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1.) It is teaching religion. It's symbols are designed to represent a type of religious truth. The religious truth it is supposed to symbolize, though, is not the truth. Freemasonry teaches, through allegory, that salvation is based upon how good you can become. Statements such as, "character determines destiny" (A Masonic Creed), "purity of life and rectitude of conduct which is so essentially necessary to his gaining admission into the Celestial Lodge above, where the Supreme Architect of the Universe forever presides" (Q&A, page 4), "Faith, Hope, and Charity,...the means of advancing from earth to heaven, from death to life, from mortal to immortal" (Q&A, page 17), "teaching strict rectitude and justice...courtesy and kindness...uprightness of heart and integrity of action...in hope of being accepted by the Most High, as successful candidates for admission into the Grand Lodge above" (Q&A, page 21), "morality, faith, and justice will be rewarded at its closing hour by the prospect of eternal bliss" (Q&A, page 21), "the Free and Accepted Mason...performs a moral work, and hence his reward is interior and spiritual" (Q&A, page 30), and "the earnest endeavor to live up to the beautiful teachings of masonry cannot help be make any man better" (Address to Candidate on Receiving the Third Degree) teaches that by your own works, you become better. So good, in fact, that God will take you into Heaven based upon your deeds.
But what does the Bible say?
"For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest
any man should boast" (Eph. 2:8-9)
"But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags" (Isaiah 64:6)
"There is none righteous, no, not one: there is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable: there is none that doeth good,
no, not one." (Romans 3:10-12)
"Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight" (Romans 3:20)
"For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23)
"without shedding of blood is no remission" (Hebrews 9:22)
And other scriptures teaching that, no matter how good we can be, there is only one way to Heaven - Jesus Christ. The most moral man with the most good works will still go to Hell without Christ.
2.) Freemasonry teaches all, even the Christian, to honor all faiths and religions. Most all other religions,
though, deny that Jesus is the Son of God. How can a Christian honor and reverence that? Some religions
deny that there is a heaven or a hell, the virgin birth, that Jesus ever existed, that the worlds were created by
God, and much, much more heresy. Islam is the number 1 "killer religion" in the world. They kill children,
women in the name of their God. Mormons believe that God was once a man who became God through his
good works and that Jesus was created by God and Mary having sexual intercourse. They also believe that
we can be like God and have our own planets to rule over and that Jesus has many spiritual wives. The founder of Mormonism, Joseph Smith, was a Freemason. Hindus believe in reincarnation. Christian Science teaches that Jesus is just a figment of our imagination. How can a Christian reverence and honor all religions in the name of Freemasonry? Statements such as: "There is one God, the Father of all men" (A Masonic Creed), "to adopt the principles and revere the ordinances of religion" (A Masonic Creed-A Mason Teaching), "it teaches us to revere every book of faith...joining hands with the man of Islam as he takes oath on the Koran, and with the Hindu as he makes covenant with God upon the book that he loves best", "religions are many but Religion is one", "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 and Father of all", "we honor every book of faith", (The Words of a Great Masonic Divine), "The Masonic system...founded on universal piety" (Q&A, page 12), "that sacred and inviolable bond which unites men of the most discordant opinions into one band of brothers, which gives...one altar to men of all religions" (Q&A, page 22), "the tie that binds men together into one temple of living stones" (Q&A, page 28) prove that Freemasonry demands that the Christian accept, honor, and revere all religions, even those that deny his Saviour.
But what does the Bible say?
"I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils. Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord's table, and of the table of devils." (1 Cor. 10:20-21)
"But be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with
unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?" (2 Cor. 6:14)
"come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord" (2 Cor. 6:17)
"Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?" (1 Cor. 5:6)
"Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist" (1 John 2:23)
"He that commiteth sin is of the devil" (1 John 3:8)
"Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness
(1 Thess. 5:5)
"If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed." (Gal. 1:9)
"have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them" (Eph. 5:11)
And many other scriptures teaching that we have no business binding ourselves with the world in a covenant
agreement, let alone honoring and reverencing their religions. No matter how good someone is, if they do not believe that Jesus is the Christ, they will not go into "eternal bliss".
