Doctrinal Criticisms

(c) Copyright Michael R. Ash 1996. All rights reserved

JESUS

Brother to Lucifer

“The Mormon Jesus... is a spirit-brother of Satan....” (McElveen, 86). This is one of the most common charges against the LDS Church, and one of the reasons why anti-Mormons reject the LDS claim that Mormonism is Christian. Such critics reason that since Mormons believe that Jesus and Lucifer are spirit brothers, that the Mormon Jesus is a “different Jesus” from the Christian Jesus. Such an accusation begs the question, however. Is it unChristian to suggest that Jesus and Lucifer are spirit brothers? To Mormons, all mankind and spiritual offspring of God are spirit brothers and sisters. Mormons believe that in the premortal existence Jesus was the eldest and greatest of all God’s children. Christ was “firstborn among many brethren” (Romans 8:29). Lucifer, Adam, Abraham, etc., are also God’s children. During the war in Heavan Satan and one third of our premortal brothers and sisters were cast out (see Abraham 3:22-28). Job 1:6 tells us that Satan is a “son” of God. Elsewhere, this same author speaks of the “sons of God” as “morning stars” (Job 38:7). Isaiah refers to Lucifer as a “son of the morning” (Isaiah 14:12). Jesus is refered to as the “bright morning star” (Rev. 22:16). The Bible teaches that Christ, man, and Satan are all “sons of God.”

Have there ever been any other non-Mormon Christians who understood the implication of the Bible’s premortal spiritual sonship? Catholic scholar Giovanni Papini quotes and comments on the writings of the early Christian Lactantius (26-340 AD):

[Papini comments:] According to Lactantius, Lucifer would have been nothing less than the brother of the Logos.... The elder spirit, filled with every divine virtue and beloved by God above all other spirits, can easily be recognized as Word, that think that the other Spirit, also endowed with every grace, was the second son of the Father: the future Satan would be, no less, the younger brother of the future Christ. (The Devil [NY:E.P. Dutton & Co., 1954], 81-82; original Lactantius, Divine Institutes II, 9; quoted by Bill Forrest; for those who term Lactantius as “Christian,” see Peterson & Ricks, 150, n. 518.)

If Lactantius can believe that Jesus and Lucifer are spirit brothers and still be called a “Christian,” and then so can Mormons.

Michael R. Ash

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