Beginnings

Freemasonry started in Europe some time around the 16^th century, and now is a network of at least six million "brothers" around the world.ⁱ Many—if not all—American presidents have been involved in Masonry.

Although some parts of Freemasonry are secret, this society is really a front organization controlled by the Society of Jesus—the Jesuits:

If you trace up Masonry, through all its Orders, till you come to the grand tip-top, head Mason of the World, you will discover that the dread individual and the Chief of the Society of Jesus are one and the same person!ⁱⁱ

The truth is, the Jesuits of Rome have perfected Freemasonry to be their most magnificent and effective tool, accomplishing their purposes among Protestants.ⁱⁱⁱ

Even members of the New Age movement recognize this connection. Theosophist Helena Blavatsky says this:

It is curious to note too that most of the bodies which work these, such as the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, the Rite of Avignon, the Order of the Temple, Fessler's Rite, the "Grand Council of the Emperors of the East and West—"Sovereign Prince Masons," etc., etc., are nearly all the offspring of the sons of Ignatius Loyola. The Baron Hundt, Chevalier Ramsay, Tschoudy, Zinnendorf, and numerous others who founded the grades in these rites, worked under instructions from the General of the Jesuits. The nest where these high degrees were hatched, and no Masonic rite is free from their baleful influence more or less, was the Jesuit College of Clermont at Paris (emphasis added).^iv

Freemasonry carries on the legacy of the Knights Templar, a military order controlled by the Pope. Although the Knights Templar supposedly do not exist in the same form, a group associated with Freemasonry called the Knights Templar does still exist, and similar organizations such as the Knights of Malta also carry on the legacy.

Secret Knowledge

The highest levels of Freemasonry have the Gnostic "secret knowledge" that they hide from the rest of the world, and even lower-level Masons are kept in the dark. Read more about this double doctrine in our article Spirituality and Secret Societies

There is a division between the inner circle and the outer, the freemen who have the knowledge, and the commoners who don't even know they are being controlled and enslaved:

We must create a super rite, which will remain unknown, to which we will call those Masons of high degree (30th and above), whom we shall select. With regards to our brothers in Masonry, these men must be pledged to the strictest secrecy. Through this supreme rite, we will govern all Freemasonry which will become the one international center, the more powerful, because its direction will be unknown.^v

The Blue Degrees are but the outer court of 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. The whole body of the Royal and Sacerdotal Art was hidden so carefully, centuries since, in the High Degrees (emphasis added).^vi

Humanism

Religion of self—the idea that "man is a god in the making"^vii—is another of Satan's lies taught in Masonry, as these Masonic sources tell us:

Therefore Masonry teaches that redemption and salvation are both the power and the responsibility of the individual Mason...Every man in essence is his own savior and Redeemer; for if he does not save himself, he will not be saved.^viii

our goal is to create harmony within the lodge and to improve ourselves, spiritually, intellectually, morally; in all aspects of our lives (emphasis added).^ix

The perfect man is Christ: and Christ is God. This is the birth-right and destiny of every human soul...It is far more important that men should strive to become Christs than that they should believe that Jesus was Christ.^x

Be still—and know—that I am God...‘that I am God,’ the final recognition of the All in All, the unity of the Self with the Cosmos—the cognition of the divinity of the self (emphasis added)!^xi

Ecumenism

This divinity of self appeals to people of many religions. Freemasonry allows use of any scripture, and worship at any altar—perpetuating the universal religion that satisfies them all:

We permit Jewish and [Muslim] brethren to content themselves with the books of the Old Testament or Koran. Masonry does not interfere with the peculiar form or development of any one’s religious faith. All that it asks is that the interpretation of the symbol shall be in accordance to what each one supposes to be the revealed will of the creator.^xii

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 Mohammed, the name means 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.^xiii

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 the Koran in a Mohammedan one, belong on the Altar; and one of these, and the Square and Compass, properly understood, are the Great Lights by which a Mason must walk and work.^xiv

Freemasonry is helping in the Papacy's and New Age movement's mission of joining all the world's religions together, as we are seeing happen in the United Nations, the World Council of Churches, and the ecumenical movement.

Learn more about spirituality and secret societies