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An Open Letter
to a Christian Mason
You claim to be a Christian
In our hearts, we want to believe you. However, you have placed a stumbling block in
our path that is impossible for us to overlook. You see, while you claim to be a
Christian, we know that you are a Mason and we have come to know something about Masonry.
The basics of the Gospel are well documented. Paul summed it up well in his first
letter to the Corinthians:
Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also
ye have received, and wherein ye stand; By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory
what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first
of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the
scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the
scriptures:
1 Corinthians 15:1-4
Christians take the Gospel of Jesus very seriously because it is the only way of
salvation. There simply is no one else who can pay the price for our sin. Jesus said:
Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the
Father, but by me.
John 14:6
Just before Jesus ascended into heaven, he gave his disciples clear instructions:
And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in
earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father,
and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I
have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.
Matthew 28:18-20
Jesus instructed us to share the Gospel with all nations. He specifically stated that
we are to teach obedience to all of his commands. Christians are compelled to share the
Gospel with the lost. They do so because they are under the conviction of the Holy Spirit
and they care about those who do not know Jesus. A Christian would never embrace another
savior and he would never participate in teaching a false gospel based on another savior.
Our research has allowed us to know that Freemasonry has a plan
of salvation
In order to make certain that we properly understood Masonry, we studied Masonic
Monitors published by several Grand Lodges. As you know, Grand Lodges are the highest
authorities of Freemasonry. We found that Masons include members of many religions. There
are Buddhist Masons, Moslem Masons, Jewish Masons and men who claim to be Christians. When
we examined portions of Masonic ritual which are found in Grand Lodge monitors, we became
convinced that you, as a "Christian" Mason, have embraced another savior. We
know that you have participated in the teaching of a false gospel based on a false savior.
On page 68 of the 1993 edition of the Indiana Monitor and Freemason's Guide,
in the section on the Entered Apprentice Degree, a portion of ritual discussing the
covering of a Lodge is found:
The covering of a Lodge is a clouded canopy, or star-decked heaven, where all good
Masons hope at last to arrive. . .
There is no doubt that Masonic ritual encourages lost men to hope that they will enter
heaven. The fact that some Master Masons are Moslems and Buddhists proves that Masonry
offers false hope to unsaved men.
On page 109 of the Indiana monitor and Freemason's Guide, under
the heading The Three Steps, we found the following:
. . .as Fellow Crafts, we should apply our knowledge to the discharge of our respective
duties, to God, our neighbors and ourselves, so that in age, as Master Masons, we may
enjoy the happy reflections consequent on a well-spent life, and die in the hope of a
glorious immortality.
Again, Masonic ritual teaches that Master Masons will go to heaven by stating that they
may die looking forward to a glorious immortality. In the Indiana monitor we found a
portion of ritual which includes a prayer asking for salvation! It ends with these words:
Yet, O Lord! have compassion on the children of Thy creation, administer them comfort
in time of trouble, and save them with an everlasting salvation. Amen.
(pages 103-104)
The prayer is offered by the Worshipful Master during the ritual of the Master Mason
Degree in that portion known as the Legend of the Third Degree. The prayer occurs just
before Hiram Abiff is raised from the grave. You portrayed Hiram in the ritual when you
were raised to Master Mason. You, as Hiram Abiff, were killed, buried and then raised from
the grave. At the conclusion of the Legend of the Third Degree, the Senior Warden offered
the following conclusion to the ritual:
Then, finally my brethren, let us imitate our Grand Master, Hiram Abiff, in his
virtuous conduct, his unfeigned piety to God, and his inflexible fidelity to his trust;
that, like him, we may welcome the grim tyrant, Death, and receive him as a kind messenger
sent by our Supreme Grand Master, to translate us from this imperfect to that all-perfect,
glorious, and celestial Lodge above, where the Supreme Architect of the Universe presides.
