Apparently my post needed clarification, as it would not be obvious what I was quoting, except to a conspiracy expert. Albert Pike wrote a Masonic religious tome in 1871, called
Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry.
Shortly afterwards, a guy called Leo Taxil, faked and popularized a passage from it, that claimed Masons openly admitted worshiping Lucifer. Morals & Dogma contains a short passage where Pike makes some remarks about the Roman word "Lucifer"; that it actually means "bearer of light". Christian obscurantists then took that out of context and set upon that.
The bizarre thing is that in Morals & Dogma, Pike actually states how secretive Masons are, and how they deliberately encourage misinterpretation of their symbols and what they are up to. (Presumably so they can have a good laugh at the stupid Christians.)
The Teachers, even of Christianity, are, in general, the most ignorant of the true meaning
of that which they teach. There is no book of which so little is known as the Bible. To
most who read it, it is as incomprehensible as the Sohar.
So Masonry jealously conceals its secrets, and intentionally leads conceited interpreters
astray. There is no sight under the sun more pitiful and ludicrous at once, than the
spectacle of the Prestons and the Webbs, not to mention the later incarnations of
Dullness and Commonplace, undertaking to "explain" the old symbols of Masonry, and
adding to and "improving" them, or inventing new ones.
The single paragraph that Christians like to attack in Morals & Dogma, is actually a restatement of what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 11:13-15
“For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works”
compare with:
Lucifer, the Light-bearer! Strange and mysterious name to give to the Spirit of Darknesss! Lucifer, the Son of the Morning! Is it he who bears the Light, and with its splendors intolerable blinds feeble, sensual or selfish Souls ? Doubt it not!
Pike clearly says that Satan can blind the ignorant or feeble, just as Christians interpret Paul's statement.
example:
Popular Interpretation: This is taken to mean that Satan is an angel who deceives Christians by pretending to be righteous.
Pike further reinforces the notion that he abhores Satan/Lucifer in a previous diatribe
Hypocrisy is the homage that vice and wrong pay to virtue and justice. It is Satan
attempting to clothe himself in the angelic vesture of light. It is equally detestable in
morals, politics, and religion; in the man and in the nation. To do injustice under the
pretence of equity and fairness; to reprove vice in public and commit it in private; to
pretend to charitable opinion and censoriously condemn; to profess the principles of
Masonic beneficence, and close the ear to the wail of distress and the cry of suffering; to
eulogize the intelligence of the people, and plot to deceive and betray them by means of
their ignorance and simplicity; to prate of purity, and peculate; of honor, and basely
abandon a sinking cause; of disinterestedness, and sell one's vote for place and power,
are hypocrisies as common as they are infamous and disgraceful. To steal the livery of
the Court of God to serve the Devil withal; to pretend to believe in a God of mercy and a
Redeemer of love, and persecute those of a different faith; to devour widows' houses,
and for a pretence make long prayers; to preach continence, and wallow in lust; to
inculcate humility, and in pride surpass Lucifer; to pay tithe, and omit the weightier
matters of the law, judgment, mercy and faith; to strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel; to
make clean the outside of the cup and platter, keeping them full within of extortion and
excess; to appear outwardly righteous unto men, but within be full of hypocrisy and
iniquity, is indeed to be like unto whited sepulchres, which appear beautiful outward, but
are within full of bones of the dead and of all uncleanness.
There is no conceivable way that you can construe that Masons worship Lucifer from what Pike says in Morals & Dogma. You would think he was a Christian. However, by dealing with other religions in a balanced way, he indicates that God has always been working through other religions.
Masonry represents the Good Principle and constantly wars
against the evil one. It is the Hercules, the Osiris, the Apollo, the
Mithras, and the Ormuzd, at everlasting and deadly feud with
the demons of ignorance, brutality, baseness, falsehood, slavishness
of soul, intolerance, superstition, tyranny, meanness, the insolence
of wealth, and bigotry.
and
We scoff at the Augurs. It is so easy to scoff, and so difficult well to comprehend. Did the
Deity leave the whole world without Light for two score centuries, to illuminate only a little
corner of Palestine and a brutal, ignorant, and ungrateful people? Why always
calumniate God and the Sanctuary ? Were there never any others than rogues among
the priests? Could no honest and sincere men be found among the Hierophants of Ceres
or Diana, of Dionusos or Apollo, of Hermes or Mithras ? Were these, then, all deceived,
like the rest? Who, then, constantly deceived them, without betraying themselves, during
a series of centuries?--for the cheats are not immortal ! Arago said, that outside of the
pure mathematics, he who utters the word "impossible," is wanting in prudence and good
sense.
In this paragraph he argues that it's absurd that God only revealed himself to Palestine. If you count the number of times Pike mentions Mithras, you can see that he obviously reveres Mithras as an equivalent to the Jewish God, so it would not surprise me at all if some Masons had extended the Roman Mithras cult. Morals & Dogma is a historical roam through ancient religions, with scarcely a point being made.
The entrance criteria for Masons is that you believe in the principle of God (a good force) - however you define God. They are effectively Unitarians, with a pseudo-cultic backdrop to annoy Christians.
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Extra info on Masons that comes from a Catholic who reached the "32nd Degree" - (who is not being hysterical fnord).
http://www.scripturecatholic.com/freemasonfaq.html- They are pointlessly secretive; making people swear absurd oaths, for trivial secrets.
- They are dogmatic syncretists: asserting that no faith has more validity than any other. On their altar, they have books from all religions.
- They think that the core of every religion is the Gold Rule, so they claim to a new initiate that they will never ask them to do anything against their faith. However, emphasis on "works" to get to heaven (The Great Lodge), puts them at odds with Christians who think they are saved by grace.
- They don't admit people with disabilities
- They are nepotistic; helping other Masons ahead of others.
- The Vatican doesn't like them
- They were founded around 1717
Tweeterfist, why do you think it is important that we know that people who control the world might be pagans rather than Christian's?
Masons aren't really pagans. They have been behind the structure of the church, as liberal Christians. They are attacked by TrueChristians for perverting the church towards 'works' and capitalism. They are behind the separation of church and state idea, and Catholics hate that.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianity_and_Freemasonry#Separation_of_church_and_stateAmerican Freemasons are consistent advocates of the Freedom of Religion, as found in the First Amendment[13] of the US Constitution. The idea that the establishment clause means a strict separation of church and state is seen by the Catholic Church as a veiled attack on its place in public life.[14] The Catholic Church also saw in the advocacy of a strict separation of the state from the Church as manifesting a "Religious Indifferentism" which did not accept any religion as true or revealed.[15] This reference is not present, however, in later versions of the encyclopedia. Some specific areas which Freemasons were accused of aiming for an improper separation of church and state were:
Compulsory state supported secular education in Italy in 1882 which entailed a prohibition on religious education and also the fact that "religious houses [were] suppressed, the goods of the Church confiscated, marriages contracted in despite of the laws and without the rites of the Church" [16]
The introduction of civil marriage in Mexico in 1857[17]
