Do Mormons Believe that Jesus and Satan are Brothers?

[Greg West]

Another chapter from A Mormon Answers the Hard Questions Posed by Anti-Mormons:

A common anti-Mormon tactic is to bias the minds of a sincere, curious individual by using emotionally charged arguments. The purpose is to bypass reason and cause the person to react on the basis of superstition, peer pressure, or avoidance of potential embarrassment.

An example of such an argument might be a question related to corporal punishment. If I asked a Christian mother if she believed in spanking as an option when disciplining a child, the likely answer would be affirmative. If I asked her whether she beat her children to discipline them, her immediate response would be "No!" The emotional image of beating a child is so abhorrent that one recoils in horror. One's emotional reaction is predictable. By phrasing the question a certain way, I can immediately bypass reason and obtain an emotional reaction to bias your response.

APPEALING TO THE EMOTIONS, NOT TO REASON
A common attack used to bias the curious against further investigation of Mormon beliefs is the charge that Mormons believe Jesus and Satan are brothers. This creates an immediate, negative reaction.
Would you want to have your family told that you are investigating the possibility of associating with a church that teaches such a thing? This accusation immediately harrows up such negatives that many sincere people simply "turn off" their curiosity and return to the reassurance of familiarity.

These are the souls of whom Jesus spoke, in the Parable of the Sower in Mark chapter 4:17, who receive the word with gladness "And have no root in themselves, and so endure but for a time: afterward, when affliction or persecution ariseth for the word’s sake, immediately they are offended." They fall away because they have "no root." The newness of their faith and lack of understanding make them vulnerable to such attacks. They don't have the knowledge to defend those things they have received in faith.

SEARCH THE SCRIPTURES
If you will search the scriptures and what they teach about our nature and the nature of Christ and Satan, you will learn the truth of our relationships. Before the world was created, we lived in a premortal existence as spirits. Of Jesus Christ it was written:

The LORD possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old.
I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was.
When there were no depths, I was brought forth; when there were no fountains abounding with water.
Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth:
While as yet he had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust of the world.
When he prepared the heavens, I was there: when he set a compass upon the face of the depth:
When he established the clouds above: when he strengthened the fountains of the deep:
When he gave to the sea his decree, that the waters should not pass his commandment: when he appointed the foundations of the earth:
Then I was by him, as one brought up with him: and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him;
Rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth; and my delights were with the sons of men. (Proverbs 8:22-31, italics added)

This passage tells us of the premortal existence of Jesus, but please take note of last sentence. His delights were with the sons of men. Before this earth was created, we lived with our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. It was in this premortal state that we received certain missions that we were to accomplish during our mortal probation on earth. We have the record of one such mortal foreordained to be a prophet during his life:

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. (Jeremiah 1:5)

Like Jeremiah, the Lord knew each of us. There was one among us, who stood preeminent above all: Jesus Christ. He has many titles. One of them is "The Firstborn." Of Jesus' status as Firstborn, Paul wrote:

Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:
In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins:
Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:
For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:
And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.
And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.
For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell; (Colossians 1:13-19, italics added)

Mormons literally believe Paul's testimony in the Bible. Jesus Christ is the Firstborn of every creature. He is the preeminent Spirit of all spiritual beings created by God. God is the Father of all. As Jesus told Mary when she beheld the resurrected Lord:

...but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God. (John 20:17)

The Father of Jesus is our Father. His God is our God. As God is our Father, we are brothers and sisters. Thus Jesus is the Firstborn of us all. He is our Elder Brother. As the passage above indicates, he is also the Creator of the earth. Acting always in accordance with the Father's will, Jesus Christ created the earth and the physical universe around us.

John testifies, "All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made." (John 1:3) Paul again confirms that God "Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds." (Hebrews 1:2)

We've now read about Jesus' role as the Firstborn and Creator. Another role or title that he alone bears is "Only Begotten." (See John 1:14-18, 3:16-18) Of all the spirits that God the Father created, there is only one whom he created physically. In a miraculous manner, beyond mortal man's comprehension, Jesus Christ condescended to become flesh and blood like the rest of us.

