The Orthodox Christian Church in general, and the individual or national Churches in particular, are very clear in condemning Freemasonry (better called Slavemasonry), but very few Orthodox clerics, theologians, historians, or believers identify specific masonic agents, organizations and actions.
This “specific” silence is very disturbing. It’s not usually due to a sinister cause. It’s usually, I believe, from bishops and priests wanting to avoid politics, and in the English-speaking world (the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Southern Africa, Ireland, and the United Kingdom) a general pressure to avoid appearing “antisemitic”.
It’s impossible to discuss Masonry without pointing out its Judaic basis and elements: it’s Anti-Christ, it’s based on a Chosen-Goyim (Adept-Profane) model, its ‘Great Work’ is a form of Tikkun Olam, it’s based on deception, and it’s literally a form of Noachidism (hence “slavemasonry”).
Whatever the reason for the silence on specifics, it’s disturbing, because it reveals cowardice and a lack of insight. And of course certain key clerics, and the head of church-related groups (esp. in fund-raising) are Masons who shriek every time someone states, correctly, that they are Anti-Christ.
Orthodoxwiki doesn’t even have an entry on “Freemasonry”! That’s a disgrace. Masons are dedicated to destroying the Church. They are Satanic. And they are responsible, directly and indirectly, for the sufferings of many Orthodox Christians, especially in the last century, especially in Greece, the Ottoman Empire, Palestine, Egypt, Cyprus, Russia, Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria, Belorus, Lebanon, and Iraq.
All hierarchs, and believers in general, should be confronted to take a stand. They should either expose and condemn Masonry, or be forced to defend it, if they dare.
If you would like to help create an index of known and suspected Masonic pseudo-Christians, please provide me with some names and reliable references.
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Bordering on Nature Worship?
Related to the matter of Slavemasonry:
ArcWorld: COMMON BELIE: Australian Statements [pdf]
The Australian Greek Patriarch’s comments [pp. 22-23] on the Global Warming cult are very suspicious.
From Orthodoxwiki:
“His Eminence Archbishop Stylianos (Harkianakis) of Australia is the current archbishop of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia. Along with this, he serves as inaugural and permanent Chairman of the Standing Conference of Canonical Orthodox Churches in Australia, and Dean of St. Andrew’s Greek Orthodox Theological College. He is a world-renowned theologian, specialising in ecclesiology, and is also a well-regarded poet. Archbishop Stylianos was born in Rethymon, Crete, on the 29th of December, 1935. He would go on to study theology at the Theological School of Halki, being ordained to the diaconate at 1957. In 1958 he graduated from Halki and was ordained to the priesthood. He immediately went on to complete postgraduate studies in systematic theology and philosophy of religion in Bonn, West Germany, during 1958 to 1966, numbering among his lecturers Pope Benedict XVI (formerly Joseph Cardinal Ratziner).”
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Masonry or Christ? (Including the position of Orthodox Christianity regarding Freemasonry) [3rd Edition]
By Fathers Vladimir S. Borichevsky & Stephan N. Jula
INTRODUCTION
The Masonic Fraternity had its origins in the Middle Ages, about the year 800 A.D. It began with the builders of the Middle Ages and was called “Operative Masonry”. The workers formed gilds or associations of their own, which had laws, rules, regulations, and officers. Certain religious and philosophical symbols and principles, which had formerly belonged to the ancient secret sun-worshippers, were adopted by some of the gilds. Eventually, the industrial feature of true Masonry was lost, and since then, it has become speculative Freemasonry with emphasis placed exclusively upon the religious aspect.
The claims of Masonry being ancient — going back to Solomon’s Temple or even to an earlier period, have no basis in historical fact. The claims that Jesus, John the Baptist, and John the Evangelist, were Masons, deserve no attention and are nothing short of being blasphemous.
Masonry has become highly spiritualistic and as such, has always been competitive to the Church. Teaching religiously, with the aim of becoming The Sole Religion of the Human Race, Masonry is in direct opposition to Christ and His Church.
Adopted by the upper classes, Masonry became a key to personal promotion and to the satisfaction of vanity. More important are the appeals to the love of mystery in its myths, symbols, ceremonies, and oaths; its secrecy and the obscurity of its phraseology. Speculative Masonry arose with the beginnings of rationalism and free thought, when deism and ‘natural’ as opposed to revealed religion were winning adherents.
Because of these various religious implications within Freemasonry and the fact that many Christians are Masons, we feel it necessary to make a study of the issue.
May the power and Glory of God be made known through our humble efforts.
CHAPTER I
Can a True Christian Become a Mason?
The Orthodox Catholic Church is convinced and has always taught that Masonry is an unchristian, indeed an Antichristian organization, and as such, cannot he tolerated within the Orthodox Catholic Church.
It has become increasingly evident, that there are Orthodox Christians who have joined, are joining, or are about to join, the organization of Freemasonry. Most of these Christians have not studied the organization of Freemasonry, and in their innocence, are not aware that Freemasonry is incompatible with the Orthodox Catholic Faith. A true Christian will not join Masonry, or having joined it, but afterwards learning of its true nature, will leave it.
We must warn all good Christians that Masonry in reality is a religion. It is a false religion which is both pagan and antichristian. This can very easily be verified if one but studies some of the statements and writings of authoritative Masons. Masonry claims to reveal to its initiates a spiritual and esoteric light. Masonry believes in immortality, but not immortality in Christ. The True God in Masonry is rejected for the lowest-common denominator god — so as not to be offensive to Jew, Christian, Mohammedan, Hindu, etc. Masonry accepts men of any religion as long as the person believes in a deity. However, even the devil believes in God and trembles before Him.
The Christian Faith is an exclusive Faith. Christianity was revealed by God to man and is not a system worked out by man himself. God came into the world in Christ Jesus in order to lift man up to Him. For a true Christian, Christ means everything! A true Christian will never deny Christ! A Christian is saved through the Blood of Christ, There is no salvation except in the name of Christ. Any worship which excludes Christ is unchristian.
These are some of the differences of the Masonic religion and the Christian Faith.
Some claim that Masonry is not a religion but the ethical and charitable handmaid to the Church. Masonry itself accepts no such subordinate position. Masonry teaches salvation by works and not through the Blood of Christ. This is false salvation and will only lead to perdition. Salvation is within the Church and not in Masonry.
The Church does not worship the god that is worshipped in the Masonic temples. A Christian who worships in a Masonic temple defies the authority of the Church and does it in secret. How can a true believer in the Holy Trinity claim to have found a true worship of God in Masonry? The god of Masonry excludes Christ, our Divine Redeemer. A Christian has “put on Christ” in Holy Baptism. How can he become a Mason where he must deny and take off Christ, his Redeemer?
In the first degree, God is referred to as a “Great Architect”. This is derogatory to the True God’s creative omnipotence. An architect only puts together from materials already at hand. God creates from nothing! This Masonic conception is frankly deistic, that is, based upon reason only, disbelieving in revelation and the supernatural Truths of Christianity. “Grand Geometrician” is even worse, because it implies some of the outmoded symbolical mathematics of the Kabbala, the mystic theosophy of the Hebrews. But it is in the Royal Arch degree that very grave difficulties arise. The word Jah-bul-on is made up of the Hebrew Jahweh coupled with the Assyrian Baal and the Egyptian On or Osiris. This is the name that Masons claim to be the “sacred and mysterious name of the true and living God. Most High”. It is a most terrible mixture which certainly does not spell God. Masonry is a pre-Christian religion, a mystery religion quite different, separate and alien to the Christian Faith. The Christian religion exalts faith above all and is dependent on Supernatural Grace. Masonry has only natural truths and does not depend upon faith. It brings knowledge to its initiates through reason alone.
Although Masonry does in a sense represent religion at a pre-Christian level, it also claims to impart a light, spiritual and moral, which shines nowhere else. It claims to have secrets which add to a man’s sense of spiritual value and improve his character. It claims the exclusive possession of certain truths, one of which is the sacred and mysterious name of God. It claims to have found the worship of God!
In other words, Masonry claims to be a “super-religion” and its great mission is to embrace within itself all religions. To do this, the unique message of Christ the Redeemer and his Church must be neutralized in order to be compatible with Masonic teachings.
Freemasonry is not compatible with Christianity inasmuch as it is a secret organization, acting and teaching in secret and deifying rationalism. It is not lawful to belong to Christ and at the same time, to search for redemption and moral perfection outside of Him.
Masonry has been condemned by the Orthodox Catholic Church. Indeed, no Christian church which has seriously investigated the religious teachings of Freemasonry has failed to condemn it.
It is shameful and illogical for a Christian to admit that he is in a state of darkness and is seeking light through Masonry. To bind oneself by oath to secrets which will not be revealed until afterwards, is also foolish and dangerous, and it is contrary to moral law, The Orthodox Christian who is a Mason must consider the sin that he commits when he denies Christ. He must come to realize that Masonry is in opposition to the Christian Faith even though superficially it may seem to be a Christian organization.
Some join the ranks of Masonry because of its religiousness. Others join for the advantages it offers in business and certain professions, or for the fellowship it offers. Still others join for the secrecy with which Masonry clouds its true self.
None of these reasons can justify a Christian becoming a Mason. In fact, they are reasons for not joining!
Masonry is a syncretic religion which tries to unite within itself the conflicting beliefs of many religions. It is a natural religion which has no authority except natural theology in which man is a law to himself. This, in addition to the indifferentism within Freemasonry, are the deadly enemies of the Church today, just as they were in the Early Church.
Every clergyman should study Masonry in order that he might understand the effects it has upon the souls of those contaminated with this disastrous cancer, It must be fought arid destroyed within the Church.
Masonry is a spiritual disease and is a rival of the Church as a moral guide. It declares that it is not a religion and yet it claims to be religious. If church members are receiving moral instruction and precepts from an outside source, the Church has both the right and duty to investigate.
“But even if we, or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to that which we preached to you, let him be accursed.” (Gal. 1,8).
CHAPTER II
Masonry Speaks for Itself
In our past chapter, we discussed the idea of Freemasonry as a religion. In order to clarify the position of Masonry to religion in general, let us examine a few statements by Masons of authority.
Mackey says: “As Masons we are taught never to commence any great or important undertaking without first invoking the blessing and protection of Deity, and this is because Masonry is a religious institution.” (Masonic Ritualist, p. 44)
“Masonry is a religious institution, its ceremonies are part of a really religious worship.” (Encyclopedia, p. 60)
Pierson says: “The system of Masonry, as in its original inception, still claims to be a system of religion in which all men can unite.” (Pierson: Traditions, p. 372)
Albert Pike says Masonry is a religion, for every man before becoming a Mason, must express his belief in deity, and in the continued existence of the intellectual portion after death. The trouble with ministers of religion is that they want us to believe too much, while the Ingersolls want us to believe too little”. (Address at Harpers Ferry, Sept. 11, 1879)
Grand Inspector Cunningham says: “Masonry is a pure religion”.
