| |
|
DO MORMONS
CONSIDER Satan
TO BE THE BROTHER OF JESUS?
- The Mormon teaching that
Jesus and Satan are brothers is based on
their concept of God being the Father of
all pre-existent spirits. Since Jesus is
the son of the Father and all other
spirits, including Satan, are sons and
daughters of the Father then all are
brothers and sisters! This idea has been
part of Mormon teaching from the time of
Joseph Smith and continues today. Few LDS
authorities have been bold enough to
plainly state this.
Please note what Mormon
prophets and church officials have had to
say about the matter. From their writings
it is clear that they believed and taught
that Jesus and Lucifer were brothers.
Bruce R. McConkie,
in his work The Mortal Messiah, Vol.1, Pg.407-408
under the heading " Lucifer and the
Law of Temptation" has the following
to say;
- "Hence, there
is -- and must be -- a devil, and
he is the father of lies and of
wickedness. He and the fallen
angels who followed him are
spirit children of the Father. As
Christ is the Firstborn of the
Father in the spirit, so Lucifer
is a son of the morning, one of
those born in the morning of
preexistence. He is a spirit man,
a personage, an entity,
comparable in form and appearance
to any of the spirit children of
the Eternal Father. He was the
source of opposition among the
spirit hosts before the world was
made; he rebelled in preexistence
against the Father and the Son,
and he sought even then to
destroy the agency of man. He and
his followers were cast down to
earth, and they are forever
denied mortal bodies. And he,
here on earth, along with all who
follow him -- both his spirit
followers and the mortals who
hearken to his enticements -- is
continuing the war that commenced
in heaven."
Joseph Fielding
Smith Jr.,the LDS prophet, wrote in his
work, Doctrines of Salvation, Vol.2, Pg.218
-Pg.219
- "We learn
from the scriptures that Lucifer
-- once a son of the morning, who
exercised authority in the
presence of God before the
foundations of this earth were
laid -- rebelled against the plan
of salvation and against Jesus
Christ who was chosen to be the
Savior of the world and who is
spoken of as the 'Lamb slain from
the foundation of the world.'"
In the Discourses of
Brigham Young, on Pg.53-54 he lets it be
known that Lucifer is the second son, the
one known as "Son of the Morning."
- "Who will
redeem the earth, who will go
forth and make the sacrifice for
the earth and all things it
contains?" The Eldest Son
said: "Here am I"; and
then he added, "Send me."
But the second one, which was
"Lucifer, Son of the Morning,"
said, "Lord, here am I, send
me, I will redeem every son and
daughter of Adam and Eve that
lives on the earth, or that ever
goes on the earth."
In the work of Otten
& Caldwell, Sacred Truths of the
Doctrine & Covenants, Vol.2, Pg.28 it
is found that Lucifer rebelled against
his "Heavenly Father."
- "We also
learn that Lucifer ... was in
authority..." in the
premortal life. (See D&C 76:25)
Authority in the presence of God
is known to us as priesthood. In
other words, Lucifer held the
priesthood. We know that Lucifer
rebelled against his Heavenly
Father. One of the great insights
given in this vision was the way
this rebellion was manifested."
Through reading John
A. Widtsoe's work Evidences and
Reconciliations, Pg.209, it is learned
that Lucifer strove to gain the
birthright of his Elder Brother, Jesus
the Christ and became Satan, the enemy of
God.
- "The story of
Lucifer is the most terrible
example of such apostasy. Lucifer,
son of the morning, through
diligent search for truth and the
use of it, had become one of the
foremost in the assembly of those
invited to undertake the
experiences of earth. But, in
that Great Council, his personal
ambition and love of power
overcame him. He pitted his own
plan and will against the
purposes of God. He strove to
gain the birthright of his Elder
Brother, Jesus the Christ. When
his proposition was rejected, he
forsook all that he had gained,
would not repent of his sin,
defied truth, and of necessity
lost his place among the
followers of God. He was no
longer Lucifer, bearer of truth,
who walked in light, but Satan,
teacher of untruth, who slunk in
darkness. He became the enemy of
God and of all who try to walk
according to the Lord's
commandments. One-third of the
spirits present in that vast
assembly supported Satan and
became enemies of the truth that
they had formerly cherished. With
him these rebellious spirits lost
their fellowship with the valiant
sons of God. What is more, they
lost the privilege of obtaining
bodies of flesh and blood,
without which they cannot gain
full power over the forces of the
universe. In the face of that
defeat, and that curse, they have
sought from Adam to the present
time to corrupt mankind and
defeat the Lord's purposes."