We found that portion of the ritual cleverly paraphrased on page 67 of the 1979 edition
of the North Carolina Lodge Manual. The Lodge Manual didn't
directly mention Hiram Abiff, what they printed is "Let us imitate the example of * *
whom you have this evening represented. . ." We know they are referring to Hiram
Abiff. However, if there were any doubt, the text on page 152 of the 1946 edition of the Kentucky
Monitor settles the matter by stating, "Then let us imitate our G. M. H.
A. . . ."
Who is Hiram Abiff?
Why are Masons admonished to imitate Hiram Abiff? The ritual directly states: Masons
are to imitate Hiram Abiff that they may welcome death and be translated into heaven. No
where in Masonic ritual is Jesus Christ even mentioned! We found out why in the 1946
edition of the Kentucky Monitor. The Kentucky Monitor
reveals the identity of Hiram Abiff in a discussion of various religions:
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
Hindus called him Krishna; the Chinese, Kioun-tse; the Persians, Sosiosch; the Chaldeans,
Dhouvanai; the Egyptians, Horus; Plato, Love; the Scandinavians, Balder; the Christians,
Jesus; Masons, Hiram.
(pages XIV-XV, Kentucky Monitor)
Notice the parallel sentence structure in the last line. It clearly states that: Hiram
is to Masons as Jesus is to Christians
The meaning of Masonic ritual is perfectly clear.
- Masonry teaches that Jesus is not unique.
- Jesus is a savior for Christians, while Hiram Abiff is a savior for Masons.
Can a man have two saviors?
Some of the Masonic monitors we examined encourage Masons to read Masonic books in
order to gain further understanding of Masonry. The Indiana Monitor and
Freemason's Guide left no doubt about the authenticity of Masonic books:
In the ceremonies of making a Mason, we do not attempt to do more than to indicate the
pathway to Masonic knowledge, to lay the foundation for the Masonic edifice. The brother
must pursue the journey or complete the structure for himself by reading and reflection.
(Indiana Monitor, page 132)
The Macoy Publishing and Masonic Supply Company distributes The Meaning of
Masonry, by Lynn Perkins. The book clarifies Masonic teaching concerning
Hiram Abiff:
Therefore Masonry teaches that redemption and salvation are both the power and the
responsibility of the individual Mason. Saviors like Hiram Abiff can and do show the way,
but men must always follow and demonstrate, each for himself, his power to save himself,
to build his own spiritual fabric in his own time and way. Every man in essence is his own
savior and redeemer; for if he does not save himself, he will not be saved. The reader who
succeeds in getting back to the real teachings of the masters, including Jesus of
Nazareth, will find unanimity of thinking on this matter.
(page 95)
The fact that Masonry teaches redemption and salvation is documented in Mackey's [1862]
Manual of the Lodge, currently reproduced within the monitor of
the Grand Lodge of South Carolina, the Ahiman Rezon. It states:
It was the single object of all the ancient rites and mysteries practiced in the very
bosom of pagan darkness. . .to teach the immortality of the Soul. This is still the great
design of the third degree of Masonry. This is the scope and aim of its ritual. The Master
Mason represents man, when youth, manhood, old age, and life itself have passed away as
fleeting shadows, yet raised from the grave of iniquity, and quickened into another and
better existence. By its legend and all its ritual, it is implied that we have been
redeemed from the death of sin and the sepulchre of pollution. . . .and the conclusion we
arrive at is, that youth, properly directed, leads [us to the honorable and virtuous
maturity, and that] the life of man, regulated by morality, faith, and justice, will be
rewarded at its closing hour by the prospect of eternal bliss. . . The important design of
the degree is to symbolize the great doctrines of the resurrection of the body and the
immortality of the soul; and hence it has been remarked by a learned writer of our order,
that the Master Mason represents a man saved from the grave of iniquity, and raised to the
faith of salvation.
(1947 Ed. Ahiman Rezon, pages 141-2)
Those words, or most of them, are reproduced in the monitors of several states. The
1993 edition of the Indiana Monitor and Freemason's Guide contains
most of the passage explaining the meaning of the Legend of the Third Degree on page 154.