Clymer says: “Masonry is the universal religion only because and only so long, as it embraces all religions. For this reason, and this alone, it is universal and eternal”. (Ancient Mystic Oriental Masonry, p. 59)- “Masonry is not only a universal science, but a World Wide Religion, and owes allegiance to no one creed, and can adopt no sectarian dogma, as such without ceasing thereby to be Masonic . .. . Many degrees have been Christianized only to perish: as every degree eventually will if circumscribed by narrow creeds, and dwarfed. to the apprehension, so as to exclude good men of any other communion”. (p. 58)-”Without any reference to forms and modes of faith, it furnishes a series of indirect evidences which silently operate to establish the great and general principles of religion, and points to that triumphant system which was the object of all preceding dispensations, arid must ultimately Be The Sole Religion of the Human Race”. (p. 118).
Albert G. Mackey is considered by many to be the greatest authority in America. In his Encyclopedia, (p. 617 – 1916 ed.) he writes: “There has been a needless expenditure of ingenuity and talent by a large number of Masonic orators and essayists in the needless endeavor to prove that Masonry is not a religion.” Further on he writes: “But the religion of Masonry is not sectarian. It admits men of every religious creed within its hospitable bosom, rejecting none and approving none for his particular faith. It is not Judaism, though there is nothing in it to offend a Jew. It is not Christianity, but there is nothing in it repugnant to the faith of a Christian. (p.619)
One of the most authoritative publications of the order is the Quarterly Bulletin of the Masonic Library at Cedar Rapids, Iowa. In an article which protests against “Christianizing” the order, we read “When a man becomes a Mason and takes upon himself the solemn vow that binds us all in bonds of fraternal love, it does not in any way interfere with his belief in God or his religion, no matter what his belief may be. He need not cease to be Mohammedan, Buddhist, Hindu, Jew, Christian, or (a member) of any other denomination. If he will but earnestly study the esoteric teachings of ancient Masonry as taught in our beloved fraternity, he will gain a far deeper insight into his own faith and a far clearer conception of his own creed which will enable him better to understand its sublime teachings and spiritual truths. He will recognize the fact that all religions must have emanated from a common source; that everyone originated from the same great fountain, whose eternal verities are to be found in all teachings in all religions”. (January, 1917 issue)
These are the fundamental teachings of Masonry on religion. Every distinction between true and false religion is wiped out. The claim of Christianity, that it is the only true Faith possessing the Saving Truth ii denied. But Jesus says He is the only Way and Truth and Life!. Freemasonry says that all religions have that Truth, and all have the same origin. Its position is plainly opposed to that of Christianity.
There is little wonder that an Orthodox Christian is told by a Mason that one will learn of true Orthodoxy through Masonry. To say this is to show one’s total ignorance of Orthodoxy or to be deliberately false. The True Faith is to be found in its fullness only in the Orthodox Catholic Faith. Only the Orthodox Catholic Church is ordained to teach the Truth in all purity and fullness. The Holy Scripture declares that the Church is the pillar and ground of truth”. The Church, the Mystical Body of Christ, is the only institution free from error for in it the Holy Ghost abides and witnesses to the Truth. Outside the Church there is darkness. It is only in the Church that we can find the fellowship necessary for true happiness. It is only through the Passion, Suffering, Death and the Glorious Resurrection of Jesus Christ that we can be saved. It is only through Christ and in His Church that we can find the Truth.
Does Holy Scripture teach the Masonic idea of placing all religions on an equal basis?
Listen to Our Lord Jesus Christ Who says: “I am the door. By me if any man enter in, he shall be saved.” (John, 10:9) “I am the Way and the Truth and the Life. No one cometh unto the Father, but by me.” (John, 14:6) “He that hath not the Son of God hath not Life.” (I John, 5:12) “He that believeth not the Son shall not see Life”. (John, 3:36)
Without Christ we have no God! We have no salvation! For a Christian there can be no agreement or compromise between Christ and Masonry.
Masonry ignores the Truth that Christ suffered for all. It was not in vain that St. Paul said, “The word of the Cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us who are saved it is the power of God.” (I Cor. 1:18)
The Christian makes a total sacrifice of the True Faith when he becomes a Mason. When he puts on his little Masonic apron, he abandons Christ implicitly and explicitly.
Since Masonry rejects the Divinity of Jesus Christ and places Him on an equal level with founders of other religions, every Christian should stop and realize the implications of Masonry to his Christian Faith. Masonry eliminates the name of Christ from Bible passages read in the lodge and omits His Name in the prayers of the lodge. This should make a Christian realize that he is guilty of participation in heretical proceedings. The Christian has but one alternative. If he has already joined a lodge he is to “come out and be separate”. (2 Cor. 6:17)
“And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. For it is a shame to speak of those things which are done of them in secret.” (Ephesians 5:11-12)
CHAPTER III
The Masonic Oath
If someone were to ask you to sign a document without first permitting you to read it, you would object I And no one would say that you acted unwisely. When joining a Masonic organization this is precisely what you are asked to do. For example, the first oath, the Entered Apprentice Obligation, reads as follows:
“I (name), of my own free will and accord, in the presence of Almighty God and this Worshipful Lodge, erected to Him and dedicated to the Holy Saints John, do hereby and hereon most solemnly and sincerely promise and swear: that I will always hail, ever conceal and never reveal any of the secret arts, parts, or points of the hidden mysteries of Ancient Freemasonry which have been heretofore, may at this time or shall at any future period be communicated to me as such, to any person or persons whomsoever, except it be to a true and lawful brother Mason, or within a regularly constituted lodge of Masons: and neither unto him nor them until by strict trial due examination or legal information, I shall have found him or them as lawfully entitled to the same as I myself.”
The italicized words indicate clearly that one swears to keep secret not only that which has been revealed, but -even that which is yet to be revealed. No person in his right mind would agree to this in any other phase of life, yet this is the normal procedure in all Masonic ritual. Jesus, however, said: “I have spoken openly to the world – I have said nothing secretly.” (John 18:20) He expects all who follow Him in Truth to do likewise.
Further more, a Mason solemnly swears to allow the Masonic Order to punish and even destroy him if he reveals any of its secrets. This is what he swears:
“To all of this, I most solemnly and sincerely promise and swear, with a firm and steadfast resolution to keep and perform the same, without any equivocation, mental reservation, or secret evasion o mind whatever, “binding myself under no less a penalty than that of having my throat cut across, my tongue torn out by its roots, and buried in the rough sands of the sea at low-water mark, where the tide ebbs and flows twice in twenty-four hours, should I even knowingly or willingly violate this my solemn oath and obligation as an Entered Apprentice Mason. So help me God, and keep me steadfast in the due performance of the same.”
Here a Mason asks the help of God to violate God’s own commandment, “Thou shalt not kill.” This is not Christian ethics! Indeed there are many pagan religions whose ethical standards are far superior. Some will say that this is but a meaningless ritual or symbolism; but in the oath we read that this promise is made solemnly and without any “mental reservation or secret evasion of mind whatever.” In short, a Mason signs away his judgement and free will by taking this oath. He promises to take it literally and seriously. And for what reason?
Now let us consider what some of the Presidents of the United States had to say about tins blasphemous and unethical oath.
The sixth President of the United States, John Quincy Adams, said, “I am prepared to complete the demonstration before God and man that the Masonic oath, obligations, and penalties cannot by any possibility be reconciled to the laws of morality, of Christianity, or of the land.”
President Ulysses S. Grant said, “All secret oath-bound political parties are dangerous to any nation, no matter how pure or how patriotic the motives and principles which first bring them together.”
We would remind those who say that the oaths and obligations of a Mason are not taken seriously or literally, of one incident in the history of American Masonry which reveals its ever-present danger. After Captain William Morgan abandoned Masonry and exposed the first three degrees he was abducted and murdered by Masons who took their oaths literally and seriously to the sorrow and regret of those who did not. When this occurred in 1826, 1500 lodges surrendered their charters and 45,000 out of 50,000 Masons in the northern jurisdiction seceded from the order. The circumstances which were then present in Masonry have not changed in substance, and are present today with all their potential danger.
Many Masons will deny, that they ever took the oath which we have quoted in part, but the reason for their denial is self evident-the oath itself forbids. The authenticity of the oath which we have quoted has never been disproven. There are undoub1edly many Masons who were and are unaware of the full impact and implications of this oath and their Masonic, obligations. But when they are exposed to the Light and Truth of Christ, their evil becomes clearly visible to all but the spiritual1y blind or callously indifferent.
Masonic oath is, in fact, an extra-judicial oath! The lodges have no authority from God or the State to administer oaths. Since this oath cannot be binding upon a Christian, it should be rejected and repented of, if it has been taken. No Christian can take an oath which obligates him to break the Law of God. Either the oath means exactly what it says or it does not! Either the initiate is consenting to murder or he is blaspheming God and using His Name in vain!
The Bible tells us what to do if we have unwittingly committed this sin: “If a soul swear, pronouncing with his lips to do evil, or to do good, whatsoever it be that a man shall pronounce with an oath, and it be hid from him; when he knoweth of it, then he shall be guilty in one of these. And it shall be, when he shall be guilty in one of these things, that he shall confess that he hath sinned in that thing and the priest shall make an atonement for him concerning his sin.” (Leviticus 5:4-6)
It is evident from even this brief analysis of the Masonic oath of the first degree-and this is even more true of the other degrees – that Masonry cannot be a handmaid of the Church as some claim. The ethical ideals of Freemasonry are directly opposed to those of Christianity.
It is also clear that no one can be a true Mason and at the same time a true Christian. We would remind those who say that Masonry is a charitable and good organization, that good actions are truly good only if they spring from good intent and a good heart. As Christians, we are required to be charitable to all people and to be impartial in all things. Masonic oaths require partial benevolence. Strictly speaking, Masonic charity is not Christian charity.
“If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you hope to receive what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again. But love your enemies and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He is kind to the ungrateful and the selfish. Be merciful even as your Father is merciful.” (Luke 6:-32-36.) In Christian charity everything is given “in the name of Christ.”
In the words of St. John, the Church calls to all Christians, “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are of God; for many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God; every spirit which confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit which does not confess Jesus is not of God. This is the spirit of antichrist, of which you heard that it was coming and now it is in the world already. Little children, you are of God, and have overcome them; for He Who is in you is greater than he who is in the world, and the world listens to them. We are of God. Whoever knows God listens to us and he who is not of God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.” (1 John 4:1-6)
CHAPTER IV
Why Join a Secret Society?
Is there a good reason in the world for joining a secret society? Why must there be secretive organizations? Do secret societies benefit or hinder the Christian Church?
These are questions which should interest every God-loving person.
In John 3:19-21 we read, “And this is the condemnation that light is come into the world and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone that doeth evil hateth the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light that his deeds may be made manifest that they were wrought in God.
We believe sincerely that there is no reason under the name of God that would justify the membership of a true Christian in any secret society.
Secretism is an enemy of liberty and was the most unpopular thing in America between the years 1826-1840.
There is no need for secret organizations in a country blessed with liberty and justice for all. A secret society will always be tempted toward evil and to become lawless and disrespectful towards the rights of other people.
A secret organization can be useful and commendable while it is engaged in necessary work of a temporary nature. An example of this is the Early Church which was persecuted under despotic and tyrannical governments and for its salvation and continuance a certain secrecy was required. However, in a free and democratic land, a secret organization is not only unnecessary, but harmful.
Notwithstanding, we live in an age of secret organizations. Secretism is the chain that binds these organizations into a unity. Masonry is the root of secretism. Secret Societies are certainly not the work of Our Living Truth, the Light and the Life. On the other hand, secret societies acknowledge the god of falsehood, darkness and death.
