Nuggets from Occult Invasion—An Anti-Christian Religion of Salvation by Works

Masonry has its own anti-Christian gospel, which assures members that through good works and obedience to its tenets they will reach the Celestial Lodge in the Sky presided over by the G.A.O.T.U. (Great Architect of the Universe), or “God as you conceive him to be.” Masonic authority Carl H. Claudy writes: “Masonry…requires merely that you believe in some deity, give him what name you will…any god will do, so he is your god.”

In the initiation into the very first degree, the Lambskin represents “that purity of life and conduct which is necessary to obtain admittance into the Celestial Lodge above [i.e., heaven]….” In the 19^th degree of Scottish Rite Freemasonry the initiate is told that attachment to Masonry’s “statutes and rules of the order” will make him “deserving of entering the celestial Jerusalem [heaven].” In the 28^th he is told that “the true Mason [is one] who raises himself by degrees till he reaches heaven” and that one of his duties is “to divest [him]self of original sin….” These and other rituals of Masonry fly in the face of the many declarations in the Bible that salvation is “not of works” (Ephesians:2:8-10 [8] For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: [9] Not of works, lest any man should boast. [10] For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
See All...) nor by “works of righteousness” (Titus:3:5Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;
See All...).

In the ritual for “Knight of East and West,” the Master, after anointing the candidate with perfumed ointment, declares that his body has “this day been made holy!” In a further mockery of the blood of Christ shed for sin, the Senior Warden, after taking a drop of blood from the candidate’s arm, declares that he has washed his robe in his own blood. He is then given the “sacred word, Abaddon,” which, according to Revelation:9:11And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon.
See All..., is the name of the leader of the hordes of hell.

Similar blasphemy is found in nearly all Masonic rituals. How then could Peale declare that there is nothing a Christian “could not endorse”? Albert Pike declares, “Masonry…is the universal, eternal, immutable religion…. [It] sees in Moses…in Confucius and Zoroaster, in Jesus of Nazareth and in the Arabian Iconoclast [Mohammed] Great Teachers of Morality…and allows every brother of the Order to assign to each such higher and even Divine Character as his Creed and Truth require.” But no Mason may declare that the God of the Bible is the only true God or that Jesus Christ is the one true Savior of sinners, for such statements would undermine Masonry’s ecumenical embrace of all religions. Thus in Masonry’s “Maundy Thursday Ritual of the Chapter of Rose Croix” it is stated:

“We meet this day to commemorate the death of Jesus, not as inspired or divine, for this is not for us to decide.”

Joseph Fort Newton, another authority on Masonry, writes, “Masonry is…a worship, in which men of all religions unite…. It invites to its altar men of all faiths, knowing that, if they use different names for the nameless one of a hundred names, they are yet praying to the one God….” In full confirmation of this astonishing and impossible ecumenism, Albert Pike also wrote: “Masonry [is the religion] around whose altars the Christian, the Hebrew, the Moslem, the Brahman [Hindu], the followers of Confucius and Zoroaster, can assemble as brethren and unite in prayer….” And again Manly P. Hall declares:

“The true disciple of ancient Masonry has given up forever the worship of personalities…. As a Mason his religion must be universal: Christ, Buddha or Mohammed, the names mean little, for he recognizes only the Light and not the bearer [person]….”

The quotes we have given above demonstrate beyond dispute the anti-Christian nature of Masonry. Yet more than a million Southern Baptist laymen and clergy are in Masonry’s power (and the number of Masons present), the 1993 annual convention of Southern Baptist Doctrine” and that much undeniably pagan and/or occult” was involved in Masonry. How astonishing that anti-Christianity is an option in the largest Christian denomination in America!