COMMUNITY COMMENTARY:

A recent question by presidential candidate Mike Huckabee (“Don’t Mormons believe that Jesus and the devil are brothers?”) brought up an oft-raised objection to “Mormon” theology.

On several occasions I have heard people comment to a radio talk-show host: “How can anyone vote for someone who believes that Satan is a brother of Jesus?” This tends to elicit the reaction that this concept is either heresy or “weird.”

Latter-day Saints believe all of us have a common Heavenly Father (I John 3:2). This includes Jesus, the Son of God, called the “firstborn” (Rom. 8:20) and the “only begotten” (John 1:18), as well as Lucifer, known as the “son of the morning” (Isaiah 14:12).

Heavenly Father knew us before we were born to our earthly parents. In Jeremiah 1:5, the Lord said: “Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.”

God asked Job where he was when the foundations of the earth were laid “ When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy.”

Job further states, “Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them” (Job 1: 6-12 and 2:1). Paul says that we were “chosen in him before the foundation of the world” (Eph. 1:4).

We learn from the scriptures state there was a great war in heaven (Rev. 12: 7-11) and that 1/3 of the hosts of heaven who followed Lucifer were cast out with him.

Lucifer was one of the sons of God (Job 2:1) whose name means “light-giver” or “shining one.” He was one of the “morning stars,” but eventually rejected his Father’s plan and led the ignominious rebellion that resulted in his expulsion.

The idea that Jesus and Lucifer (now a fallen angel) were once both important sons of God is not really new. Roman Catholic writer Giovanni Papini quotes Lactantius, a third-century Latin Christian Father, from his apologetic work, Divinac Institutines 11.9: “Before creating the world, God produced a spirit like himself, replete with virtues of the Father. Later He made another, in whom the mark of divine was erased, because this one was besmirched by the poison of jealousy and turned therefore from good to evil. He was jealous of his older brother who, remaining united with the Father, insured his affection unto himself.”

Papini concludes that, “According to Lactantius, Lucifer would have been nothing less than the brother of the logos, of the word, i.e., of the second person of the trinity” (Giovanni Papini, The Devil, p. 81).

This writer believes that the problem, in the eyes of many, is that Latter-day Saints are somehow depreciating the role and stature of the Savior. While both were significant in our pre-earthly estate, Satan (Lucifer) is the complete antithesis of Jesus Christ!

Further, this belief in no way causes me to appreciate less the sacrifice that the Savior has performed on my behalf, nor diminishes my recognition of my sinful nature and need for the Savior’s love and shed blood to allow me to be cleansed and able to enter back into my Heavenly Father’s presence.

This short commentary will not change the thinking of those who have already concluded that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints teaches blasphemy, but I hope that some will open their minds to understand why we so believe and feel that it is not outside a Biblical understanding.

THOMAS L. THORKELSON is the director of Interfaith Relations of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ Orange County Council.