THE TEACHINGS OF MASONRY

BY BRO.  H.L. HAYWOOD

THE BUILDER NOVEMBER 1922

PART XV - THE FATHERHOOD OF GOD


MANY attempts have been made to expound Freemasonry's teaching concerning God by recourse to the peculiar phraseology that is employed in the ritual, but these attempts have always broken down because the ritualistic language has been fashioned, not for the purposes of exact theological thinking, but for symbolical and ritualistic purposes.  God is not in fact an architect; such a term is very misleading.  It suggests a great artificer who made the worlds out of nothing, or else out of crude material, and who went about it as a carpenter might frame a house.  Such a Being would necessarily exist apart from the thing He has made, as a machinist is apart from the mechanism he contrives.  The modern mind will have nothing to do with such ideas because men have learned that God cannot be conceived of as living and working apart from the universe, but must somehow be involved in that universe.  The Masonic thinker can escape from these difficulties by remembering that in the ritual God is described as T.S.G.A.O.T.U., not because such words describe His nature as Masonry understands it, but because such an appellation is in harmony with the architectural language of the ceremonies.

Freemasonry, nowhere offers a definition of the nature and attributes of God, but leaves such matters to each individual to fashion as best he can.  It asks of a man only that he believe that God is.  It does not even try to prove the existence of God, after the fashion of the dogmatic theologians, but assumes that its candidates already have that belief in their hearts.

However, it appears that while Freemasonry does not define its conception of God certain attributes are assumed by the Masonic system as a whole, and taken for granted throughout it, so that while these attributes are nowhere insisted upon explicitly, they are a necessary postulate of Masonic teachings as a whole.  I may be wrong in this; if I am, it will not greatly matter, because this paper, like the others in this series, is designed to be not exhaustive but suggestive, and prepared as a paper for discussion, rather than as an official treatise.

What is the "peculiar phraseology" referred to? Have you considered that such a name truly describes God? Did you gain any conception of God while taking the work? What are the objections to the theory that God exists apart from the universe? In what way can God be involved in the universe? What is the nature of the theological language employed in the ritual? Does Freemasonry anywhere define or describe the attributes of God? What is meant by "attributes"? How would you prove the existence of God? What is an atheist? What is meant by the phrase "necessary postulate"?


In its most fundamental sense - the only sense in which Freemasonry teaches it - the Fatherhood of God means that when a human being comes into existence there is somewhat in him (let us not try to define it) that derives immediately from God's own being; and that through all his existence - which we believe to be endless - this man's being remains rooted in God's own being, so that if God Himself were to cease to be he would also, and at the same instant, cease to be.  In the language of metaphysics the relation between God and man is ontological.  It exists in the nature of things, so that neither God nor man could cause it not to be; and it does not depend upon a man's religious beliefs, or upon any other belief or opinion.  All men, whatever be their faith or fortune, from Plato down to the African dwarf, have this relation with God.  What God is to any one He is to every other one, and all that God can be to or do for any man, He is to and does for all men equally, and everlastingly.  This eternal an universal Fatherhood in Him does not come into existence when we begin to believe it; it is already a fact before we believe it, and remains a fact whether we believe it or not.

The Fatherhood of God is more than a symbol it is a fact, albeit of a very different nature from human fatherhood.  By God's love is meant that our being is rooted in Him, and that He is ever doing for us all that a God can do.  His relation to us is neither purchased nor given but holds in the very structure of life itself.  It does not rest on sentiment or emotion but in the nature of things, so that it is a great blunder to suppose that because God is our Father therefore He can, at will, reverse the processes of the universe or set aside the everlasting laws of things.  He remains our Father through all our experiences, but not for that reason are we shielded from pain, from loss, and from the extreme horrors into which our own or the world's ignorance, or the vicissitudes of fortune may bring us. Nevertheless, whatever be our lot, it is the great secret of our courage to know that the show and scheme of things is not swirling about us in the wind of chance, but that our lives are rooted in One who thoroughly understands us; and that, whatever betide the inner stuff of our nature cannot dissolve away into dust, or our beings be brought to extinction.  Our belief in God's Fatherhood - so this is to say - does not create the fact, but it makes the fact a power in our conscious thought, and that is a mighty thing.

