Chapter Three
The Masonic Doctrine of God

The All-Inclusive Deity of Freemasonry

Freemasonry’s lodges are erected to God.... Symbolically, to "erect to God" means to construct something in honor, in worship, in reverence to and for him. Hardly is the initiate within the West Gate before he is impressed that Freemasonry worships God.⁽¹⁾

         Let no man enter any great or important undertaking without first evoking the aid of Deity.... The trust of a Mason is in God.⁽²⁾

Having established that Freemasonry is indeed a religion, it should not surprise us that "worship" is conducted within the walls of the Lodge. However, since we are told that "Freemasonry is not Christianity," the question before us is, Just who is worshipped as "God" by Masons?
         According to Allen E. Roberts, "In his private devotions a Mason will pray to Jehovah, Mohammed, Allah, Jesus, or the deity of his choice."⁽³⁾ In the lower degrees of the Blue Lodge, Freemasonry purposely attributes many ambiguous names to what it refers to as "God" to avoid offending any of its members. Among these names are "The Great Architect of the Universe," "The Governor of the World," "The Nameless One of a Thousand Names," etc. One Masonic periodical stated:

[The Mason] prays to the Grand Artificer or the Great Architect of the Universe. Under that title men of all faiths may find each his own Deity. Failure to mention any deity by name is not denial, but merely the practice of a gracious courtesy, so that each man for whom the prayer is offered can hear the name of his own deity in the all inclusive title of Great Architect.⁽⁴⁾

Freemasonry at its entrance level in the Blue Lodge degrees is polytheistic because it claims to give equal honor to the deities of all religions. However, as a man advances into the higher degrees of either the York Rite or the Scottish Rite, it becomes apparent that this is yet another deception employed by the Blue Lodge. According to Albert Pike, "Among all the ancient nations there was one faith and one idea of Deity for the enlightened, intelligent, and educated and another for the common people."⁽⁵⁾ The truth is that Freemasonry is tolerant only of those concepts of God which either conform to its own, or can be molded to do so. Of course, the true Christian would not find himself welcome within the Lodge simply because the Bible teaches that there is but one God and no other. Indeed, the Scriptures describe Yahweh as a personal and jealous Deity who condemns the worship of any other god as idolatrous and deserving of death. It is no wonder, then, that Henry Wilson Coil denounced the "ancient tribal Hebrew Jahweh" as a "partisan, tribal God,"⁽⁶⁾ amd stated that "monotheism... violates Masonic principles."⁽⁷⁾
         However, the face of Freemasonry changes once a man advances beyond the Blue Lodge. Martin Wagner wrote:

In its doctrines concerning the divine eminence Freemasonry is decidedly pantheistic, partaking of the various shades of that view of the divine. God (the Great Architect) is the great "soul" of the universe, and the universe is the garment in which he is clothed.
         The Masonic view of the revelation of God, in the lower degrees, is deistic, but in the higher degrees it becomes pantheistic. The writings of Garrison, Buck, Pike, and other eminent Masons show this unmistakably. It is this particular pantheistic conception of deity which has passed from India through the secret doctrines of the Kabbalah into the modern speculative Freemasonry.... In Masonry, a god distinct from the life of nature has no existence.⁽⁸⁾

