For many people recalling their school days seldom includes fond memories of the history class. Boring lists of dates and names, who, when and where but rarely ever why; it was all seemingly disjointed and almost contrived to be instantly forgettable. The two-hundredth anniversary of the founding of America was celebrated in 1976 and the same anniversary is being celebrated by the people of the French Republic in 1989. There, is of course, an historical connection which may not be too clear in many minds but even less clear is why each celebration has been attended by some harsh criticism. A glimpse behind the scenes of textbook history, however, reveals a hidden agenda and exposure of this not only enables many historical episodes to fall into place but provides a very clear picture of where present-day world events are taking us. We begin early in sixteenth century Europe where the invention of the printing press had made both Bibles and the works of the Greek philosophers available to many would-be scholars. The Background Ever since the fourth century when the Roman emperor Constantine I made Christianity the official religion, the Latin Church had gained increasing power and by the sixteenth century the Western world was virtually ruled by the priest. The Latin clergy in Europe, and the Pope in particular, had tremendous power. But power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely with the result that although Christian principles were generally the basis for law, they were enforced more by the letter than by the spirit. The old Latin Church had governed by providing the people with all the schools, universities and hospitals and ensured that everyone received Christian instruction; most knew Scriptural principles and many, though poor, tried to live by them. The ruling classes, however, received a more extensive private education, often paid mere lip service to Christian principles and believed it was their God-given right to keep the poor in submission. The feudal working classes were thus submitted to both priest and landowner who was in turn submitted to the King. But then we find the shadowy figure of the priest standing behind every throne! The corruption in the Latin Church eventually became so extreme that a revolt was finally triggered against the papal system in Germany led by Martin Luther; the date was 1517. England rejected the Latin pope about a decade later only to make King Henry VIII pope of the Church of England. These were the beginnings of the Protestant Church. The Latin Church continued and, after the Council of Trent (1545-1563), became the Roman Church we know today. The Protestant Church dominated Britain, Holland and parts of Germany and, at first, tried to adhere to Biblical principles but power corrupts... Protestants generally regarded the Roman Church as the root of all evil although in England by the Seventeenth century, the Protestant Church itself was as full of hypocrisy as the Roman Church was of superstition; both were filled with corruption and each went to war against the other. Certain free-thinking men in England and in Europe perceived that it was not just the Roman Church but Christianity itself which was responsible for all the wars, corruption and inequality which had besieged Europe for the past several hundred years. These men, who became the founders of the "Enlightenment", wanted a total change. But it was dangerous to speak openly against the Church and the King and organized discussion had to be in secret. It happened that there were a number of secret societies already in existence including the Rosicrucians and the Freemasons. The latter were the builders of the great cathedrals and other major buildings across Europe and England; they were a kind of early trade union. In most parts of Continental Europe their numbers dwindled after the Reformation and the Wars of Religion but in England they were still very active. Then, in the late seventeenth century, they took on a very different character. The free-thinkers, who were for the most part Protestant, educated and influential, joined the Freemasons and, since most of these gentlemen would not have known a square from a compass, they were enrolled as "Speculative Masons" to distinguish them from the original "Craft Masons". The distinction was of little consequence to the gentlemen of the Enlightenment who had cuckooed their way into the secret society and could now make their plans and network their intentions across Europe with little fear. The dissatisfaction with Church and King had produced four literary works on the Utopia theme: Thomas More began the trend with his Utopia in 1516, Sir Francis Bacon followed with his New Atlantis published posthumously in 1627; in Italy, Tommaso Campanella produced his City of the Sun about 1634 and later, in France, Jean Jacques Rousseau published his Social Contract in 1762. The authors of these works were well aware that the Greek philosopher, Plato, writing in the 5th century BC, had also been dissatisfied with corruption in the various systems of government. He had proposed a Republic in which a team of "wise men" ruled the people. Plato's Republic then became an ideal for the humanist free-thinkers in England and Europe; the objective adopted by the speculative Masons was to replace the existing order of rule by Church and King with a Republic. They realized that in order to bring this form of government into existence, they had to continue to work secretly and internationally with the aim of first destroying the existing order. The long-term aim was world peace through the elimination of wars between nations. But, this would only be possible by dissolving all