I grew up in a town in Arizona where it seemed as though virtually all of the "pillars of the community" were Masons.
I did not know, at the time, what went on inside a Masonic lodge
room, but judging from the caliber of men who I knew of as being members
of the organization, I always thought it must have been something
pretty special.
Being a respected law enforcement officer, serving in both appointed
and elected capacities throughout his career; as well as being a
businessman, my father was a pillar of the community. And, he, at least
one uncle and an assortment of cousins, were all Blue Lodge Masons. My
mother and all three of my aunts were members of the Order of the
Eastern Star, which is basically an affiliated adult women’s
organization for wives, sisters, mothers, daughters, etc., although not
exclusively so. In high school, I became actively involved in DeMolay,
and my wife is a former member of the International Order of Rainbow for
Girls.
My father passed away in 1963. He was so much more to me than just my
dad. When I lost him, I lost my very best friend. And before my best
friend
died, one of his final wishes, that he made known to my mother, was that
his two sons become Masons. I still didn’t know what went on inside a
lodge room, but dad had always said that being a Mason made him a better
man. He wasn’t a "church-going" man, as the expression goes - ours was
not a churched family - but he was indeed a good, honest, decent man,
well-respected by even many of those who had been on the opposite side
of the fence from him when he was in law enforcement.
Some fifteen years later, after leaving Arizona, my father’s wish was
fulfilled. In May of 1978, I was initiated an Entered Apprentice into
the Blue Lodge that my brother was already a member of, and officer in.
In September, I was passed to the degree of Fellow Craft, and on
November 10, 1978, I was raised a Master Mason. I was presented that
night with a Masonic pin that had belonged to my father, and with tears
in my eyes and joy in my heart, I was finally able to say, "You rest
well now, old friend. Both of your sons are now Masons."
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. I wasn’t told that much about it, even on the evening
of my initiation, when prior to being admitted into the lodge room I was
required to declare in the affirmative 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. I didn’t remember that dad had ever gone to
lodge all that much, at least not in later years; I didn’t remember it
ever being a topic of discussion at the dinner table. But I had never
heard him speak in any negative terms about the lodge, nor had I heard
any such remarks from any other members of the family with the exception
of one uncle, but even that had nothing to do with the inner workings
of Freemasonry. As I was to learn later, there was no way the one uncle
could have been expected to know, anyway, being an "outsider". So many
people from WITHIN the ranks of the Order don’t even know. Besides, I
trusted most of the Masons I knew before becoming a member, and as long
as I wasn’t invited to a "snipe hunt", or something similar, I wasn’t
going to give it much thought.
There is a great deal of work involved in blue lodge Masonry, to
allow you to advance from one degree to the next. "Proficiencies" are to
be memorized, and they consist of a series of verbatim questions that
are asked of you, to which you must furnish answers that are very close
to being word-for-word themselves. Some places require that these
proficiencies be delivered in open lodge, in front of the membership in
attendance. We were only required to complete these examinations on the
premises while a lodge meeting was in session.
I turned in my 3rd degree proficiency on the evening of December’s
stated (business) meeting, which was just in time to be appointed by the
Worshipful Master-elect for the ensuing year (1979) as his Junior
Steward. No speaking parts were involved in this position, so I was
asked to begin learning to deliver the Working Tools lecture in each of
the 3 degrees, as well as the charges. In l980, I served as Chaplain.
There is a substantial amount of memorization work involved there, with
circumambulations, prayers and various other things that go along with
the chair. I also went to work learning the Senior Deacon’s roles in the
various degrees, etc. That summer, I set out to learn the First Degree
Lecture, which I began delivering in the fall, when summer break from
lodge was over with. Somewhere along the line in those first two years, I
also memorized the Apron Lecture. In 1981, I was Junior Warden, one of
the three principal officers of the lodge, my first elected office. To
the best of my recollection, I began obligating candidates that year,
which means administering the obligations in each of the degrees,
assuming the role of Worshipful Master during the ritual of initiation
or advancement of the candidate(s). By the time my year as Senior Warden
was completed (1982), I had pretty much learned all the degree work I
would learn, leaving me with more time to hopefully serve the brethren
well, in 1983, as Worshipful Master of one of the largest blue lodges in
Nevada.
