The other day, at a local eating and drinking establishment, I couldn't help but to overhear a somewhat inebriated individual loudly declare "the Freemasons are taking over the world!" My curiosity peaked, I engaged him in a discussion. Seems that he had a relative who quite the Freemasons when he discovered the anti-Christian aspects of it, and talked of the secret agenda that the highest ranks work toward.

This brings up two good questions:

* Are the Freemasons a Satanist organization?

* Are they involved in a conspiracy to "take over the world?"

On the face of it, these quips have all of the hallmarks of urban legend. They are repeated by word of mouth often, the details change in the many renditions, and (perhaps above all else) it makes a great story.

The following abstract is a condensed version of "The Invisible Second Rung of Government" published in _Conspiracy Nation_ by an author who wishes to remain anonymous. He cites in his references the following book: Kah, Gary H., En Route to Global Occupation, Lafayette, Louisiana, Huntington House Publishers, 1992. Kah is a high ranking government liaison and author.

Kah's theories on the origins in intent of Freemasonry are by no means radical. Scores of other serious scholars of the subject have reached identical conclusions, tying together the Gnostics, the Knight Templars, the Freemasons, and Adam Wieshaupt's in- famous Illuminati.

DISCLAIMER: I do not want to offend anybody who is in the lower (under 32nd degree) ranks of Freemasonry. The bulk of the or- ganization is, undoubtedly, a collection of loving and hard working altruists devoted to community service and the common good. Yet, for exactly that reason, it stands as a perfect 'cover' for one of the most evil conspiracies to plague our troubled planet.

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The author's investigation into Freemasonry included interviewing former and current members, some of whom had reached the level of either Thirty-Second or Thirty-Third degree. "The testimonies of current Masons differed drastically from those of Masons who had left the Order. Current members expressed no knowledge whatsoever of any higher religious aims of the Order. They were fiercely loyal to the lodge and told me that Freemasonry was nothing more than an international secret fraternity based on good works. Former Masons, on the other hand, offered views that could not have been more opposite from those of their counterparts. They told me that the organization was anti-Christ and that it was dangerous, particularly in its higher levels, citing the previous as their main reason for leaving, adding that it was Luciferically-inspired....[Regarding the discrepancy] I concluded that current members either would not reveal what they knew because of the oaths of secrecy they had taken or else they truly were unaware of these things, not yet having reached a level where they were exposed to the underlying purpose of their Order." One researcher had gathered secret Masonic materials and writings for over twenty years 'from widows of deceased Masons who were unaware of the significance of the Order and its literature.' The Illuminati and Knights Templars received repeated mention throughout, confirming that Freemasonry is a continuation of the Illuminati.

Historically, the high level Masons (above Thirty-Third degree) took their teachings from the Illuminati, who in turn took their teachings from the Knights Templars, who in turn took their teachings from the Gnostics. The Gnostics believed God had two sons, Satanael, the elder son, and Jesus, the younger son. Satanael, 'filled with pride, he rebelled against his Father and fell from Heaven,' creating the visible world, 'man, and the serpent which became his minister.' Later Christ came to earth in order to show men the way to Heaven, but His death was ineffectual, for even by descending into Hell He could not wrest the power from Satanael. This belief in the impotence of Christ and the necessity therefore for placating Satan, not only 'Prince of this world,' but its creator, led to the further doctrine that Satan, being all-powerful, should be adored and worshipped.

The Knights Templars were initially a religious and military organization during the crusades, composed of nobles who were 'granted favors by many European rulers and gained possession of property throughout the continent. Through gifts of land and money, the Templars became extremely wealthy and powerful.' By 1300 'the Templars, through their enormous wealth and widespread organization, had become the bankers of Europe....'

According to an official text of the Masons, Morals and Dogma, 'Their watchword was, to become wealthy in order to buy the world.' Later the King of France arrested the Knights Templars and conducted an investigation. 'The knights confessed to a variety of notorious crimes and admitted to taking blasphemous oaths against Jesus Christ upon admission into the order.' These crimes consisted of spitting upon the crucifix, committing obscenities, and practicing unnatural vices (sodomy). The Pope intervened to protect his papal jurisdiction. Later, due to mounting public pressure, he launched his own investigation for fear the King's had involved torture. The Pope's investigation revealed the same results. In front of witnesses and without torture, the knights admitted to abominations, indecencies, and obscenities. "The Knights Templars, as it turned out, had been masters of deception, expert in duplicity, appearing to serve Christ on the surface while worshipping Lucifer within their inner rites." Morals and Dogma confirmed that they 'had two doctrines, one concealed and reserved for the Masters...the other public.' The Pope abolished the order. It then went underground, trusting its dangerous secrets only to those who had passed successfully through a series of degrees. Hundreds of years later, they surfaced again, this time as a benevolent organization of good works, taking over the stone mason guilds of Europe, since the original Knights Templars had viewed themselves as grand builders and had with their riches built many castles and estates. The stone mason guilds were eager to make the union because they were at that time in danger of going under due to their shrinking numbers. The transition was successful with the public viewing it favorably as an organization of simple good works.