He possessed all the qualities and powers of Divinity as a mortal man and lived a sinless life. Yet he was subject to all the pains and suffering of physical existence. He suffered as none ever has or ever will, both in Gethsemane and on the cross, to atone for the sins of all mankind. Rising from the tomb after three days, he came forth as a resurrected being. This gives him another title, Firstborn from the dead. (Colossians 1:18)

Another title which Christ uses to describe himself is the Bright and Morning Star.... (Continue reading at Examiner.com)


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Originally posted 3/8/2008
Bumped 3/19/2009

[Rebekah]

Greg,

I am not upset at a person interrupting my conversation. I actually enjoy talking with people even if it was rude and out of turn. I guess I have a lot of patience in me, more than I realize. But I do get tired of the diatribe that is spouted from people who don't even look up scriptures to realize that we are brothers and sisters of our Heavenly Father and that in the process a 1/3 of our brothers and sisters fell away and joined Satan.

I can understand people getting worked up about it, but scripture is scripture and if they want to cause a buzz over a point of doctrine they don't like, they are welcomed to knock themselves out over it.

[Greg West]

As an addendum to my last comment regarding Rebekah's run-in with an anti-Mormon in a restaurant, I post this comment from my most recent Examiner article. The commentator wrote:

"I don't deny that there's a lot of anti-Mormon hatred out there, but to dismiss all concerns and complaints as a front offered by liars is to engage in the same type of religious bigotry you expect from others. Perhaps it's time to put down the barbed words and let that chip on your shoulder fall to the ground where it belongs. The world is not against you. There are people who do not understand or trust Mormons, but you'd be surprised at how many of them do not deserve to be dismissed as "wicked."

What kind of person can't abide a Mormon father and daughter having a conversation without having to attack them? A wicked person. It certainly isn't us that has a chip on our shoulders. When the day comes that can say we're latter-day saints and someone doesn't hurl the "Jesus and Satan are brothers" attack in our faces, maybe we'll think that the world is not against us.

[Greg West]

Rebekah, that's a great anecdote. It really shows the obsessiveness of anti-Mormonism. The fact that this guy interrupted and interjected his opinions into a conversation between two family members in a public place shows an inability to mind his own business and to restrain his negative impulses.

I hear people talk about their own religious beliefs occasionally at work or in public places, like standing in line at Wendy's or something. I don't believe what they do, but I don't feel any need to insert myself into their conversations. If someone I know asks what I think, I'll reply as cordially as I can, with respect to their difference of opinion.

There are occasions that I've heard people I know (who don't know that I'm LDS) say negative or incorrect things about the Church. Usually, they're just repeating something their pastor told them or they just have a misunderstanding. In that case, I will correct them nicely and explain our belief in a brief, polite manner. They're often surprised to learn that I'm Mormon BECAUSE I live a Christian life. Their pastors teach them that Mormons are devils or something.

Anyway, it takes a lot of gall to stick your nose into a conversation between two people who are having a conversation that doesn't involve you. That guy showed classic anti-Mormon obsessive-compulsive disorder.

[Rebekah]

You know this conversation happened with me and my father last week. I had a training to go and so both of grabbed a bite to eat. We were sitting down and talking about the building of the Temple of how the Jews had attempted to rebuild the Temple and how in history they were not able to and suddenly this gentleman interrupted our conversation as we were talking about things, we mentioned that a lot of Christian sects believe that Jesus is the Temple, to which this man disagreed. Somehow in our conversations we mentioned about building Temples and the guy got put out of joint and he said, "That's Mormon"

He then interjected, with the well biased emotional insult of Mormons believe Jesus and Lucifer are brothers.

My father smiled lightly and said it's in the scriptures. The man still interjected that it was still a Mormon topic and stated as well that it could be found within the concepts of Isiah and Revelations, if one wanted to go that far. I guess this fellow is still hung up on the fact that scripturally if you want to look for evidence that Satan and Jesus are indeed spirtually related than one hasn't really searched the scriptures.

[Weston Krogstadt]

I had no idea Greg. Outside of Christianity my understanding of the two brothers at odds with each other ended with the Lion Kiing until you broadened my horizons with that other mythology. Thanks.

[Greg West]

The "two brothers" theme also runs through non-Christian mythology, like Thor and Loki or in the ancient Epic of Gilgamesh. The Dead Sea scrolls and the Nag Hamadi library also go into the ancient Hebrew beliefs on the war in heaven, referring to the Sons of light who battled with the forces of darkness.

[Weston Krogstadt]

I've always found it interesting how many hints Heavenly Father gave us in the Bible about the relationship between Jesus and Satan: Cain and Able, Jacob and Essau, Issac and Ishmael, Ephraim and Manassah, the dove and the raven of Noah, and all the "Two Sons" parables from the Savior. The scriptures are riddled with hints of a battle between two brothers in a previous life. It always surprises me when Bible thumping Christians have such trouble with this concept.