And at the end of my year in the East, when I was presented with my
Past Master’s apron and dubbed with the very distinctive title that
accompanies it, I don’t know if there had been any particular point in
my life, other than marriage to my wife and the births of our two
children, when I had felt more humbled and yet prouder.
The Past Masters of ANY blue lodge, regardless of how large or how
small the lodge may be, is indeed the most august body of men that lodge
has, and I had now become one of them. But in 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!
In the latter part of December, 1983, immediately after my term of
office had come to an end, my Lord and Savior began to reveal to me the
truth about Him and the truth about the lodge. 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, and that GAOTU, as he is called, is not the
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, but rather some sort of a composite
"deity" that Moslems, Buddhists and other non-Christians are equally
comfortable praying to. 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.
My decision to leave the lodge was not an easy one to make, nor was
it based on any one single event. I went through a period of a couple of
weeks or so with my whole world being turned upside down. Pros and cons
were tugging at me from both sides, in a spiritual battle that was
taking place inside me. I would think of past events that had been
upsetting to me at the time, but which I managed to rationalize on; and
some that had never been resolved, such as:
Early in the year when I was Junior Steward, a Past Master of the
lodge, who was also a Grand Lodge Officer at the time, would sit on the
sidelines during lodge, conversing with a friend or two of his.
Unfortunately, the Lord’s name in vain was often a part of the dialog.
One night in particular, I heard those words come out of his mouth on
several occasions, in a very short period of time. When the craft was
called from labor to refreshment, I confronted the individual in the
lobby. In so many words I told him, "If I hear those words come out of
your mouth one more time during lodge, I will file Masonic charges
against you and have you drummed out of Masonry." In all honesty, I
didn’t know if such a thing was possible, but when I opened my mouth to
speak, that is what came out. You could have heard a pin drop. Everyone
who overheard the confrontation was upset, but for most of them(at least
for those who spoke directly to me about it), it wasn’t what that man
had said that was unsettling. Rather, the statements that were being
made to me were, "After all, Duane, he is a Past Master." "After all,
Duane, he is a Grand Lodge Officer." In all honesty, if I had been able
to take those words back, for the purpose of stating them to him in
private rather than publicly, I surely would have, even though his words
had been spoken audibly in lodge. That would have been the Christian
thing to do, but in all honesty, I wasn’t much of a Christian in those
days, even though I professed to be. That situation was a puzzler for me
from that moment on, because it was as if his Masonic titles somehow
over-rode his totally blasphemous utterances. I couldn’t buy into it
then, and I still don’t to this day.
As Chaplain, a part of my duties was to say grace before meals at our
monthly potluck dinners, which were always held on the fourth Friday of
the month, said Fridays being reserved for Entered Apprentice degrees.
This gave members and their wives an opportunity to meet the new
Initiates and their families. I was unable to fulfill these duties at
the beginning of the year due to the travel time involved with the
out-of-town job I was working on. The first potluck dinner I made it to
proved to be educational as well as discomforting. I said grace before
the meal and partook like everyone else. After dinner, a Past Master
asked me to step into the adjoining lodge room. It was there that he
expressed his concern over the "error" I had made that evening. I told
him I had no idea what he was talking about. 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."