By 1776, Adam Weishaupt, a famous Mason, had developed the Illuminati, a secret society within a secret society. One Masonic historian himself has stated that the goals include 'found[ing] a new Hierarchy, to overturn all authority, and to press down all the Social Order under the level of Equality.' Another Masonic historian stated 'the express aim of the Order was to abolish Christianity, and overturn all civil government.' In Weishaupt's own words, the Illuminati 'will by degrees, and in silence, possess themselves of the government of the States, and make use of those means for this purpose....' Around 1782, Weishaupt 'succeeded at forging an alliance between illuminized Freemasonry and the growing Rothschild banking network, thereby giving the Order the financial means to begin to carry out its plans.' By making an alliance with international financiers, 'it took root, it grew, it flourished, it gathered into itself more men of royal and noble titles than were possessed by the Hohenzollern family; even the Jesuits joined it.' Weishaupt convinced many Christian leaders to join by holding out the Illuminati as a Christian organization with the express purpose of unifying the world for the sake of Christ. The World Council of Churches, 'an organization that is strongly influenced by Freemasonry,' continues Weishaupt's work by promoting interfaith unity despite the requisite compromise of each individual faith. Weishaupt himself wrote of his sarcastic glee in getting a famous Protestant minister to join by believing that the Illuminati were genuinely Christian, "O Man, Man! To what may'st thou not be persuaded."

During the 1800's, as the United States began to emerge as a world power, the Illuminati shifted its attention from Europe to the U.S. "In fact, many of this country's political founding fathers were Masons. Most of them, like George Washington, were decent men who knew of no higher aims of the Order and who even spoke out against the activities of the Illuminati."

Albert Pike, an illuminized Freemason, stated in the 1800's, "The blind Force of the people is a Force that must be economized, and also managed....It must be regulated by Intellect [a reference to the Illuminati or the highest adepts of Freemasonry]....When all these Forces are combined, and guided by the Intellect, and regulated by the RULE of Right, and Justice....the great revolution prepared for by the ages will begin to march. It is because Force is ill regulated that revolutions prove failures." Pike authored a book called "The Book of Apadno, which 'contains the prophecies concerning the reign of the Anti-Christ from the Satanic point of view.'" He also organized many headquarters around the world "for the purpose of gathering information vital to political and propaganda efforts." Speaking as the leader of all Freemasonry, Pike said, "We worship a God, but it is the God that one adores without superstition....The Masonic religion should be, by all of us initiates of the high degrees, maintained in the purity of the Luciferic doctrine."

"The success of a conspiracy depends on its ability to conceal from the masses the truth of what they are working for. The conspirators will, therefore, bring no more people into their inner circle than what is absolutely necessary for the success of their mission." This is why the higher Masonic degrees cannot be earned by good works, but only conferred from above. The lower Masonic degrees, earned by countless hours of establishing hospitals or helping the crippled, serve as a shield made up of innocents between the public and the true intentions of the Masonic hierarchy.

The role of the Soviet Union in the development of a new world order involves the birth of communism. Karl Marx was hired by the League of Just Men, a branch organization of the Illuminati, to write the Communist Manifesto and to penetrate and subvert the labor movement in France. In the early days of the revolution, "the revolutionaries called themselves Spartacusts (after Adam Weishaupt's Illuminati pseudonym) before becoming known as Bolsheviks and later as Communists." There were other Illuminati who infiltrated the labor movement. On the labor movement's committee charged with the responsibility of making the movement international in scope were a personal secretary to one of the two highest-ranking officials of the Illuminati, a French Freemason, and the secretary of the English Masons' Union.