That Masonry is a threat to the Christian Church is evident beyond doubt. If Masonry should ever become universal, as it claims it will, Christ The Son of God will no longer be heard of. Masonry is indeed the Antichrist in sheep’s clothing and can have no place in the Church of Christ. “Let God arise and let His enemies be scattered.”
Jesus spoke out against organized secrecy and also commanded His disciples to speak openly.
He said: “What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in the light; and what ye hear in the ear, that preach. ye upon the housetops.” (Mart. 10:27)
It is clear that a Christian should reveal whatever is good and profitable for the human race and should not keep his light under a bushel, but on a candlestick so that it “may give light unto all that are in the house.” (Matt. 5:15)
Any organization that claims to have secrets that could benefit mankind and does not reveal them to the world is certainly immoral and cannot be classified as a good institution. If it has no secrets, it should not pretend!
All the secrets of Masonry have been revealed and they have not benefited mankind. The only secret in Masonry is that there is no secret!
Masonry is nothing but a counterfeit of the Church. It antagonizes Christian life and growth. Men are fooled by the camouflage of Christianity permitted to a certain extent in this un-Christian society. These Christians are doing Satan’s work and don’t know it! Once they are caught in the snares of the wicked one they become weak Christians and will bear no fruit.
If all Christians within the lodge would “come out and be separate”, the lodges would cease to exist! Isn’t this a pitiful situation?
CHAPTER V
Pronouncements of the Orthodox Catholic Church Against Masonry
The Orthodox Catholic Church has made clear Her attitude towards Masonry on many occasions, and every time She has declared that it is incompatible with the Christian Faith.
In recent times, the late and prominent Metropolitan Anthony of Kiev and Galicia, warned all Orthodox Catholics in no uncertain, terms of the dangers of Masonry to the Christian Faith.
He said in his stand against Masonry, “. . . It is forbidden to all Orthodox Christians to become Freemasons. All Clergy are duty bound to question those who come to Confession whether they are members of Masonic Orders, and in case it will appear that they are Masons and believe and share Masonic teachings, they should be informed that membership in the Masonic organization is incompatible with Orthodox Christianity, and that such should immediately resign from Masonry, other wise they will be deemed unworthy to receive the Holy Communion and their further impenitency will bring them excommunication from the Orthodox Church.
The Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Church in North America, during a Great Council of Bishops held from the 19th to the 27th of October, 1949, in New York City, passed a resolution condemning Masonry in response to a special report made by the then Archbishop of Chicago, Leonty. The resolution reads:
“After a lengthy discussion of the question of Masonry, the Sobor of Bishops decreed: (a) To warn the members of the Russian Orthodox Church of America, in particular Her pastors concerning the incompatibility of being in the bosom of the Saving Church of Christ, and simultaneously continuing within the falsehoods of Masonry. Masonry is in fact a mixture of paganism and other religions containing certain secret “initiations” as established in the ritual of the order; (b) To explain to the Faithful that our Church agrees with the teachings of the Greek Orthodox Church. She accepts the testament as expressed by Chrysostom, the Metropolitan of Athens, and the 66 members of the Hellenic Church which was formulated during a Council in Athens, on the 12th of October, 1933, in the following declarations:
First: That the Faithful Sons of the Church must avoid Masonry, staunchly believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. Possessing the Truth which was revealed through Him and His Apostles, and in the partaking of Holy Communion by which we are sanctified, they must not fall away from the Grace of Christ by becoming participants in strange mysteries. It is absolutely impossible for one to belong to Christ and at the same time and seek salvation and moral perfection outside of Him;
Secondly; Whoever has perchance become involved in the initiations of the Masonic mysteries, must immediately leave this organization. In the future he must refrain from all association with the Masonic lodges and their workings. In this way he may have full assurance that he will renew his bond with the Lord and Saviour, which was broken either through ignorance or an incorrect understanding of the things involved.
(c) To explain the undeniable fact, that Divine judgment has touched those who have broken their bond with Christ, especially in the case of the priesthood–for they have already been punished from On High with their dismissal by higher authority from performing their priestly functions in our churches. They have lost integrity of life and in the midst of disease they have inherited death.
(d) To repeat the call of the entire Eastern Greek Catholic Church to those who have thoughtlessly joined the Masonic Fraternity not realizing that they passed into another religion similar to the ancient Gnostic sectrs of Egypt, Syria, Asia Minor, Persia, and Greece; To assure them that the Church awaits with great love their repentance in their unwillful abandonment of Christ. She calls all the Faithful to pray, that our Lord Jesus Christ -”The Way, The Truth, and The Life”—will enlighten them, returning them to the Truth of the Gospel and will re-establish them in faithfulness to the Holy Catholic Apostolic Faith and Church.
(e) To give warning to all the Faithful and especially to the growing youth to take to heart the instructions of our Episcopate concerning Masonry, in order that the Blessings of God may constantly abide with their parents, their relations and all their church organizations, which are now benefiting from the mercies from above for their faithfulness to the Orthodox Faith of their forefathers.
Finally: To bring this decision immediately to the attention of all individuals involved and, in general, to inform and give guidance to all the Faithful by publishing it in the official organ of the Metropolitanate and, if possible, in separate brochures.”
- Humble Theophilus, Metropolitan of All America and Canada.
- Leonty, Archbishop of Chicago and Minneapolis.
John, Bishop of Sitka and All Alaska.- John, Bishop of Detroit and Cleveland.
- Dionisy, Bishop of Pittsburgh and West Virginia.
John, Bishop of Brooklyn.- Bishop Dimitry.
(Translated from The Russian American Orthodox Messenger, March, 1950, pages 33-34.)
The conclusions of the Council of the Greek Orthodox Church to which these resolutions refer, is given here in full for the edification of all. It is clear from what is said in this statement that not only the Greek Church, but indeed all the autocephalous Orthodox Churches are in agreement concerning Masonry. The Statement, pp. 70-74, “Darkness Visible”
The Bishops of the Church of Greece in their session, concerned themselves with the study and examinion of the secret international organization, Freemasonry. They heard with attention the introductory exposition of the Commission of four Bishops appointed by the Holy Synod at its last session; also the opinion of the Theological Faculty of the University of Athens, and the particular opinion of Prof. Panag Bratsiotis which was appended thereto. They also took into consideration publications on this question in Greece and abroad. After a discussion they arrived at the following conclusions, accepted unanimously by all the Bishops.
“Freemasonry is not simply a philanthropic union or a philosophical school, but constitutes a mystagogical system which reminds us of the ancient heathen mystery-religions and cults – from which it descends and is their continuation and regeneration. This is not only admitted by prominent teachers in the lodges, but they declare it with pride, affirming literally:-’Freemasonry is the only survival of the ancient mysteries and can be called the guardian of them’ Freemasonry is a direct offspring of the Egyptian mysteries; ‘the humble workshop of the Masonic Lodge is nothing else than the eaves and the darkness of the cedars of India and the unknown depths of the Pyramids and the crypts of the magnificent temples of Isis’; ‘the Greek mysteries of Freemasonry, having passed along the luminous roads of knowledge under the mysteriarchs Prometheus, Dionysus and Orpheus, formulated the eternal laws of the Universe!
“Such a link between Freemasonry and the ancient idoaltrous mysteries is also manifested by all that is enacted and performed at the initiations. As in the rites of the ancient idolatrous mysteries the drama of the labours and death of the mystery god was repeated, and in the imitative repetition of this drama the initiate dies together with the patron of the mystery religion, who was always a mythical person symbolising the Sun of nature which dies in winter and is regenerated in spring, so it is also, in the initiation of the third degree of the patron of Freemasonry Hiram and a kind of repetition of his death, in which the initiate suffers with him, struck by the same instruments and on the same parts of the body as Hiram. According to the confession of a prominent teacher of Freemasonry Hiram is ‘as Osiris, as Mithra and as Bacchus, one of the personifications of the Sun’.
“Thus Freemasonry is, as granted, a mystery religion, quite different, separate, and alien to the Christian faith. This is shown without any doubt by the fact that it possesses its own temples with altars, which are characterised by prominent teachers as ‘workshops which cannot have less history and holiness than the Church’ and as temples of virtue and wisdom where the Supreme Being is worshipped and the truth is taught. It possesses its own religious ceremonies, such as the ceremony of adoption or the masonic baptism, the ceremony of conjugal acknowledgement or the masonic marriage, the masonic memorial service, the consecration Of the masonic temple, and so on. It possesses its own initiations, its own ceremonial ritual, it sown hierarchical order and a definite discipline. As may be concluded from the masonic agapes and from the feasting of the winter and summer solstices with religious meals and general rejoicings, it is a physiolatric religion.
“It is true that it may seem at first that Freemasonry can be reconciled with every other religion, because it is not interested directly in the religion to which its initiates belong. This is, however, explained by its syncretistjc character and proves that in this point also it is an offspring and a continuation of ancient idolatrous mysteries which accepted for initiation worshippers of all gods. But as the mystery religions, in spite of the apparent spirit of tolerance and acceptance of foreign gods, lead to a syncretism which undermined and gradually shook confidence in other religions, thus Freemasonry today, which seeks to embrace in itself gradually all mankind and which promises to give moral perfection and knowledge of truth, is, lifting itself to the position of a kind of super-religion, looking on all religions (without excepting Christianity) as inferior to itself. Thus it develops in its initiates the idea that only in masonic lodges is performed the shaping and the smoothing of the unsmoothed and unhewn stone. And the fact alone that Freemasonry creates a brotherhood excluding all other brotherhoods outside it (which are considered by Freemasonry as ‘uninstructcd’ even when they are Christian) proves clearly its pretentions to be a super-religion. This means that by masonic initiation a Christian becomes a brother of the Muslim, the Buddhist, or any kind of rationalist, while the Christian not initiated in Freemasonry becomes to him an outsider.
“On the other hand, Freemasonry in prominently exalting knowledge and in helping free research as ‘putting no limit in the search of truth’ (according to its rituals and constitution), and more than this by adopting the so-called natural ethic, shows itself in this sense to be in sharp contradiction with the Christian religion. For the Christian religion exalts faith above all, confining human reason to the limits traced by Divine Revelation and leading to holiness through the supernatural action of grace. In other words, while Christianity, as a religion of Revelation, possessing its rational and superrational dogmas and truths, asks for faith first, and grounds its moral structure on the super-natural Divine Grace, Freemasonry has only natural truth and brings to the knowledge of its initiates free thinking and investigation through reason only. It bases its moral structure only on the natural forces of man, and has only natural aims.
“Thus, the incompatible contradiction between Christianity and Freemasonry is quite clear. It is natural that various Churches of other denominations have taken a stand against Freemasonry. Not only has the Western Church branded for its own reasons the masonic movement by numerous Papal encyclicals, but Lutheran, Methodist and Presbyterian communities have also declared it to be incompatible with Christianity. Much more has the Orthodox Catholic Church, maintaining in its integrity the treasure of Christian faith proclaimed against it every time that the question of Freemasonry has been raised. Recently, the Interorthodox Commission which met on Mount Athos and in which the representatives of all the Autocephalous Orthodox Churches took part, has characterised Freemasonry as a ‘false and anti-Christian system’.”