James E. Talmage in
his book, "Jesus the Christ,"
on Pages 132 & 133, discusses the
council that is supposed to have taken
place concerning "Free Agency"
and the attack on it by Lucifer. He
states that Christ may not have
remembered the part He had taken in the
great council of the "Gods"
where the Firstborn Son's plan was chosen
and Lucifer, the rebellious and rejected
son's plan was refused.
- "The
effrontery of his offer was of
itself diabolical. Christ, the
Creator of heaven and earth,
tabernacled as He then was in
mortal flesh, may not have
remembered His preexistent state,
nor the part He had taken in the
great council of the Gods; while
Satan, an unembodied spirit -- he
the disinherited, the rebellious
and rejected son -- seeking to
tempt the Being through whom the
world was created by promising
Him part of what was wholly His,
still may have had, as indeed he
may yet have, a remembrance of
those primeval scenes. In that
distant past, antedating the
creation of the earth, Satan,
then Lucifer, a son of the
morning, had been rejected; and
the Firstborn Son had been chosen.
Now that the Chosen One was
subject to the trials incident to
mortality, Satan thought to
thwart the divine purpose by
making the Son of God subject to
himself. He who had been
vanquished by Michael and his
hosts and cast down as a defeated
rebel, asked the embodied Jehovah
to worship him. "Then saith
Jesus unto him, Get thee hence,
Satan: for it is written, Thou
shalt worship the Lord thy God,
and him only shalt thou serve.
Then the devil leaveth him, and
behold, angels came and
ministered unto him."
Neal A. Maxwell, in
his book Deposition of a Disciple, on
Pages 11 & 12 informs those
interested that;
- "Lucifer knew
about this plan, and his very
pleading was real rebellion. The
scriptures tell us plainly that
he sought a throne above the
stars and God. (2 Nephi 24:13.)
Therefore, he was from the
beginning a serious rebel.
President George Q. Cannon said,
"He was our brother, sitting
side by side with our Redeemer,
having equal opportunities with
him. But he rebelled. He turned
against the Father because he
could not have his own way."
This council was no abstract
exercise. It reflected a deep,
deep difference. Lucifer, by what
he did, told us much more about
himself than about his so-called
offer. Clearly, he was already
becoming an outsider, using (and
trying to profit from) an insider's
information."
Sterling W. Sill,
writing for the Improvement Era, December
1970, Pg.79 states that the Son of God is
Jehovah the warrior
.
- "We have
national holidays to commemorate
the birthdays of George
Washington, the father of his
country, and Abraham Lincoln, who
saved it from dissolution. Both
were our commanders-in-chief
during important wars. Some of
our more recent war heroes were
John J. Pershing, Douglas
MacArthur, Dwight D. Eisenhower,
and our present great commander-in-chief,
Richard M. Nixon. We should also
keep in mind that the greatest of
all military men was the Son of
God himself. In the war in heaven,
he led the forces of
righteousness against the
rebellion of Lucifer. We can also
draw great significance from the
fact that before the Savior of
the world was the Prince of Peace,
he was Jehovah the warrior."
Joseph Fielding
Smith's Gospel Doctrine, on Page 371
states that;
"The devil knows
the Father much better than we. Lucifer,
the son of the morning, knows Jesus
Christ, the Son of God, much better than
we; but in him it is not and will not
redound to eternal life; for knowing, he
yet rebels; knowing, he is yet
disobedient; he will not receive the
truth; he will not abide in the truth;
hence he is perdition, and there is no
salvation for him."
Bruce R. McConkie,
in his definitive work, Mormon Doctrine,
on page 744, says;
- "This name-title
of Satan (Son of the Morning),
indicates he was one of the early
born spirit children of the
Father. Always used in
association with the name Lucifer,
son of the morning also
apparently signifies son of light
or son of prominence, meaning
that Satan held a position of
power and authority in pre-existence.
(D. & C. 76:25-27; Isa. 14:12-20.)"
To plainly state
that Jesus (Jehovah) and Lucifer (Satan)
are brothers the writings of Spencer W.
Kimball, the LDS prophet, must be
considered;
Spencer W. Kimball,
Conference Report, April 1964, Pg.95
- "There is
another power in this world
forceful and vicious. In the
wilderness of Judaea, on the
temple's pinnacles and on the
high mountain, a momentous
contest took place between two
brothers, Jehovah and Lucifer,
sons of Elohim."
