The “Enlightenment” is heralded by historians and secular philosophers as the dawn of the age of reason, the moment when humanity finally cast off the “shackles” of religious authority to embrace empirical science and individual liberty. It is presented as the great intellectual “Signal” that led the world out of the Dark Ages and into the light of modern progress. Yet, when we apply a forensic spiritual analysis to this era, we find that the “light” it offered was not the light of the Sun of Righteousness, but the artificial glow of human pride. It was a systematic attempt to replace the revelation of God with the rationalism of man. The Scripture warns of this very phenomenon, declaring that “man’s wisdom is foolishness with God” and that the “light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!” (Matthew 6:23).
The deception of the Enlightenment lies in its elevation of the human mind to the seat of ultimate judgment. It was during this period that the seeds of modern apostasy were sown, as the “Noise” of Deism and rationalism began to suggest that God, if He existed at all, was a distant architect who left man to govern himself by his own “enlightened” reason. Closely entwined with this movement was the rise of Freemasonry, a “secret” craft that acted as the quiet engine of the Enlightenment’s ideals. Freemasonry promoted a universal “Fatherhood of God and Brotherhood of Man” that bypasses the exclusive Lordship of Jesus Christ. It substituted the “Ancient Paths” of the Bible for the “Great Architect of the Universe,” a generic deity who demands no repentance and requires no Blood atonement. This craft-driven enlightenment is nothing more than a refined version of the original lie: “Ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:5).
As the Watchman observes the clock nearing the midnight hour, he recognizes that the “Enlightenment” was not an end, but a beginning—the start of the “Great Falling Away.” It provided the intellectual scaffolding for the “science falsely so called” and the social structures of modern rebellion. By removing the Bible from the center of public life and replacing it with the “rights of man,” the Enlightenment prepared the way for a world that worships the creature more than the Creator. The Remnant must understand that true enlightenment is not found in the secret lodges of the craft or the cold logic of the philosopher, but in the face of Jesus Christ. We do not need the “light” of human reason to guide us; we need the “Lamp unto our feet” (Psalm 119:105) that has never flickered and will never fail.