The assembly of the Bishops of the Church of Greece in the above mentioned session heard with relief and accepted the following conclusions which were drawn from the investigations and discussions by its President His Grace Archbishop Chrysostom of Athens:
“Freemasonry cannot be at all compatible with Christianity as far as it is a secret organization, acting and teaching in mystery and secret and deifying rationalism. Freemasonry accepts as its members not only Christians, but also Jews and Muslims. Consequently clergymen cannot be permitted to take part in this association. I consider as worthy of degradation every clergyman who does so. It is necessary to urge upon all who entered it without due thought and without examining what Freemasonry is, to sever all connections with it, for Christianity alone is the religion which teaches absolute truth and fulfils the religious and moral needs of men. Unanimously and with one voice all the Bishops of the Church of Greece have approved what was said, and we declare that all the faithful children of the Church must stand apart from Freemasonry. With unshaken faith in Our Lord Jesus Christ ‘in whom we have our redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our sins, according to the riches of His Grace, whereby He abounds to us in all wisdom and prudence’ (Ephes. 1, 7-9) possessing the truth revealed by Him and preached by the Apostles, ‘not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in the manifestation of the Spirit of power’ (1 Cor. 2, 4); partaking in the Divine Sacraments through which we are sanctified and saved by eternal life, we must not fall from the grace of Christ by becoming partakers of other mysteries. It is not lawful to belong at the same time to Christ and to search for redemption and moral perfection outside Him. For these reasons true Christianity is incompatible with Freemasonry.
“Therefore, all who have become involved in the initiations of masonic mysteries must from this moment sever all relations with masonic lodges and activities, being sure that they are thereby of a certainty renewing their links with our one Lord and Saviour which were weakened by ignorance and by a wrong sense of values. The Assembly of the Bishops of the Church of Greece expects this particularly and with love from the initiates of the lodges, being convinced that most of them have received masonic initiation not realizing that by it they were passing into another religion, but on the contrary from ignorance, thinking that they had done nothing contrary to the faith of their fathers. Recommending them to the sympathy, and in no wise to the hostility or hatred of the faithful children of the Church, the Assembly of the Bishops calls them to pray with her from the heart in Christian love, that the one Lord Jesus Christ ‘the way, the truth and the life’ may illumine and return to the truth those who in ignorance have gone astray”.
(We are indebted to Father Krivoshein, an Orthodox priest at Oxford and also Walton Hannah, the author of “Darkness Visible” for this statement of the Greek Orthodox Church).
CHAPTER VI
Resolution Regarding Freemaronry to be Presented to the Ninth All-American Church Sobor on Behalf of the Chicago Deanery
PREFACE
The Great Sobor of Bishops held in October of 1949 after hearing a report by Archbishop Leonty, resolved that Freemasonry cannot be tolerated in any of its many forms within the Body of Christ, His Church. In times past, Freemasonry has been rejected and condemned by the Holy Orthodox Catholic and Apostolic Church as an esoteric, syncretic, and secretive organization or cult. Such cults claim for themselves the right to impart and teach to their initiates spiritual, dogmatic, and moral “truths” which contradict, annul, or supersede the Truths of the “Faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.” (Jude 3.) The Holy Orthodox Catholic and Apostolic Church affirms that She alone “is the Church of the Living God, the pillar and bulwark of the Truth.” (Timothy iii, 14.)
NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED
(1) That this, the Ninth All-American Sobor of the Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Church of North America, gathered under the guidance and protection of the Holy Saint in the Pro-Cathedral of the Holy Protection of the Most Holy Mother of God in the city of New York on this the 10th day of November in the Year of our Lord 1955, accepts, approves, and fully supports the. Resolutions on Freemasonry of the Great Sobor of Bishops of October 1949.
(2) That these resolutions shall be effected with the greatcst possible vigor and zeal in the Church by all its true members whether they be Bishops, Clergy, or Laity; each according to the rights, duties, and responsibilities of his office at all levels and in all phases of the life of the Church.
(3) That all Orthodox Catholic Christians are reminded that loyalty to Christ and unity with the Life of His Body, the Church, obligates each and every one of them to avoid all esoteric, syncretic, or secretive cults which like Freemasonry claim that they are custodians of certain esoteric, spiritual, dogmatic, and ethical “truths” which they alone possess and impart to their initiates. When an Orthodox Catholic Christian becomes a member of such an organization knowingly or unknowingly, through ignorance or indifference, he in fact acknowledges that the Truth and the Light of Christ the Son of God is not sufficient for salvation. Thus he denies the Savior who said, “All things have been de-livered to me by My Father,” (Luke x, 22) for “I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life; no one can come to the Father, but by. me.” (John xiv, 6.) The Church has always affirmed that the Fullness of the Truth is . only within the Body of Christ The Church alone teaches and imparts spiritual, dogmatic, and ethical Truths to her members under the guidance of the Holy – Spirit. She neither concedes, nor shares, nor gives this Her God-given right and duty to any organization, institution, or individual outside the Lifegiving Body of Christ.
(4) That any Orthodox Catholic Christian who because of ignorance of the facts or for any other reason, may have joined any esoteric, syncretic, or secretive organization must repent of his sin before the Church. He must immediately break all ties that bind him to that organization if he is to be reconciled to the Fullness of the Truth that is within the Lifegiving Body of Christ.
(5) That any Orthodox Catholic Christian whether he be a Bishop, Priest, Deacon, or Layman loses all the rights, honors, and privileges of his membership and of his office in the Church when he joins any esoteric, syncretic, or secretive organization. If he keeps his membership secret, the simple fact of such membership whether it is known to the Church or not, is sufficient to cut him off from the Lifegiving Vine of Christ. If he partakes of the Mystery of the Body and Blood of Christ while keeping secret in his heart the fact of this membership, he “eats and drinks without discerning the Body and eats and drinks judgement upon himself’ (1 Cor. xi, 29 .) not unto salvation but unto condemnation.
(6) That it is the duty and obligation of every member of the Holy Orthodox Catholic and Apostolic Church to expose and combat the evil darkness and the secret “truths” of all esoteric, syncretic, and secretive cults with the Light and Truth of Christ. Our Lord said, “I have spoken openly to the world . . . I have said nothing secretly.” (John xviii, 20.) The Church of Christ demands and expects from each and every member full and unqualified love, loyalty, and devotion to Jesus Christ the Son of God, the Savior and Redeemer of the World. Therefore, no man can swear secret love, loyalty, and devotion to the false god of Masonry, and at the same time confess and serve the “Father, and the Son and Holy Spirit, the Trinity, One in Essence and Undivided.” (From the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom).
Glory be to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
RESOLUTION ON MASONRY
The Ninth all-American Church Sobor of the Russian Orthodox Church of North America held in New York City, New York from the 8th to the 11th of November 1955 heard with great interest the decision of the Great Sobor of Bishops~ held in October of 1949. It contained the following statements:
“Freemasonry, in any of its forms, can not be tolerated within the Body of Christ, His Church. In times past, Freemasonry. has been rejected and condemned by the Holy Orthodox Catholic and Apostolic Church as an esoteric, syncretic and secretive organization or cult.
Such cults claim for themselves the right to impart and teach to their initiates spiritual, dogmatic and moral “truths” which contradict, annul or supersede the Truths of the Faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. (Jude 1,9)
The Holy Orthodox Catholic and Apostolic Church affirms that She alone “is the Church of the Living God, the pillar and bulwark of the Truth.” (Tim. 3, 14)
“After hearing this decision of the Great Sobor of Bishops, the All-American Sober resolved: To consider this action of the Bishops’ Sobor obligatory for the Metropolia and to accept It into practice with unfailing fulfillment”.
The above statements have been reprinted from the Russian text as it appeared in the official organ of the Church, “The Russian American Orthodox Messenger,” in December, 1955.
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Freemasonry and Its Condemnations by the Orthodox Church
By Archbishop Gregory, Dormition Skete & Holy Apostles Convent, Buena Vista, Colorado
“Masonry [is that religion] around whose altars the Christian, the Hebrew, the Moselm, the Brahman [Hindu], the followers of Confucius and Zoroaster, can assemble as brethren and unite in prayer…” (Albert Pike, Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry (Charleston, SC, The Supreme Council of the 33rd Degree for the Southern Jurisdiction of the United Stated, 1906), pg. 226.)
Consider this quote from a more contemporary Masonic thinking, taken from the current manual of instruction used by Masons in the state of Kentucky (Kentucky Monitor by Henry Pirtle, pg. 95): “Masonry makes no profession of Christianity … but looks forward to the time when the labor of our ancient brethren shall be symbolized by the erection of a spiritual temple … in which there shall be but one altar and one worship; one common altar of Masonry on which the Veda, Shastras, Sade, Zend-Avesta, Koran, and Holy Bible shall lie untouched by sacrilegious hands, and at whose shrine the Hindoo, the Persian, the Assyrian, The Chaldean, The Egyptian, the Chinese, The Mohammedan, the Jew, and the Christian may kneel and with one united voice celebrate the praises of the Supreme Architech of the Universe.”
In the journal Le Temple, published in Paris, the official organ of Scottish-Rite Masonry, in the article “The Union of the Churches” (no. 3, Sept.-Oct., 1946), masonry itself gives the following acknowledgement of its success:
“We are asked why we enter into disputes of a religious nature, to what extent questions of the union of the churches, ecumenical congresses, etc., can present any interest for masonry…Even if we attempted to forget that masonry has a religious origin, all the same the very fact of the existence of religions would call forth in us a constant endeavor to bind in unity all mortals, in that unity of which we always dream. The problem raised by the plan of the union of the churches that confess Christ closely interests masonry and is akin to masonry, since it contains in itself the idea of universalism. And let us be permitted to add that if this union…stands on the right path, for this it is obliged to our Order.”
The only reasonable deductions one can make from the refusal of the Ecumenist Jurisdictions to repudiate any association with Masonry and condemn it as contrary to Orthodox Christianity is that they are members of the fraternity, don’t wish to be forced to leave it by being exposed, and won’t condemn it because they don’t wish to condemn themselves and what they believe in. It goes without saying that the Ecumenism of the hierarchs of World Orthodoxy corresponds exactly to the teachings and practice of Freemasonry, and this coincidence proves no wonder if they are masons themselves (which is in fact the case, as will be seen further on below).
We should also not forget the actual facts about freemasonry, and the decisions of the Church against her. Here follow some very forceful examples:
From The Rudder (1950 English Masterjohn translation), p. 550
THE APHORISM AGAINST FREEMASONRY
by Cyprianus, Archbishop of CyprusCyprus, February 2nd, 1815
“Wherefore, clad in the sacred vestments of epitrachelion and omophorion we say, If any man preach unto you any other gospel than that which we have’; preached unto you, even though an angel from heaven, let him be accursed.” (Gal. 1,8,9) As many as are befitting, that pursue after such a diabolic and lawless employment of Freemasonry, and all they that follow unto their infatuation and unto their error, let them be excommunicated and accursed by the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. After death, they shall be unpardoned, indissoluble, and bloated. Groaning and trembling, as Cain, shall they be upon the earth. (Gen. 4:14). The earth shall cleave and swallow them up, as Dathan and Abiram (Num. 16, 31-32). The wrath of God shall be upon their heads, and their portion together with Judas the betrayer. As angel of the Lord will prosecute them with a flaming sword and, unto their life’s termination, they will not know of progress. Let their works and toil be unblessed and let them become a cloud of dust, as of a summer threshing floor. And all they indeed that shall abide still unto their wickedness will have such a recompense. But as many as shall go out from the midst of them and shall be separated, and having spat out their abominable heresy, and shall go afar of from their accursed infatuation, such kind shall receive the wages of the zealot Phineas; rather let them be blessed and forgiven by the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, the Only unconfused and undivided Trinity, the One God in nature, and by us His servants.”