When I asked him how that could possibly be a problem, he said, "It may
be offensive to our Jewish members." I then looked over at the altar,
where the unopened Holy Bible was resting. I said, "PM (no need for
names), in a few moments, we are going to be opening lodge with the Holy
Bible on the altar, complete with New Testament. How do our Jewish
brothers feel about that?" He said, "It doesn’t have to be the Bible on
the altar. It could just as easily be the book of Koran." I said, "But,
it ISN’T the book of Koran. It is the Holy Bible." I was upset, so I
walked away. This "instruction" had also been confirmed, by the way, by
one of the principal officers who walked up to us during our
conversation. I thought later, "What have I missed here?" This was my
first realization that there is no mention of Jesus Christ in any of the
prayers I was still in the process of learning as Chaplain. Looking
back on it now, I can attribute a combination of things contributing to
my lack of discernment on this issue. First of all, I know now that I
was only a professing Christian at the time. Yes, I had been baptized
several years earlier, but as I look back on it now, had I been baptized
for the right reason? Maybe it had only taken place because it was what
I was supposed to do, not because of true acceptance of Jesus Christ as
my Lord and Savior. Additionally, I had been so involved with
memorizing as much of the rituals as I possibly could, that I was not
taking the time to study the ritual - only memorize it. I truthfully
have to say, no thought at all had entered my mind that I WASN’T praying
in the name of Jesus Christ during lodge prayers, until I was told that
I COULDN’T pray in His name, even at a potluck dinner, which has
nothing whatsoever to do with the rituals of the lodge. In a strange
way, I also was not looking at the prayers as actually being prayers, so
much as it was just more ritual I was memorizing, and we were trained
to memorize the rituals as absolutely letter-perfect as we could. I
wasn’t praying in the name of Jesus Christ during lodge, because none of
those prayers made mention of His precious name; it was a part of the
ritual; and I was just learning ritual. Besides, I rationalized, when I
prayed in lodge, I knew who I was praying to. And as for the Koran? I
didn’t care what they did in other lodges. "In MY lodge, the Holy Bible
is on the altar!" At the next month’s potluck dinner, I offered up a
"universal" prayer so as not to "offend" anyone present. After dinner, I
engineered the occasion to call that same PM aside and ask him if the
prayer was okay. He said it had been done very nicely. I asked if he
thought any of our Jewish brothers had been offended by the prayer. He
said no, that I had done just fine. Then, feeling a little mischievous, I
asked him about the baked ham the lodge served for the main course that
night. I said it to him jokingly, but then I posed another situation to
him. I said, "PM, tonight, during the lecture, when our newly made
Masons are in the northeast corner of the lodge, it is going to be
explained to them that all lodges are dedicated to the Holy Saints John -
St. John of Jerusalem, and Saint John the Baptist. And when it comes to
the matter of Jesus Christ, we know EXACTLY where they stood, don’t
we?" This time, the PM was the one who walked away.
I thought back to when I was Senior Warden. I had begun to look
toward the time when I would be assuming the title of Worshipful Master.
That in itself had been troubling to me. I had never considered myself
as being anybody’s Master, and I certainly wasn’t Worshipful. Shouldn’t a
title like that be reserved for God and God alone?
There had been an incident at church one Sunday, right after services
had concluded. My wife and I were walking towards our car when we met a
young man who fellowshipped with us, and who our son was a team mate of
on the church’s slow-pitch softball team. Being "proud as punch" as I
was about becoming a Mason, I had somehow managed to make my lodge
membership a part of the conversation. The young man looked at me in a
quizzical fashion, and said something about Freemasonry being a cult.
Almost immediately, the urge came upon me to slap him, but then I
thought better of it, saying to myself, "It’s all right, Duane, he just
doesn’t understand." I now realize that if there was any
misunderstanding that day, it certainly was not on his part.
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 in the Book of Matthew that
we are not to make any oaths at all; and it particularly spells out that
we are not to swear an oath that would change even the color of one
hair on our heads. 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.
With the spiritual battle going on inside me, I was experiencing more
"peaks" and "valleys" than at any other time in my life. I would go to
certain Christian writings and see negatives about the lodge, but then I
would go to my Masonic Bible and read about these same items, with the
lodge’s slant on them, and it didn’t sound so bad, but then I would go
to the Word of God, and it was confirming what I was reading in the
Christian writings. But then I would tell myself, "It’s only a
fraternity. It isn’t church. I go to church on Sundays, and I go to
lodge on Friday nights. There is a difference."
But then something else came to mind. I recalled a couple of
conversations I had with a man who was ahead of me in the line of
officers. Over
"refreshments" we would talk about Freemasonry, lodge activities, etc..
One night he asked me, "What is lodge to you?" I thought for a moment,
and then I said, "I don’t really know how to explain it, except to say,
If a man can’t be in church, he should at least be in lodge." He nodded
his head, and smiled. On another such occasion, he asked me, "What does
the Second Section of the Master Mason Degree mean to you?" I said, "You
know what? I’ve been thinking about that lately, and all that comes to
my mind is death, burial, and resurrection, just like baptism in the
church." Once again, he nodded and smiled.
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. That was His answer.
I got up from my knees, walked into our dining room, and sat down. I
was shaking. I knew at that moment, it no longer mattered that most of
my family was in the lodge. I knew it didn’t matter that so many of the
people I worked with, and worked for, were Masons. I knew it didn’t
matter that virtually all of the people who I had associated with for
the past 5 ½ years would probably turn their backs on me on account of
the decision I was about to make I knew that because we were all Masons,
that didn’t mean we were right; it only proved that we were fallible.
