For the Christian, the initial steps into the Lodge begin a long, confusing journey into spiritual compromise.  Each ensuing step will build upon a syncretistic world view whose foundations have been laid in the Blue Lodge.

The book of Job gives us the heart of scripture on this topic:

"If I have regarded the sun in its radiance or the moon moving in splendor, so

that my heart was secretly enticed and my hand offered them a kiss of homage,

then these also would be sins to be judged, for I would have been unfaithful to God on high."

                                                                                        Job 31:26-28

It is just casual homage to the symbols of the sun and moon that would be considered sin and unfaithfulness to God.  The symbols of the sun and moon are used in Freemasonry; in fact, they are considered lights to the Craft.  As the initiate moves through the Blue Lodge and into the Scottish Rite, the significance of these symbols will be unfolded.  Obviously, the Word of God in Job calls any spiritual attention to these lights as unfaithfulness to God.

Christians become interested in the Lodge for many reasons.  Some desire to follow in a relative’s footsteps.  Others believe that it may open doors to further one’s career.  Some may be attracted to the moral standards of the Lodge, yet they remain unaware of the non-biblical, spiritual foundations.  With the Lodge affirming the existence of a deity, some inadvertently believe Freemasonry and the Bible are talking about the same God.  For a Christian, entrance into the Lodge is entrance into a world of spiritual concession.

An adult Mason takes his first steps into the Craft through the Blue Lodge, the three basic degrees.  He will graduate a Master Mason after successful completion of them.  It may seem comforting that the obligations of the Blue Lodge assure the candidate that nothing he is about to do will violate his prior obligations to his country, religion, or family.  It may give initial comfort to note that the Bible is considered to be one of the three great lights of Freemasonry.  Soon, he will understand how this symbol is watered down to meaninglessness.

Where Compromise Begins

In the first degree, Entered Apprentice, anyone initiated into the Blue Lodge must allow himself to be described in the following manner.

“SD: There is without, Mr. __________, a poor blind candidate, who is desirous of having and receiving a part in the rights, lights, and benefits of this Worshipful Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons, erected to God and dedicated to the memory of the Holy Saints John, as all Brethren and Fellows have done who have gone this way before him.”

The Christian must allow himself to be described as poor, although Christ has made him rich.  He must allow himself to be described as blind, although Christ has given him sight.

He then asks for the rights, lights, and benefits of the Lodge.  He thus places his life under the authority and influence of six Masonic lights.  But what are the six lights of Freemasonry that he has now allowed to be part of his life?

The Greater Lights and the Lesser Lights

Freemasonry groups its teachings of lights into two clusters of three: the three Greater Lights and the three Lesser Lights.  The Greater Lights are the Square, Compass, and the Bible.  The three Lesser Lights are the Sun, Moon, and the Worshipful Master.  During the initiation process, the Christian thus asks, or allows, these six lights and all they represent to be a part of his life.  It is said that the Three Greater Lights are known, or understood, by the Three Lesser Lights.  (Standard Freemasonry Illustrated, Ezra Cook, 1953, p. 123)

Even though Jesus says He is the Light of the World, an additional six lights are to enter the initiate’s life.

The Three Greater Lights

The Bible as a Great Light

Some Masons jump to the conclusion that Freemasonry is Christian-friendly because the Bible is one of the three Great Lights of Freemasonry.  They anticipate that the Lodge will be spiritually appropriate for Christians, since this book is present on the altar.

First, it must be noted that in Freemasonry the Bible is on an equally weighted basis with the Compass and the Square.  It is also interesting to note that the Square and Compass are placed on, and thus over, the Bible.  The pivotal issue, however, revolves around what the Bible represents.  It is in reality considered merely a Volume of Sacred Law.  It represents deity relating His will to human beings, in a form deemed appropriate by the majority of the Lodge. 

In his book Introduction to Freemasonry, Entered Apprentice Degree, Carl H. Clundy states that the Volume of Sacred Law changes, depending upon the majority of members in a particular Lodge.  In India it would be the Veda, and in Israel it would be the Torah.  He states that in various Asian countries a number of books are placed on the altar.  Clundy goes on to state that it is a “symbol of all holy books of all faiths.”  (Entered Apprentice, Carl H. Clundy, Temple Publishers. p. 37) 

Albert Mackey states, “The Bible is used among Masons as the symbol of the will of God, however it may be expressed.”  (Lexicon and History of Freemasonry, Mackey, McClure Publishing Co., 1910, p. 60) 

Furthermore, the Bible is considered to be nothing more than a piece of furniture in the Lodge.  (Lexicon and History of Freemasonry, Mackey, McClure Publishing Co., 1910, p. 163)
 

How can the Bible, or Volume of Sacred Law, be reduced to a piece of furniture?

Although the Bible is presented as a Great Light, we soon understand that in Freemasonry it is merely a symbol of the will of God and can be replaced by any other sacred book.  In other words, there is no commitment to the Bible as a document.  Across the world, different books are used, sometimes in combination.  The Christian receives this Light and is inadvertently moving from the Bible as the Word of God to the Bible as a symbol of the Word of God.  This is the "Light" the Christian Mason has now received.  It is different than the Light given to him by Christ.  It is reduced to a piece of furniture.