Speaking of the communist revolution, Churchill said:

"From the days of Spartacus-Weishaupt, to those of Karl Marx, to those of Trotsky...this worldwide conspiracy for the overthrow of civilization and for the reconstitution of society on the basis of arrested development and envious malevolence, and impossible equality has been steadily growing. It has been the mainspring of every subversive movement during the nineteenth century...."

The larger plan was to create and spark war, acts of terrorism, and military aggression so that the people of the world would conclude that nationalism was responsible for war. Therefore, the goal would become elimination of national boundaries and acceptance of an authority that would speak for a new world order, promising world peace. "There is direct evidence to suggest that the hidden powers have been planning for the eventual merger of the United States and the Soviet Union all along, but not until after a prolonged period of Cold War had accomplished their objectives. This evidence surfaced during the Reece Committee investigations into tax-exempt foundations during the 1950's." Norman Dodd, the director of research for the committee, had a conversation with H. Rowan Gaither, president of the Ford Foundation and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Gaither said, "All of us here at the policymaking level have had experience, either in O.S.S. (Office of Strategic Services) or the European Economic Administration, with directives from the White House. We operate under those directives here. Would you like to know what those directives are?" Dodd said that he would. Gaither then said, "The substance of them is that we shall use our grant-making power so to alter life in the United States that we can be comfortably merged with the Soviet Union." When Dodd requested him to repeat this before the Reece Committee, Gaither declined, "That we would not think of doing."

As a religion, Masonry exhorts its members to omit Christ's name from prayer. One Masonic instruction says, "To offer prayer in the name of Christ, is contrary to the universality of Masonry." Their source of power is claimed to be Lucifer. Masonic books say, "LUCIFER, the Light-bearer!...Lucifer, the Son of the Morning! Is it he who bears the Light?...Doubt it not!" Another states, "The seething energies of Lucifer are in [the Mason's] hands and before he may step onward and upward, he must prove his ability to properly apply (this) energy." Albert Pike said, "Lucifer is God....Lucifer, God of Light and God of Good, is struggling for humanity against Adonay [The God of the Christians] the God of Darkness and Evil." Pike also states that the goals of Masonry are "the destruction of Christianity and atheism, both conquered and exterminated at the same time." One former member says, "I can tell you that the Lodges always make a mockery of Christian Holy Days."

Because of the severity of the oaths of secrecy taken by Masonic members (i.e., "binding myself under no less penalty than to have my left breast torn open and my heart and vitals taken from thence and thrown over my left shoulder and carried into the valley of Jehosaphat, there to become a prey to the wild beasts of the field, and vulture of the air if ever I should prove willfully guilty of violating any part of this my solemn oath...."), very few defect and even fewer defectors are willing to talk. One such courageous man, Captain William Morgan, wrote a book exposing the Masons. He was kidnapped and drowned in the Niagara River in Batavia, New York by several Masons in 1826. The publisher of the book was also kidnapped, but outraged citizens of Batavia rescued him in time. Following this incident, 45,000 Masons withdrew their membership. In 1848 one of the Masons who had been appointed to assassinate Morgan gave a death bed confession of the entire incident. Charles Finney wrote that Morgan "was aware, as Masons generally were at the time, that nearly all the civil offices in the country were in the hands of Freemasons; and that the press was completely under their control....Can [any Mason] who has taken and still adheres to the oath of the Royal Arch degree [a particular Masonic degree] be trusted in office? He swears to espouse the cause of a companion of this degree when involved in any difficulty, so far as to extricate him from the same, whether he be right or wrong. He swears to conceal his crimes, murder and treason not excepted."

One member included in a Masonic book about famous Masons is John Marshall, a Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court. Shortly before his death, he said,

"The institution of Masonry ought to be abandoned, as one capable of producing much evil, and incapable of producing any good which might not be affected by open means."

Many other powerful politicians have campaigned against Masonry, including William Seward (Secretary of State under Lincoln), Daniel Webster, Ulysses S. Grant, John Adams, James Madison, John Quincy Adams, and Millard Fillmore. Anton LaVey, the founder and leader of The Church of Satan, gives repeated reference to Freemasonry in his book: "Satanic Ritual is a blend of Gnostic, Cabbalistic, Hermetic, and Masonic elements...."

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Some pretty heavy stuff, no doubt.

At this point, I don't know what to think. If some kind reader could refute all of this for me, it would ease my worried mind.

Of course it's all true. All of that and so much more.

http://homepages.spa.umn.edu/~duvernoi/ill.html

More....

http://www.crossroad.to/articles2/006/freemasons.htm