national sovereignty and introducing a new world order un der one Republican World government. The Masonic organization became world-wide from India to the Americas under the old British Empire and, as we shall see, has been dedicated to these lofty aims ever since. Who are the Masons? Although the history of Masonry has been deliberately obscured, much work has been done in recent years by non- Masonic historians to restore a reasonable measure of truth. However, far worse than distorted Masonic history is the fact that Masonic involvement in the affairs of nations has been completely erased from the textbook. Thus, textbook history has been left as a series of disjointed episodes without an agenda. Proof of this is the fact that the early accounts of such leading historical characters as Benjamin Franklin or Giuseppe Garibaldi make it very clear that Freemasonry played a central part in their lives. However, by the time history was written up in formal and scholarly tomes by the fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge, there is not one hint that anyone was ever a Mason! Cambridge historians George Trevelyan and his son, Sir George, were in all likelihood fellow Masons and their censorship has, in a sense, been too complete; the absence of any reference to Masonry is quite noticeable. Masonic historical works are available in public libraries and they like to claim many eminent names as their own; this is a starting point but caution is necessary because some, like Voltaire, entered the brotherhood virtually on their deathbed. Nevertheless, the point of persuading eminent men to join, even though they may not be active, is that their names can legitimately be used later to influence others. Rousseau, Goethe, Mozart and Kipling to name a few, were all Masons. In this way, many kings and presidents have become Masons. In England, for example, we find Kings Charles I and II, William III, George IV, William IV, Edward VII, George V and George VI were all Masons and several were masters of the Grand Lodge. We will also find an impressive list of Church of England Bishops among them (Calvert 1917). Then, in America, we will find that most signers of the Declaration of Independence, including Franklin and Hancock, were Masons together with practically every president since George Washington; president Reagan was elected into the Scottish rite just before he left office and president Bush has been a senior Mason for a many years. Some of these men will have been aware of the ultimate aims of the brotherhood, others will have been duped in by association with the great names in history and remain blissfully unaware of the real objectives; president Reagan was probably one of the latter. The roots of Masonry are closely allied with Sir Francis Bacon (1561- 1626) and Sir Elias Ashmole (1617-1692) in England. Both were associated with the Rosicrucians and the Freemasons (Gould 1904, 243 and Webster 1924, 120). Ashmole was the founder of the Asmolean Museum at Oxford and Bacon has been credited with today's "scientific method". Perhaps of greater interest is Bacon's New Atlantis which describes the land of Bensalem in which there is a co-operative college of science called Solomon's house. The house is essentially a religious community in which the men must all take an oath of secrecy; there are 33 orders of tasks. The similarity between this and modern Masonry with its emphasis on Solomon's temple and 33 degrees is surely more than coincidental. But wait, careful reading of New Atlantis shows that there were three more orders making a total of 36 and these last three are called "Interpreters of Nature". Theirs is the most important and secret task since all the others report to them. Is it possible that there are three higher orders in Masonry who oversee the grand plan? From the number of Shriners in North America, each of whom is a 32nd or 33rd Mason, it is amazing that not one, as far as is known, has ever broken down and confessed all. The most likely explanation is that most of the Shriners have no idea of the grand plan. The effort to convince the public (but not the Inland Revenue Service) and their own members that the Masonic objectives are charitable works has evidently been highly successful. Many of the Rosicrucian and Masonic groups were fused in 1717, the year of the inauguration of the Grand Lodge, and their ritual standardized and canonized at this time. John Toland is said to have been responsible for introducing the legend, ritual and theology of speculative Masonry which he took from the Hermetic and ancient Egyptian religions. Masonry itself is a religion while their own publications admit this; they meet in a "temple", worship the "Grand Architect", use the King James Bible but are very careful not to mention the name of Jesus. The name is omitted from 1 Peter 2:3-5 which is their opening prayer. This alone should indicate that their religion is anti-Christian by nature. Bernal (1987, 173) has shown more recently that although the Masonic objective was to create a band of illuminati who would lead the world to a better, more peaceful and more tolerant way of life, many millenarians within their ranks believed that knowledge had to be reassembled before the coming thousand-year reign. It was this thinking added to the thought that "wise men" needed to be trained in readiness for the first Republic, that resulted in the establishment of the Royal Society in 1662. Founded by King Charles II, a Mason, the first president was Sir Isaac Newton who was a Deist and most probably a Mason. The original craft Masons always had a strong attachment to Egypt. The route is perhaps tenuous but in the recognition