through mediums, tarot cards, crystal balls, everything that we would consider occult I was involved in. There's a great deal of symbolism in witchcraft itself. Many of the implements used have significance in terms of natural elements such as the wand representing air, the athema, a sword, representing fire, a chalice with water, or an appendagram representing earth. These were would be combined in various manners in order to take advantage of the spiritual forces that were felt to be in operation at that particular time. And it was heavily ritualistic with the wearing of robes, the drawing of magic circles, the invoking of gods to aid the practitioner, as well as just anything you would do, even if it was not in a formal ritual, always had something to do with ritual. Even if it was casting a spell, you would always light the candles, bring out the elements, set up your altar. Some of the parallels between free masonry and witchcraft show such a similarity that it cannot possibly be coincidental. Similarities in ritual, wording, and symbolism are so close in several instances that it clearly suggests a common origin. To examine this possibility, I spoke with a number of former masons and compared their blue-log initiations with the experiences of former occultists. In the initiation in free masonry, we had to be recommended by another mason. Well, in order to join witchcraft, you have to be first screened, you have to be recommended by somebody currently in witchcraft. Well, when I was initiated, I was blind-folded and bound by a rope, and on your bare chest was thrust a point of a spear. In witchcraft, we were initiated through a very involved ritual, initiation ceremony, wherein the candidate was led, blindfolded, bound by a rope to the edge of the magic circle. And the rope is around your neck and your lid forward. And up front, and the eastern end of the building is a person who's a worsel for master. And you kneel down before him as if he were a god. You were met by the high priest or high priestess at that time, usually with a sword to your chest. When I went to enter the lodge, a sharp object was put to my left breast. And I was warned that should I reveal any of the secrets of free masonry to know what to expect. When you're presented before the high priest, a sword is held against your chest, and you actually take a blood oath, promising to remain faithful to the secrets of witchcraft. Well, when you are in the room, this blindfold is taken away from you, and this is a time when they say that you're coming from darkness and do light. During the initiation ceremony, the initiate is led by the lieutenant of the high priest and is challenged at the edge of the circle by someone saying, who goes there? And the answer is one from the world of darkness. In masonry, the prayers are ended with so-mouted B. Oh, and one of the other aspects of or distinctives of the craft was that we would always end any spell or ritual where we released the power, was where the power was released with the word so-mouted B. I was intrigued to discover that witchcraft and free masonry had so much in common. However, in white witchcraft, followers dismissed the biblical concept of Lucifer. Free masonry goes so far as to actually call Lucifer God in the words of sovereign pontiff of universal free masonry, Albert Pike. Yes, Lucifer is God, and unfortunately, Adonai, the Hebrew god of the Bible, is also God, and the true and pure philosophical religion is the belief in Lucifer, the equal of Adonai, that Lucifer god of light and god of good is struggling for humanity against Adonai, the god of darkness and evil. Listen to the words of 33rd degree mason, manly peahol. When the mason learns that the key to the warrior on the block is the proper application of the dynamo living power, he has learned the mystery of his craft. The seething energies of Lucifer are in his hands, and before he may step onward and upward, he must prove his ability to properly apply this energy. Of the literally millions of mason's worldwide, how many of them are actually aware of the true meaning of the Masonic symbols? The answer is very few. Since most mason's never go past the third degree of the blue lodge, the rank of master mason, the vast majority of them never discover what they're involved in, and they never will discover what free masonry is all about, unless they venture into the higher levels of the Scottish right or the York right. In fact, they're not just ignorant, they're deliberately misled by their superiors in the lodge. In the words of masonry's own authority, Albert Pike, the blue degrees are but the outer court or particle 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 that he understands them. Many mason's go through the first three degrees, become a master mason, and they just quit there, thinking that this is just a nice fraternal organization, and they do not realize that their own leaders have consciously lied and deceived to them because they do not want them to know the true teachings of masonry. I went in there with all good intentions, thinking I was entering into a fraternity that was really interested in helping people. But now I realize that in the lower echelons and the lower degrees you don't realize what's happening. Well, the meaning of the lodge