Is Freemasonry Just Re-Born Paganism and Anti-Christian?
Kerry A. Shirts, 32°
Eagle Rock Lodge #19
Idaho Falls, Idaho
May 31, 2010
It is truly enough that Pastor David S. Janssen’s contention
has been thwarted and truly demonstrated with the evidence that Freemasonry is
religiously guilty of using pagan religious teachings and philosophy as the
inspiration for Freemasonic ceremonies, and therefore to be shunned as an
Anti-Christian enemy of Satanic, occult influences and wickedness.[1] I say, it
is truly enough for an open minded and fair assessment of the evidence de Hoyos
and Morris bring forth for someone who is willing to be fair. The evidence they
marshall together is pretty strong actually.
Any look into the history of the Christian church will
demonstrate “that one of the hallmarks of early Christianity was its adoption
and transformation of pagan ceremonies and symbols.”[2] The record is clear
that when Pope Zacharius objected about the pagan festivals of the Germans on
the Rhine during
midwinter, Boniface simply told him look around Rome! The same
festivals, celebrations, feasts, parties, and goings on were occurring there,
and exactly at the same time and for the exact same reasons! He was referring
to the Saturnalia, the great prehistoric festival of the Romans. In very point
of fact, “our own Yule, carols, lights, greenery, gifts, and games are evidence
enough that a northern Christmas is no importation from the East in Christian
times, but something far older.”[3] This is precisely what de Hoyos and Morris pointed
out to the Christian minister who complained of the “paganism” in Freemasonry.
“Using the Pastor’s argument, no Christian should display a Christmas tree,
burn a yule log, or eat gingerbread cookies, because of their pagan origin. The
use of Christmas trees resembles a practice forbidden in the Old Testament
(Jeremiah 10:2-4), while the latter two symbolized human sacrifice and
cannibalism.”[4]
Harold Bayley demonstrated that Mithras of the Mithraic
Mysteries [pre-Christian religion by several centuries] was known as the
Mediator between Light and Darkness. The mysteries of Mithraism were so closely
identified with Jesus Christ and the Christian mysteries that the early
Christian Church Father Tertullian complained that paganism was “aping their
[the Christian] sacred rites.” Bayley continues “it is well known that in the
transition from paganry to Christianity the Christian clergy, finding it
impossible to wean the populace from old customs or to eradicate primitive
beliefs, discreetly met the situation by diverting pagan festivals to the honour
of Christ. It is not so generally known that December 25th, the
Christmas Day of Christendom, was thus necessarily fixed for the reason that
this dates was the birthday of Mithra.” Chrysostom noted that while the pagans
call December 25th the birthday of the Invincible One (Mithra); but
who is so invincible as the Lord? They call it the Birthday of the Solar Disc;
but Christ is the Sun of Righteousness.”[5] David Fideler has amassed huge
amounts of data showing that Jesus Christ as the “Sun” of God is based on the
older beliefs of other “pagan” nations.[6] This does not damn Christianity,
anymore than it damns Freemasonry. What it does is refute an assumption on some
people’s argument that we must be pristine and pure, basically be what they
would label “uncontaminated”, Whatever that might mean! But no religious
movement is thus. Pagan does not contaminate, it is merely a label for someone
else’s religion, philosophy, and understanding.
Does it damn and destroy the doctrine of the resurrection
when Clement went to the pagan phoenix as proof of the resurrection?[7] Does it
damn Jesus for choosing twelve apostles, which cosmic number was known to have
come from pagan antiquity having serious astrological/astronomical
significance?[8] But de Hoyos and Morris take the good Pastor Janssen’s logic
to its obvious end as well! “To carry his practice [of condemning anything
pagan in either our own religions, or Fraternities] to exaggerated lengths, he
[Pastor Janssen] must likewise avoid mentioning the days of the week, since
they derive from the worship of heavenly bodies and pagan gods (Sun-day,
Moon-day… Wodden’s-day, Thor’s-day, etc.) Clearly, the objection to ‘pagan
influences’ in any environment can be carried to the extreme. However, if he
continues to obsess over ‘pagan influences,’ perhaps he should set his own
house in order first…”[9]
The whole point is simple to see. Rather than labeling
something which is not from our own tradition in negative manners and then
fighting that something, whatever it is, as being “pagan,” or “Satanic” [one of
the favorite accusations against Freemasonry], and making war out of a
non-existent us-vs-them situation, wouldn’t it be better to live and act
charitably as Jesus himself simply taught?
Endnotes
1. Arturo
de Hoyos, S. Brent Morris, Is It True
What They Say About Freemasonry? Revised and enlarged, M. Evans, 2010:
81-82.
2. De
Hoyos, Morris, p. 81. For an historical overview, see Robin Lane Fox, Pagans and Christians, Alfred A. Knopf,
1986.
3. Hugh
Nibley, “The Christmas Quest,” in Eloquent
Witness, Deseret Book/Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies,
Vol. 17 in the Collected Works of Hugh Nibley, 2008: 122.
4. De
Hoyos, Morris, p. 81.
5. Harold
Bayley, The Lost Language of Symbolism,
2 vols., Citadel Press, 1988: Vol. 1: 145-146.
6. David
Fideler, Jesus Christ, Sun of God:
Ancient Cosmology and Early Christian Symbolism, Quest Books, 1993.
7. “The
First Epistle of Clement,” in The
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Rev. Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, eds., 10
vols., Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
Co., Reprint, 1979, Vol. 1:12.
8. John
Michell, How the World is Made: The Story
of Creation According to Sacred Geometry, Inner Traditions, 2009: 152-155.
See also John Michell, Twelve Tribe
Nations: Sacred Number and the Golden Age, Inner Traditions, 2008; John
Michell, The Dimensions of Paradise:
Sacred Geometry, Ancient Science, and the Heavenly Order on Earth, Inner
Traditions, 2008.
9. De
Hoyos, Morris, p. 82.
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