Masonry teaches the following 2 things about its God:

1. The Masonic God is called the Great Architect of the Universe (G.A.O.T.U.) but must remain undefined.

Coil's Masonic Encyclopedia states the following about God: "Men have to decide whether they want a God like the ancient Hebrew Jahweh, a partisan tribal god, with whom they can talk and argue and from whom they can hide if necessary, or a boundless, eternal, universal, undenominational, and international Divine Spirit, so vastly removed from the speck called man, that he cannot be known, named or approached. So soon as man begins to laud his God and endow him with the most perfect human attributes such as justice, mercy, beneficence, etc., the Divine Essence is depreciated and despoiled....The Masonic test is a Supreme Being, and any qualification added is an innovation and distortion ... Monotheism ... violates Masonic principles, for it requires belief in a specific kind of Supreme Deity" [1]

At one level, Masonry teaches that its God must remain undefined and unknowable. In keeping God undefined and unknowable, Masonry believes it can then "accept" all men's ideas of God. Masonry believes that by leaving God undefined, it can claim that it accepts the God of the Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Jews, Mormons, etc. What Masonry means is that its "boundless Divine Spirit" is really the one true God that all men worship.

But this is completely false and is actually dishonest. The God of Masonry does have certain characteristics -- he is single (Unitarian, not Trinitarian), deistic [2], the "Life Force of Nature" [3], and his secret name and true nature are described by reference to ancient evil and pagan gods and beliefs [4].

The simple fact is that the God or gods of Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Christianity, Animism and all the other religions of the world are not the same God. To say that all gods are the same or that all religions teach the same fundamental truths is intellectual schizophrenia, disrespect for each and all religions, and deception to those to whom one teaches such falsehood.

Concepts of God throughout the world all conflict and disagree. For example, the God of Christianity, Jehovah, is infinite, personal, triune, loving, and holy. The deity of the Muslims, Allah, is Unitarian (not triune); he is merciful, but he is not necessarily loving or holy. The deity of the Hindus, Brahman, is impersonal and monistic (neither Unitarian nor triune) or polytheistic (a belief in thousands of finite gods, both good and evil). Buddhism is either polytheistic (believing Buddha is God and that there are hundreds of other good and evil gods) or completely nontheistic, claiming there is not God. Buddhism replaces God with a confusing state of being called Nirvana. Mormonism is different from all the above in that it is henotheistic -- accepting belief in one central deity (Elohim) but accepting many lesser deities as well.

Masonry is wrong in teaching that all religions ultimately have the same concept of God. Masonry is also wrong in teaching that the God of all religions is the Masonic Deity [5]. The gods of the above religions are not the same. All the above religions teach that God is either personal, impersonal, holy, evil, Unitarian, Trinitarian, monistic, infinite, finite, loving, not loving, existent, nonexistent, etc.

So when Masonry claims that the God all men worship is the God of Masonry, this can't possibly be true. Masonry has a distinct concept of God that disagrees with almost all of these other religions' specific concepts of God.

If we compare the God of the Bible with the God taught in the Masonic Lodge, we are faced with irreconcilable differences. As Martin L. Wagner has correctly stated, "This Great Architect as conceived by Freemasons is not identical with the Jehovah of Christianity, but ... is another and distinct entity" [6]. He says they "are entirely separate and different, mutually exclusive and no syncretism can harmonize them" [7].

Masonic authority Albert Pike admits, "If our conceptions of God are those of the ignorant, narrow-minded, and vindictive Israelite ... we feel that it is an affront and an indignity to him [God], to conceive of him as cruel, short-sighted, capricious, and unjust; as a jealous, and angry, and vindictive Being" [8].

Pike later referred to the ignorance and stupidity of most Christians and confessed: "The God of nineteen-twentieths of the Christian world is only Bel [Baal], Molach, Zeus, or at best Osiris, Mythras or Adonai, under another name, worshipped with the old pagan ceremonies and ritualistic formulas ..." [9]

When Masons claim that the Lodge is "tolerant" of all faiths and accepts the God that all men worship, it is really engaging in dishonesty. The truth is that Masonry does not accept the God of any religion but changes each religion's belief in God into the strange, distinct Masonic view of God as the Great Architect of the Universe (G.A.O.T.U.) [10]. Masonry falsely claims it is tolerant of other beliefs in order to attract men of different religious beliefs into becoming Masons. In actuality, a true Mason must forfeit his own religious beliefs in who God is and accept the new God of Masonry [11].

