Freemasonry: A Cult That Operates On The Inside Of The Church Part 1

I was blessed to sit through a cult apologetics course taught at Christ Fellowship Baptist Church in Mobile,  Alabama during the winter of 2008. The course was entitled Defending the faith: An examination of four false religions, taught by Tony Barlow. I will share what he shared with us on the teaching of Freemasonry.

Part 1: Intro

It is said that Freemasonry exists to make "good men better through the brotherhood of man, under the fatherhood of God, yet beyond the outer gates of this seemingly harmless philanthropic "craft" lies a false religious system as old as time itself. Masonry posits itself as a peaceful brotherhood of fellow "craftsmen" who only have the interests of humanity, morality, and self development at heart. But beneath it's exterior of light, lies a resident evil that could have only been the progeny of Lucifer himself.

The goal of Freemasonry is to be more than just a philanthropic or self improvement orginization, at its heart lives a mystical religious system that envisions world conversion to its creed and peculiar form of morality. Note the following prayer given in the opening ceremonies of the 31st degree of Scottish Rite:

          "Here us with indulgence, O infinite Deity....Help us to perform all our Masonic duties, to                                                                                               

          ourselves, to other men, and to Thee. Let the great flood of Masonic light flow in a   perpetual current over the whole world and make Masonry the creed of all mankind".

Judging from its influence and popularity Freemasonry has definitely had an impact on our nation, culture, and social order. The following list provides some chilling examples of the impact the "Lodge" has had throughout American and world history:

14 presidents and 18 vice presidents have been Masons.

5 chief justices of the supreme Court were Masons. 

Douglas Macarthur, John Phillips Sousa, John Wayne, Clark Gable, Norman Vincent Peale, Ernest Borgnine, Cecil B. Demille, W.C. Fields, Henry Ford, Barry Goldwater, J Edgar Hoover, Harry Houdini, J. C. Penny, Roy Rogers, Red Skelton, Lewis Carroll, Benjamin Franklin, James Monroe, George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, Oscar Wilde, Mark Twain, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Francois Voltaire, Franz Joseph Hayden, and Paul Revere. The majority of the 56 singers of the American Decleration of Independence, and most of the American Generals of the revolutionary war just to name a few.

Today millions of peolpe are involved in the various orders of Freemasonry. as of 2001 there were approximately some 3 million in the Scottish Rite. There are over 33,700 Masonic Lodges in 164 countries worldwide, with some 15,300 of these in the United States. This has led one Masonic scholar to observe that,  "...Freemasonry is the second-largest and best equipped spiritual organization in the world ...it has millions of members, thousands of temples and meeting rooms, and an infrastructure of Grand lodges in most countries of the world. It is second in size only to the Roman Catholic church as a worldwide spiritual movement."

Saddest of all are the Southern Baptist, who seemingly turn a blind eye to the invasion of Freemasonry into the nations largest protestant evangelical denomination. In 1993 the North American Mission Board upon request conducted an investigation of the Lodge entitled, A Study of Freemasonry. This study was in part due to the fact that some 500,000 to 1.5 million Southern Baptist are  also Masons. While the study does indicate that there are some teachings of Freemasonry that are incompatible with the Christian faith, it ultimately leaves membership in the lodge to "a matter of personnel conscience." As a result of the denominations failure to stand firm for the truth, Masons around the world saw it as a positive movement toward their fraternity.

Because of your support, the vote of the Southern Baptist Convention

is a historic and positive turning point for Freemasonry. Basically, it is a

revitalization of our fraternity by America's largest Protestant denomination 

after nearly a year of thorough, scholarly study. At the same time, it is a call

to renewed effort on the part of all Freemasonry today to re-energize our 

Fraternity and move forward to fulfilling its mission as the world's foremost

 proponent of Brotherhood of man under the fatherhood of God. 

(www.namb.net/evangelism/iev/mason/asp) Scottish Rite Journal August 1993   

As nothing more than neo-pagan mysticism, and working within the framework of the Christian faith, Freemasonry operates with relative immunity and in a clandestine way among some of evangelical's largest denominations. Blurring the lines between light and darkness, corrupting the distinctions between the doctrines of Christ and the doctrines of Devils, Freemasonry is by far in the opinion of this writer the most damning heretical false religious substitute Satan has ever contrived against the Gospel of Jesus Christ.