3.) Freemasonry teaches that the Bible is "one" of the great lights of the Order. It teaches that all books of
faith, whether or not they deny Christ, are simply additional volumes of the Bible, as though they are, also,
inspired by God (as shown in point 2, above). Some of the writings of Masonry indicate that the Bible is not the only book of God nor the only guiding light. Statements such as: "what a place of honor the Bible has in Masonry. One of the great Lights in the Order", "while they read different volumes, they are in fact reading the same vast Book of the Faith of Man", "each age, each kindred, adds a verse to it" (The Words of a Great Masonic Divine), "Nor is the Bible mentioned in these early times as the central light of the Lodge." (The Bible and Early Masonry), "In the oldest ritual that we have...there is no mention of the Bible as one of the lights.", "in the rituals of 1760 it is described as one of the three great lights" (Q&A, page 6)
But what does the Bible say?
"If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:
and if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book." (Rev.22:18-19)
"thy word is truth" (John 17:17)
"For we are not as many which corrupt the word of God: but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of
God speak we in Christ." (2 Cor. 2:17)
"we have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of
God deceitfully" (2 Cor. 4:2)
"Holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort
and to convince the gainsayers." (Titus 1:9)
"they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction
...beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own stedfastness"
(2 Pet. 3:16-17)
"All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for
instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect" (2 Tim. 3:16-17)
4.) Freemasonry teaches that anyone coming into the Lodge is coming in from outer darkness into light.
A Christian, though, should never go along with the notion that he is walking in darkness and needs the
Lodge to walk in light. The leaders of the Lodge, itself, may well not be Christians. The Master Mason or
Master of the Lodge, from whom Freemasonry teaches comes "light", may, himself, be walking in darkness.
Also, it apparently teaches that only Master Masons can enter Heaven. I suppose that he is the only one that
has worked on his temple enough to merit it. Can those below him in Freemasonry enter Heaven? Statements such as, "Heaven is the Foreign Country into which the Master Mason seeks to enter, in search
of wages." (Q&A, page 16), "It is the ultimate desire of every Mason to be well informed on Masonry, and
may every Mason strive constantly for Light...he who introduces Light into the lodge must be a worthy man
and experienced in the Craft." (Q&A, page 19), "Master of the Lodge...is, in an emphatic sense, a teacher,
must qualify himself by a diligent investigation of these symbols and veiled allegories-the myths and legends
of Masonry-their mystical application, and the whole design of the institution in this, its most important
feature, must constitute his study." (Q&A, page 20), "The Master Mason represents man...raised from the
grave of iniquity, and quickened into another and better existence...it is implied that we have been redeemed
from the death of sin" (Q&A, page 21), "The Master is reminded of the dignity of his character and position,
and the brethren of the respect and veneration due him...a reverential awe for Deity is inculcated, and the eye is fixed on that object from whose radiant beam alone light can be derived" (Q&A, page 22), "The First
Degree illustrates birth from outer oblivion or darkness into the light of life" (Address to Candidate on
Receiving the Third Degree).
But what does the Bible say?
"Neither be ye called masters: for one is your Master, even Christ." (Matt. 23:10)
"they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch"
(Matt. 15:14)
"Ye are the light of the world" (Matt. 5:14)
"light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil...he
that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God."
(John 3:19-21)
"but the path of the just is as the shining light...the way of the wicked is as darkness" (Proverbs 4:18-19)
"open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins" (Acts 26:18)
"For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of
the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." (2 Cor. 4:6)
"Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light" (2 Cor. 11:14)
"For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light" (Eph. 5:8)
"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, either shadow of turning." (James 1:17)
"the sons of God...in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the
world" (Phil. 2:15)
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