This is the APHORISM of the NATIONAL MARTYR, Cyprianus, Archbishop of Cyprus, who in the year 1821, during the Greek revolution against Turkey, shed his blood in defense of the liberty of his Greek homeland from Turkey. Likewise, Archbishop Hierotheus of Patras, Greece, published two comprehensive encyclicals against Masonry, one on October 5, 1897, and another on August 22, 1899.
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The Russian Orthodox Church’s Attitude towards Freemasonry was very forcefully proclaimed by Metropolitan Anthony (Khrapovitsky) the Presiding member of the Sremski-Karlovcy Synod in Yugoslavia, who is at the head of the Russian Orthodox Church outside of Russia.
On August 15, 1932, the Metropolitan issued a Pastoral letter to the faithful, entitled ‘An Encyclical on Freemasonry, Theosophy, and Allied Systems’, from which we quote some excerpts and its conclusions and the decrees the ROCA adopted concerning Freemasonry and related sects:
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THE COUNCIL OF BISHOPS OF THE RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH OUTSIDE OF RUSSIA TO ALL THE FAITHFUL OF THE RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH IN DIASPORA
15/28 August 1932
“Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.” (I John iv. 1.)
If there was ever a time when these holy words of the beloved disciple of Christ, St. John, could find their most prophetic application, it is certainly ours.
Our troubled period is very poor in prophets. On the other hand, it abounds in false prophets. The world is becoming poorer in the “Spirit of God,” but waxes rich in the “spirit of error.”
“That old serpent, which is the devil, and Satan (Rev. 20:2) has poisoned and infected the hearts of men with many false doctrines, heresies, and sects, which he uses to seduce those whose faith is not solid, those who are not instructed in the knowledge of the mysteries of the Kingdom of God, turning them away from faith in God, in the Church of Christ…
[There follows a closely documented examination of the general and higher level Masonic doctrines and aims from various Masonic sources and Constitutions. It also shows the ties of Freemasonry with revolutions against Christian States and the Church. It exposes clear connections of Freemasonry to the Russian Revolution. Finally, the conclusions state:]
“Freemasonry is a secret international organisation to struggle with God, Christianity, and all National Governments, and especially Christian Governments.
“In the international organization the first place of influence and importance belongs to the Jewish membership.
“Because of this, and other important reasons it is forbidden for all Orthodox Christians to become Freemasons.
In view of what has been stated above, the Holy Council decides to:
(1) Condemn Masonry as a doctrine and an organization contrary to Christianity. . . . (2) Condemn equally all the doctrines and organizations having an affinity with Masonry, like Theosophy, Anthroposophy, all forms of “Christian gnosticism” [which would include such things as “Christian Yoga,” “Christian Zen, etc], and the YMCA. (3) Recommend to the diocesan bishops and to chiefs of missions to furnish their clergy with all information which may serve to enlighten the faithful regarding the above-mentioned erroneous doctrines and organizations. . . . (4) Recommend to pastors the necessity of questioning every person presenting himself for confession with a view to finding out whether or not that person is a member of a Masonic organization and whether or not he shares its doctrines. If it appears that the person is a member or shares its teaching, explain to him that participation in these organizations is incompatible with the name of Christian, with being a member of the Church of Christ. That he must take a firm decision to break with Masonry and with doctrines related to it; and if he does not do so, not to admit him to Holy Communion; and if he should refuse to repent, to excommunicate him from the Holy Church.
After having given you our pastoral recommendations concerning the enemies of God and of our salvation, we would remind you of the exhortations of the Holy Apostle: “Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. . . . Building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.” (Jude 3, 20, 21.)
“Whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?. . . . We know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness. And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know Him that is true; and we are in Him that is true, even in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the True God, and eternal life.” (I John v. 4-5, 19-20.) Amen!
President of the Council of Bishops Of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia,
+Metropolitan ANTHONY
[Taken from: Rev. P. Kohanik, Christian Orthodox Light on Speculative Freemasonry, 1948, Passaic, N.J.; St. Nectarios Educational Series No.24: Excerpts from the Encyclical on Freemasonry, Theosophy, and Allied Systems]
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FREEMASONRY: THE OFFICIAL STATEMENT OF THE CHURCH OF GREECE (1933)
St. Nectarios Educational Series, No. 22
It is clear from the following statement that Orthodox Christians must disavow the Masonic movement and resign from it if they have joined it in ignorance of its goals. Pike, in his Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry tells us that “Every Masonic Lodge is a temple of religion; and its teachings are instruction in religion.” (p. 213) “Masonry, around whose altars the Christian, the Hebrew, the Moslem, the Brahim, the followers of Confucius and Zoroaster, can assemble as brethren and unite in prayer to the one God who is above all the Baalism.” (p. 226) “Masonry, like all religions, all the Mysteries, conceals its secrets from all except the Adepts and Sages or Elect and uses false explanations and interpretations of its symbols to mislead those who deserve only to be misled.” (p. 105 )
Patriarch Athenagoras and Archbishop Iakovos have frequently quoted or rephrased the following from Chapter 10 of the above work. “No human being can with certainty say, in the clash and conflict of hostile faiths and creeds, what is truth, or that he is surely in possession of it, so every one should feel that it is quite possible and another equally honest and sincere with himself, and yet holding a contrary opinion, may himself be in possession of the truth.” One needs only to read the Christmas 1967, statement of Patriarch Athenagoras or Archbishop Iakovos’ sermon at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, January 19, 1969, to realize that they continually expound Masonic doctrine which is opposed to sound Orthodox teaching. The very ecumenical movement’s founders and chief exponents are members of the Masonic order which inspires them and gives them their guidelines. Is it no wonder then that Orthodoxy becomes unimportant to these people?
Read and reread this statement in order to understand the correct Orthodox opinion in this matter.
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The Official Statement
The Bishops of the Church of Greece in their session of October 12, 1933, concerned themselves with the study and examination of the secret international organization, Freemasonry. They heard with attention the introductory exposition of the Commission of four Bishops appointed by the Holy Synod at its last session; also the opinion of the Theological Faculty of the University of Athens, and the particular opinion of Prof. Panag Bratsiotis which was appended thereto. They also took into consideration publications on this question in Greece and abroad. After a discussion they arrived at the following conclusions, accepted unanimously by all the Bishops.
“Freemasonry is not simply a philanthropic union or a philosophical school, but constitutes a mystagogical system which reminds us of the ancient heathen mystery-religions and cults–from which it descends and is their continuation and regeneration. This is not only admitted by prominent teachers in the lodges, but they declare it with pride, affirming literally: “Freemasonry is the only survival of the ancient mysteries and can be called the guardian of them;” Freemasonry is a direct offspring of the Egyptian mysteries; “the humble workshop of the Masonic Lodge is nothing else than the caves and the darkness of the cedars of India and the unknown depths of the Pyramids and the crypts of the magnificent temples of Isis; in the Greek mysteries of Freemasonry, having passed along the luminous roads of knowledge under the mysteriarchs Prometheus, Dionysus and Orpheus, formulated the eternal laws of the Universe!
“Such a link between Freemasonry and the ancient idolatrous mysteries is also manifested by all that is enacted and performed at the initiations. As in the rites of the ancient idolatrous mysteries the drama of the labors and death of the mystery god was repeated, and in the imitative repetition of this drama the initiate dies together with the patron of the mystery religion, who was always a mythical person symbolizing the Sun of nature which dies in winter and is regenerated in spring, so it is also, in the initiation of the third degree, of the patron of Freemasonry Hiram and a kind of repetition of his death, in which the initiate suffers with him, struck by the same instruments and on the same parts of the body as Hiram. According to the confession of a prominent teacher of Freemasonry Hiram is “as Osiris, as Mithra, and as Bacchus, one of the personifications of the Sun.”
“Thus Freemasonry is, as granted, a mystery-religion, quite different, separate, and alien to the Christian faith. This is shown without any doubt by the fact that it possesses its own temples with altars, which are characterized by prominent teachers as “workshops which cannot have less history and holiness than the Church” and as temples of virtue and wisdom where the Supreme Being is worshipped and the truth is taught. It possesses its own religious ceremonies, such as the ceremony of adoption or the masonic baptism, the ceremony of conjugal acknowledgement or the masonic marriage, the masonic memorial service, the consecration of the masonic temple, and so on. It possesses its own initiations, its own ceremonial ritual, its own hierarchical order and a definite discipline. As may be concluded from the masonic agapes and from the feasting of the winter and summer solstices with religious meals and general rejoicings, it is a physiolatric [nature-worshipping] religion.
“It is true that it may seem at first that Freemasonry can be reconciled with every other religion, because it is not interested directly in the religion to which its initiates belong. This is, however, explained by its syncretistic character and proves that in this point also it is an offspring and a continuation of ancient idolatrous mysteries which accepted for initiation worshippers of all gods. But as the mystery religions, in spite of the apparent spirit of tolerance and acceptance of foreign gods, lead to a syncretism which undermined and gradually shook confidence in other religions, thus Freemasonry today, which seeks to embrace in itself gradually all mankind and which promises to give moral perfection and knowledge of truth, is lifting itself to the position of a kind of super-religion, looking on all religions (without excepting Christianity) as inferior to itself. Thus it develops in its initiates the idea that only in masonic lodges is performed the shaping and the smoothing of the unsmoothed and unhewn stone. And the fact alone that Freemasonry creates a brotherhood excluding all other brotherhoods outside it (which are considered by Freemasonry as “uninstructed”, even when they are Christian) proves clearly its pretensions to be a super-religion. This means that by masonic initiation, a Christian becomes a brother of the Muslim, the Buddhist, or any kind of rationalist, while the Christian not initiated in Freemasonry becomes to him an outsider.
“On the other hand, Freemasonry in prominently exalting knowledge and in helping free research as “putting no limit in the search of truth” (according to its rituals and constitution), and more than this by adopting the so-called natural ethic, shows itself in this sense to be in sharp contradiction with the Christian religion. For the Christian religion exalts faith above all, confining human reason to the limits traced by Divine Revelation and leading to holiness through the supernatural action of grace. In other words, which Christianity, as a religion of Revelation, possessing its rational and superrational dogmas and truths, asks for faith first, and grounds its moral structure on the super-natural Divine Grace, Freemasonry has only natural truth and brings to the knowledge of its initiates free thinking and investigation through reason only. It bases its moral structure only on the natural forces of man, and has only natural aims.