"The doctrine of Fatherhood in God is a doctrine of faith.  It is a belief about the interior mystery of the Infinite supported by much, and opposed by much, in the experience of mankind.  It is a belief about the universe, in behalf of our human world, supported by all that is best in that world; it is fitted to elevate, energize, gladden and console human beings; it is the belief that generates and justifies all other high beliefs.  If God is the Absolute goodness and compassion, our human world is his concern, all righteousness has his approval, all efforts at righteousness are followed by his sympathy, all sin must reckon with his endless enmity, all penitence may count upon his pity, all strivings at reform may be sure of his inspiration, all union in the endeavour to cleanse the earth of moral evil may move in the tides of his Spirit, all grief may find consolation in his infinite love, all loss may hope to become, in the courses of the ages, eternal gain in Him.  If Fatherhood in God is the ultimate reality in the Infinite, as the Infinite is related to our human world, that world is glorious with meaning and with hope."

What is your own conception of the Fatherhood of God? How do we know that God exists? How do we know that He is a Father in the sense described? How is his Fatherhood to be reconciled with the evil and the suffering of the world? What does belief in God's Fatherhood do for a man? Is such a belief required of a Mason? In what way does Freemasonry teach the Fatherhood of God? What is taught concerning this subject in the Old and the New Testaments?


The Fatherhood of God is not anywhere explicitly taught by Freemasonry but it is everywhere implied, so that the great doctrines peculiar to the Craft demand it for their guarantor, and make inevitably toward it The Brotherhood of Man could never come to pass if the peoples of the world were by their very nature different from each other; it would be as impossible to bridge over such chasms as it is now impossible to bring our race into an equal brotherhood with beasts or trees.

So also is it with Equality.  It is impossible for us ever to be, as I have already tried to show in this series, of the same fortune or ability, because the conditions in which we necessarily live make for endless variety, and that is of itself a kind of inequality: but there is a region beneath all such differences in which we find ourselves at one.  God is to the most ignorant wretch all that a God can be, and does all things possible for him, so that in such matters that wretch is the equal of prophets and kings.

Our hope of Democracy is linked up with the Fatherhood of God. "Always, a new idea of man implies and involves a new conception of God.  It was natural for the men who bowed low when the glittering chariot of Caesar swept along the streets of Rome to think of God as an omnipotent Emperor, ruling the world with an arbitrary and irresponsible almightiness.  For men who live in this land of the free such a conception of God is a caricature.  The citizens of a republic do not believe that God is an infinite autocrat, nor do they bow down to divine despotism; they worship in the presence of an Eternal Father, who is always and everywhere accessible to the humblest man who lifts his heart in prayer. Republican principles necessarily involve faith in the Fatherhood of God.  The logic of the American idea leads to faith in a Divine Love universal and impartial, all encompassing and everlasting."


What is meant by saying that the doctrine of the Fatherhood of God is everywhere implied in Freemasonry? In what way does the Brotherhood of Man depend on the Fatherhood of God? What is taught in the V.S.L. concerning the Brotherhood of Man? What is meant by Equality? In what way does God's Fatherhood make all men equal? What does the Declaration of Independence teach concerning Equality? What does the V.S.L. have to say about Equality? What is meant by Democracy? How is the Doctrine of Democracy related to the Doctrine of the Fatherhood of God? Could Democracy exist among a people who worship a despotic God?

SUPPLEMENTAL REFERENCES

THE BUILDER:

Vol. II, 1916. - Toleration, p. 265;  Non-Christian Candidates, p. 302.

Vol. III, 1917. - The Chapter - What It Stands For, p. 85; The Spirit of Masonry, p. 93; Masonic Jurisprudence, P. 211.

Vol. IV, 1918. - H.G. Wells' Conception of Deity, p. 63.

Vol. V, 1919. - California's Recognition of French Masonry, p. 11; Words and Realities, p. 19; The Triangle, p. 45; Studies in Blue Lodge Symbolism, P. 135.

Vol. VI, 1920. - The letter G, February C.C.B. p. 3; The Lost Word, May C.C.B. p. 3.

Vol. VII, 1921. - The Fatherhood of God, p. 21; T.G.A.O.T.U., p. 169; God in Prison, p. 192.

Mackey's Encyclopedia - (Revised Edition):

Atheist, p. 84; Deism, p. 204; Dispensations of Religion, p. 217; Equality, p. 247; Ethics of Freemasonry, p. 252; God, p. 301; Great Architect of the Universe, p. 310; I.T.N.O.T.G.A.O.T.U., p. 3; Lost Word, p. 453; Scriptures, Belief in the, p. 672; Theism, p. 782; Theurgy, p. 783; T.G.A.O.T.U., pp. 3 and 782; Unity of God, p. 816; Word, p. 856.

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