Christians know that there is no man ever born, or any religious figure ever found, or any fictional character ever invented who can be compared to the Lord Jesus — the eternal Son of God. To equate a make-believe Masonic hero with our Lord and Saviour is worse than disturbing. It must concern every Bible believer reading this. This teaching muddies the Gospel message, dishonours our blessed Saviour and confuses the already perplexed Mason. We can only view this teaching as dangerous heresy.
Now it teaches it as truth. It has deviated critically from the truth and text of Scripture, inserting erroneous legends into several well-known scriptural references. It has distorted the Bible account of the lives of key Old Testament Bible characters and have attributed events to locations and time-periods that never actually happened.
It has blatantly altered the Word of God and accepted teaching that is alien to Scripture. It has accepted, and secretly propagated dogma that is in total conflict with the inspired text. The question we must ask these secret societies is: Why do you need an alternative christ? Is the Lord not satisfactory enough? Did He not fulfil every righteous demand made of Him for mankind?
Was His life and ministry insufficient? Was His death not fully efficacious, or His resurrection not entirely victorious? Why do these fraternities need to invent a substitute fantasy figure? Only Satan could contrive such a deception that would have the ability to command the sympathy of hundreds of professing evangelicals. The Masonic white apron. Hiram Abiff — the false christ of Freemasonry. They directed all the Masons within the midst of the Jews to make the journey from babylon to Jerusalem with their swords by their sides and trowels in their hands.
Despite great sorrow and travail, the Temple was completed in the reign of Darius, successor to Cyrus. Darius chose Zerubbabel as Grand Master in charge of the construction of the second Temple. Having passed difficult rites of initiation, Zerubbabel was given the title of Sovereign Prince of Jerusalem, and was entrusted with the sacred vessels Nebuchadnezzer had taken from Solomon's Temple. Zerubbabel, together with King Darius, then founded a new order of Temple builders known as Knights of the East.
These Knights were among the Masonic workmen who took part in the construction of the Second Temple. This new order of knights became a warrior fraternity. Upon entering the thirtieth degree, the Freemason enters the holy house of the Great Architect of the Universe, and rests from his labor. He can sing with truth the song:. The gates of the New Jerusalem have opened to him, for he is now said to be perfect!
He has become an eternal Temple in which the 'Great Architect of the Universe' abides. Databank index. Degrees 30 Scottish Rite complete the outworking of the legend.. The Hiram legend ends with the house of Kadosh. He can sing with truth the song: There's no occasion for level or plumb line, For trowel or gavel, for compass or square, Our works are completed, the Ark safely seated, And we shall be greeted as workmen most rare.
The Legend of Hiram Abiff "All antiquity believed The legend goes as follows.. They would not have buried Hiram in the temple, only to dig him back up and then cremate the body. Later, he found documents from his Lodge which clearly taught resurrection. He turned out to be an honest man in whom the Holy Spirit was working. He is no longer a Mason. The cremation - reburial conflict is apparent in several monitors. There is a widely used drawing of a weeping virgin leaning over a broken column.
Father Time is standing behind her holding a scythe. She is holding a small urn in her hand. The text describing it states the following:. The weeping virgin denotes the unfinished state of the Temple; the broken column, that one of the principal supports of Masonry had fallen in the death of our G.
Text found in Ahiman Rezon, or Book of Constitutions provided by the Grand Lodge of South Carolina explains that reburial within the temple could not have occurred, based upon Jewish law:. The Mosaic law which related to defilement by dead bodies, rendered it necessary that none should be buried near sacred places, nor even within the limits of cities, except in the case of kings and very distinguished men.
The strictness of the religious code against pollution would, however, forbid that even these should be interred in the neighborhood of a temple or sanctuary.
They want to make certain that the Master Mason will realize that both Jesus Christ and Hiram Abiff were killed, buried and resurrected. They call attention to the "peculiar symbolism" and what it must suggest.
The small hill near Mount Moriah can be clearly identified by the most convincing analogies as being no other than Mount Calvary. Thus Mount Calvary was a small hill; it was situated west from the Temple, and near Mount Moriah; it was on the direct road from Jerusalem to Joppa, and is thus the very spot where a weary brother, traveling on that road, would find it convenient to sit down to rest and refresh himself; it was outside of the gate of the Temple, and lastly, there are several caves, or clefts in the rocks, in the neighborhood, one of which, it will be remembered, was, subsequently to the time of this tradition, used as the sepulchre of our Lord.
The Master Mason will readily perceive the peculiar character of the symbolism which this identification of the spot on which the great truth of the resurrection was unfolded in both systems, the Masonic and the Christian, must suggest. Yet another Grand Lodge explains that the temple is not physical in nature in the symbolic teaching of the Master Mason Degree.
That being the case, physical reburial of his body within that spiritual temple would be impossible. They allude to a deeper meaning within the allegory. For instance, in the first two degrees, the Lodge symbolizes the world, the place where all workmen labor at useful vocations. It was there that nothing earthly or unclean was allowed to enter.
Is it possible that the rituals of some Grand Lodges teach resurrection, while others actually do teach physical reburial? A number of Grand Lodges have gone out of their way to state that there are no significant differences in the ritual portrayal of the Legend of the Third Degree in any jurisdiction anywhere in the world. Reburial, rather than resurrection, would change the meaning of ritual drastically. Consider the words found in the monitor for Texas as one example:.
The legend of the third degree has been considered of so much importance that it has been preserved in the symbolism of every Masonic rite. It embodies the symbolic lesson of life, death and immortality.