The Compass

In the Entered Apprentice degree, the initiate is told that the Compass is a Great Light.  It teaches Masons “to circumscribe our desires and keep our passions in due bounds with all mankind, especially the Brethren.” (Entered Apprentice Degree, State of Nevada, circa 1986, p. 10)  However, symbols tend to expand in meaning, transforming as one moves deeper in the degrees of the Craft.  Albert Pike states in his work on the Scottish Rite, Morals and Dogmas, that “The Compass, therefore, is the Hermetic Symbol of the Creative Deity…”  (Morals and Dogmas, Albert Pike, p. 851)  In other words, the Compass represents the Masonic Deity, which is radically different than the God of the Bible.  The Christian Mason unknowingly takes this Light upon himself at initiation.  It is not merely a tool to circumscribe our actions; it is the symbol of the Masonic deity.

The Square

The initiate is told that the Square as a Great Light is to square our actions.  (Entered Apprentice Degree, State of Nevada, circa 1986, p. 10)  Pike, however, states that the Square is the hermetic symbol of the productive earth or universe.  It is a “Symbol of the Earth, its material, sensual, and baser portion.”  (Morals and Dogmas, Albert Pike, p. 851)  Pike alludes to the Compass as representing the male generative principle and the Square as the female receptive principle.  He further alludes that the Sun deity, Osiris, was considered male, and the Moon deity, Isis, his female counterpoint.  “As the Sun was male, so the moon was female; and Isis was both sister and the wife of Osiris.”  (Morals and Dogmas, Albert Pike, p. 851) 

The Three Lesser Lights

The Sun

Albert Pike states, “But the Sun and Moon do in no sense light the lodge, unless it be symbolically, and then the lights are not they, but those things of which they are the symbols.  Of what they are the symbols the Mason in that Rite is not told.”  (Magnum Opus, Albert Pike, p. 12-13) 

Pike thus states that the Blue Lodge Mason is not told the actual meaning of the Sun and Moon in the first three degrees.  The Christian Mason is , therefore, apparently making obligations to things he does not know.

Pike states, “The Sun is the ancient symbol of the life-giving and generative power of the Deity.  (Magnum Opus, Albert Pike, p. 13)

In the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, the use of the sun and moon are somewhat explained:  “The sun and moon in our lodges are the truth, and the reflection of truth in doctrine.”  (Book of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, McCleanachan, p. 354) 

But what truth, and what doctrine?  In the 25th degree, Knight of the Brazen Serpent, a Mason wears the names of the sun god Osiris and the moon goddess Isis on his shoulders.  (Book of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, McCleanachan, p. 361) 

The Moon

Pike, writing in Morals and Dogmas of the Apprentice degree states, “The Moon was the symbol of the passive capacity of nature to produce, the female, of which the life-giving power and energy was the male.  It was the symbol of Isis, Astatre, and Artemis, or Diana.”  (Morals and Dogmas, Albert Pike, p. 13)

In Albert Mackey’s Encyclopedia, he writes, “In short, Moon-worship was as widely disseminated as sun worship. Masons retain her image in their rites…”  (Lexicon and History of Freemasonry, McClure Publishing, 1910, p. 507) 

“The adoption of the moon in the Masonic system as a symbol is analogous to, but could derive from, the employment of the same symbol in the ancient religions.”  (Lexicon and History of Freemasonry, McClure Publishing, 1910, p. 507) 

What Mackey has just stated is that the use of the Moon as a symbol is not a direct derivative from Moon worship, but it is analogous to it. 

In the Scottish Rite degree Prussian Knight, the 21st degree, by McCleanachan, we read:
“They meet only on the nights of the full moon, and allow no other light than hers, because such was the ancient custom of the order, derived from the mysteries of Ceres and the old worship of Isis.”  (Book of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, McCleanachan, p. 322) 

The Worshipful Master
According to Mackey’s Lexicon and History of Freemasonry, “the power of a Master in his lodge is absolute.”  (Lexicon and History of Freemasonry, McClure Publishing, 1910, p. 301)  Notice Mackey does not ascribe this power during Lodge meetings, but to the organization itself.  The Christian who allows this light to come upon him has placed himself under the absolute power of another person, who is called a Master.  Jesus said, “But you are not to be called Rabbi, for you have only one Master and you are all brothers.”  (Matthew 23:8) 

Is Jesus your Master?  Then He cannot also be the Master of the Lodge.

The Christian who allows this light upon him now has two Masters.  He also moves himself from a position of having a pastor who cares for his life, to a Master who wields absolute power in the Lodge.  According to Mackey’s Encyclopedia, the Master of the Lodge represents the Sun as he “Makes divine truth manifest to the neophyte, who had been heretofore in intellectual darkness, and reveals the hidden and esoteric lessons of initiation.”

Conclusion
Spiritual compromise comes quickly in the Blue Lodge degrees.  For the Christian, it is two-fold.  On the one hand he allows himself to be described in ways that deny his position in Christ.  He will then ask for a series of particular Masonic lights to become involved in his life.  These lights will be part of his experience through his spiritual life, or until he chooses to demit from the system.