and what it was about to me was a group of people who were out to help other people, and there were different things that you could see in the lodge that people were close together. They were bound by something, and I thought it was a Christian organization. What made one think that the lodge was a Christian place was the fact that I found people who were members of the same church, which I belong, the Presbyterian Church in Canada, were members of the lodge, members in prominent positions in the lodge, and the fact that these members in their rituals used quotations from Scripture, sort of doubly made one think that it was okay. They think that they are actually being initiated into a Christian organization, and it's because the three degrees in the blue lodge are veiled in a veneer of Christianity. Jesus Christ is central to the Christian faith. In fact, without him there is no Christianity. That is because Christ claimed to be God incarnate, and as such Christ cannot be separated from his teachings, he did not teach a system of morality to lead one to God. Instead, he claimed to be the way to the Father. But what is the official Masonic teaching about Jesus Christ? Listen again to supreme pontiff of Scottish right-free masonry, Albert Pike, it, masonry, reverences all the great reformers. It sees in Moses the logger of 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. In other words, Jesus Christ is reduced to being a great reformer, no different than Confucius or Zoroaster. But the Bible says plainly in Acts chapter 4, neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. The very essence of Christianity is man's inability to save himself. For this cause, God sent his only begotten son to die on the cross and make a tonement for us. How different this is from the teaching of Manly Hall in his book The Lost Keys of Free Masonry. The true Mason is not creed bound. He realizes with the divine illumination of his lodge that as a Mason, his religion must be universal. Christ, Buddha, or Muhammad, the name means little. For he recognizes only the light and not the light bearer. He worships at every shrine, bows before every altar, whether in temple, mosque, pagoda, cathedral, and realizes with his true understanding the oneness of all spiritual truths. No true Mason can be narrow. For his lodge is the divine expression of all broadness. An interesting statement, since in the Bible, Jesus Christ says, broad is the way that leadeth to destruction and many there be which go in there at, because straight as the gate and narrow as the way which leadeth unto life and few there be that find it. When Mason say that Jesus Christ is simply another great moral teacher, another great moral prophet, equal with Buddha. In fact, Mason's teach, according to Albert Pike, that Buddha was the first great Masonic teacher. So they're equating Jesus with Buddha, with Muhammad, with the religious leaders as just another religious leader. He is not God. He is not the incarnate savior who came to save men from their sins, because Mason's do not need a savior. Mason's feel they can save themselves through moral good deeds in the lodge that I belong to. We had a Muslim apply for membership, and the membership of our lodge didn't know how to initiate him because we knew we couldn't initiate him on the Holy Bible. So we wrote a letter to the Grand Lodge of Alberta, asked him for instruction, and the letter came back stating that we should place a Quran and the square and compass beside the Bible and the square and compass on the altar and initiating with full honors. Bible believing Christians accept the fact that God exists in a trinity of three persons that is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. But what most people, including many Mason's, don't realize, is that the God of free Mason's, the great architect of the universe, is also a trinity. In both the Scottish and York right, you discover that Mason's are on a journey seeking to find the lost name of God. Part of their religion, they say, is that the sacred name of God has been lost, and they tell this whole story of the building of Solomon's temple and the architect, Hiram Abiff, who in building the temple lost the sacred name of God. And so they say that Mason's are on this search to recover the lost name of God. And finally, when you get to the royal arch-degree, the Mason is finally told what the secret name of God is, that only Mason's can know, and they pride themselves that they alone are the custodians of the secret name of God. And that name can only be whispered among Mason's by three Mason's, each saying a syllable. The name is Jobulan. It is a combination of three words, Jehovah, Bale, and Osiris, the Egyptian sun god. And what a Mason is worshipping in the Masonic lodge is a three-headed god made up of Jehovah, Bale, which was the fertility god of Bale back in Lebanon, and Osiris, the Egyptian sun god, represented by the phallic symbol, the sexual worship in Egypt. And they have combined this into a three-headed monster and say, that is the Masonic god they worship. Salvation to the Christian is based entirely upon the vicarious sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross. The Bible teaches that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. It teaches that