Spencer W. Kimball,
Faith Precedes the Miracle, Pg.87
- "There is
another power in this world,
forceful and vicious. In the
wilderness of Judea, on the
temple's pinnacle and on the high
mountain, a momentous contest
took place between two brothers,
Jehovah and Lucifer, sons of
Elohim. When physically weak from
fasting, Christ was tempted by
Lucifer: "If thou be the Son
of God, command this stone that
it be made bread." (Luke 4:3.)
"Similarly Satan had
contended for the subservience of
Moses. Satan, also a son of God,
had rebelled and had been cast
out of heaven and not permitted
an earthly body as had his
brother Jehovah. Much depended
upon the outcome of this
spectacular duel. Could Lucifer
control and dominate this prophet
Moses, who had learned so much
directly from his Lord?"
Spencer W. Kimball,
The Miracle of Forgiveness, Pg.216, The
Savior's Example
- "The
importance of not accommodating
temptation in the least degree is
underlined by the Savior's
example. Did not he recognize the
danger when he was on the
mountain with his fallen brother,
Lucifer, being sorely tempted by
that master tempter? He could
have opened the door and flirted
with danger by Bruce R.
McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, Pg.67,
AUTHOR OF SALVATION
"Thus when the
Father presented his own plan in the pre-existent
council, he asked for volunteers from
whom he could choose a Redeemer to be
born into mortality as the Son of God.
Lucifer offered to become the Son of God
on condition that the terms of the Father's
plan were modified to deny men their
agency and to heap inordinate reward upon
the one working out the redemption.
Christ, on the other hand, accepted the
Father's plan in full, saying, "Father,
thy will be done, and the glory be thine
forever." Our Lord was then
foreordained to a mission which in due
course he fulfilled, which mission
enabled him to make salvation available
to all men. (Moses 4:1-4; Abra. 3:22-28.)"
The Teachings of Spencer W.
Kimball, Pg.33
- "But thank God that
there were enough sane and sagacious
souls on the side of truth and wisdom and
the rebellious souls were vanquished as
to the eternal and ultimate program. The
principal personalities in this great
drama were a Father Elohim, perfect in
wisdom, judgment, and person, and two
sons, Lucifer and Jehovah. (12/19/59)"
- "Satan tempted both
Christ and Moses. There is another power
in this world forceful and vicious. In
the wilderness of Judaea, on the temple's
pinnacles and on the high mountain, a
momentous contest took place between two
brothers, Jehovah and Lucifer, sons of
Elohim. When physically weak from fasting,
Christ was tempted by Lucifer: "If
thou be the Son of God, command this
stone that it be made bread." (Luke
4:3.)"
The Teachings of Spencer W.
Kimball, Pg.163
- "The importance of
not accommodating temptation in the least
degree is underlined by the Savior's
example. Did not he recognize the danger
when he was on the mountain with his
fallen brother, Lucifer, being sorely
tempted by that master tempter? He could
have opened the door and flirted with
danger by saying, "All right, Satan,
I'll listen to your proposition. I need
not succumb, I need not yield, I need not
accept -- but I'll listen."
Now let us look at what the
Bible, God's Word has to say on the matter:
John 1:14, " And
the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and
we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only
begotten of the Father,) full of grace and
truth."
John 1:18, "No man
hath seen God at any time; the only begotten
Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he
hath declared him."
John 3:16, "For God
so loved the world, that he gave his only
begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him
should not perish, but have everlasting life."
John 3:18, " He
that believeth on him is not condemned: but he
that believeth not is condemned already, because
he hath not believed in the name of the only
begotten Son of God."
Hebrews 11:17, "By
faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up
Isaac: and he that had received the promises
offered up his only begotten son,"
1John 4:9, "In this
was manifested the love of God toward us, because
that God sent his only begotten Son into the
world, that we might live through him."
¶ Beloved, believe not
every spirit, but try the spirits whether they
are of God: because many false prophets are gone
out into the world." (1 John 4:1)
"But these are written,
that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ,
the Son of God; and that believing ye might have
life through his name." (John 20:31)
This material was prepared
by:
Harley Johnson,
7161 S. 2180 W.,
West Jordan, Utah 84084
(801) 561-4908
Aug 18, 1994
(Minor editing
by Cooper Abrams)
|