Wagner was absolutely correct in pointing out that Freemasonry becomes blatantly pantheistic as it begins to place greater emphasis in the higher degrees upon the "one true God" or the "religion of Nature." According to Manly P. Hall, the true Mason knows that the essence of divinity is to be discovered in every "plant, animal, mineral, and man... and [he] recognizes the oneness of life manifesting through the diversity of form."⁽⁹⁾ Freemasonry teaches that behind this "diversity of form" is one connected "Life Principle," or the "Spark of God" in all living things, and that the Mason must strive to hasten the day when "the crystallization of form with its false concepts is swept away, [and] one great truth [Freemasonry] remains."⁽¹⁰⁾ In his Encyclopedia of Freemasonry, Albert Mackey spoke of the "Divine Spirit," or anima mundi ("soul of the world"), and described this "immaterial force" as "the source of all physical and sentient life."⁽¹¹⁾ Former Sovereign Grand Commander Henry C. Clausen further substantiated this as a Masonic belief when he wrote the following commentary on the Twenty-Eighth Degree of the Scottish Rite: "This is a Kabalistic and Hermetic Degree of the greatest antiquity, dealing with the primal matter of all things.... What we see in this life are reflections of things that exist in the invisible spiritual world.... [There exists] an underlying divinity in all things."⁽¹²⁾
         Though Freemasons are encouraged in the lower degrees to pray to "Jehovah, Mohammed, Allah, Jesus, or the deity of his choice," the purpose of the higher degrees is to teach the participant that these are all in fact false gods and inadequate caricatures of the "One True God": "Every religion and every conception of God is idolatrous, insofar as it is imperfect, as it substitutes a feeble and temporary idea in the shrine of that Undiscoverable Being [of Masonry]."⁽¹³⁾
         As the Mason progresses higher into the Royal Arch degrees of the York Rite, he is eventually given the "true name of God," and must swear a solemn oath never to reveal it to those outside of his degree of initiation, even at the peril of his own life. This secret name -- "Jah-Bul-On" -- is a composite of the Hebrew Tetragrammaton (YHWH, "Jehovah" or "Yahweh"), "Baal," and "Osiris." The identity of this "Undiscoverable Being" will become obvious as we proceed.

The Ancient Worship of the Pagan Sun-God

According to the various pagan traditions, one man (known by various names, depending upon the language and culture in which the tradition is found) elevated himself in the days just after a great flood as the first world dictator by gathering men into walled cities and training the first army of warriors. The Assyrians knew this character as Ninus, which literally means “the Son,” and his father as Belus or Bel, “the Confounder.”⁽¹⁴⁾ According to Assyrian legend, Ninus was “the first who carried on war against his neighbours, and he conquered all nations from Assyria to Lybia, as they were unacquainted with the arts of war.”⁽¹⁵⁾ At a time when the sparse human population was constantly threatened by roving wild animals, this individual was also renowned for his prowess as a hunter and was therefore known in Egypt as Khons, “the Huntsman,” or “god of the chase”⁽¹⁶⁾ and was frequently pictured dressed in a leopard skin.⁽¹⁷⁾ This common myth of Ninus as a skilled horseman and hunter seems to be the origin of the mythological Greek character of the centaur, a half horse and half man creature with a bow and arrow in its hands.⁽¹⁸⁾
         That the man thus described with such striking similarity in the pagan myths must have been Nimrod, the son of Cush and grandson of the cursed Ham, is beyond doubt. For example, the Egyptians identified Nimus as Osiris, the son of Horus or Hermes, the latter name meaning “son of Ham,”⁽¹⁹⁾ and the Chaldees called him Zernebogus, which means “the seed of the prophet Cush.”⁽²⁰⁾ To the Greeks, he was known as Bacchus, literally “the branch of Cush”⁽²¹⁾ and to the Phoenicians, he was Chusorus, “the seed of Cush.”⁽²²⁾ Not only is Nimrod described in Scripture as “a mighty one in the earth” and “a mighty hunter before the LORD” (Genesis 10:8-9), but his very name is derived from two Hebrew words: nemar, leopard⁽²³⁾ and radah, subjugate.⁽²⁴⁾ Thus, his name literally means “the subduer of the leopard” -- further identifying him as the mythological hunter. Moreover, biblical scholars are agreed that it was Nimrod who supervised the construction of the city and tower of Babel in the land of Shinar (Genesis 11:1-8) and later the city of Ninevah (Genesis 10:11). He is also referred to in pagan mythology as Phoroneus, the “emancipator” or “deliverer” — an allusion to his “deliverance” of mankind from the moral laws of God:

...[N]ot content with delivering men from the fear of wild beasts, [Nimrod] set to work also to emancipate them from that fear of the Lord which is the beginning of wisdom, and in which alone true happiness can be found. For this very thing, he seems to have gained, as one of the titles by which men delighted to honour him, the title of the “Emancipator,” or “Deliverer.” The reader may remember a name that has already come under his notice. That name is the name of Phoroneus. The era of Phoroneus is exactly the era of Nimrod. He lived about the time when men had used one speech, when the confusion of tongues began, and when mankind was scattered abroad. He is said to have been the first that gathered mankind into communities, the first of mortals that reigned, and the first that offered idolatrous sacrifices. This character can agree with none but that of Nimrod. Now the name given to him in connection with his “gathering men together,” and offering idolatrous sacrifice, is very significant. Phoroneus, in one of its meanings, and that of the most natural, signifies the “Apostate.” That name had very likely been given him by the uninfected portion of the sons of Noah. But that name had also another meaning, that is, “to set free;” and therefore his own adherents adopted it, and glorified the great “Apostate” from the primeval faith, though he was the first that abridged the liberties of mankind, as the grand “Emancipator”! And hence, in one form or other, this title was handed down to his deified successors as a title of honour. All tradition from the earliest times bears testimony to the apostacy of Nimrod, and to his success in leading men away from the patriarchal faith, and delivering their minds from that awe of God and fear of the judgments of heaven that must have rested on them while yet the memory of the flood was recent. And according to all the principles of depraved human nature, this too, no doubt, was one grand element in his fame; for men will readily rally around any one who can give the least appearance of plausibility to any doctrine which will teach that they can be assured of happiness and heaven at last, though their hearts and natures are unchanged, and though they live without God in the world.⁽²⁵⁾

Since Nimrod was viewed as the great “life-giver,” it was only natural that his veneration would, over time, become associated with the worship of the great “life-giving sun.” According to Babylonian myth, Nimrod was brutally murdered⁽²⁶⁾ and was subsequently reborn into the body of his son, Tammuz.⁽²⁷⁾ This was symbolized in Chaldean lore by the setting of the sun in the west, and its rising in the east. Eventually, the sun came to be worshiped as the Supreme God, author of light and of life, and the naturalistic religion of which such worship was an integral part was diversified amongst the ancient civilizations under various appellations following the scattering of “the sons of Adam” (Genesis 11; Deuteronomy 32:8). To the Moabites, the sun-god was known as Chemosh (1 Kings 11:33), to the Ammonites, he was Molech (1 Kings 11:7), to the Egyptians, he was Osiris or On (Genesis 41:45), and to the Assyrians, he was Baal, or Bul.
         Though Scripture repeatedly condemned participation in such idolatrous worship (Exodus 34:14), the chosen people of Israel were especially warned by God against involvement in the veneration of Baal, whose barbaric rituals involved self mutilation (1 Kings 18:28), ritual prostitution (Judges 2:17; Jeremiah 7:9; Amos 2:7), the offering of infants as burnt sacrifices (Deuteronomy 12:1-4; Jeremiah 19:4-5), and many other heinous acts. Through the practice of human sacrifice, as well as a variety of barbaric secret ceremonies, the participants believed themselves to have become initiated into the "Mysteries," thereby securing their place among the gods after death. God’s abhorrence of the religion and practices of sun-worship, which is found to be at the root of all forms of occultism, was demonstrated on numerous occasions in the Old Testament when He judged and severely punished the nation of Israel for her constant apostasy into this very thing (Deuteronomy 8:19-20).
         Freemasonry is directly descended, by the admission of its own scholars, from the worship of the sun-god, Baal. Albert Mackey, one of the leading authorities on Masonic doctrine, made the following observation:

