Just finished a quick segment with Todd Friel on Way of the Master. He had called yesterday when a Mitt Romney proponent had challenged him on his statement that Jesus and Lucifer are spirit brothers. So we did the “Todd Friel Express Interview”® thing, but I only got to read a single statement actually substantiating the doctrine, since I had to do some basic “Mormonism 101” stuff again to lay out the basic LDS doctrine of God. In any case, as the “spin machine” is at full throttle, and sadly, so few know almost anything about Mormonism, here are some quotes on the fact that Jesus and Lucifer are spirit brothers according to Mormonism:
Thus it is shown that prior to the placing of man upon the earth, how long before we do not know, Christ and Satan, together with the hosts of the spirit-children of God, existed as intelligent individuals, possessing power and opportunity to choose the course they would pursue and the leaders whom they would follow and obey (James Talmage, Jesus the Christ, p. 8)
The appointment of Jesus to be the Savior of the world was contested by one of the other sons of God. He was called Lucifer, son of the morning. Haughty, ambitious, and covetous of power and glory, this spirit-brother of Jesus desparately tried to become the Savior of mankind (Milton R. Hunter, The Gospel Through the Ages, p. 15—this book was “written and published under the direction of the General Priesthood Committee of the Council of the Twelve of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints”).
Compare these statements from LDS Apostle Bruce R. McConkie in his book, Mormon Doctrine:
The devil…is a spirit son of God who was born in the morning of pre-existence (p. 192)….Christ is the Firstborn, meaning that he was the first Spirit Child born to God the Father in pre-existence (p. 281)….Christ, the Firstborn, was the mightiest of all the spirit children of the Father (p. 590).
The June, 1986 edition of the Ensign Magazine, p. 25, the official publication of the LDS Church, had this question, “How can Jesus and Lucifer be spirit brothers when their characters and purposes are so utterly opposed?” The response provided included the following:
On first hearing, the doctrine that Lucifer and our Lord, Jesus Christ, are brothers may seem surprising to some—especially to those unacquainted with latter-day revelations. But both the scriptures and the prophets affirm that Jesus Christ and Lucifer are indeed offspring of our Heavenly Father and, therefore, spirit brothers….But as the Firstborn of the Father, Jesus was Lucifer’s older brother.
So anyone denying the reality that Jesus and Lucifer are spirit-brothers is, in the words of the LDS Church, ignorant of latter-day revelations. Or, they are spinning things and hoping they are talking to folks who don’t know any better and they can get away with it. That’s sadly a possibility. Of course, we should be quite clear in what our objection to this doctrine is, and what it means. Jesus and Lucifer are spirit-brothers in Mormonism because we are all spirit-brothers and sisters of them both. We are all spirit offspring of an exalted man from another planet, Elohim. The objection, then, is that this belief denies the unique and eternal deity of Christ, not that the character of Lucifer is somehow the issue at this point.
I will be continuing my series “Mormonism 101” as it is painfully clear that there is a tremendous need for it. And please realize that both Letters to a Mormon Elder and Is the Mormon My Brother? are coming back into print from Solid Ground! I hope to have links up to the pre-publication specials on those when I get back to Phoenix early next week.