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. The first one who
called made some startling statements. After I had explained to him that
my reasons for leaving Freemasonry were because of the Bible and my
newfound faith in Jesus Christ, he proceeded to tell me three things,
basically:
You can’t necessarily believe everything you read in the Bible.
Christianity was a religion invented by the people in power at the
time(I presumed this to mean the Roman Empire), as a tool to keep the
common people subdued and pacified so they wouldn’t become rebellious.
There was no historical evidence that anyone by the name of Jesus Christ ever existed.
A day or two later, another Past Master called me. He spoke for a while
about how important my knowledge of the rituals was to the lodge, etc..
We talked for quite a while, and in all honesty, he just about had me
turned around. But I mentioned to him what had been said to me by the
first Past Master who phoned me, and his response was, "Oh no, Duane, oh
no. No, he is so wrong. Of course Jesus Christ existed, and he was a
good man."
Of two of the three Past Masters that I had held in such high regard
up to that time, one of them knows Jesus Christ only as having been a
good man; the other doesn't even know He exists; which means that
neither one of them know Him at all.
I know who He is, and there is no doubt whatsoever that He is alive.
He is my Lord and Savior, and He lives in me. I don't know for sure to
this day what my status was that one Christmas Eve night, several years
earlier, when I experienced the symbolic death, burial and resurrection
in a baptismal font inside a church in Yuma, Arizona; and I shudder to
think of the intended purpose of the symbolic death, burial and
resurrection I experienced in a Masonic lodge room in Las Vegas, Nevada;
but there is one thing I do know. On Friday, January 13, 1984, on my
knees, in the dining room of my home, when I cried out to the True and
Living God for His forgiveness, He forgave me - unconditionally, no
strings attached; and when I asked Jesus Christ to come back into my
life, He came.
I am not perfect. Only God knows how totally corrupt and sinful I
have been. On my best day, any attempt to imitate the example of my Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ and have Him accept me for my good works, is
but an offering of filthy rags. But even on my worst day, by His grace
and His love, I am forgiven. Amen.
He may on occasion be spoken of by lodge members as being "a good
man", "an eminent reformer", " a great human teacher", etc., outside of
the lodge room, but He is never spoken of as Mighty God, Lord God
Almighty, Lord Jesus Christ, Lord of All, or King of Kings, inside the
lodge room, and thats why I dont go there anymore. The prayers are not
the only issue - not be a long shot. But for any believer in Jesus
Christ it should suffice to say that "forgetting" to pray in His
precious name is one thing, but DELIBERATE OMISSION of His name is utter
rejection.
I am sorry, Father God, for ever deliberately omitting Your name in
prayer. My prayers, Precious Jesus, whether they are my own private
supplications, or asking for Your blessings upon a group of people who
have gathered together in Your name, will never again be done for the
pacification of non-believers, but only in seeking the presence of Your
Holy Spirit. I will pray for the souls of those who surely grieve You,
but I will not deny Your Supreme Authority Over All in the process. I
once again beg Your forgiveness, with this promise to You. It will never
happen again. In the name of Jesus Christ, and for His sake; in the
name of Lord God Jehovah; in the name of precious Adonay; in the name of
the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, I pray. Amen.
My name is Duane Washum. I am an Ex-Mason For Jesus.
This is my testimony.
Thank you, Jesus.
Duane Washum
washum@emfj.org
hen I was 25 I was suffering from chronic backpain. It was excruciating.
Former Worshipful Master
enelope. .... I am living proof that God is real,
all-knowing and one hell of a powerful God. I have been addicted to one
of the most invisible sins for as long as I can remember masturbation.
I want to share with you from a
testimony of someone who was saved, someone who had been serving the
devil. And when that man gave his testimony, it so challenged
me, I did not want to believe it. I had to go ten days before
the Lord in fasting, asking Him, "Lord, is this true?" And it
was at that time the Lord began to teach me what happens in the
spiritual realm when we pray. 
He
was still a young boy, but he was so terrible in the things he did.
