We have already studied the rise and fall of various world empires under Satan’s control
and the emerging final form of that political structure. We have also mentioned the course of
false world religions from the time of Nimrod in Babel through the period of The Tribulation.
Now we will examine the secret societies that have controlled wealth and power from behind the
scenes, and the sinister religious connections with these secret societies. Some people refer to
this power behind the scenes as the Invisible Government.
Note: The implication in this section that there is a conspiracy to produce a universal
government is accepted by many prophecy scholars, but rejected by others. There is no doubt
that there will be a One-World Government, but there are differing views on the processes that
lead to it. Some have called this an “open conspiracy,” meaning one that is not totally hidden, but
is more of a one-world agenda by the rich and powerful. This elite group publishes their ideas,
but the public is never made aware of their ultimate plans. (For balance here, see Appendix D –
Warnings and Cautions.)
A number of secretive organizations are listed now. These groups have kept the vision of
a world empire, or global government alive. The first two in our list are included, not because of
their governmental concepts, but because of their spiritual influence on the later organizations
Kabbalism
This was an ancient system of Jewish theosophy and mysticism. It denies the inspiration
of Scripture and blends metaphysical and occult practices, trying to mesh them with the Old
Testament. This secretive organization attracts many of the rich and famous of our generation.
Gnosticism
This system of belief flourished during the time of the writing of the New Testament. It is
a dualistic philosophy that there are two equally powerful forces in the universe- one good and
one evil. It still exists today, and was recently depicted in the book and movie, “The Da Vinci
Code.”
Knights Templar
This fraternity, whose name means “Knights of the Temple,” arose during the period of
the Crusades. Some may have meant well at the beginning, but it was so corrupted that it became
a great blight on Christian history and a serious stumbling block between Christians and Jews
and between Christians and Muslims.
Here are some of the highlights of this movement:19
1119 – Established in Jerusalem by 9 French knights to protect pilgrims on their journey to
visit the Holy Land.
1129 – Officially recognized by the [Roman Catholic] Church.
1187 – Defeated by Saladin at the Battle of the Horns of Hattin. This was a turning point in
the Crusades.
1291 – Moved to Cyprus (when Acre fell to Muslims). By then they had become influential
bankers of Europe. They especially influenced Spain, France, and England.
1308 – Philip IV of France arrested many of them, charging them with conspiracy, heresy and
Satan worship. Historical records are not clear whether or not they were really guilty
and how many of them were put to death.
1314 The Grand Master, Jacques de Molay, was burned at the stake.
Rosicrucians
In the early 1300’s, the surviving Knights Templar merged with the Order of the RoseCroix
(red cross) since they were not allowed to continue their own organization.
The beliefs and practices of this group were very secret through the 1600’s. They may
have been the pre-cursors of the Masonic Orders. The names of the last three Masonic degrees of
the York Rite are: Knight of the Red Cross (means the same thing as Rose-Croix), Knight of
Malta, and Knight Templar. The 18th Degree of Scottish Rite of the Masonic Order is called the
Sovereign Prince of Rose-Croix.
In 1717 the world’s first Grand Lodge of the Masonic Order was established in London.
According to Gary Kah, it had Rosicrucians deep within its structure. These were the Princes of
Freemasonry.
The Illuminati
The Illuminati were an order within an order of Freemasons. This order was founded on
May 1, 1776 by Adam Weishaupt, a college professor in Ingolstadt, Bavaria, a part of modern
Germany.
Gary Kah cites John Robinson, 18th Century historian and prominent Mason, writing that the
express aim of the order was to abolish Christianity and overturn government.21
Weishaupt said the name is derived from Lucifer, and means “Holders of the Light.”
Lucifer is one of the names of Satan in our Bible. He was created as an angel of light (Isaiah
14:12; Ezekiel 28:14; 2 Corinthians 11:14), then he rebelled against God and fell.
At the Masonic Congress of Wilhelmsbad, in July, 1782 the Illuminati reached the zenith
of their power. This conference solidified Weishaupt and his order as undisputed head of the
occult one-world movement. Weishaupt also forged an alliance with the growing Rothschild
banker network.
The Illuminati were banned in Bavaria in 1786 as subversive. Their work was apparently
exposed by an act of God when a messenger carrying secret information to members of the
Illuminati was struck by lightning. His documents were exposed, and used as the basis of action
by the government of Bavaria to ban the organization. Copies of this information were sent to
heads of government all over Europe, but most people did not take it seriously. These people
continued to exert influence through the network of illuminated Masonic Lodges already in
place, especially through the Grand Orient Lodge of France.
