Out of Freemasonry and into the light of truth ....a story from America

I grew up in a town in Arizona where it seemed as though virtually all of the "pillars of the community" were Masons. My father passed away in 1963. He was so much more to me than just my dad. ..one of his final wishes, that he made known to my mother, was that his two sons become Masons. Some fifteen years later, my father's wish was fulfilled. I was initiated an Entered Apprentice into the Blue Lodge; by 1978, I was raised to a Master Mason. I still had no idea what Freemasonry was all about. I had always heard that it was a fraternity of men, the teachings of which were based upon the Bible. Even on the evening of my initiation, I was required to declare that I would "cheerfully conform to all the ancient usages and established customs of the Fraternity.", even though I had absolutely no idea what all these "usages" and "established customs" were.

By January of 1984, something else happened in my life that was to change me and my circumstances forever, and that very special something, Praise God, was Jesus Christ! He began to show me that by following the teachings of Freemasonry, instead of becoming stronger in my Christian faith and closer to Him, I was following false teachings of an organization where something called the Great Architect of the Universe is prayed to, not the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He began showing me that instead of receiving the Truth of His Holy Word, I was receiving skillfully, sometimes not so skillfully, crafted distortions of it...

After saying grace before a Masonic dinner a Past Master expressed his concern over the "error" I had made that evening. I asked him what the problem was, and his answer, which should have been a wake-up call for me and for any Christian was, "You prayed in the name of Jesus Christ." It may be offensive to our Jewish members. I said, in a few moments, we are going to be opening lodge with the Holy Bible on the altar, complete with New Testament. ..I was upset, so I walked away...

I thought of the blood oaths I had taken; I thought of the numerous times I had administered them. It had been revealed to me that such oaths are against God's written word. This same Written Word that the Order supposedly based its rituals on, says that we are not to make any oaths at all; yet those hideous penalties to the obligations: "..that of having my throat cut across, my tongue torn out, and with my body buried in the sands of the seas at low-water mark"; "..that of having my left breast torn open, my heart and vitals taken thence, and with my body given as a prey to the vultures of the air"; and, "..that of having my body severed in twain, my bowels taken thence, etc, etc, etc.,.." I was told by some that it was no big deal; the penalties were only meant to convey to the candidate how important it was to take the obligations seriously. No big deal? If the penalties of the oaths were that frivolous, then that was all the more reason we should not be swearing them to God.

Then one day I fell to my knees alongside my bed and cried out to God, in the name of Jesus Christ, to please show me the truth. With my eyes closed, I heard a roar, and I saw the words "Blood Oath", in big red letters. I got out of my chair and went to my knees again. I was crying, and I was scared. I cried out to God, in the name of Jesus Christ, and begged Him to forgive me if I had wronged him. He said, 

"Yes, Duane, you have wronged Me, and yes, you are forgiven."

I submitted my letter of withdrawal from the lodge, and within a day or two, I began receiving phone calls, mainly from Past Masters whom I had always had a great deal of respect for. They were pleading with me to not go through with this decision I had come to. I explained to him that my reasons for leaving Freemasonry were because of the my newfound faith in Jesus Christ.