that the ancient Egyptians were indeed masters of building in stone, amythology was built up in which the Masons saw themselves in theimage of Hiram, the half-Phoenician craftsman builder of Solomon's temple. The Phoenicians were firmly linked to the Egyptians in the Bible--both are listed as sons of Ham-- and Hiram Abif is at the core of Masonic mythology. The name Hiram Abif appears only in the Coverdale translation of the Bible published about 1540 and becomes simply "Hiram King of Tyre" in the King James version (1 Kings 5:1). Every Masonic temple is patterned after the Egyptian temples, aligned East to West with the main entrance at the East end and the altar at the West end so that at the vernal equinox the rising sun will cast a shaft of light through the entrance to the altar. This is a vestige of pagan sun worship. The Egyptian obelisk has been adopted as a symbol of Masonic victory over traditional Christianity and, once recognized, serves as a very useful guide. In Egypt, the obelisk was a phallic symbol of the resurrection through procreation, that is, the phallus was the means by which man lived again through his off-spring. Thus, as a symbol of the resurrection the obelisk has been used as a grave marker by the Masons, particularly those in the senior ranks, since the sixteenth century. It seems that the bodies of most of the English humanist thinkers gravitated to Westminster Abbey in London and the place fairly bristles with obelisk tomb markers. A few cemetery obelisks will contain a Masonic square and compass to leave no doubt as to the connection but it will be found that the personal graves of many an influential man is topped by an obelisk: the grave of George Washington and of Sir John A. MacDonald, first prime minister of Canada, are classic examples. The craft Masons also tend to use the broken column as their marker but very seldom will the empty cross be found marking a Masonic grave. As far as their use as victory markers, an obelisk was erected to mark the battle of the River Boyne in Northern Ireland where Protestant William of Orange defeated Catholic King James II in 1690. There is no evidence that William II was a Mason but the obelisk was erected in the following century to celebrate the victory of Protestantism over Catholicism. The Masonic organization has always opposed the Roman Church while the Roman Pontiffs have known this and have forbidden their people to join the Masonic Order. In recent years, however, Masons have infiltrated the Vatican and there now seems to be some sort of unholy alliance. The largest stone obelisk in the United States is the 550 ft. tall Washington Monument purportedly to commemorate George Washington's birth place. There was a great scandal when it was erected because it was done so at public expense and the people of the time knew its real purpose was to commemorate Masonic victory over King George III and even victory over Christianity itself in 1776. The monument was completed in 1884. Various other victories, real and perceived, will be found to be marked by obelisks such as that at Bunker Hill in Charleston. The French Revolution was even more successful than the American and they had to have an even larger obelisk to celebrate their victory. There is a genuine obelisk stolen from Egypt to mark the victory of the Bastille in Paris and then there is the daddy of them all, the Eiffel Tower, just twice as tall as the Washington Monument and completed in time for the centenary celebrations in 1889. These victory markers will be found world-wide and enquiry will usually show that the loser in the battle will have been some sort of Christianity while the victory will have been asignificant step towards the establishment of a Republic. For example, on a hill in Sicily there is an obelisk to commemorate the Masonic victory at Gibilrossa under Garibaldi (A Grand Orient Mason) in 1860 which led to today's Italian Republic. Masonic Objectives Achieved The plans had been made, the location was sufficiently remote from Old World authority and a mildly oppressive opportunity presented itself to justify the beginning of arevolution. The place was Philadelphia and the date was 1776. Benjamin Franklin, journalist and publisher, was also shuttle diplomat between like-minded revolutionaries in England and in Paris. Franklin had persuaded Englishman and fellow-Mason, Thomas Paine, to return to Philadelphia to help liberate America by inciting the common man to revolt against King George III. Paine produced his Common Sense and, after a successful revolution, this booklet was used a few months later to form the basis for the now famous Declaration of Independence. Of the fifty-six signatures, eight of the signatories are known to have been Masons while twenty-four others are also claimed by the Masons to be of their own (Knight 1983, 34). America was no longer a British colony but a Masonic Republic: Plato would have been delighted. The problem with Plato's Republic however, is that the "wise men" form a one-party government in which there are no checks and balances. Many people in America at this time knew that this was simply inviting trouble and insisted on an opposition party. A right-wing Democratic party was formed, however, since that time, both parties have slipped progressively further to the left and today the Democratic party has overtaken the Republican in its quest for the left. It was mentioned earlier that the craft Masons looked to the early Egyptians as masters of their craft but at the same time the speculative Masons saw in early Egyptian government an ideal closely approaching that of Plato's republic. The Egyptian pyramid epitomized both ideals: extreme