For those interested, the LDS Church has been very open/candid about the belief that Jesus and Lucifer are brothers.
“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. Jesus Christ was with the Father from the beginning. Lucifer, too, was an angel “who was in authority in the presence of God,” a “son of the morning.” (See Isa. 14:12; D&C 76:25–27.) Both Jesus and Lucifer were strong leaders with great knowledge and influence. But as the Firstborn of the Father, Jesus was Lucifer’s older brother. (See Col. 1:15; D&C 93:21.)”
FAIR also addresses the teaching of Jesus and Lucifer being brothers.
“In summary, the concept that Jesus and Lucifer were spirit brothers and children of the same Father is not nearly as shocking as it may at first seem when wielded by anti-Mormons as a club against the Church. In addition, such a belief certainly finds support biblically and historically.”
Kudos to both the church and FAIR for their candor. I also must go on the record to say that the attempt to use this doctrine as a scare tactic, to me, is quite lame.
Bill McKeever wrote a response to the issue here.
Also, while you linked to the older Ensign article, you didn’t link to the relevant Church News release. I’d hardly call that Newsroom release as forthright!
This is much better. I did not like the ‘spokeswoman’ dancing around the issue, earlier that was caught be the AP. It is a simple and pivotal doctrine of the pre-existence which can be supported by scriptures in the Bible.
I agree with you, John, that the “Jesus and Lucifer are brothers” line is quite lame. Generally, I find criticisms of one literalist religion by another group of literalists to be absurd. Essentially, Huckabee was trying to paint Romney as believing in weird doctrines. Huckabee himself apparently believes in a young earth and creationism, based on his literal interpretation of Genesis. For a man with one set of irrational, unscientific beliefs to criticize his opponent for holding strange beliefs is disingenuous at best and hypocritical at worst (or do I have that backwards? Is hypocrisy worse than insincerity?)
Love the Karl Keating quote (about short accusations requiring long explanations)cited by FAIR. I’ve noticed that this “hit and run” technique is frequently used by people seeking to bash the beliefs of their philosophical adversaries (whether their argument is religious in nature or not).
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A great lesson in how confident LDS can, and should be, in understanding and standing beside their doctrine.
I have been reading JOSEPH SMITH: A ROUGH ROLLING STONE by Richard Bushman for some time now and I can get the cultural problem of us, as Latter-day Saints, standing behind our faith with pride. In the 19th century we were chased off our land, ridiculed, and sometimes killed for our beliefs. At the end of the 19th century, we were considered criminals for our practices. As we become more public, we are currently struggling with the impulsive need to protect our beliefs from public ridicule. I read the article by Bill McKeever posted here by Aaron Shafovaloff and the public ridicule is still prominent in the 21st century. I feel, that these people will never stop persecuting our beliefs, so we shouldn’t worry about pleasing them. Instead, lets be proud to be Mormons and stand for what we believe in. The Muslims makes no apologies for not believing Jesus to be the messiah, so why should we make apologies for believing Jesus is our elder spirit Brother (even Satan’s)?