[Baal] was the chief divinity among the Phoenicians, the Canaanites, and the Babylonians.... The Sabaists understood Baal as the sun, and the Baalim, in the plural, were the sun, moon, and the stars, "the host of heaven." Whenever the Israelites made one of their almost periodical deflections to idolatry, Baal seems to have been the favorite idol to whose worship they addicted themselves....
         Hence we see that there was an evident antagonism in the orthodox Hebrew mind between Jehovah and Baal. The latter was, however, worshipped by the Jews, whenever they became heterodox, and by all the Oriental or Shemite nations as a supreme divinity, representing the sun... as the ruler of the day.... In brief, Baal seems to have been wherever his cultus was established, a development or form of the old sun-worship.⁽²⁸⁾

One would think that after making such an accurate observation of the "antagonism" between the worship of the true God, Jehovah or Yahweh, and that of the pagan sun-god, Baal, Mackey would have attempted to distance Freemasonry from the latter. However, the opposite is actually the case:

Our brethren met on the highest hills, and the lowest valleys, the better to observe the approach of cowans and eavesdroppers, and to guard against surprise.
         So then, because our ancient brethren -- the old sun-worshippers -- met on the highest hills to worship Baal, or the sun-god, and Freemasonry being that same worship revived, it must necessarily follow, that Masonic Lodges must be held in the highest rooms of buildings, to carry out the coincidence (emphasis added).⁽²⁹⁾

It is certainly no "coincidence" that the Bible speaks of the "high places of Baal" (Numbers 22:41; Deuteronomy 12:2-3; Jeremiah 19:5), which Mackey admitted above were the inspiration of what are now Masonic Lodges. Consequently, the temples of Freemasonry are everywhere adorned with symbols of Baal and other heathen deities, as are also the ceremonial aprons and additional regalia worn by Masons during their secret rituals. It is also significant to note that Masonic temples are constructed with the altar facing due east. Again, Mackey explained:

The orientation of the Lodges or their position east and west is derived from the universal custom of antiquity. The heathen temples were so constructed that their length was directed towards the east, and the entrance was by a portico at the western front, where the altar stood so that votaries approaching for the performance of religious rites, directed their faces toward the east, the quarter of sunrise. The primitive reason for this custom undoubtedly is to be found in the early prevalence of sun-worship, and hence the spot where the luminary first made his appearance in the heavens was consecrated in the minds of his worshippers as a place entitled to peculiar reverence.⁽³⁰⁾

Seated upon an elevated chair against the eastern wall of the Lodge is the Masonic officer known as the "Worshipful Master." We learn from Masonic writers that this man’s position and title are clear indications that he represents the pagan sun-god to which all initiates must bow: "As the sun rises in the east, to open and govern the day, so rises the Worshipful Master in the east... to open and govern his Lodge, set the Craft to work, and give them proper instructions."⁽³¹⁾
         It is interesting that all this corresponds exactly to one of the "detestable things" that was revealed to the Prophet Ezekiel in a vision:

Then he brought me to the door of the gate of the LORD’s house which was toward the north; and, behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz.
         Then said he unto me, Hast thou seen this, O son of man? turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations than these. And he brought me into the inner court of the LORD’S house, and, behold, at the door of the temple of the LORD, between the porch and the altar, were about five and twenty men, with their backs toward the temple of the LORD, and their faces toward the east; and they worshipped the sun toward the east.
         Then he said unto me, Hast thou seen this, O son of man? Is it a light thing to the house of Judah that they commit the abominations which they commit here? for they have filled the land with violence, and have returned to provoke me to anger: and, lo, they put the branch to their nose. Therefore will I also deal in fury: mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity: and though they cry in mine ears with a loud voice, yet will I not hear them (Ezekiel 8:14-18).

