Should a Christian be a member of a secret society?

The truth is no spiritually minded Christian could join Freemasonry if he knew its inner working. To do so would be absolutely inconsistent with his Christian profession; and afford a shameful example to other Christians. He would dishonour the Saviour He professes to follow, and flout the Scriptures he is pledged to uphold.

The truth is no spiritually minded Christian could join Freemasonry if he knew its inner working. To do so would be absolutely inconsistent with his Christian profession; and afford a shameful example to other Christians. He would dishonour the Saviour He professes to follow, and flout the Scriptures he is pledged to uphold.

The writer has known of Freemasons, becoming Christians after they had joined that body, promptly giving up all intercourse with it in loyalty to Christ. They looked with shame upon the link they had with it.

The writer remembers sitting on the edge of a Nova Scotian lake in the company of an earnest Christian barrister. He had renounced Freemasonry on being converted. Just to see what effect the question would produce, and having no expectation of any secrets revealed, he asked his friend what the secrets of Freemasonry were. A sorrowful look came over his friend's face, as he replied that it was as much as his life was worth to answer this question. Can any Christian knowingly enter into a secret society of this nature?

Concealed light, closely shaded windows, rigorously guarded doors, terrible oaths of secrecy with threats of the throat being cut from ear to ear, the tongue torn from its roots, the body to be buried in the rough sands of the sea, a cable's length from the shore at low-water mark, where the tide ebbs and flows twice in twenty four hours, stand in contrast to the Saviour's words, when He said:—

The writer has known of Freemasons, becoming Christians after they had joined that body, promptly giving up all intercourse with it in loyalty to Christ. They looked with shame upon the link they had with it.

The writer remembers sitting on the edge of a Nova Scotian lake in the company of an earnest Christian barrister. He had renounced Freemasonry on being converted. Just to see what effect the question would produce, and having no expectation of any secrets revealed, he asked his friend what the secrets of Freemasonry were. A sorrowful look came over his friend’s face, as he replied that it was as much as his life was worth to answer this question. Can any Christian knowingly enter into a secret society of this nature?

Concealed light, closely shaded windows, rigorously guarded doors, terrible oaths of secrecy with threats of the throat being cut from ear to ear, the tongue torn from its roots, the body to be buried in the rough sands of the sea, a cable’s length from the shore at low-water mark, where the tide ebbs and flows twice in twenty four hours, stand in contrast to the Saviour’s words, when He said: “I spake openly to the world; I ever taught in the synagogue, and in the temple, whither the Jews always resort; and in secret have I said nothing.” (John 18:20)

The glory of Christianity is AN OPEN BIBLE. Freemasonry on the contrary has secret signs, and the ritual in the lodges is written in a secret code. Our Lord tells us that there is nothing secret that shall not be revealed, and instructed His disciples: “What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light: and what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the housetops.” (Matt. 10:27)

Freemasonry makes self-effort the way of salvation as a substitute for the gospel of God. In the general run of lodges, with scarcely an exception, the Name of Christ is forbidden, save as on a level with Buddha, Zoroaster, Mohammed, Osiris, and the like. Christian, Deist, Jew, Mohammedan, Theosophist, Heathen, the utterly godless—all are welcome. Nothing is to be said to offend any, so the Name of Christ is ruled out. In the reading of the Scriptures the Name of Christ is carefully suppressed.

Much, very much more, could have been written on this subject, proving the anti-christian character of Freemasonry, but enough has been shown to warn any Christian, who owes his salvation to the atoning death of our Lord, from entering a Freemason Lodge, and to give any true Christian, who has become a Freemason, the necessary information to lead him to forsake such an anti-christian and God-dishonouring association.

Much, very much more, could have been written on this subject, proving the anti-christian character of Freemasonry, but enough has been shown to warn any Christian, who owes his salvation to the atoning death of our Lord, from entering a Freemason Lodge, and to give any true Christian, who has become a Freemason, the necessary information to lead him to forsake such an anti-christian and God-dishonouring association.

The entrance of a candidate to the Masonic Lodge is humiliating in the extreme. Half-stripped, blindfolded, on bended knees with a halter round his neck, he must present a debasing spectacle to every right-minded person. It is certainly symbolic of what happens to them spiritually. Half-stripped, the candidate, if he believes all that he is told, will be WHOLLY stripped of Christianity. Blindfolded, if he believes all that he is told, his mind will be complete darkness as to Christ and His atoning work on the Cross. On bended knee the candidate makes on solemn oath a promise to receive teaching of which he does not fully know the nature. He does not know what his oath implies. It binds him to an abject slavery, which submits his mind to a whole system of teaching, regulations and secrets of an anti-christian cult.

The entrance of a candidate to the Masonic Lodge is humiliating in the extreme. Half-stripped, blindfolded, on bended knees with a halter round his neck, he must present a debasing spectacle to every right-minded person. It is certainly symbolic of what happens to them spiritually. Half-stripped, the candidate, if he believes all that he is told, will be WHOLLY stripped of Christianity. Blindfolded, if he believes all that he is told, his mind will be complete darkness as to Christ and His atoning work on the Cross. On bended knee the candidate makes on solemn oath a promise to receive teaching of which he does not fully know the nature. He does not know what his oath implies. It binds him to an abject slavery, which submits his mind to a whole system of teaching, regulations and secrets of an anti-christian cult.

“I do not see how any Christian, most of all a Christian Minister, can go into these secret lodges with unbelievers. They say they have more influence for good, but I say they can have more influence for good by staying out of them, and then reproving their evil deeds. Abraham had more influence for good in Sodom, although out of it, than Lot had in it. I would rather have ten Church members, who were separated from the world, than a thousand unseparated members. Come out of the Lodge.”

No wonder the late Dwight L. Moody, the great American evangelist, denounced this evil cult in the plainest of language. He said: “I do not see how any Christian, most of all a Christian Minister, can go into these secret lodges with unbelievers. They say they have more influence for good, but I say they can have more influence for good by staying out of them, and then reproving their evil deeds. Abraham had more influence for good in Sodom, although out of it, than Lot had in it. I would rather have ten Church members, who were separated from the world, than a thousand unseparated members. Come out of the Lodge.”