Kah says that The Illuminati were condemned by George Washington in 1798.22 Our first
president was a Mason, but he was a godly man. He was a surveyor, and would naturally belong
to Masonic trades. But there is no evidence that he personally was involved in any of the
unfortunate secret aspects of the founding of our nation and its capital, such as the city of
Washington D.C. being laid out in the form of a pentagram. He wrote,
“I have heard much of the nefarious and dangerous plan and doctrines of the Illuminati. It was not
my intention to doubt that the doctrine of the Illuminati and the principles of Jacobinism had not
spread in the United States.”
23
This discussion is about orders within orders in Freemasonry, and about the illuminated
orders in particular. However, that does not necessarily mean that all Masons believe the same
thing. There is so much about secret societies that we do not know. But we do know about the
terrible corruption that permeated some aspects of Freemasonry from the time of the Illuminati.
We might expect a person who is a high order Mason to say, “Honestly, we don’t have any of this
stuff in our literature.” There may be some branches of Masonic Orders that are not corrupted,
but there are some, and maybe all of them that do have these beliefs. Some of our own close
relatives were Masons, and we don’t think they had any idea about these things. They didn’t go
high enough in the organization to discover the deeper truth. Like most people, they were in it
for the business networking and the idea of good works. Masons have a great image as
humanitarians.
Another aspect of this study is in answer to the question, “Why would the rich and
powerful people want to control the world?” You would think they would be happy to retire on
the French Riviera with their millions, and just enjoy the good life. But history teaches us that as
people become richer, they also become greedy for power. They want to control more and more.
Finally, some of these rich and powerful people reached the obvious conclusion that they would
like to control the world. Some of these people have conspired together to do just that. They have
planned how they or their descendants can literally control the whole world.
Taylor Caldwell’s Captains and the Kings was an artful novel about an immigrant who
made good here in the United States against terrible odds. The underlying theme of the book was
that the really powerful people in the United States were not the people in congress, but the ones
who ―bought‖ congressmen. They were the ones who held something over congressmen’s heads
so they could manipulate them. Truthfully, this is not so hard to believe today. There are some
notable exceptions. But, since it costs huge amounts of money to successfully run for congress, it
is obvious that the rich can have great influence on campaigns, and therefore, on the allegiance
of the politicians they have helped. Today there are laws about campaign practices, but there are
ways of getting around them. No one admits that they are “owned” by anyone, but if one of a
congressman’s big backers calls and asks him to vote a certain way, he will have to seriously
consider doing it.
Today you could not prove that any organization is the Illuminati, but the principles they
established are very much alive in the various organizations that we will consider.
The Scottish Rite of the Masonic Order
The Scottish Rite of the Masonic Order was established in 1801 in Charleston, South
Carolina. It later moved to Washington D.C. A Masonic publication, Facts of Scottish Rite, states
that all regular Supreme Councils have descended from it.
The Palladian Rite
The New and Reformed Palladian Rite was established in 1870 by Albert Pike, the leader
of Scottish Rite Freemasonry in the United States and Giuseppe Mazzini, an Italian revolutionary
leader and worldwide director of illuminized Freemasonry from 1834 to 1872. The purpose of
the Palladian Rite was to be behind the scenes and control all the other Masonic groups. Most
people don’t know much about this group. According to Gary Kah, Mazzini wrote to Pike that
this would be the supreme rite; that it would be somewhat unknown, but through it, the handpicked
high degree Masons who became a part of it would secretly govern all Freemasonry.24
On July 14, 1889, Pike instructed twenty-three Supreme Councils of the world to tell
people that Masons worship a God, but one who is adored without superstition. Further, they
were told to explain to Masons only of the 30th through 32nd degrees that the “Masonic religion”
should be kept in the “purity of the Luciferic doctrine.”25
Kah then goes on to say that the belief in Lucifer is not revealed until a higher level. He
quotes from A.C. De La Rive’s, La Femme et L’Enfant dans la Franc-Maconnerie Universelle,
who recorded Pike’s instructions on that date. Pike claimed that Lucifer was the good God of
Light, and Adonay (The God of the Christians) is a cruel and barbaric God of darkness and evil.
He believed in the dual god theory of Zoroaster, and the Gnostics and Templars after them.
According to this view these two gods are always fighting.26
How could more terrible words ever be penned by a person who supposedly knows the
message of the Bible?
Notice that they do not equate Satan with Lucifer. This is also true of the New Age
religion. Those who follow Lucifer usually think that he is actually the good god, and the whole
idea of Satan is just a myth and a heresy.
Kah also shows the connection between these beliefs and communism. Mazzini and Karl
Marx were closely associated. He says that the early Russian revolutionaries called themselves
Spartacusts, after Adam Weishaupt’s Illuminati pseudonym. They were later called Bolsheviks.
Still later they became known as Communists.27