The Occult Reversal of God and Satan

In the occult, Satan (or Lucifer) has traditionally been associated with the sun, the harbinger of spiritual light. Esoteric philosophy teaches that it is this "great being," not the God of the Old Testament, that was the true redeemer and benefactor of mankind in the Garden of Eden and who later possessed the body of Jesus of Nazareth to rescue the Jews from their idolatrous worship of Ilda-Baoth (Jehovah), and to instruct them in the truth of man’s inherent or potential divinity. For example, occult medium Helena P. Blavatsky wrote in her book, The Secret Doctrine:

Once the key to Genesis is in our hands, it is the scientific and symbolic Kabbala which unveils the secret. The Great Serpent of the Garden of Eden and the "Lord God" are identical....⁽³²⁾

         Stand in awe of him, and sin not; speak his name with trembling.... It is Satan who is the god of our planet and the only god....
         When the Church, therefore, curses Satan, it curses the cosmic reflection of God....
         In this case it is but natural... to view Satan, the Serpent of Genesis as the real creator and benefactor, the Father of Spiritual mankind. For it is he who was the "Harbinger of Light," bright radiant Lucifer, who opened the eyes of the automaton [Adam] created by Jehovah, as alleged; and he who was the first to whisper, "In the day ye eat thereof, ye shall be as Elohim, knowing good and evil" -- can only be regarded in the light of a Saviour. An "adversary" to Jehovah... he still remains in Esoteric Truth the ever loving "Messenger"... who conferred on us spiritual instead of physical immortality....
         Satan, or Lucifer, represents the active... "Centrifugal Energy of the Universe" in a cosmic sense.... Fitly is he... and his adherents... consigned to the "sea of fire," because it is the Sun... the fount of life in our system, where they are purified... and churned up to re-arrange them for another life; that Sun which, as the origin of the active principle of our Earth, is at once the Home and the Source of the Mundane Satan....⁽³³⁾

In Morals and Dogma, Albert Pike, an avowed Luciferian, wrote:

To prevent the light from escaping at once, the Demons forbade Adam to eat the fruit of "knowledge of good and evil," by which he would have known the Empire of Light and that of Darkness. He obeyed; an Angel of Light induced him to transgress, and gave him the means of victory; but the Demons created Eve, who seduced him into an act of Sensualism, that enfeebled him, and bound him anew in the bonds of matter....
         To deliver the soul, captive in darkness, the Principle of Light, or Genius of the Sun, charged to redeem the Intellectual World... came to manifest Himself among men.... It but put on the appearance of a human body, and took the name of Christ in the Messiah, only to accommodate itself to the language of the Jews. The Light did its work, turning the Jews from the adoration of the Evil Principle, and the Pagans from the worship of Demons. But the Chief of the Empire of Darkness caused Him to be crucified by the Jews (emphasis in original).⁽³⁴⁾

According to Pike, it was the demons, not God, that barred Adam from the Tree of Knowledge, thereby perpetuating his spiritual ignorance (compare to Genesis 2:15-17). However, an unnamed "Angel of Light" persuaded him to rebel against the "demonic" command (compare to Genesis 3:1-4), and, as a result, Adam was "enlightened" and initiated into the "true religion," which, of course, is supposedly that of Freemasonry. This "Angel of Light" later assumed the appearance of a man (compare to John 1:1, 14) in order to act as redeemer of mankind, turning the world from its worship of the Edenic "demons."
         We find the enigmatic "Angel of Light" identified by the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 11:14 as none other than Satan himself. Is this indeed the god to whom Masons ultimately owe their allegiance? Elsewhere in the same volume, Pike answered in the affirmative: "Lucifer, the light-bearer! Strange and mysterious name to give to the spirit of darkness! Lucifer, Son of the Morning! Is it he who bears the Light, and with its splendors intolerable, blinds feeble, sensual or selfish souls? Doubt it not!" (emphasis in original).⁽³⁵⁾
         To the non-Mason, the above statement would appear to be somewhat cryptic; indeed, such was the intention of the author. However, when we remember that initiates into the religion of Freemasonry regard it as "the Light," it becomes apparent that Lucifer, the "light-bearer," is therefore the custodian, or guardian, of Freemasonry. Consequently, the Mason is assured by the writings of Manly Hall that "the seething, surging energies of Lucifer are in his hands," and that, before he will be allowed to advance in the Lodge, "he must prove his ability to properly apply [this] energy."⁽³⁶⁾ Likewise, Henry C. Clauson told his fellow Masons, "[W]e have within us an infinite, unlimited source of power," and that when this "power" is channeled by Masons worldwide, "we would have achieved a true New Age" wherein there will be "no more wars, no more crime; [and] Brotherly love and life would be lived in all God’s glory."⁽³⁷⁾ Such lofty ideals and pious platitudes notwithstanding, the power sought by the Mason is clearly satanic, not divine, and the "New Age" he seeks to advance is the kingdom of the Devil (Revelation, chapter 13).

