The degrees from the Fifteenth to the Eighteenth are Historical and Religious. They embody the period in which they were written, and apply in equal force today.
They teach WAR AGAINST IGNORANCE, INTOLERANCE AND ERROR, THAT EVERY NOBLE HEART IS GOD'S TEMPLE, and WE SHOULD LABOR TO ESTABLISH THE REIGN OF LOVE AND PEACE, THUS BUILDING A LASTING TEMPLE OF GOD.
John the Baptist taught a creed belonging to the sect of the Essenes and very similar to Christianity. They believed that TRUTH was scattered in different sects. Light was the symbol of Good; Darkness was Evil. The Cross has been a sacred emblem of earliest antiquity; the Rose a symbol of dawn. Together the Rose and the Cross represent the dawn of Eternal Life.