2. God's secret name is "Jahbulon."

The Masonic Lodge teaches in the Royal Arch degree that it knows the true name of God. The candidate is instructed that from now on the true name of God is Jahbulon.

The candidate is clearly instructed in his Masonic manual that the term "Jahbulon" is a composite term for Jehovah (Jah), Baal (Bul or Bel), and On (a possible reference to Osiris).

Masonic authorities such as Coil [12] and the Masonic Ritual and Monitor[13] admit that "Bul" or "Bel" refers to the Assyrian or Canaanite deity Baal and that "On" refers to the Egyptian deity Osiris. Wagner reveals the Masonic goal in this pagan trinity:

"In this compound name an attempt is made to show by a co-ordination of divine names ... the unity, identity and harmony of the Hebrew, Assyrian and Egyptian god-ideas, and the harmony of the Royal Arch religion with these ancient religions. This Masonic 'unity of God' is peculiar. It is the doctrine that the different names of gods as Brahma, Jehovah, Baal, Bel, Om, On, etc., all denote the generative principle, and that all religions are essentially the same in their ideas of the divine" [14].

But to equate Jehovah with the pagan god Baal -- a god so evil that he led the Israelites into human sacrifice and other terrible vices -- is blasphemous. Anyone who studies how evil Baal was in the Old Testament can see this clearly. For example:
"They forsook all the commands of the Lord their God ... they worshiped Baal. They sacrificed their sons and daughters in the fire ... and sold themselves to do evil in the eyes of the Lord, provoking him to anger" (2 Kings 17:16-17 NIV).

"They built high places [altars] for Baal ... to sacrifice their sons and daughters to Molech, though I never commanded, nor did it enter my mind, that they should do such a detestable thing ..." (Jeremiah 32:35 NIV).

"Among the prophets ... I saw this repulsive thing: They prophesied by Baal and led my people Israel astray" (Jeremiah 23:13 NIV).

Baal was so evil a deity that to find the name of the one, true, holy God, Jehovah, linked with Baal and On in the rites of Masonry is blasphemous. God says, "Those who honor Me, I will honor" (1 Samuel 2:30). The Apostle Paul writes, "To Him [God] be honor and eternal dominion" (1 Timothy 6:16). If you are a Christian, according to Scripture is it honoring to God to participate in a rite that maligns His divine name by combining it with the names of evil gods? Didn't God's severe judgment fall upon Israel because she combined worship of Jehovah with the worship of Baal and other pagan gods? Didn't God's judgment fall because of teachings like those found in Masonry? As former Past Master Mason Edmund Ronayne confesses: "The very religious philosophy and false worship which caused Jehovah to destroy His own temple, and banish into captivity His ancient people, are precisely the same philosophy and worship with modern Masons profess shall fit them for the glories of heaven" [15]

Footnotes:

[1] Henry Wilson Coil. Coil's Masonic Encyclopedia. New York: Macoy Publishing and Masonic Supply, 1961, pp. 516-517.

[2] Martin L. Wagner. Freemasonry: An Interpretation, nd., np (distributed by Missionary Service and Supply, Route 2, Columbina, OH, 44408, pp.284

[3] Ibid. pp. 281-351.

[4] Ibid. pp. 137-355.

[5] Ibid. pp. 288-302.

[6] Ibid. pp. 321.

[7] Ibid. pp. 300.

[8] Albert Pike. Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, Charleston, SC, The Supreme Council of the 33rd Degree for the Southern Jurisdiction of the United States, 1906, pp. 223

[9] Ibid. pp. 295-296

[10] Martin L. Wagner. Freemasonry: An Interpretation, nd., np (distributed by Missionary Service and Supply, Route 2, Columbina, OH, 44408, pp. 284

[11] Ibid. pp. 288-302

[12] Malcom C. Duncan. Masonic Ritual and Monitor. New York: David Mckay Co., nd. pp. 226

[13] Ibid. [14] Martin L. Wagner, Freemasonry: An Interpretation, nd., np (distributed by Missionary Service and Supply, Route 2, Columbina, OH, 44408, pp. 338-39 [14] Edmond Ronayne. The Master's Carpet; or Masonry and Baal Worship -- Identical, nd., np (distributed by Missionary Service and Supply, Route 2, Columbina, OH 44408). pp. 111-116 [15] E. Ronayne. Chapter Masonry. Chicago, IL: Ezra A Cook, 1984, pp. 126

Material taken from: "The Facts on The Masonic Lodge -- Does Masonry Conflict With The Christian Faith?" by John Ankerberg & John Weldon, page 29-32.