A massive grey fortress loomed before me. I paused to pray before ascending its broad steps, which rose in sets of three, five, seven and nine. I passed between two huge sphinx-like granite lions with womens heads, poised like sentinels. Their cold, steely eyes seemed to mask ancient mysteries. between two huge Sphinxlike granite lions with womens heads, poised like sentinels. Their cold, steely eyes seemed to mask ancient mysteries.
Towering above these guardians were 33 mammoth stone pillars, each 33 feet tall. These sacred pillars, partially concealing an elaborate image of an Egyptian sun-god, created a peristyle enclosing a secluded temple room within.
Once inside the great bronze doors I entered a central court, bordered by eight huge granite columns. Situated at each column was a candelabra in the form of the god Hermesbringer of lightan ancient Greek deity.
The lofty ceiling was marked with designs borrowed from Egyptian tombs. Adorning the chairs throughout the court were double-headed eagles inspired by designs on the thrones of the great Temple of Dionysus.
Statues of Isis and Nephthys, the sister-wife and sister of the Egyptian sun-god Osiris, stood silently nearby. I entered another door, and directly before me was an altar of black and gold marble, framed by more massive columns and walls decorated with bronze serpents.
My heart raced as I stood there, envisioning the secret ceremonies and blood oaths that are performed in this room regularly. I shuddered as I realised how many unsuspecting men have been trapped in a deadly web of deception after visiting this eerie place.
Unfortunately, this temple scene was not taken from a photograph from the pages of Travel and Leisure. Nor was I visiting some obscure archaeological site in the Middle East. The temple is very much in use today. It is located on 16th Street in Washington, D.C., just blocks from the White House.
It is the House of the Temple, the headquarters of the Supreme Council of Scottish Rite Freemasonry. It is a place full of secrets.
A Satanic Conspiracy?
What goes on behind the closed doors of the more than 13,000 Masonic temples in the United States? Most Americans assume these buildings represent a harmless fraternal organisation that encourages men to help local communities. But is there more to the hidden rituals of Freemasonry than meets the eye?
Most of us certainly dont understand Freemasonrys esoteric tradition, which is characterised by strange symbols such as the coffin, the all-seeing eye, the pyramid, and the compass and square. These mysteries are revealed only to those who are initiated into the Masonic lodge. Its members are sworn to silence about their meaning.
Yet the secrets of Freemasonry really are not hidden at all. They are in plain view everywhere, especially in capital cities of Europe, Latin America and the United States. Masonic symbols can be found in the designs of our national monuments and public buildings, in the layout of city streets and squares, and on our currency.
It is almost as if our nation is marked by some invisible handas if some unseen force is attempting to claim it as its own. I cant help but wonder if Freemasonrywhich is so full of pagan symbolismis at least part of a satanic plot. If so, it is a conspiracy I believe we can expose and conquer through prayer.
Six years ago, after asking God to show me what was blocking a full release of spiritual revival in this country, I began to study Freemasonry. I visited Masonic libraries and lodges around the world and interviewed Masonic leaders and former lodge members.
It wasnt long before I became convinced that Freemasonry represents a powerful and sinister force in the spiritual realm. I believe we must, of course, love people who are associated with Masonic lodges, but we cannot be ignorant about the demonic power associated with any kind of idol worship. We must, through prayer, wage spiritual warfare against it until we see its unholy influences defeated.
Beneath Freemasonrys deceptive veil, there is more than just happy Shriners who stage parades and raise money for childrens hospitals. The mysteries taught in Masonic lodges today are rooted in the pagan mystery religions of ancient Egypt, Greece and Mesopotamia. They stem from a bizarre spirituality involving fertility cults and sun-god worshipforms of idolatry that have surfaced in every culture on earth and that are specifically condemned in the Bible.
Some Christians will just laugh at my suggestion that Freemasonry is any kind of threat to us today. They will call me a loony conspiracy theorist. After all, whats the harm in putting up a few weird statues in a downtown park? Who cares if the largest monument in our nations capitalan obeliskis an ancient Egyptian fertility symbol?