The Indiana Monitor confirms the universality of the Hiramic Legend in Masonry:
The Legend of the Third Degree. This is the most important and significant of the
legendary symbols of Freemasonry. It has descended from age to age by oral tradition and
has been preserved in every Masonic rite, practiced in any country or language, with no
essential alteration.
(page 41)
The Hiramic Legend is the glory of Freemasonry. . .
(page 158)
Freemasonry has a savior named Hiram Abiff. Freemasonry teaches that Master Masons have
been redeemed from the death of sin and represent those raised to the faith of salvation.
We know that every Masonic Lodge in the world includes the death, burial and resurrection
of Hiram Abiff in their ritual. We also know that you assumed the role of Hiram Abiff when
you went through the Master Mason degree. The ritual of the third degree directly states
that by imitating Hiram Abiff, Master Masons may get into heaven. As a Christian, you
should have "smelled a rat" when you, as Hiram Abiff, were killed, buried and
raised from the grave. That ritual mocks the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. The clincher would
have been when the Senior Warden told you that you could get into heaven by imitating
Hiram Abiff.
Can we know what you believe?
You may think that it is impossible for us to know what you believe. To a large degree,
you are correct. You may think that we cannot know that you have accepted the teachings of
Freemasonry, simply because you are a member of the Lodge. What we do know is that any man
who remains a Mason after being confronted with the teachings of Freemasonry has not
rejected those teachings, as would a Christian. As long as you remain a Mason and continue
to claim to be a Christian, we have to choose whether to believe your claims, as you
participate in a pagan religion, or to believe the words of John which are found in the
Holy Bible:
This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is
light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him, and
walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: But if we walk in the light, as he is in
the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son
cleanseth us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the
truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our
sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we
make him a liar, and his word is not in us. My little children, these things write I unto
you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus
Christ the righteous: And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but
also for the sins of the whole world. And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep
his commandments. He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar,
and the truth is not in him. But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God
perfected: hereby know we that we are in him. He that saith he abideth in him ought
himself also so to walk, even as he walked.
1 John 1:5-2:6
You have chosen to walk in darkness
You are not walking in the light. Because you are not walking in the light, you are not
in fellowship with Jesus Christ. Since you are not in fellowship with Jesus, it is
impossible for us to have fellowship with you. Don't ask us to believe that you can
continue to be both a Christian and a Mason or that, as a Mason, you can have fellowship
with Jesus. Before we could believe that, we would have to stop believing the Bible.
Scripture does not lead us to believe that you will fare well on judgement day.
Participation in teaching a false gospel leads to condemnation:
But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that
which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.
Galatians 1:8
God offered His Son, Jesus Christ as a sacrifice for your sins. He offered Jesus as
your covering before Him. The lodge gave you a lambskin apron to wear as your covering
before God. Jesus warned that there would be those who would claim to be following Him,
whom he would turn away on judgement day:
Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven;
but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that
day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils?
and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew
you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
Matthew 7:21-23
We have spoken quite directly to you because we don't want you to stand before God with
your lambskin apron as your covering. All of those who do not have the covering of the
Blood of the Jesus, the Lamb of God, will be thrown into the lake of fire. As a Mason you
are not following the teachings of Jesus, but rather are standing in agreement with a
false gospel which leads men to hell.
John warned us:
Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He
that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son.
2 John:9
Jesus still wants to forgive you
Jesus is willing to forgive you. In fact, he wants to forgive you. But, His forgiveness
is dependent on your repentance. Repent before it is too late.
Documentation is available
The source documents for each and every quote in this essay
are available for download in a PDF file. The documentation may be
viewed and printed using the Adobe Reader.
To obtain a copy of this essay in the form of a tract
- Or, write to the address below and ask for
the "Open Letter" tract.
Ephesians 5:11, Inc.
Box 291
Fishers, IN 46038
Copyright 1997 Ephesians 5:11, Inc.
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