Endnotes

1. Carl H. Claudy, Foreign Countries: A Gateway to the Interpretation and Development of Certain Symbols of Freemasonry (Richmond, Virginia: Macoy Publishing and Masonic Supply Company, 1971), page 23.

2. George Simmons and Robert Macoy, Standard Masonic Monitor of the Degrees of Entered Apprentice, Fellowcraft, and Master Mason (Richmond, Virginia: Macoy Publishing and Masonic Supply Company, 1984), page 17.

3. Allen E. Roberts, The Craft and its Symbols (Richmond, Virginia: Macoy Publishing and Masonic Supply Company, 1974), page 6.

4. Short Talk Bulletin (The Masonic Service Association of the United States), Volume XXXVI, Number 8, page 7.

5. Pike, Morals and Dogma, page 206.

6. Coil, Encyclopedia, page 516.

7. Coil, ibid., page 517.

8. Wagner, Interpretation, pags 286, 309-310.

9. Hall, Lost Keys, page 93.

10. Hall, ibid., pages 94, 95.

11. Mackey, Encyclopedia, Volume I, pages 60, 179, 240.

12. Clausen, Commentaries, pages 203-204, 210-212.

13. Pike, Morals and Dogma, page 516.

14. Reference: Rev. Alexander Hislop, The Two Babylons: The Papal Worship Proved To Be the Worship of Nimrod and His Wife (Dahlonega, Georgia: Crown Rights Book Company, [1916] 2002), pages 25, 27.

15. Hislop, ibid., page 23.

16. Reference: Hislop, ibid., pages 40-42.

17. Reference: Hislop, ibid., pages 45-46.

18. Reference: Hislop, ibid., page 42.

19. Reference: Hislop, ibid., page 25.

20. Reference: Hislop, ibid., page 34.

21. Reference: Hislop, ibid., page 48. This is the form in which Nimrod is worshiped each year in New Orleans, Louisiana during Mardi Gras.

22. J. Gardiner Wilkinson, The Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians (London, England: John Murray, 1841), Volume IV, page 191.

23. James Strong, A Concise Dictionary of the Words in the Hebrew Bible (McLean, Virginia: MacDonald Publishing Company, n.d.), page 79.

24. Strong, ibid., page 107.

25. Hislop, Two Babylons, pages 51-52.

26. According to the Egyptian version of the story, Osiris (Nimrod) was put to death by an “Evil One” named Typho, who was also known as Sem. That Nimrod’s executioner was actually Shem, the righteous son of Noah, is beyond question (reference: Hislop, ibid., pages 62-66).

27. Reference: Hislop, ibid.

28. Mackey, Encyclopedia, Volume I, page 88.

29. Mackey, Manual, page 43; see also Mackey, Encyclopedia, Volume I, page 325.

30. Mackey, Manual, page 55; see also Mackey, Encyclopedia, Volume I, pages 226-227, 452.

31. Duncan, Ritual, page 15.

32. Helena P. Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine (Pasadena, California: Theosophical University Press, 1963), Volume I, page 414.

33. Blavatsky, ibid., Volume II, pages 234, 235, 243, 245.

34. Pike, Morals and Dogma, page 567.

35. Pike, ibid., page 321.

36. Hall, Lost Keys, page 76.