No matter what modifications or alterations the general system may have suffered--no matter how much the ingenuity or the imagination of the founders of rites may have perverted or corrupted other symbols, abolishing the old, and substituting new ones--the legend of the Temple Builder has ever been left untouched, to present itself in all the integrity of its ancient mythical form.
There is another, more significant reason why many Masons deny that the resurrection of Hiram is the only valid interpretation of Masonic ritual. For those Masons who want to believe that they are Christians, the difficulty is obvious. If they admit that they have been meeting in secret to reenact the death, burial and resurrection of Hiram Abiff, it will be unlikely that other Christians will accept them as a brother in Christ. If they themselves understand the Gospel, the obvious mockery of it would be a source of conflict in the minds of any of them who are even nominal Christians.
Barring repentance, denial is a necessity for these men. To acknowledge resurrection as the teaching of ritual and then remain involved in Freemasonry would mean admitting, at least to themselves, that they are not genuine Christians. Consider Matthew and Matthew The Grand Lodge of Kentucky provides unmistakable evidence that Freemasonry teaches, not only that there are many different saviors for various peoples, but that Hiram Abif is considered a savior for Freemasons.
The context is a discussion of various world religions. All believed in a future life, to be attained by purification and trials; in a state or successive states of reward and punishment; and in a Mediator or Redeemer, by whom the Evil Principle was to be overcome and the Supreme Deity reconciled to His creatures.
The belief was general that He was to be born of a virgin and suffer a painful death. It is interesting that the "small hill west of Mount Moriah" has been identified as Golgotha, or Mount Calvary. Masonry teaches that Jesus is not unique. Notice the parallel sentence structure: Hindus - Krishna,. Christians - Jesus, Masons - Hiram. They clearly are teaching that Krishna is a savior for Hindus, Jesus is a savior for Christians and Hiram Abiff is a savior for Masons.
The teaching that Hiram is the Masonic savior is found in more than a few books distributed throughout the Masonic system. Consider the words of Masonic author, Lynn Perkins:. Therefore Masonry teaches that redemption and salvation are both the power and the responsibility of the individual Mason. Saviors like Hiram Abiff can and do show the way, but men must always follow and demonstrate, each for himself, his power to save himself, to build his own spiritual fabric in his own time and way.
Every man in essence is his own savior and redeemer; for if he does not save himself, he will not be saved. The reader who succeeds in getting back to the real teachings of the masters, including Jesus of Nazareth, will find unanimity of thinking on this matter. A number of Masonic Grand Lodges have distributed educational material to new members which explains how they will gain entry into heaven.
The name Jesus Christ is never mentioned. Other Grand Lodge monitors contain similar text which contains a phrase which may have caused some Masons to mistakenly believe that Freemasonry lifts up Jesus Christ as the way to salvation. Notice the phrase - Lion of the tribe of Judah - and how it is used. Then, when our dissolution draws nigh, and the cold winds of death come sighing around us, and his chill dews already glisten upon our foreheads, with joy shall we obey the summons of the grand warden of Heaven and go from our labors on earth to eternal refreshment in the paradise of God, where, by the benefit of the pass of a pure and blameless life and an unshaken confidence in the merits of the Lion of the tribe of Judah, shall we gain ready admission into the celestial lodge where the Supreme Architect of the Universe presides; there, placed at His right hand, He will be pleased to pronounce us just and upright Masons.
Then, my brethren. How would each of these groups of men interpret this text? Notice that it clearly states that they will gain entry into heaven. This teaching is applied to all Masons, not just those who claim to be Christians.
Therefore, Jesus Christ cannot be the common denominator. Notice that they speak of the Lion of the tribe of Judah, but they do not define the term in the monitor. This much of the Masonic legend of Hiram comes from the Bible; but the story known to Masons has a tragically different development. Hiram, called Abiff which is simply a Hebrew expression for "father," a term of respect , worked for King Solomon at Jerusalem, not only in casting all the metallic ornaments for the Temple, but also as a Master of the Works, a superintending architect.
More than 85, workmen were employed in the building of the Temple; it took approx-imately seven years to complete. To those workmen who labored faithfully on the project was promised the status of Master Workman, or Mason, upon its completion. But some time before the Temple's comple-tion, some of the workmen became dissatisfied and demanded the promotion which they had been promised.
Not being organized like modern employees and being used to the har-sher and more brutal modes of direct action characteristic of the more primitive times in which they lived, they sought the higher wages and fringe benefits of a Master Workman by conspiring to extort them from Hiram Abiff. If spite of their violent threats, Hiram stead-fastly refused to yield to their demands.
Remin-ding them of their obligations to King Solomon and his God, he resolutely insisted that they honor the contracts by which he and they were bound. Three of them, more brutal than the rest, conspired to attack Master Hiram to force the concessions they were demanding; but he, being faithful to his trust, was more adamant in his refusal, and they in their wrath slew him in the unfinished Temple.
That, essentially, is the legend of Hiram which has become in Masonry one of the most impressive ritualistic dramas of all time. Historically-minded Brethren continue to wonder from whence it came and whose im-agination and gifts of language transmitted it into the matchless drama which furnishes the core of "the sublime degree of Master Mason. Certainly, the tragedy of Hiram is not to be found in the Bible. If only one Hiram is refer-red to in the Old Testament, the story of his assassination is not corroborated in either I Kings or 11 Chronicles; for there we read as follows: "So Hiram finished all the work he did for King Solomon on the House of the Lord.
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