A  Christians View of Freemasonry

This study is based on the study from the book “Freemasonry and Christianity Are they compatible?"

The Working Group in response to the name 'Jahbulon' the Freemasons give to God, asked the question: How is it then, that Jahbulon is thought to be the sacred name, the name of God on whom the rituals of the Royal Architect are focused, mentioned in each Degree?  It is a syncregistic name for God made out of the name of Yahweh, Baal and Osiris the Egyptian fertility god.

 (A contribution to discussion. Prepared by the working Group established by the Standing Committee of the General Synod of the Church of England. Published by Church House Publishing. 1985)

Freemasonry, in its concept of God the Architect, represents or be a party to, an all faiths understanding of religion and representation of God.

Freemasons meet in common respect for the Supreme Being as he remains supreme for that individual religion. Although they may be conscious of addressing their God and their Brother addressing his god in the course of the rituals.

Freemasonry may understand themselves either to be addressing the God of their own religion or to be addressing the God of different religions under one neutral home.

The supreme Degree inspires its members a reverence for Jehovah the eternal Ruler of the Universe.

The Working Group in response to the name Freemasons give to God, asked the question: How is it then, that Jahbulon is thought to be the sacred name, the name of God on whom the rituals of the Royal Architect are focused, mentioned in each Degree?  It is a syncregistic name for God made out of the name of Yahweh, Baal and Osiris the Egyptian fertility god.
Syncretistic – tending to blend opposing parties and speculative systems by minimising differences.

It is the obvious result of juggling of the Hebrew characters is to emphasise the formation of Bal. The name of the Semitic deity bitterly opposed by Elijah and the later Hebrew prophets. To associate this name in any way with that of Jehovah would have deeply shocked them.

The Working Group has concluded that Jahbulon (whether it is a name or a description), which appears in all the rituals, must be considered blasphemous: in Christian theology the name of God (Yahweh/Jehovah) must not be taken in vain, nor can it be replaced by an amalgam of the names of pagan deities.                      

Freemasons disclaim any practice of religion  
The Working Group in their study of the practices and rituals found that its activities are centred on Temples whose rituals contain references to ‘altars’. Each Lodge has a Chaplain albeit he need not be in Holy Orders 

The Rituals  

The rituals themselves are allegorical dramas based on the partly factual, partly fictional history of King Solomon’s Temple. The work of Hiram Abiff its chief architect and the Master Mason in command of the construction of the Temple. 2 Chronicles 2: 13 (Huram Abi)  1 Kings 7: 13

Fiction – The story of his murder and in the Holy Royal Architect ritual, the discovery in the foundations of his ruined Temple of the ‘omnific’ word: the lost name of God. 

The candidate impersonates Hiram Abiff – he falls to the floor shams death and is buried. He is raised up by the Worshipful Master. 

First Degree Training Board given in Emulation Ritual (Emulation – follow in the footsteps of) 

The usage and customs among Freemasons have ever borne a near affinity to those Ancient Egyptians their philosophers unwilling to expose their mysteries to vulgar eyes,   systems of learning and polity (civil) constitution under signs and hieroglyphic figures which were communicated to their chief priests magic alone, who were bound to solemn oath to conceal them. The systems of Pythagoras founded on similar principle. 

Many are concerned by the secrecy of Freemasonry: if Freemasonry is right, why all the secrecy?’ asks Andy Arbuthnot and many others. In their evidence to the Working Group, the Untied Grand Lodge argued very strongly that the element of secrecy was much exaggerated by their detractors, making the point that Freemasonry, historically, has been exempted from legislation suppressing secret societies considered a danger to the state.  

The Working Group had no difficulty whatsoever in obtaining copies of the Emulation Ritual, one of the several ‘workings’ of Lodges under the Grand Lodge of England. Nevertheless an essential feature of the rituals of the Craft Masonry is that the candidate undertakes ‘without evasion, equivocation, or mental reservation of any kind’, never to reveal to a non-Mason any of the steps, signs and grips and words which are disclosed to a candidate in the initiation ceremonies.

Any good library will have books which contain or explain the “Secrets” of Freemasonry. Yet Craft members continue to swear a solemn oath on the Bible not to reveal secrets, which are not secrets at all. Canon Demant concluded his observations on the Obligations: ‘there is no certainty that the Christian initiate will not find afterwards that he has joined an alien cult’. 

Opening prayers. First Degree page 68 Incorporation of familiar Christian prayers.   

First Degree. Vouchsafe Thine aid, Almighty Father and supreme Governor of the Universe . . . . to the honour and glory of Thy Holy Name.  

Second Degree. There are references to ‘the help of God’ and ‘the blessings of Heaven’; there is an actual prayer.  

Third Degree. Almighty and Eternal God, Architect and Ruler of the Universe . . . to pour down on this convocation assembled in Thy Holy Name the continual dew of thy blessing.  

The opening ceremony of the Aldergate Ritual for the Royal Architect Omnipotent - God unto whom all hearts are open, all desires are known and from whom no secrets are hidden, cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of thy Holy Spirit that we may perfectly love you and worthily magnify your Holy name, but words: through Jesus Christ our Lord are omitted. 

Freemasons firmly reject the suggestion neither that nor merely the absence, but the deletion, of the name of Christ from their rituals constitutes a denial of him. ‘As Freemasonry is not a religion or a substitute for it, there is no reason why the name of Christ should be mentioned in its rituals. (Evidence from the United Grand Lodge)  

Christian opponents of Freemasonry frequently assert that it could just as reasonably be argued that, this being the case, it is unwise, to say the least, to pluck phrases and prayers from undeniable and recognisable Christian liturgies. The identification one with the other is too natural, and too misleading in the light of Freemasonry’s claim that its rituals ‘do not amount to the practise of religion’. Christian belief that none come to God save through Jesus Christ our Lord; and for some, it would appear to be a denial of the divinity of Christ.  

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A Temple made with Human Hands  

Hiram Abiff was under the Law of Moses in his work for Solomon. He was called by Solomon to build his Temple.  This Temple made by hands, by human effort, forced labour and was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar and the second Temple built by Zarubbabel and Joshua extended by King Herod was also destroyed by the Romans in 70AD. 

A Temple made without Hands 

Jesus’ prophecy in John 2: 19, 21. “Destroy this temple, this building with all its rituals and sacrifices, and in three days I will raise it up.” John wrote, “But he spoke of the temple of his body.” After Jesus died on the cross and was taken and laid in a grave tomb, the body of Jesus having the Temple rituals and sacrifices completed in his life and death: the Passover lamb, the Scapegoat, the final sacrifice for all sin, the perpetual light of the temple, the candlestick, the manna and the shrew bread, the water contained in the laver, the altar of incense, a booth and so on. 

The New Jerusalem  

“And I saw no temple in the city (Jerusalem), for its temple is the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb (Jesus).” Revelation 21: 22.  

God resurrected Jesus and gave him a resurrected body. In the resurrected body of Jesus we have the temple of the eternal kingdom and when we come in faith and receive Jesus as our Saviour we enter into his kingdom our earthly bodies become the dwelling place of God’s Spirit. Paul refers to our bodies being the temple of the living God.  

"What agreement has the temple of God with idols?  For we are the temple of living God; as God said, “I will live in them and move among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Therefore come out from among them, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch nothing unclean; then I will welcome you, and I will be a Father to you, and you shall be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.” 2 Corinthians 6: 16-18.