Reason Number Nine: Freemasonry believes it alone is the guardian of spiritual truths given at the dawn of humanity

“Masonry teaches, and has preserved in their purity, the cardinal tenets of the old primitive faith, which underlie and are the foundation of all religions."  (Book of the Ancient and Accepted Rite of Freemasonry, McCleanachan, 1885, p. 427) 

Freemasonry through the Scottish Rite explains to its initiates that it has preserved the cardinal tenets of an old primitive faith.  It has already told us that the certain revelation of deity comes through nature and here suggests that it has gathered bits and pieces of a religion once whispered by God to primitive people. 

“It is the great primitive Truths revealed by God to the first men, and embodied in the old and often misunderstood symbols of the Orient, that we seek to find.”  (Liturgies of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, Charleston, 1956, p. 170) 

Again, Freemasonry and Christianity diverge.  Again, the divide revolves around the nature of revelation. 

Freemasonry, which publicly states that it is not a religion, states that it teaches the tenets of a faith that has influenced all religions.  It places itself in the position of assessing exactly the nature of that primitive faith.  It suggests that it alone is capable of garnishing the wheat, and discarding the chaff.

This primitive faith of which they guard appears to be the mystery religions.  Even the Hebrew people, they believe, were initiated into the Mysteries!

“Some of these, men of intelligence and learned in all the learning of the Hebrews at that day, and in that of the Phoenicians, and eager to increase their knowledge, and to drink at the springs of Philosophy and the Holy Doctrine, journeyed, as Pythagoras, Plato, Herodotus and Plutarch did, to the ancient seats of learning and shrines of the Mysteries, communicating with the Hierophants of the Mitzaim, the Magi of Persia, and the Brahmins of India, studied the Holy Books, and received the Higher Degrees, ancient and modern, of Initiation. As the Phoenician ships visited the ports of Gaul, of Britain, and of Ireland, it is possible that the Hebrew initiates also communicated with the Druids, and received the degrees of the Northern Mysteries.”  (Liturgies of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, Charleston, 1956, p. 29)

We have noted that Masonic methodology examines multiple religions and unites things that seem similar.  Freemasonry discards elements that are unacceptable or dissimilar.  Since their approach to spiritual matters comes from an esoteric standpoint, it stands to reason they would look for the occult in various religions to prove their point.  But without an outside authority, as in special revelation, Freemasonry’s choices are no better than anyone else’s.  Basically, they are guessing.

In this search for truth in the primitive faiths, they affirm a view that God is the author of good and evil:

“He created Light and Darkness; Good and Evil are produced out of the mixture of Light and Darkness; if these were not mixed, the world could not exist; and they will continue to exist, until they shall be placed in separate worlds appropriated to each.”  (Liturgies of the Ancient and Accepted Rite of Freemasonry, Charleston, 1956, p. 199)

Christians, on the other hand, believe that God could only be known if He came from outside the chaos of a fallen creation and revealed Himself.  Since humanity quickly rejected God and sought to develop its own set of systems, any search for a primitive faith will be flawed.  Paul states in Romans chapter one that the world exchanged the truth of God for a lie and embraced idolatry.  The impact was so chaotic that God began to reveal Himself again to humanity through the Old and New Testaments. This revelation continued over thousands of years and produced a mighty message that has changed millions of lives over countless centuries.