“Thus, the incompatible contradiction between Christianity and Freemasonry is quite clear. It is natural that various Churches of other denominations have taken a stand against Freemasonry. Not only has the Western Church branded for its own reasons the masonic movement by numerous Papal encyclicals, but Lutheran, Methodist and Presbyterian communities have also declared it to be incompatible with Christianity. Much more has the Orthodox Catholic Church, maintaining in its integrity the treasure of Christian faith proclaimed against it every time that the question of Freemasonry has been raised. Recently, the Inter-Orthodox Commission which met on Mount Athos and in which the representatives of all the Autocephalous Orthodox Churches took part, has characterized Freemasonry as a “false and anti-Christian system.”
The assembly of the Bishops of the Church of Greece in the above mentioned session heard with relief and accepted the following conclusions which were drawn from the investigations and discussions by its President His Grace Archbishop Chrysostom of Athens:
“Freemasonry cannot be at all compatible with Christianity as far as it is a secret organization, acting and teaching in mystery and secret and deifying rationalism. Freemasonry accepts as its members not only Christians, but also Jews and Muslims. Consequently clergymen cannot be permitted to take part in this association. I consider as worthy of degradation every clergyman who does so. It is necessary to urge upon all who entered it without due thought and without examining what Freemasonry is, to sever all connections with it, for Christianity alone is the religion which teaches absolute truth and fulfills the religious and moral needs of men. Unanimously and with one voice all the Bishops of the Church of Greece have approved what was said, and we declare that all the faithful children of the Church must stand apart from Freemasonry. With unshaken faith in Our Lord Jesus Christ “in whom we have our redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our sins, according to the riches of His Grace, whereby He abounds to us in all wisdom and prudence” (Ephes. 1, 7-9) possessing the truth revealed by Him and preached by the Apostles, “not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in the partaking in the Divine Sacraments through which we are sanctified and saved by eternal life, we must not fall from the grace of Christ by becoming partakers of other mysteries. It is not lawful to belong at the same time to Christ and to search for redemption and mora1 perfection outside Him. For these reasons true Christianity is incompatible with Freemasonry.
“Therefore, all who have become involved in the initiations of masonic mysteries must from this moment sever all relations with masonic lodges and activities, being sure that they are thereby of a certainty renewing their links with our one Lord and Savior which were weakened by ignorance and by a wrong sense of values. The Assembly of the Bishops of the Church of Greece expects this particularly and with love from the initiates of the lodges, being convinced that most of them have received masonic initiation not realizing that by it they were passing into another religion, but on the contrary from ignorance, thinking that they had done nothing contrary to the faith of their fathers. Recommending them to the sympathy, and in no wise to the hostility or hatred of the faithful children of the Church, the Assembly of the Bishops calls them to pray with her from the heart in Christian love, that the one Lord Jesus Christ “the way, the truth and the life” may illumine and return to the truth who in ignorance have gone astray.”
Reprinted from: Borichevsky, Rev. Fr. Vladimir S. and Jula, Rev. Fr. Stephen N., Masonry or Christ?, Ch. V.
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Evidence of Masonry in Ecumenist Jurisdictions
On the official website of the Masonic Grand Lodge of Greece (http://www.grandlodge.gr/Famous_gr_home.html) is a listing of famous known Masons from 1800-1950. They name as Masons with their lodges of initiation:
Ecumenical Patriarchs Meletios II [Metaxikis] Basileios III, and Joakeim III, Alexandrian Patriarch Photios (Georgios Peroglou), Jerusalem Patriarch Benedictos (Basileios Papadopoulos). Furthermore, Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras is named as a Mason by several Masonic sources:
“Some Bishops in the various Eastern Orthodox Churches oppose Freemasonry, but the Orthodox Church itself has no position on the matter. Indeed, two of the most outstanding leaders of the Orthodox Church within the last generation – Patriarch Athenagoras of Constantinople and Patriarch Benedict of Jerusalem – were Freemasons.”
The Truth About Freemasonry: A Master Mason Responds With Truth to Anti-Masonic Lies; The Rev. Baron Dr. Lloyd Worley, Fellow of the Philalethes Society, Associate Regent, York Rite Sovereign College (2644 11th Ave. #D-109, Greelely, CO 80631); copyright 1986, 1992, 1995.
In one contemporary Greek Newspaper, “Christian News”, this is found:
“In Paris, a book entitled The Sons of Light was published, in which it is stated that Patriarch Athenagoras is a Freemason. On page 313, the Patriarch is called a Freemason. Since the Patriarch has not come forward to deny this, the scandal persists in the consciences of Christians who have read such frightful news in the daily Athenian press and in publications coming from America–a scandal not so much because of what the journalists report, but because the Patriarch himself, who seems indifferent about the matter or does not wish, for reasons best known to himself, to come forward and deny this report” (see Cristianikh Spiqa, No. 268 [January 1964]).
The leading Masonic Periodical of Greece not only states Patriarch Athenagoras’s successor, Demetrios, is a Mason, but places him prominently on the cover of one of its issues:
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The cover of the leading Masonic Periodical of Greece which states Patriarch Athenagoras’s successor, Demetrios, is a Mason.
Other Ecumenist bishops have appeared in Masonic photographs from time to time, such as the former Greek New Calendar Archbishop of Australia Seraphim, who appears with the Masonic-connected Lion’s Club below:
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The former Greek New Calendar Archbishop of Australia Seraphim appears with the Masonic-connected Lion’s Club.
It would appear, in fact, that many bishops of World Orthodoxy have capitulated. For example, the new calendar Greek religious newspaper, Orthodoxos Typos (December 9, 1988), openly laments:
“The leadership of many local new calendar Churches — that is, bishops, other clergy,theologians, etc. — have been overcome by Masonry. Well-known church leaders are accused of being Masons. And when they are asked if they are Masons, they avoid answering. A recent example is [the new calendar Archbishop] Iakovos of America, who, despite the challenge made by Orthodoxos Typos (Apr. 29, 1988) [that he answer this question], evaded taking any position on the subject of Masonry, although various periodicals accuse him of having joined its ranks. The usual response to this matter is, “But Freemasonry is not a religion, nor does it purport to be one.”
It does not appear to be limited to the Greek Patriarchates.
In the June 1986 issue of The Word Magazine, the official publication of the North American Archdiocese of the Antiochian Orthodox Church, on p. 24 (under “Dialogue”), we find to be denied the assertion that Freemasonry among Orthodox Christians is anti-canonical and “incompatible with the Church teachings”. The official respondent, Fr. Joseph Antypas of Detroit, after asserting that Masonic membership is compatible with Orthodox Christian doctrine and church membership, assures us that “Throughout the years of my ministry I have known many Masons who were good [Orthodox] Christians.”
We should not forget though that in the rites of Freemasonry, the personality of Jesus Christ, as well as His Divinity, and His Gospel’s doctrines are all conflated with the personalities or symbols of the Jewish Kabbalah, the Essenes, the worship of Isis and Osiris, Mithra, Hinduism, Buddhism, Gnosticism, the Mahdi of Islam, etc., all in such a way that Christ, ‘divinity’, and Christianity are redefined or understood symbolically so as to correspond to Freemasonry and a pantheistic or natural or rationalistic deism. Therefore, a Freemason may well speak of himself ‘sincerely’ as a Christian but mean a Mason. He may well profess his ‘whole-hearted belief in Christianity’ and understand that to imply, in fact, Christ’s Masonic Gospel, because Freemasonry teaches him that Christ was a Freemason and taught its doctrine within His Own misunderstood system of ‘symbols’. He may well speak of the divinity of Christ, but understand by divinity or by Christ a principle of nature or a kabbalistic Adam Qadmon, or other cunning subtle Christ-denying meanings that Freemasonry teaches him to impute to his religions terms and rites.
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CONCERNING MASONRY
RUSSIAN ORTHODOX GREEK CATHOLIC CHURCH OF AMERICA [now called the Orthodox Church of America]
HIS EMINENCE THE MOST REVEREND LEONTY ARCHBISHOP OF NEW YORK METROPOLITAN OF THE RUSSIAN ORTHODOX GREEK-CATHOLIC CHURCH OF AMERICA
59 EAST SECOND STREET NEW YORK 3, NEW YORK Telephone, Gramercy 7-7836
CIRCULAR LETTER
May 9, 1960 # 18649
TO ALL PASTORS AND CHURCH COMMITTEES OF THE RUSSIAN ORTHODOX GREEK CATHOLIC CHURCH OF AMERICA
The Great Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Church of America, in session on March 29, 1960 RESOLVED: to publicize again for general information, the resolution concerning Masonry passed by the Great Council of Bishops on October 25, 1949 (see Russian Orthodox Messenger, p. 33 # 3, 1950) which reads as follows:
a) to caution members of the Russian Orthodox Church of America and especially the pastors, of the incompatibility of membership in the saving Church of Christ and simultaneously membership in Masonic Lodges, which are a mixture of pagan and other religions with certain secret “initiations” as a fixed ritual of the order;
b) to explain to the faithful that our Church views Masonry in perfect accord with the teaching of the Greek Orthodox Church and accepts her testament expressed by the Head of the Church of the Hellenes, the Most Reverend Chrysostom, Archbishop of Athens, in session of October 12, 1933 in Athens, in the following two statements:
FIRST: All the faithful children of the Church must stand apart from Freemasonry. With unshaken faith in Our Lord Jesus Christ, possessing the truth revealed by Him and preached by His Apostles, partaking in the Divine Sacraments through which we are sanctified, we must not fall from the grace of Christ by becoming partakers of other mysteries. It is not lawful to belong at the same time to Christ and to search for redemption and moral perfection outside Him.
SECOND: all who have become involved in the initiations of masonic mysteries must from this moment sever all relations with masonic lodges and activities, being sure that they are thereby of a certainty renewing their links with our one Lord and Saviour which were weakened by ignorance and a wrong sense of values.
c) to reiterate the statement of the Eastern Churches to those who entered masonry not realizing that by it they were passing into another religion comparable to the Gnostic sects of Egypt, Syria, Asia Minor, Persia and Greece, that the Church awaits with great love their contrition for their ignorant departure from Christ, and calls on all faithful to pray that the One Lord Jesus Christ ‘the way, the truth and the life’ may illumine and return to the truth those who in ignorance have gone astray.
d) to caution all faithful, especially the youth, to take to heart the directions of our Episcopate concerning Masonry, that the Grace of God be with them, their parents and relatives and with their organizations, now abiding in the mercies from above for their loyalty to the Orthodox Church of their fathers.
This resolution is to be promulgated to all concerned and is to be published in the official organ of the Metropolia and if possible, in circulars, for the guidance of all.”
In informing all members of the Russian Orthodox Church of America of the above, the Great Council of Bishops strongly recommends that all Reverend Rectors admonish their parishioners who are members of the Masonic Lodges, and use their pastoral influence, especially during Penance, that they repent and leave the masonic organizations. The parishioners who refuse to do so are to be deprived, as unrepentant sinners, of Holy Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ, to whom is glory and honor forever. Amen.
The names of those deprived of Communion must be kept in the parish records as evidence for their exclusion from membership in Parish and Diocesan councils and as delegates to the All-American Sobor. SIGNED by Member of the Metropolitan Council Protopresbyter Feofan Buketoff and Secretary of the Metropolitan Council Right Reverend Joseph Pishtey.
