Hi everyone,
I am a Christian pastor who for many years never had any real knowledge of the Masons. They came to my attention from a series of small incidents, such as meeting a co-worker who was a Mason, meeting another seminary in my dorm whose father was a Mason, having a friend tell me he was about to join, etc. For a time there was a passing curiosity, but no more. I had heard rumors they were a cult, or were satanic, or such, but never anything in any detail. Then just a few years ago, I came across an old pastors' manual of my church, listing all the pastors in my state, with pictures, educational background, civic involvement, etc. I saw a picture of my former pastor from my teen years, and there listed in those credits I found a surprise: he had been a Mason. Since I had heard the evil rumors, that caught my eye, because that man had done more for the youth of our church than any man before or since. Later I found out that the president of the camp meeting we used to attend had also been a Mason. This man I had considered an even stronger influence in my life and the lives of an incredible number of young people at that camp. Then the real surprise came when a man I knew from my home church died. When I read the obituary, there in the list of things he had done in his life, was the unmistakable word again: Mason. That did it for me, and began a genuine period of soul-searching and information-seeking to find out more about this organization and what it was about. In my mind, it was impossible to reconcile what I had always been told about the lodge with the undeniable Christian witness of these men. You see, the last man I mentioned was so deeply and undeniably, committedly Christian that something was wrong one way or the other. He taught a Bible class in my church that now bears his name, and was such a wonderful teacher that we had trouble in our church maintaining a youth Sunday School class, because all the young people wanted to attend his class. There was a reason for that as well. He was also the principal of our local high school, and had a wonderful warm and loving relationship with all the students. Back when Madeleine Murray O'Hair started her thing against prayer in schools, he took a stand few people dared to take. At the time that news of the ban on prayer in public schools was announced, this man was in the habit of conducting a daily devotion over the school intercom after the morning announcements. He would follow a Bible reading and comments with a brief prayer. When word of the ban came out, a petition was circulated among the student body in support of him continuing to deliver the devotional each morning. The vote was unanimous, with every student signing in a student body of about 900, asking that he continue. And in response to the petition, and in defiance of the ban, he continued to have the public devotional each morning. But that's not all. This dear devoted man, after the grade reports went out every six weeks, could be seen walking the halls during our mid-day homeroom period, carrying a couple of black two-ring binders with student records, making his way to the various classed. When he got to the class he was headed to, he would pull a desk aside into a corner, then another desk beside it, and one-by-one he would beckon with a finger for each student to come over and sit by him. He would go over the grade report, giving praise for good grades, and encouragement in areas where the student was struggling or grades were slipping. I don't know a single student who does not remember that practice as being one of the greatest influences on their life during their school experience.
You can see why that put my mind into a spin. To deny the Christian fruits and character of this man was, to me, like throwing rocks at Mother Teresa. I was one of those who had accepted the idea of Freemasonry as some kind of evil group that must be confronted and denied a foothold lest it infect the body of Christ. I have done a complete reversal, mainly because after doing some honest searching, I had to admit that the people who had had the most extraordinary, profound Christian witness and influence in my life, had all been Freemasons.
Since that turnaround, I have been in dialogue with both Masons and anti-Masons, sorting out issues and trying to understand all I can. I notice there has been some discussion about the Jahbulon name. I can tell you that, judging from the ritual itself, I can see nothing in the Royal Arch Degree to suggest anything demonic or satanic, or anything evil in the "name." The ritual does not set this misnomer forth as any kind of substitute "name for God." If it says anything, it says that the "name for deity" is Jehovah. The ritual addresses more than just the name, there are three Hebrew letters arranged on the sides of the triangle, alpha, beth, and lamed, which are transposed and re-ordered to come up with three words, meaning basically "Father, Word, and Spirit." Or, as the ritual has them, "Father-Lord, Word-Lord, and Spirit-Lord." I find it a very striking parallel that these three, put together in just this way, match the same formulation of the trinity as it was first found in the Christian church. The earliest mention we find of Trinity come at about 180 A.D. in the writings of Tertullian. In his discussion of the term, he describes it just this way, as "Father-Word-Spirit," or more often, "Father-Word-Wisdom."
(I will have more to say to expand further on the name in a future post)
Following that discussion, the ritual says, "The triangle, when placed within a circle, symbolizes the vivifying principle extending throughout all created matter: it is therefore called the symbol of Perfection. The circle, having neither beginning nor ending, typifies the omnipotent Author of the universe; it also reminds us of that grand and awful futurity wherein we hope to enjoy endless bliss and everlasting life. The W. ............ (name letters), which you behold on the circle is the grand and incomprehensible N. of the Most High, the first and the last, the beginning and the ending, which was, and is, and is to come; the Almighty. It shows Him to be the actual, future, and all-sufficient God who alone has His being in and of Himself, and gives to all others their being, so that He was what He is, He is what He was, and shall be, both what He was and what He is, from everlasting to everlasting,--all creation being dependent on His mighty will."
At this point in the ritual, all present stand and sing two stanzas of a great Trinitarian hymn, "Holy, Holy, Holy."
I should think someone would be hard-put to find evil in this. I know it is not the sum total of masonic ritual, but a masonic understanding of the ritual is that it is highly symbolic anyway.
I happen to be of the opinion that the lodge is not anywhere near what many of its detractors portray it to be, in an effort to sway people to join their mindset and buy their books. I know that is just one man's opinion in the long run. But it is an opinion based on the evidence of fruitful, godly lives, and what I have managed to gather in the way of ritual evidence.
Wayne