What does it matter if the U.S. Capitol in Washington was dedicated to a pagan god in a Masonic ceremony? Does any of this affect our lives today?
Idol Worship in the 20th Century
Freemasonry has long been a controversial subject among Christians. Preachers during the First and Second Great Awakenings in this country condemned the evils of secret societies, and evangelists such as Charles Finney were openly attacked for their stand against Freemasonry. Yet even today many who profess to follow Christ hold membership in the lodge because they fail to see that Masonic teaching involves the worship of false gods.
Denominations including the Assemblies of God and the Presbyterian Church in America have gone on record stating that membership in the Masonic lodge is incompatible with Christian faith. Yet other groups, including the Southern Baptist Convention, have refused to criticize it. I believe we as Christians have been blind to the invisible spiritual influence Freemasonry has wielded over our nation since its founding.
For those who doubt that Freemasonry is the equivalent of pagan idolatry, consider the facts:
Men who join the Masonic lodge progress through degrees of initiation in a quest for spiritual light until they reach the highest level, the 33rd degree. Early in the process they view a drama depicting the symbolic death, burial and resurrection of a hero-god, Hiram Abif.
Masonic scholar Albert Mackey, in his Manual of the Lodge, taught that the legend of Hiram Abif was borrowed from the ancient mysteries of early Egypt, Mesopotamia and Greece. Hiram represents the gods Osiris, Baal and Bacchus.
The compass and square, an emblem often seen in Masonic art and engraving, represents ancient pagan solar deities. Men initiated into Freemasonrys 32nd degree are not told that the symbol depicts Osiris the sun-god and Isis, the goddess of a thousand names.
Albert Pike, a grand commander of Scottish Rite Freemasonry in the late 1800s, taught that the square and compassalong with the Biblewere the great lights of Freemasonry. Though seeming to embrace Christianity by including the Bible in Masonic rituals, Pike actually was mixing true faith with a belief in pagan deities. This is perhaps the greatest and most subtle danger of Masonic teaching: It blends just enough truth with its deception to make it appealing to the naive.
As the sun temples of the ancient Middle East were usually built on an east-west axis, so are Masonic temples. Many Masons are deceptively taught that their roots are traceable to Solomons Temple. But Masonic temples are actually the reverse: Their altars face east, and Masons bow to the east when taking their secret blood oaths.
Also, Freemasons are taught that they are like stones cemented into a mystical temple that the Masonic god, known as the Great Architect of the Universe, is building. For this reason those who request a Masonic funeral are buried lying east to west, wearing a Masonic apron.
Lodge officers, known as the worshipful master and the senior and junior wardens, are seated in stations in the east, south and west during official ceremonies. This is to represent the sun at its rising, its meridian and its setting. A symbol of the sun always appears over the throne of the worshipful master in the east.
Candidates who want to join the Masonic lodge participate in what is known as the rite of circumambulation, or the symbolic journey in search of light. In this odd ceremony, the initiate is taken by the right arm and led clockwise around the room. Masonic literature explains that this rite is based on the doctrine of Sabaism, or sun worship.
For more than 200 years, men in this country (as well as women who belong to the organisation known as Eastern Star) have been participating in these strange Masonic ceremonies. They have invoked the names of pagan gods and erected buildings and monuments that glorify these deities.
Andsadlymany gullible Christians have participated in Masonic rituals and then spread the spiritual influences of the lodge into Gods house.
By the Devils Design
Since the beginning of American history, Masons have been quietly weaving their bizarre pagan beliefs into the fabric of our country. Nowhere is this more obvious than in our nations capital, where Masonic temples, memorials and symbols can be found everywhereeven in the design of the citys streets.
But why did Masons feel so compelled to leave their indelible mark on the capital of the United States? I doubt the average Mason is even aware of the destructive power of the paganism he is propagating. But I believe the evil forces now operating behind Masonic religion have sought for centuries to control the power centres of the world in a desperate attempt to oppose Gods authority.