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Free Masonry compared to Christianity
JESUS CHRIST
Masonry: “In his private petitions a man may petition God or Jehovah, Allah or Buddha, Mohammed or Jesus; he may call upon the God of Israel or the First Great Cause. In the Masonic Lodge he hears petition to the Great Architect of the Universe, finding his own deity under that name. A hundred paths may wind upward around a mountain; at the top they meet.” (Carl H. Claudy, “Introduction to Freemasonry.” p. 38)
Christianity: Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the Life: no man cometh to the Father, but by me. (Jn.14:6) Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name {but Jesus} under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. (Acts 4:12)
GOD
Masonry: “…Since every man’s conception of God must be proportioned to his mental cultivation, and intellectual powers, and moral excellence. God is, as man conceives Him, the reflected image of man himself. (Albert Pike, “Morals and Dogma,” 14th Degree, p. 234) “The only personal God Freemasonry accepts is humanity in toto…Humanity therefore is the only personal God that there is.” (J.D. Buck, “Mystic Masonry,” p. 216) “The Absolute is Reason. Reason IS, by means of itself. It IS because IT IS…If God IS, HE IS by Reason.” (Albert Pike, “Morals and Dogma,” 28th Degree. p. 737)
Christianity: In the Beginning God created the heaven and the earth. (Gen. 1:1) For there are three that bear record in Heaven, the Father, the Word {Jesus}, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. (I Jn. 5:7) God said undo Moses, I AM THAT I AM… (Ex. 3:14)
THE HOLY BIBLE
Masonry: “…the literal meaning (of the Bible) is for the vulgar only.” (Albert Pike, “Digest of Morals and Dogma,” p. 166) “Masonry makes no profession of Christianity…but looks forward to the time when the labor of our ancient brethren shall be symbolized by the erection of a spiritual temple…in which there shall be but one alter and one worship; one common altar of Masonry on which the Veda, Shastra, Sade, Zend-Avesta, Koran and Holy Bible shall lie…and at whose shrine the Hindoo, the Persian, the Assyrian, the Chaldean, the Egyptian, the Chinese, the Mohammedan, the Jew and the Christian may kneel…” (“The Kentucky Monitor.” Fellowcraft Degree, p. 95) The removal of the name of Jesus and references to Him in Bible verses used in the ritual are “slight but necessary modifications.” (Albert Mackey, “Masonic Ritualist.” p. 272)
Christianity: The Words of the Lord are pure words, as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. (Psa. 12:6) All Scripture is given by inspiration of God… (II Tim. 3:16) …if they speak not according to this Word, it is because there is no light in them. (Isa. 8:20)
REDEMPTION
Masonry: “These three degrees (1st, 2nd, 3rd) thus form a perfect an harmonious whole, nor can it be conceived that anything can be suggested more, which the soul of man requires.” (Daniel Sickles, “Ahimon Rezon or Freemason’s Guide.” p. 196) “If we with suitable true devotion maintain our Masonic profession, our faith will become a beam of light an bring us to those blessed mansions where we shall be eternally happy with God, the Great Architect of the Universe.” (Daniel Sickles, “Ahimon Rezon or Freemason’s Guide.” p. 79) “…salvation by faith and the vicarious atonement were not taught as now interpreted, by Jesus, nor are these doctrines taught in the esoteric scriptures. They are later and ignorant perversions of the original doctrines.” (J.D. Buck, “Mystic Masonry.” p. 57)
Christianity: As it is written. There is none righteous no not one: (Rom. 3:10) For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. (Rom. 3:23) For He hath made Him {Jesus} to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. (II Cor. 5:21) For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. (Eph. 2:8-9)
SATAN
Masonry: “The conviction of all men that God is good led to a belief in a devil…” (Albert Pike, “Morals and Dogma.” 19th Degree, p. 324) “…there is no rebellious demon of Evil, or Principle of Darkness coexistent and in eternal controversy with God, or the Principle of Light…” (Albert Pike, “Morals and Dogma,” 32nd Degree, p.859)
Christianity: Ye are of your father, the devil…he is a liar, and the father of it. (Jn. 8:44) Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. (Jas. 4:7) Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. (Eph. 6:11-12) …your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour. (I Pet. 5:8)
TRUTHFULNESS
Masonry: The Mason Doctrine teaches that it right to lie, if necessary to protect the secrets of the Lodge, or to protect brother Masons by concealing his wrongdoing. It can even be right to deliberately deceive sincere Masons seeking to learn the lessons and secrets of Masonry.
“The Blue Degrees are but the portico (porch) of the Temple. Part of the symbols are displayed there to the initiate, but he is intentionally misled by false interpretations. It is not intended that he shall understand them; but it is intended that he shall imagine that he understands them…their true ecplication (explanation / understanding) is reserved for the Adepts, the Princes of Masonry.” (Albert Pike, “Morals and Dogma,” 30th Degree, p. 189) “You must conceal all crimes of your brother Masons…and should you be summoned as a witness against a brother Mason be always sure to shield him…It may be perjury to do this, it is true, but you’re keeping your obligations.” (Ronayne, “Handbook of Masonry.” p. 183) “Furthermore do I promise and swear that a Master Mason’s secrets, given to me in charge as such, and I knowing them to be such, shall remain as secure and inviolable in my breast as in his own, when communicated to me, murder and treason excepted; and they left to my own election.” (Master Mason’s / 3rd Degree Oath of Obligation)
Christianity: Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. (Ex. 20:16) Ye shall not steal, neither deal falsely, neither lie one to another. (Lev. 19:11) …lie not to one another. (Col. 3:9) …all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone; which is the second death. (Rev 21:8)
SECRECY & BLOOD OATHS
Masonry: Secrecy is indispensable in a Mason of whatever degree.” (Albert Pike, “Morals and Dogma,” 4th Degree, p. 109) I…do hereon most solemnly and sincerely promise and swear that I will always hail, ever conceal and never reveal any of the arts, parts or points of the secret arts any mysteries of ancient Freemasonry which I have received, am about to receive, or may hereafter be instructed in…” (Oath of Obligation, Entered Apprentice/1st Degree, and include in all subsequent degrees, always on penalty of mayhem and violent death) “…binding myself under no less a penalty that that of having my body severed in twain, my bowels taken out and burned to ashes, the ashes scattered to the four winds of heaven…” (from the Oath of Obligation, Master Mason/Third Degree) “…In willful violation whereof may I incur the fearful penalty of having my eyeballs pierced to the center with a three-edged blade, my feet flayed and I be forced to walk the hot sands upon sterile shores of the Red Sea until the flaming Sun shall strike me with a livid plague, and may Allah, the god of Arab, Moslem and Mohammedan, the god of our fathers, support me to the entire fulfillment of the same.” (from the Oath of Obligation, Ancient Arabic Order of Nobles of the Mystic Shrine ["Shriners"])
Christianity: I {Jesus} spake openly to the world; I ever taught in the synagogue, and in the temple…and in secret have I said nothing. (Jn. 18:20) Provide things honest in the sight of all men. (Rom. 12:17) Thou shalt not kill (murder). (Ex. 20:13) But above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any other oath: but let your yea be yea; and your nay, nay; lest ye fall into condemnation. (Jas. 5:12)
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FREEMASONRY, RENOVATIONISM AND THE PSYCHOLOGY OF MODERNISM
Priest Andrew Phillips, St George the Great Martyr Serbian Orthodox Church, Hermitage, Pennsylvania
“Nowadays…secret societies of the various degrees of freemasonry are multiplying. They are striving to a greater or lesser degree to annihilate the Christian Faith and replace it with first with a natural faith and then with no faith at all. “– Prince Sergei Shirinsky-Shikhmatov (later Hieromonk Anikita), 30 May 1818
(1). Introduction: Freemasonry
Freemasonry, also called Masonry, was in its modern form born of English Protestantism at the end of the seventeenth century. Here it became very strong in the government, in the military, in business and in Anglicanism, in all of which it remains firmly entrenched to this day. Essentially, freemasonry is a syncretistic movement which promotes the equality of all religious beliefs, world unification and a one-world government under the leadership of its ideology. For this reason it is opposed to the Spiritual Tradition of the Church and believes only in a ‘Superior Force’ in the Universe. Therefore it rejects the two teachings at the heart of Orthodox Christianity, faith in the Holy Trinity, Three Persons in One Essence, and faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God become man, not to mention all the other teachings revealed to the Church by the Holy Spirit.Official freemasonry recruits its members, male only, to its ‘lodges’ (local branches) from the socially successful, especially from the wealthier professional classes, financiers, doctors, lawyers, journalists, businessmen, military officers, the police, the judiciary and local and national politicians, who finance it generously.
(2). Freemasonry is said to be especially strong in the world’s financial centres, Wall Street and the City of London, and in the world’s media and Hollywood. Useful recruiting grounds are paramasonic professional clubs, such as Rotary Clubs and Lions Clubs, which operate under the front of charity, which most of their misled members sincerely believe in. It should be noted that freemasonry only recruits ‘important’ people, who can influence public opinion and decision-making and have power. It ignores ‘the little man’, in whom it has no interest.
It is said that freemasonry has thirty-three orders or degrees of initiation. It is said that the first degrees are relatively easy to enter, but not the later ones. At each degree masonic teaching is gradually revealed to the initiates. Beyond the thirty-three degrees, there are said to be another sixty-six degrees, which are open only to a chosen few. Beyond this there is the one hundredth degree, at which the ‘Superior Force’ in the Universe is fully revealed. This is Satan. Almost all freemasons at the early degrees see their lodges as mere social and charitable organisations, clubs, and would vigorously deny the ultimately satanic nature of the masonic cult. But that is because freemasonry exploits their naivety
Freemasonry in History
Historically, freemasonry has aggressively promoted itself, particularly against Roman Catholicism and the Orthodox Church. This is because it sees them as traditions which frustrate its attempts to create conditions for world unification under its ideology. Thus, in the eighteenth century masons brought about the satanic French Revolution of 1789, which transferred power from the Roman Catholic aristocracy to the ever-greedy and masonically-led bourgeoisie. Many famous people in the France and the Western Europe of the time were freemasons, including Voltaire, Diderot and Mozart.
Freemasonry first entered Russia during the wave of enforced Westernisation in the 18th century, under figures like Schwarz, Lopukhin and the journalist Novikov (1744-1818). It was firmly opposed and denounced by St Innocent, Bishop of Penza (1784-1819), who was exiled (and soon after died as a result) by the Minister of Religious Affairs and Oberprocurator of the Holy Synod at that time, a very worldly man called Prince Alexander Golitsyn.
(3). Prince Alexander Golitsyn- He was a keen supporter of freemasonry, though it is not clear whether he was actually a mason himself. However, this question is in fact irrelevant, since he certainly implemented whatever the masons wanted of him.
Freemasonry then became instrumental in the Decembrist revolt of 1825 in Russia and it is said that a freemason assassinated the Russian writer Pushkin in 1837. In any case, freemasonry went on to become very influential among the Russian ruling class, many of whom lost their faith. Most Russian newspapers before 1917 were under its control, until it engendered the first satanic (and masonic) Russian ‘Revolution’ of 1917. Unfortunately for the freemasons, they lost control of their movement to a group of opportunists, the Bolsheviks, who brought about the second satanic ‘October Revolution’, which proved to be anti-masonic. The next masonic lodge in Russia was re-established there only in 1995, though one of the candidates for the recent Russian Presidential election was a freemason.
