Freemasonry and Christianity

Faith & Science Conversation
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I think there are some lodges that you still need to confess christian faith no?I wanted to find one and visit one day to see what this all about .But i know they wont let me.You have to ask to join and im not really interested in joining.I just want to know what happens there.You know they claim some kind of "gnosticism"which from the one hand its fascinated (i do hold some belief that Gnosis is esential and that the church fathers and early christians had that kind of Gnosis)but from the other hand if the "Gnosis"they talk about its the heretical stuff of “gnosticism” as the early ages when it coorparates beliefs and rituals from everywhere into a mush then im out,

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Additional questions first:

  • How many of the Founding Fathers were Freemasons?
  • Did the Founders imbed Masonic symbolism in Washington, dc, and in our currency?
  • Was George Washington a Freemason and a Christian?
  • Is American Government Permeated with Masonic Symbolism?
  • Is American Freemasonry the same today as it was 200 years ago?

Christians who have studied modern American Freemasonry in a serious manner have documented irrefutably that it is antithetical, hostile, and heretical to many orthodox Christian and Biblical teachings. In fact, part of the attention focused on this subject has been the result of high-ranking Masonic officials who—following their personal conversion to Christ—renounced their Masonic membership and then wrote exposĂ©s about the untenable spiritual heresies permeating Masonic teachings.

A perusal of important writings of early American Freemasonry irrefutably documents its uncompromisingly Christian nature. Consider, for example, the Masonic Ahiman Rezon (the title is taken from the Hebrew).

First printed in 1756, this work established American Masonic “constitutions,” or rules of governance. That early authoritative Masonic guidebook set forth a model prayer for use in American lodges:

Blockquote

Most holy and glorious Lord God.
 in Thy name we assemble and meet together, most humbly beseeching Thee to bless us in all our undertakings, that we may know and serve Thee aright, that all our doings may tend to Thy glory and the salvation of our souls.
 This we most humbly beg, in the name and for the sake of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Amen.

Would this prayer be presented as a model prayer for American lodges today? Absolutely not. In fact, a current Masonic guidebook, The Masonic Ritualist, gives a clear and opposite directive:

Blockquote

In a well-ordered lodge, Jesus is never mentioned except in vague, philosophical terms. Prayers are never prayed in His name, and when scriptures are quoted in the ritual, all references to Him are simply omitted.
 Albert Mackey (after Albert Pike the highest Masonic authority) calls this changing of the scriptures “a slight but necessary modification.

This is the position of Freemasonry at large; it is also the position of Scottish Rite Freemasonry (the branch of Masonry that offers most of the “higher” degrees in Masonry).

In fact, this “anti-Jesus-in-prayers” stance is even the position of the current York Rite—the branch of Freemasonry that specifically describes itself as being “Christian.”

Concerning the York Rite, Chaplain Harmon Taylor explains that he “was given only one instruction and was given that one many times”; that directive was that he “was never, under any circumstance, to offer prayers in Masonic gatherings in Jesus’ name.”

While the current practice of Freemasonry studiously avoids the use of the name “Jesus” and official references to Christianity in Lodge activities or prayers, it was just the opposite for early American Lodges. For example, in 1749, Charles Brockwell reminded a Masonic Lodge that:

Blockquote

Whoever is an upright Mason can neither be an atheist, deist, or libertine; for he is under the strictest obligation to be 
 a true Christian.84 (emphasis added)

A 1769 work by moral philosopher Wellins Calcott (1726–1779)—A Candid Disquisition of the Principles and Practices of the Most Ancient and Honorable Society of Free and Accepted Masons—similarly declared:

Blockquote

A good Mason is a good man, and a good Christian.

And William Hutchinson’s 1775 Spirit of Freemasonry similarly stated:

Blockquote

The Master Mason represents a man under the Christian doctrine, saved from the grave of iniquity and raised to the faith of salvation. As the great testimonial that we are 


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I think it’s possible to be a freemason and a Christian today. You sound hostile, but whatever floats your boat.

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Interesting paper on Jewish Freemasons in Colonial America and early US.

“Men of Honour and Honesty”: Connections Between Jews and Freemasons in Early America, Sara A. Zimmerman, Honors Thesis, 2014 CUREJ: College Undergraduate Research Electronic Journal,University of Pennsylvania, "“Men of Honour and Honesty”: Connections Between Jews and Freemasons i" by Sara A. Zimmerman.

Early Jewish American masons included Moses Michael Hays elected grand master of the Massachusetts Lodge in 1788 (with Paul Revere as his deputy); Solomon Bush elected a Grand Master in Philadelphia in 1782; and Isaac da Costa of Charleston. Note that Hays refused to swear a Christian oath to support the American Revolution though he swore a non-Christian one; he was unlikely to be swearing Christian oaths in a Masonic lodge (and he was active in masonry before the Revolution).

See also
Oppenheim, Samuel. 1910. “The Jews and Masonry in the United States Before 1810.” Publications of the American Jewish Historical Society , no. 19: 1–94.

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No hostility and no boat floating, just facts.

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So it is possible for a Christian to be a mason?

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I have had Christian friends who are Masons, and have no doubt of their sincerity. I would say that Masons can be Christians and Christians can be Masons, but obviously, Masons can be non-Christians as well. Only if being a Mason required you to refute Christianity would there be a problem, and I have not seen evidence that is the case. Like anything however, Masonry can become an idol in life. But so can fishing.

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