He grew up to be a young man in his twenties with so much bloodshed
on his hands. Killed at will. He had the ability to go
out of his body through transcendental meditation. And he
could levitate. Sometimes his body would lift off the ground
and stay in the air. And sometimes he could go into a trance,
and come out of his body; his body would remain behind, and he would
go out into the world, this is called astro-travelling. And
this guy was used by satan to destroy so many churches, to break
down so many churches and to destroy so many pastors. 
Yes,
arrested by the angels! He saw himself being held by about six
angels, and they brought him through the roof right before the
church altar. There he was, and the people were praying.
They were deep in prayer in spiritual warfare, binding and breaking
and casting out. The pastor was on the platform leading the
prayers and the warfare. The Spirit of the Lord spoke to the
pastor, "
There
were many pastors in that room. And he said, "I appeal to
you, pastors. Please teach the people how to pray." The
people who don't pray, can be taken in anything, in anything by the
devil, and there are ways that the enemy exploits their lives and
their prayers. The enemy knows even how to exploit their
prayers of those people who don't know how to pray. "Teach
the people how to use the spiritual armor that God provides."
Some
prayers appear like smoke, and it goes drifting along and disappear
in the air. These prayers come from people who have sin in
their lives and they are not willing to deal with it. Their
prayers are so weak, they are blown away and disappear in the air.
The
other type of prayer is also like smoke that rises up until it
reaches this rock, but it does not break through the rock.
These are usually people who try to purify themselves, but they lack
the faith in what they are doing as they pray. They usually
ignore the other important aspects that are needed when someone
prays. 
The
third type of prayer is like smoke that is filled with fire.
As it rises up, it is so hot that when it reaches the rock, the rock
begins to melt like wax. It pierces the rock and goes through.
There
comes an opening in the spiritual realm. And as soon as this
comes, all this trouble in prayer stops. The person who is
praying on the ground just feels like prayer is suddenly so smooth,
so enjoyable, so powerful and intense. And I've discovered at
that moment, we normally lose conscience of time and other things.
Not that we become disorderly. God takes care of our time.
But it is like you lay down everything, and you hook up with God.
And this man said that when the prayers go through, from that moment
there can be no resistance at all, and the person praying will
continue as long as he wants. There is no resistance that can
stop him. 
So
when these people who have this spiritual break-through share Jesus
Christ with the sinners, their resistance is low. It is so
easy to bring them through. When they pray for the sick or
pray about things, the presence which is there makes all the
difference. And this man said the devil hates such people.
And it said if there are places where prayer is regularly being
prayed through like that, the presence comes upon that place and
does not leave. So even the people who don't know God, when
they come into this place suddenly all the bondages are weakened.
This
man said, when the angel is coming, they would focus and look at him
and notice the areas which are not covered, and those are the areas
they would attack. If he has no helmet, they would shoot at
his head. If he has no breastplate, they would shoot at his
chest. If he has no shoes, they would make a fire that he is
walking in the fire. Now I am just repeating what this man
said. Actually, we asked him, "Can angels feel fire?" And you
know what he said to us? Remember this is a spiritual realm.
These are spirits dealing with spirits. The battle is
intensive, and when they overpower an angel of God, the first thing
they target is the answer he is carrying, and they get that from
him, that is what they give through the cults, the witchcraft, and
people say, "I got this because of witchcraft." 
Let's
just stand up. Look someone in the eye, and just think about
how many times that person could have missed what God had for him.
But join your hands if you can, two or three people, and just tell
each other, "There's no need for more defeat! We can overcome! There
is enough power to overcome! Jesus has already done the whole work."
Pray for each other that the Lord will help us to overcome. We
should not lose. There is enough grace, enough power for
victory. 
s torment people. I saw one rip
out a person’s eye, and hide it, and that person had to drag himself in pain to
find it. The demons were getting pleasure from their cruelty. To some, they
ripped off arms and legs. But to those who once knew the Lord, but died in their
sins, their punishment was much worse. They had a double
condemnation. 
Please listen to me carefully. I was also an Evangelical
Christian. I prayed for the sick and God healed them, I prayed for the lame and
God raised them up. I cast out demons and spoke in new tongues, but
I had a spirit of vainglory, that made me see my pastor as spiritually smaller
than me.
It might sound crazy, but many Christians wind up in Hell
because of lying. Christians often just nonchalantly lie in Church, and think
nothing of it. The pastor may ask them a question, and a member just lies to
them. But we must remember that a simple lie is what caused God to kill Ananias
and Saphira while in Church. 
