Question: Why is it necessary to believe in a Supreme Being to become a Freemason?
ficulty and danger in whom do you put your trust ?” He replies “In God.” He later states that
Answer: A belief in a Supreme Being is a funda- he hopes to obtain the privileges “by the help of mental requirement to becoming a Mason. At one God” and states in his obligation “So help me God, time Freemasonry was a Christian Order so a be- and keep me steadfast in this my great and sollief in God was obviously an essential qualifica- emn obligation.” Therefore, without a belief in a tion for membership. This qualification was Supreme Being the promises and Obligations we amended at the time of the Union to include men all make as Masons are entirely worthless. of all faiths. The 1st Antient Charge published in the Book of Constitutions concerning God and Question: Why is the master seated in the East ? Religion states: “A Mason is obliged, by his ten- Answer: As strange as it may seem, the Master ure, to obey the moral law; and if he rightly un- sitting in the East has not always been the case – derstand the art he will never be a stupid atheist In the early days Masons met, ate and drank nor an irreligious libertine. He, of all men, should around a long table in the centre of the room, the best understand that God seeth not as man seeth; Master being seated in the West with both Warfor man looketh on the outward appearance, but dens at the far corners. If you read the BiGod looketh upon the heart. A Mason is there- ble, according to Ezekiel and contrary to the layfore, particularly bound never to act against the out of modern Freemasons Lodges, Solomon’s dictates of his conscience. Let a man’s religion or temple had its main entrance on the East side mode of worship be what it may, he is not exclud- which would place the Holy of Holies, the Sanced from the order, provided he believe in the glo- tum Sanctorum, and thus the Masters place in the rious architect of heaven and earth, and practise West. This surely would make sense as the sun rising in the East at the dawn of every new day the sacred duties of morality etc etc. would shine through the porchway or entrance to As the first condition of admission of any man illuminate the entrance to the Most Holy place, into and membership of the Order, is a belief in a the Sanctum Sanctorum beyond. I suspect that it Supreme Being; you will be aware that the VSL is was from the influence of the clergymen involved the 1st of the 3 Great Lights in Masonry and is in producing the ritual around the time of the crealways open when the Lodge is opened. Every ation of the Premier Grand Lodge in 1717 that Candidate is required to take his obligation on changed the orientation of our Lodges to that of that book or on the Volume that is held by his Christian Churches, entrance in the West and Alparticular faith to impact sanctity to an oath or tar in the East, which thus places the Master in promise taken upon it.
the East.
The second question a Candidate is asked after Thanks to PG Secretary of PGL Wolverhampton for his entrance into the Lodge is: “In all cases of dif- these Q&A.
Cross Keys March 2021
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