While researching the history of our nations capital, I discovered a popular Masonic book by Joseph Fort Newton, The Builders. I found this intriguing statement about the ancient Egyptian King Akhnaten of the 18th dynasty: It is recorded that when Akhnaten founded his new city, four boundary stones were accurately placed so that it might be exactly square, and thus endure forever.
I then sifted through some dusty books on ancient Egypt and discovered that Akhnaten placed boundary stones around his city; then he invoked deity and dedicated the territory to the sun-god Aten. Later I learned that Washington, D.C., was designed in a similar manner.
The Residence Act of July 16, 1790, authorised the president to appoint three commissioners who were to survey the land and mark out the borders of the district. It was to be exactly 10 miles square.
George Washingtonwho was a practicing Masonchose the location, and then he commissioned another Mason, Pierre Charles LEnfant, to design the new capital city. Thus, quite literally, Freemasonry was actively associated with the new federal district from the day its boundaries were first formally proclaimed.
Then, in April 1791, members of local Masonic lodges gathered at Jones Point in Alexandria, Virginia, to lay the cornerstone of the federal district according to Masonic ritualwhich included consecrating it with corn, wine and oil.
Other stones were later placed at one-mile intervals along the boundaries of the district. Most of these stones remain today, including the four original cornerstones at the north, south, east and west.
Masons in the District of Columbia laid the cornerstones of the federal district in 1791, of the first presidents house in 1792 and of the U.S. Capitol in 1793. Since then, dedication and rededication ceremonies of the public, institutional, and religious buildings and monuments in the district number in the hundreds.
The Capitol now boasts at least four dedicated stones. Typically when these stones are laid, Masons meet in private and conduct their routine ceremonies. Then they proceed to the stone of dedication, often circumambulating it.
The grand chaplain then invokes the Masonic god, the Great Architect of the Universe, after which the grand secretary deposits Masonic memorabilia into the stone. Immediately following, the grand master and other lodge officers descend from their chairs and test the stone with the plumb, level and square.
The stone is then lowered into its token positionthe northeast corner of the buildingin three symbolic movements representative of the sun in its course. The grand master then spreads the Cement of the Mystic Tie, and the ceremonies end with a deposit of corn, wine and oil.
Just a harmless liturgy? Who was invoked at the opening of the lodge ceremony, and to what deity was Washington, D.C., dedicated? Is it possible that through Masonic rituals, our nations government has been symbolically offered to the kingdom of darkness?
We should realise that this deity is not the true God of the Old Testamentthe God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. It is not Jesus Christ of the New Testament. So who or what is it?
This god of Masonry is a god everyone but a discerning Christian can be comfortable with. Albert Pike taught that Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus and the followers of Confucius and Zoroaster can assemble as brethren and unite in prayer to the one god who is above all the Baalim when they come to the Masonic lodge.
Other Masonic writers agree with Pike, including Manley P. Hall, who wrote that a Masons religion must be universal: Christ, Buddha or Mohammed, the name means little, for he recognises only the light and not the bearer.
Christians in the 1800s recognised that the god of Freemasonry was not the one and true God of the Bible, yet Masons were allowed to set up monuments to false gods in our nations capital. Today, I believe we must repent for the sins of our fathers, who built these idolatrous high places (see Jer. 19:5). They stand in direct contradiction to Gods strict commands against worshiping the sun, Baal and the gods of Egypt (see Ezek. 8:16, 20:7; Jer. 11:12-13, 43:13).
What can we do? We must remember that our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places (Eph. 6:12, NKJV).
I know that as we repent for our idolatry, the Lord will cleanse the land and lift the horrible curse that falls on all those who serve pagan gods. And as these dark powers lose their control over our churches, our government and our economy, the gospel will be spread more freely and with greater results. *
Ron Campbellis the director of the Jeremiah Project, a prayer ministry based in Colorado Springs, Colorado. For the past several months he has been living in Washington, D.C., organizing prayer for the city.
_________________ Mike
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