SOUNDING OFF:

It is very disappointing that Thomas L. Thorkelson, director of Interfaith Relations of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has chosen to misrepresent Roman Catholic doctrine in his attempt to explain his Church’s theology. (“Huckabee question complicates perception of our church,” Community Commentary, Jan. 4.)

Thorkelson writes in response to presidential candidate Mike Huckabee’s question, “Don’t Mormons believe that Jesus and the devil are brothers?”

I find Huckabee’s remark, as well as his identifying himself as a “Christian leader,” completely inappropriate coming from a candidate for the president of the United States. We’re not voting for a pastor here.

But more to the point, Thorkelson references a number of scripture readings in what appears to be a defense of the belief that Christ and Satan are brothers by virtue of both being sons of God.

He goes on to say, “The idea that Jesus and Lucifer (now a fallen angel) were once both important sons of God is not really new.” To support that notion he quotes Lactantius, a pagan convert to Catholicism.

Lactantius is not known for his knowledge of scripture but for his eloquence in Latin. “New Advent,” a Roman Catholic website, has this to say about Lactantius: “The beauty of the style, the choice and the aptness of the terminology, cannot hide the author’s lack of grasp on Christian principles and his almost utter ignorance of Scripture.” Wikipedia goes so far as to say that he was considered “somewhat heretical after his death.”

But more important than Lactantius’ writing is the indisputable fact that the Catholic Church has never considered Satan a brother of Jesus.

Satan, an angel created good by the triune God but now fallen, as such is like us a creature by definition. Jesus is his creator, not his brother. That is a doctrine of the faith that must be believed by all Catholics.

Jesus, by contrast, is not a creature nor is He an angel, nor has He ever been an angel. That Jesus, the second person of the Holy Trinity, is true God and true man, eternal, has no creator, and no need of one is the commonly held belief of every mainstream Christian denomination.

The catechism of the Catholic Church states that, “In the Old Testament, ‘son of God’ is the title given to the angels, the Chosen People, the children of Israel, and their Kings.

It signifies an adoptive sonship that establishes a relationship of particular intimacy between God and His creature.” In support of this it cites Scripture verses including: Deuteronomy 14:1; Job 1:6; Exodus 4:22; Jeremiah 3:19; 2 Samuel 7:14.

The Nicene Creed (325 AD and 381 AD) professed every Sunday at every Catholic Mass regarding Jesus reads, “We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, True God from True God, begotten not made, One in Being with the Father, through Him all things were made.”

Jesus said that He and the Father are one. Jesus the devil’s brother? Impossible!

Thorkelson ends his commentary with the hope that, “some will open their minds to understand why we so believe and feel that it is not outside a Biblical understanding.”

I am sorry to disappoint him. I do not understand why the members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints believe as they do regarding Jesus Christ because I believe it is not biblical, but the result of a profound misunderstanding of Sacred Scripture.

Mr. Thorkelson, though I don’t subscribe to them, I respect your deeply held beliefs, but please do not attribute them to Catholics.

ILA JOHNSON lives in Costa Mesa.