no matter how hard we work to be good, we can never attain to the standards of the sinless Almighty. But God gives the free gift of eternal life to those who believe in Jesus Christ and allow him to pay for their sins on his cross. In the words of John 316, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believe within him should not perish but have everlasting life. Salvation to the Mason is something entirely different. Masons are counting on their own good works, something that the Bible says cannot possibly save them. In fact, the Masonic monitor teaches that God, the all-seeing eye, will reward men according to their works. The all-seeing eye pervades the inmost recesses of the human heart and will reward us according to our merits. In the 19th degree of the Scottish right, the Mason is told, Masons who have given proof of their attachment to the statutes and rules of the order, which in the end will make them deserving of entering the celestial Jerusalem or heaven. The 28th degree of the Scottish right states, the true Mason raises himself by degrees till he reaches heaven. Masons believe that they can earn their salvation and they can climb a ladder up to God. They call the great architect of the universe. And that one day they'll stand before God and God will usher them into heaven not because of Jesus Christ but because they were a good Mason and they did all these good works. In fact, I was speaking to the head potentate of the shrine in Minneapolis where I'm from. He called me up one day. He had heard my tape on Masonry. He says, how dare you say that Masonry is not Christian? He says, I'm a deacon in my church. I teach Sunday school in my church. He says, I'm a good Christian. He says, and I'm the head of the shrine. How can you say I'm not a Christian? And I stopped and I asked him one question. I said, well, sir, I said, if you were to die and stand before God tonight and he should ask you, why should I let you into my heaven? I said, what would you say to him? I don't know. Forget there was a silence for about 10, 15 seconds and then he said to me, he said, well, I guess I would tell him I was a good Mason. If Masons are depending upon the lodge to save them, then their trust is as misplaced as those who depend upon church membership rather than on Christ. One might just as well depend on belonging to the Koanus or a rotary club if good works would save us. I was speaking down in Texas, in South Texas, where in a large church, the Masons who were in the church, many of them on the Older Board saw my tape Sunday morning when I was speaking there and they said, why are we allowing this man into our church? He's criticizing free masonry and most of the Older Board were Masons. The Sunday school teachers were Masons. In fact, one of the elders was the Worshipful Master of the Lodge in town. Another one was the Supreme Potentate of the Shrine. They came to me after the service and I said, well, you have the books. I said, look up in your own books in context what I say. I gave the chapters of the page numbers. They spent till four in the morning Sunday night going through all the documentation in their own Masonic library. They came back Monday and they said, we want you to know Ron, we all resigned from the Lodge last night. And we are seeing this happen all across the country as Masons will pill away the outer wrapping of the package and examine the content of what they're in. They will discover that they are in a non-Christian pagan idolatrous cult and no Christian has any part in it. In this video, we've tried to be objective. We have no axe to grind either with organized free masonry or with individual masons. There's absolutely no doubt that a great deal of good has been done in the name of free masonry and the morals of many, if not most, masons are of a very high order indeed. But that is unfortunately not the issue here. The real issue is that Masonry is a pagan religion that has more in common with witchcraft than Christianity. This is a time when they say that you're coming from darkness and delight. It's God is not the God of the Bible. It's God is Jabilan, a composite of Jehovah, bailed the Canaanite fertility deity and on or Osiris, the Egyptian sun god of phallic worship. It's means of salvation is not the cross of Christ, but a system of morality and good works to endeavor to attain to the celestial lodge. And to the mason, Jesus Christ is not the sinless son of God, but is degraded to the position of being just a great reformer, no different than Buddha, Confucius or Muhammad. It is here where we take issue with free masonry. The same Jesus who claimed to be God in human flesh also claimed to be the only way to the father. He also said that a man cannot serve two masters. If you are a mason, you must make a decision. You cannot be a Christian and remain in the Masonic lodge. Either let your sins be nailed to the cross of Jesus Christ the son of God or try to pay for them yourself in the system of morality and good works. There are verses in the Bible that we should come out from long and that we should that darkness has no relationship with light. And also in the book of Proverbs, it states that there is a way that seems right to a man, but it leads to death. And so therefore my advice is to walk away from it.