Reason Number Five: The God of Freemasonry is different than the God of the Bible

Many Christians in the Lodge take comfort in the fact that the fraternity talks about a deity.  They take comfort in the fact that there is a Bible on the altar, even though it is only considered a symbol of God’s will.  It is, in actuality, described as piece of furniture of the Lodge.  Any book of faith, such as the Koran or the Veda, may replace it. 

Some jump to the conclusion that because the Lodge is talking about the supernatural, they are involved with an organization that shares the same values.  However, the deity described by Freemasonry is not the same as that of the Bible.  Who really is the Great Architect of the Universe, and what is he like?  Is he described in the same way as the Bible? 

The answer to this is no.  The deity of Freemasonry, often called the Great Architect of the Universe, is not depicted in the same way as the God of the Bible.

First of all, Christians believe that God has revealed Himself as a Trinity.  He has revealed Himself in the Old and New Testaments with a series of names and attributes.  The book of Genesis opens with the name Elohim.  Elohim speaks of God in a complex plurality, yet manifesting as One.  The New Testament unveils this complexity as a Trinity.  The Trinity consists of three persons within a complex singularity. 

Freemasonry does not believe that God is a Trinity.  Christians affirm that Jesus indeed is God; He is the second person of this Trinity.  Freemasonry, accordingly, does not believe that Jesus is God and thus discounts the second member of the Godhead.  The third member of the Godhead is the Holy Spirit, which again Freemasonry denies.

Not only is the Masonic deity different in composition than God as revealed in the Bible, but he has different attributes.  The differences between the Masonic deity and the biblical revelation of God is seen in Coil’s Masonic Encyclopedia:

“Men have to decide whether they want a God like the ancient Hebrew Jahweh, a partisan, tribal God, with whom they can talk and argue and from whom they can hide as necessary, or a boundless, eternal, universal, undenominational, and international, Divine Spirit, so vastly removed from the speck called man, that he cannot be known, named, or approached.”  (Henry Wilson Coil, Coil’s Masonic Encyclopedia, New York: Macoy, 1961, pp. 516-17)

Coil states that the Masonic deity cannot be known, named, or approached.  Each of these three points is in direct opposition to the character of God as revealed in the Bible.  The God of the Bible can be known, for He has revealed Himself and His names.  He has told us how to approach Him.  A Christian in the Lodge supports a view of deity in the Lodge that is contrary to that which is revealed in Scripture.  Which will it be: He can be known, or He cannot be known?  He has given us His names, or He cannot be named? He can be approached, or He cannot be approached?  Which will the Christian Mason really affirm in his heart?  Obviously, Coil rejects the biblical revelation of God and replaces it with Masonic concepts of deity.

In another departure from the biblical view of spiritual things, The Scottish Rite states that there is no evil entity at war with deity. 

“There is no rival God at war with the Ineffable; nor any independent and self-existent Evil Principle in rebellion against Him.”  (Liturgies of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, Charleston, 1956, p. 79)

This is a comprehensive denial of the existence of Satan, or Lucifer.  It is also a denial of the authenticity of the Genesis account of the fall of humanity and introduction of evil through Lucifer.  Without the Judeo-Christian starting point of a world that fell through disobedience into a more chaotic state, Freemasonry forces itself to adopt a dualistic view of God and the problem of evil.  

“The balance of forces is the magical equilibrium.  It is by it that we explain the great and antique mystery of existence, and of the relative necessity of the Evil.”  (Liturgies of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, Charleston, 1956, p. 93)

In the Masonic worldview, evil is necessary.  It was not introduced through disobedience and the involvement of Satan, but it is a necessary part of life and existence.  Since Freemasonry disavows revelation coming through people (special revelation), they again must look to the chaotic state of nature.  Since nature is turbulent and apparently evil at times, Freemasonry makes the judgment that it is just a necessary part of life.  Since nature is the speech of God, and there is evil involved in the world order, it must come from God. 

Without the biblical understanding of Lucifer, it makes the Masonic deity the supposed author of evil.  In Masonry's dualistic theory, good and evil must be present together. 

“How can there be a just, a merciful, and a loving God, if He, omnipotent, allows these gigantic wrongs, and has made them the law of the universe? Or, is He not omnipotent, but reigning with Him a demon that divides with Him the sovereignty, and contests, with varied success, the supremacy over that universe.”  (Liturgies of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, Charleston, 1956, p. 161)

With elimination of Satan, one must lay the responsibility of evil at another front door.  Freemasonry in the Scottish Rite blames it on God. 

“If the sacred scriptures are inspired, God himself has told us that he makes good and creates evil.”  (Book of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, McCleanachan, 1885, p. 415)

This suggests that God is the originator of good and evil.

(Image & Text #1)

This prior statement, giving rise to the idea behind this illustration, arises from a mistranslation of the Isaiah 45:7 verse.  The King James version mistranslates the Hebrew word ra as evil, rather than calamity.  The verse clearly states that God causes prosperity to happen, and can take it away with calamity or disaster.  Freemasonry uses this mistranslation to suggest that God is the author of moral evil.  

To believe the Bible is to understand that in God there is no shifting shadow.  To believe Freemasonry, there is no devil, and God is the author of evil in the world.  Either Satan is the author of evil, or God is.  It cannot be both.

Freemasonry generally avoids the biblical names of God.  Christians believe that God has revealed Himself progressively through His names to all people.  He has identified Himself with a set of names that include Elohim, Jehovah, Adonai, and El Shaddai, among others.  These are not different gods, but a continuing revelation of the one God.  His names are like facets of a diamond, each one giving brilliance to the whole.  Instead of using these names, Freemasonry uses their own names, such as Great Architect of the Universe or Grand Geometrician of the Universe.  These are different names, names not chosen by God, but of human invention. 

Is it a trivial thing to exchange the precious names God has given for Himself with names invented by the Lodge?

Although Freemasonry feels free to borrow stories and texts from the Biblical accounts, they do not affirm the God behind them.  Albert Pike, who wrote the first draft of the reworked Scottish Rite, penned these words into his first draft of the Rite, called Magnum Opus:

“The God of Exodus and Numbers is represented as partial, unstable, revengeful, and deceitful.”  (Magnum Opus, Albert Pike, XIII, p. 9)

How can a Christian follow in the steps of a man who made such statements about the Lord?
 

In addition, Freemasonry in the Royal Arch Degree of the York Rite states that the true name of God is Jabulon.  Jabulon is a combination of three names.  Jah is connected with Bul for Baal, and On for Osiris.  It is hard to imagine Christians allowing themselves to be under the Rite that freely unites God’s name with Baal!  Coil’s Masonic Encyclopedia affirms the references to Baal and Osiris.  (Coil’s Masonic Encyclopedia, New York: McCoy, 1961, p. 516) 

As Coil said, men have to decide which deity they are to affirm: the deity of Freemasonry or the God of the Bible?  They are not the same.