Freemasonry on the Fringes of the Orthodox Church and Renovationism
By the beginning of the 20th century, freemasonry was being promoted by the commercial conquests of the British Empire and masonic lodges were opened worldwide. This included in Orthodox areas like Cyprus and the Middle East. It was in Cyprus before the First World War that an Orthodox bishop became a freemason. This was the future Patriarch Meletios of Constantinople, who later, after a series of other scandals, introduced the new calendar into the Orthodox world by force in the 1920s.
(4). Patriarch Meletios was notorious for his power-hungry imperialism, by dividing the Russian emigration in France and North America and actually taking over former Russian Orthodox territories in Finland, Estonia and trying to do the same in Poland and Czechoslovakia.
In the 1920s he held a modernist congress in Istanbul and also supported the Communist-supported modernists, called renovationists, in Russia against His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon of Moscow and the Church. Thus, he supported those who martyred the martyrs.
He found particularly easy prey in Paris among the many masonic Russian aristocrats and wealthier emigres who had emigrated there after 1917.
(5). Since freemasonry had become very popular in St Petersburg before the Revolution, together with other pseudo-mystical movements such as spiritualism, Hinduism, Buddhism etc, the emigres took their vain beliefs into the emigration with them. There, Patriarch Meletios’ supporters managed to engineer a schism from the Church of the Russian Emigration, a schism that was to be repeated later in North America. It should be noted that the Church of Greece strongly opposed Patriarch Meletios and in the 1930s firmly condemned freemasonry, in the same way as the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia.
The Contemporary Tasks of Freemasonry
As we have said, having brought about the collapse of the Russian Empire in 1917, which it had been infiltrating for some 200 years, freemasonry left Russia to Soviet and later Nazi satanists. It concentrated its attention on eating away at the fringes of Orthodoxy outside Russia, especially in the Middle East, in the Balkans (especially in Romania), in Finland and in the Russian emigration in France. Thus, in Paris, two churches under the Constantinople jurisdiction were, to my knowledge, being used for masonic initiations in the 1970s and 1980s. As for the Russian cemetery at St Genevieve des Bois, many gravestones are decorated with the compasses, the masonic emblem. In one church parishioners openly gave each other masonic handshakes. However, it should not be thought all male members of the Paris Jurisdiction were or are masons. It is simply that many of the key ones were at the time, and others simply went along with the movement.
(6). Elsewhere in the twentieth century freemasonry was very successful in undermining some of the remaining Orthodox vestiges in Protestantism. Then it organised the Neo-Protestant Vatican II Council, which successfully destroyed many of the remaining vestiges of Orthodoxy in Roman Catholicism, preparing Western Europe for the atheist European Union. Thus, the secularist movement which freemasonry promoted had huge success during the latter part of the twentieth century. Today its lobbies operate freely within the EU and has opposed recent moves to include any sort of mention of Christianity in official EU documents, notably in the EU Constitution. It can be safely assumed that most senior members of most EU governments are freemasons. Having laid low the relatively easy prey of Protestantism and later Roman Catholicism through infiltration, one of its greatest tasks now is to destroy the Orthodox Church, the unique bastion of uncompromised Christian Tradition. Therefore, the priority for freemasonry today must be to destroy those parts of the Orthodox Church on Mt Athos, in Jerusalem, Georgia, Serbia and, above all, in Russia, which have not yielded so far. Again, the technique used is to eat away at the edges of these countries. Thus, Serbia has fallen victim, losing parts of its territory in Bosnia, East Slavonia, Kosovo and Metochia. Montenegro and Macedonia have been split from it. In Russia, the technique is to take over Russian Orthodoxy in the Ukraine, Estonia and to send its renovationist (modernist) agents, clerical or lay, into parishes in Western Europe and North America. Therefore, it is of use to know how the renovationist or modernist mentality can be discerned and how it psychologically manipulates and conditions its naïve, and not so naïve, adepts.
Ten Signs of Modernism
1. Anti-Church Since modernism, the tool of freemasonry, is anti-Orthodox, it is therefore anti-Church. It sees Orthodoxy as just an exotic or primitive form of Roman Catholicism. In order to defuse the spiritual potential of the Orthodox Churches, it therefore attempts to water Orthodoxy down through the syncretistic ecumenical movement. An essential element here is to introduce new calendarism. This is not the same as the new calendar. There are many Orthodox who, in obedience to their bishops and in order to avoid sectarian schisms, accept the new calendar for the fixed feasts, though they would much prefer to live according to the Orthodox, so-called ‘old’, calendar. On the other hand, new calendarism is a whole psychology, which actually believes that the new calendar is the correct calendar (!) and wishes to introduce the new Paschalia also. So far this has only been introduced into a few parishes in Finland and Slovakia.2. Anti-Tradition Modernism considers that all sense of the Tradition (Spiritual Truth) must be undermined. In their pride, its half-baked intellectual victims consider that they know better than 2,000 years of the collective spiritual wisdom of the Church. Orthodoxy for them can be reduced to the folklore of the ‘ethnic’ peasants of Eastern Europe, Greece and the Middle East. Modernism expresses the inherent arrogance and racist condescension towards ‘primitive’, ‘ethnic’ Orthodox in the Protestant, Pro-Jewish manner. Anti-Tradition modernism likes to isolate itself from the Local Orthodox Churches in disincarnate groupings, but casts itself as being in the mainstream, maintaining that it is in the vanguard of the Church and that the others, who are simply stupid, will eventually catch up!3. Anti-Saints As we have said, modernism prefers half-baked intellectuals to others, including to the saints. Lives of the Saints are definitely out of fashion in modernism, although they can be suitably ‘edited’ and censored (that is dumbed down) for ‘the simple-minded’. Having said this, selected passages of some very high-level saints are popular in modernism. These include St Isaac the Syrian, St Ephraim the Syrian. St Symeon the New Theologian. St Nicholas Kabasilas and even St Seraphim of Sarov. The life of the latter has been ecumenically edited among them and the actual Russian life censored. Modernism loves to talk about the heights of spiritual experience (St Seraphim), especially theosis, that is divinisation. This is because it is an abstract, impractical, intellectual movement, which does not show how we can learn to walk before we can run. Thus begin all sorts of spiritual illusions and the naïve victims of modernism are so manipulated, falling into the delusion, ‘prelest’, of thinking that they are ’spiritual’. The devil laughs at them and their phariseeism.4. Anti-Monasticism Since monasticism is the bastion of the Tradition of the Church, a source of holiness and the saints, modernism is fiercely opposed to monastic life. Thus, it is for the remarriage of widowed clergy and a married episcopate. For if the episcopate is married, then monasticism lose much of its influence and masonic married clergy can become bishops. In order to do this, modernism is always digging up stories to discredit monasticism and condemning our holy fathers as ‘monkish obscurantists’.
5. Anti-Heart As an intellectual movement, modernism remains stuck in the head, it does not enter into the heart. Thus, its often academic adherents suffer from weak, shallow, superficial and limited faith and understanding of the faith. Their books are spiritually flat, empty. Its representatives are sometimes limited to a feeble and castrated pietistic sentimentalism, common in heterodoxy. For this reason modernists are prone to change their views, to adapt to the world, to swim with the tide of social fad and fashion, including political correctness. They lack conviction and spiritual authority and power (Lk. 4, 36), relying on personal ‘charm’ and ‘charisma’. For this reason, modernism has many false smiles, but knowing itself to be weak inside, it is underneath in fact afflicted with aggressiveness, as are all bullies. For this reason it loves to slander and assassinate the characters of the faithful, dismissing them as ‘extremists’, ‘unstable’, ‘ethnic’, ‘primitive’, or simply ’stupid’.
6. Anti-Prayer Since modernism is intellectual and does not understand that the heart is the centre of humanity, the place of deep prayer, it is opposed to prayer life, which might influence the intellect. Thus, for example, it dislikes preparation before communion, the reading of canons and akathists. Under strong Protestant influence, it likes very frequent communion, but strongly dislikes confession and promotes the practice of ‘general confession’, completely unknown to the Orthodox Tradition. In reality, although frequent communion is very praiseworthy, it must go hand in hand with adequate preparation, thus forming a virtuous circle. The modernist circle is a spiritually dangerous one.
7. Anti-Fasting Clearly, since modernism places the brain above the heart, thought above prayer, any process which may deepen prayer, for example fasting, is rejected by it. This contradicts the Gospel teaching that this sort can ‘come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting’ (Mk 9, 29). For this reason, modernism discredits fasting, mocking it as a purely alimentary phenomenon. So modernism reveals its disincarnateness, its lack of understanding that the human being is composed of body and soul, and is not just a walking brain.8. Anti-Services Opposed to prayer, modernism abbreviates the Church services, in which is contained all the theology and teachings of the Church. It actually makes changes to the texts of the services, especially where they relate what some of the Jews did to Christ and the victories of those who triumphed over the heresies of Arianism and Origenism. It derides the use of the Menaia and akathists, with services to the saints, also services of supplication and memorial services. It loves to adopt Protestant customs, filling Orthodox churches with pews or chairs, sometimes even organs. It stresses sermons, not sacraments, preferring frequent meetings to services, stressing the social to the actively liturgical. It detests kneeling and prostrations, it does not wish to light candles, justifying itself by saying that the smoke from the candles will ‘darken the icons and frescoes’, it also dislikes incense, which frightens it. Rejecting most of the services, it falls back on eucharistic liturgies alone.9. Anti-Clericalism Since modernism so strongly dislikes the Church services, it opposes also the instruments of the services, that is, the clergy. It dislikes clergy dress, preferring beardless, dog-collared clergy to Orthodox-looking clergy. Therefore, it does its utmost to infiltrate its modernist agents into the clergy and create a new style of clergy appearance, waiting for the people to accustom themselves to this.
10. Anti-Woman
Modernism promotes the anti-woman ideology of what it so perversely calls ‘feminism’. This demeans the femininity of woman, implying that women must at all costs become like men, even in appearance, through short hair, the wearing of male trousers and not wearing headscarves. Encouraging very frequent communion, it refuses to recognise the monthly problems of women and forces them to come to communion even at this time. It also deprives mothers of the Churching prayers after childbirth, which are intended to combat post-natal depression, dismissing them as ‘relics of the Old Testament!’
Conclusion
The combat against ‘liberal’, modernist values can only be through the Confession of the Orthodox Faith, if need be, to the point of Martyrdom. Here it is important to identify all the subtle details and psychology of the modernist movement, which is opposed to the Orthodox Faith. It is also important to realise that most modernists and indeed most freemsasons, are not conscious leaders of their apostasy, merely the naïve pawns of modernism and we must pray for their conversion to authentic Orthodoxy.
The above Ten Signs of Modernism should alert us to the apostasy from the Church, which is heaven on earth. This apostasy is the aim of freemasonry, in its desire to destroy the Church on earth and enthrone Antichrist in Jerusalem, to create hell on earth. The events of the twentieth century show that hell on earth already exists in certain parts of the world, for modernism has brought the demons out of hell to roam freely over the earth. Our task is to hold back these developments, even sending back demons into hell and reconquering the world for Christ and His Church, until such time as the Lord Jesus Christ comes again in glory.
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