Pages

Ads 468x60px

Monday, May 18, 2009

Does Freemasonry Promise A Path To Salvation

Does Freemasonry Promise A Path To Salvation Cover No.

Freemasonry is not a religion and promotes no doctrine or dogma. The "search for light" found in Freemasonry is a reference to a quest for knowledge, not salvation. Freemasonry promotes a hope in resurrection, but it does not teach a belief about resurrection. The first is faith, the second is religion.

Although the Master Mason, or Third Degree ritual includes references to the Immortality of the soul, Freemasonry makes no impositions on the individual candidate’s personal beliefs, nor requires its members to accept any specific teachings regarding resurrection. The ritual makes reference to "a vital and immortal principle" found within the perishable frame, and a hope that we will ascend to "those ethereal mansions above." But these are poetical allusions and do not constitute a doctrine of belief imposed on candidates. If anything, Freemasonry teaches that death is a "mysterious veil which the eye of human reason cannot penetrate," and only supports the hope, not the promise, of resurrection.

There have been both masons and non-masons who have misunderstood the Hiramic legend to represent a resurrection or raising from the dead. The key lesson though, is the steadfastness and fidelity of Hiram Abif before his untimely death. The story of his body being taken from its indecent interment and reburied in an appropriate sepulchre is not a depiction of any rebirth mythos but is simply the backdrop to an explanation of the various signs, grips and tokens by which a Master Mason identifies himself. Although a particularly impressive part of the ceremony, it was not a part of the original ritual. There have been those writers who have interpreted the Hiramic legend as an allegory for resurrection; some viewing this Interpretation with either reassurance or repugnance, depending on their personal opinion of Freemasonry. But the Hiramic legend is not interpreted within masonic teachings as representing the story of Christ or of resurrection.

Downloadable books (free):

John Dee - The Holy Table Engraving From Casaubon True And Faithful Relation
John Dee - Enochian Magic Spanish Translation
Elizabeth Reis - Confess Or Deny What A Witch To Do
Albert Mackey - History Of Freemasonry Vol I Prehistoric Masonry
Summer Woodsong - False Memory Syndrome And The Inquisition