skill and a hierarchy of power. In choosing the Great (Cheops) pyramid for the reverse side of the Great Seal of America. Would it be idle speculation to suggest that the missing capstone of this pyramid representsthe elite, the three final and secret degrees, seeing but not being seen? The Great Seal of the United States was designed in 1789 and it was American President and 32-degree Mason, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who commissioned the Great Seal to be placed on the back of the one dollar bill in 1935. The reverse side of the Seal shows the Great pyramid with the capstone replaced by the all-seeing eye and the Latin caption which proclaims: "1776: In this year began the New World Order". The French Revolution was a contrived affair from the beginning with many of the same prime movers as in the American Revolution thirteen years earlier. The difference was that by 1789 every Protestant had been driven from France and the Roman Church was fully in control whereas America had become the home to many of the persecuted Protestants. A food shortage was engineered in Paris and the people incited to revolt against authority. The focal point was a great prison house, the Bastille, which was said to contain many hundreds of their compatriots. On July 14th, 1789 the mob stormed the Bastille only to find it occupied by seven dirty old men; one of them was the Marquis De Sade who well deserved to be there! A hollow victory but one which has been celebrated by Frenchmen now for 200 years. The story of the French Revolution ha s been told many times and has been vilified and glorified according to every writer's viewpoint. For those who find comfort in the thought of living in a Socialist Republic, the French Revolution was the most wonderful thing that could have happened. Liberty, equality and just fraternity were promised but what did the promises really mean? Liberty from God, equality for all except the ruling elite and fraternity such as may be found in a thieve's kitchen! We might also recall that the Russian people have lived under a Socialist Republic ever since their revolution in 1918. Royalty was beheaded and the church defrocked and drummedout. Priests had the choice: publicly renounce their faith or accept the guillotine. Churches were closed, bibles publicly burned and within three short years the country had moved from Catholicism to atheism to paganism. Pantheism and Nature worship had replaced whatever vestige of Christianity there was in France in a matter of months. With a zeal to completely change th eentire order of things, the Metric system was introduced in 1793 and attempts were also made at this time to metricate time itself with a ten-day week. Fortunately, the long-suffering Frenchman refused this but the idealists have been trying to introduce the ten-day week with every revolution since; it has never been successful. The first French Republic was a failure and so was the second; eventually, the 'wise-men' turned out to have feet of clay and Napoleon Bonaparte was invited to rule over the brave new Republic. He was not even a Frenchman and was generally regarded by the Christian world as the Antichrist himself. Napoleon was a diabolically clever megalomaniac and Mason who knew just what he was about. He led thousands of the best of the nation 's young men to their death in a futile attempt to bring the World under one Republican rule. Lord Acton in his Essays on the French Revolution wrote: "The appalling thing in the French Revolution is not the tumult but the design. Through all the fire and the smoke we perceive the evidence of calculating organization. The managers remain studiously concealed and masked; but there is no doubt about their presence from the first" (Webster 1969, ix). The managers are still there, still manipulating with one steadfast purpose: to destroy the existing order and install in its place a one World Republic. If we have any doubts about the identity of the managers we have only to look to the statue of Liberty in New York harbour. Presented in 1884 as a gift from the Masons of France to the Masons of America in celebration of the centenary of the first Masonic Republic and liberty from the laws of God. At the great bicentenary celebrations in Paris on July 14th 1989, it was no coincidence that the G7 Conference was held there at the same time. Today's managers were there: M.JacquesDelors, the President of the ECC, Helmut Kohl, President Bush and the others, many known to be Masons, lined up for the publicity photograph. A typical Masonic touch was the backdrop to the picture: a large pyramid especially erected for the occasion. 1992 will see the dissolution of European and British national sovereignty and the making of one monolithic European Republic. Government will no doubt still have the appearance of being democratic with opposition parties but, in fact, there will be only token opposition because every party, no matter what the name, will be as it is today, stacked with like-minded individuals and with one Masonic objective. Welcome to Plato's Brave New World. REFERENCES Bernal, Martin. 1987. Black Athena .Volume 1. London: Free Association Books. Calvert, Albert. 1917. The Grand Lodge of England:1717-1917. London: Herbert Jenkins Ltd. Gould, Robert F. 1904. A Concise History of Freemasonry. London: Gale and Polden. Knight, Stephen. 1983. The Brotherhood . London: Grenada Publications. Webster, Nesta. [1919] 1969. The French Revolution . Reprint. Hawthorne, CA.: Christian Book Club of America. Confirmatory evidences are invited, please send them to: TFE Publishing P.O. Box 5015, Station F Toronto, Ontario CANADA M4Y 2T1 Copyright TFE Publishing 1989