Topic: The Identity of God
Question: Is belief in the Great Architect of the Universe (GAOTU) the same thing as belief in the God of the Bible?
Answer: The term Great Architect of the Universe (or Grand Architect of the Universe) is used by a number of groups but figures prominently in Masonic teaching. Belief in the GAOTU is foundational in Freemasonry. But the Great Architect of the Universe is not the God of the Bible, and faith in one does not equate to faith in the other.There is a sense in which God can be considered the “Architect of the Universe,” as He is the Creator (Genesis 1:1). The fact that the world is the result of an Intelligent Designer should be a common starting point for all people (see Romans 1:18, 21). And God is certainly great, so we could honestly call Him the Great Architect of the Universe—but the term carries much Masonic baggage. Many non-Christian groups acknowledge a Creator—Jews, Muslims, Deists, and many Native American tribes—but the gods those groups worship are different from the God of the Bible. Freemasonry speaks of the Great Architect of the Universe, but it does not affirm the truth of who God is, according to the Bible.Freemasons use the term Great Architect of the Universe precisely because it is ambiguous. GAOTU is meant to be a neutral term. From a Masonic publication: “FREEMASONRY offers no doctrine as to the nature and attributes of God. It has no theory to propound, no philosophy to promulgate, as to His relations to men and to the universe. The Craft assumes that God is a reality, a sacred and unquestioned reality, in the mind of every man, . . . and it leaves to that man the prerogative of fashioning his own theological and philosophical theories. A man may believe in the Trinity or deny the same; he may believe in the deity of Jesus or not; he may hold that God created the universe out of nothing or he may prefer to think that the universe is co-existent with God. . . . Masonry does not demand that we define, or accept any definitions of Him, but it does demand that He be real” (The Builder, June 1921, Volume VII, Number 6, Joseph Newton, ed.). The Great Architect of the Universe may or may not be triune; He may or may not be incarnate in Jesus Christ; He may or may not be equal to the universe; and He leaves it up to each person to decide what is “true” about Him. This is not the God of the Bible, by any stretch of the imagination. The True God is known only through Jesus Christ (John 14:6, 9), so faith in Christ is not optional. The True God exists as a three-in-one Tri-unity and has clearly communicated what He wants us to know of Him through special revelation (Hebrews 1:1–3). A person’s concept of God may or may not accord with the truth; we can only know the truth as we submit to the sanctifying work of the Bible (John 17:17; Psalm 19:7).Maintaining a belief in the Great Architect of the Universe is essentially no more than an acknowledgment that a god of some type exists. But that falls far short of a fully biblical faith. In fact, the belief that a creator god exists is on par with the “faith” of demons: “You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder” (James 2:19).While visiting Athens, Paul found an altar to an Unknown God. Paul used that monument as a springboard for the gospel, stating that the Athenians needed to know more about that God and that he would tell them what they needed to know. Paul started with creation (Acts 17:24) and ended with the Jesus Christ, the resurrection, and final judgment (verse 31). In many ways, Freemasonry acknowledges the same type of “Unknown God,” a neutral deity whom they call the Great Architect of the Universe. But the GAOTU will remain unknown, and unknowable, until human philosophy is abandoned and the revelation of God is embraced. “Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him” (John 5:23).If a person is witnessing to someone steeped in Masonic teaching, he or she might use the term Grand Architect of the Universe as a point of contact to share more biblical truth, just as missionaries often use the local terms and ideas about God as starting points for sharing fuller biblical truth. (Missionary Don Richardson has written a book called Eternity in Their Hearts about the value of this approach.) The God of the Bible is certainly the “Architect” of all created things, but, as Jesus showed us, He is so much more.