Some time ago I heard about CNN’s conservative guy Glenn Beck. I watched him a couple of times and laughed. I figured he was sort of like Bill O’Reilly’s counterpart. I even bought his book, An Inconvenient Book, because I loved the name. And while reading the book, I discovered that he is a Mormon.
Way back in high school, I dated a guy who was a Mormon. I’ll never forget the night he took me to a high school dance. Rather than going out to dinner, his family turned their home into a fine dining establishment. (We lived in a very small town where the only ‘fine dining’ to be had was El Chico’s!) His father dressed up in a tuxedo and served us filet mignon. It was a very sweet dinner, and he was a nice guy. Although we drifted apart, I have always been struck by how nice the family was and how courteously they treated me, a self-described Christian who attended a local Protestant church.
Now what was all that about Glenn Beck? I write about him today because he is a Mormon who steadfastly believes that Mormons are Christians, and because he called Mike Huckabee the “one-eyed Mullah Huckabee.” Beck was incensed because of a comment Huckabee had made about Mormon beliefs (in an effort to show how little he knows about them), saying,
“don’t they believe Jesus and Satan are brothers?”
Hmmm. Well, that bothered me a lot. In my last post I exhorted all of you to do what the Scriptures say, and test everything.
So I did. And I was astounded at the information I uncovered — from the LDS’s own website’s question and answer section — about the Mormon beliefs about the relationship between Lucifer and Jesus. Here is what I found:
Jess L. Christensen, Institute of Religion director at Utah State University, Logan, Utah. 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.)
The above quote references Colossians 1:15. As you can see below in context, Jesus was NOT firstborn OF the father. No, he was the prototokos pas ktisis — firstborn every, each, all act-of-creating, founding, establishing. Notice there is no preposition in the Greek. The NIV says “firstborn over all creation.” The KJV says “firstborn of every creature.” The English translators substitute the words “of” or “over” — but there was no such word in the Greek.
15He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him.
Looking at verse 16 helps us see what verse 15 is talking about. By Christ and through Christ, all things were created. It says it again: all things were created by him and for him. He was not, as the LDS quote from above states, an “offspring” as we see our own offspring. No, the Greek words show that Christ was the first Creator. Which leads us to the Trinity — God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It is another one of those mysteries I wrote about earlier.
Back to the issue at hand: do Mormons believe Jesus and Lucifer are spirit brothers? Yes they do! Does Glenn Beck not know the tenets of his faith? I read that Huckabee later apologized to Mitt Romney (and later to Glenn Beck) for his comments. My question is this: Why? Hear this, Huckabee, you were right! Speaking the truth does not mean you are standing in judgment. Unfortunately, our politically correct society has whittled “truth” down to falsehood in an attempt to make secular humanism the main religion. “You can have your truth, and I’ll have my truth,” they claim. I stand on the Bible as my Truth-o-Meter.
For the record, here is what the Bible teaches us about Lucifer from Isaiah 14:
12 How you have fallen from heaven,
O morning star, son of the dawn!
You have been cast down to the earth,
you who once laid low the nations!13 You said in your heart,
“I will ascend to heaven;
I will raise my throne
above the stars of God;
I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly,
on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain. [a]14 I will ascend above the tops of the clouds;
I will make myself like the Most High.”15 But you are brought down to the grave,
to the depths of the pit.
Nowhere does it say that Lucifer was God’s son. “Son of the dawn,” in the original Hebrew, is ben shachar. It literally means the son of the dawn. The name Lucifer means “morning star.”
There are other tenets of the Mormon faith that, when “tested” by Scripture (both the Old and New Testaments), show that they have been led astray. This does not mean that I think Mormons are bad people. As I said before, I have known wonderful people who belong to the LDS church. They follow many of Jesus’ commandments. But I believe, and apparently Mike Huckabee agrees with me, they have been deceived.
It all goes back to this:
Test everything. Hold on to the good.
1 Thessalonians 5:21
And the good news is this: that Christ died for our sins. There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus! (Romans 8:1).
No condemnation. I’ll have to write about that another time…
EverFaith 
YOU GO GIRL! AMEN, AMEN, AMEN – Chris and I were talking about this this morning…………This IS American…you can believe what you want….so MORMANS..tell the truth! If you believe it, tell what you believe. Why was MItt so offended? They try to merge into mainstream Christianity……aaaahhhhhh!
thank you christie for posting this…TRUTH TRUTH TRUTH
Great post! Very interesting stuff! I’d hate to be a politician – so easy to say something you later regret. I say things I regret all the time, but luckily none of them are televised.
Despite the fact that what he said is true, he said it with little conviction and probably shouldn’t have said it anyway. What a mess!
I’ll stick back him!
I am supporting Ron Paul for President, and am a Mormon. Most of my friends are not members of my church, and I often have attended meetings or vacation bible schools with them and their families. I have the utmost respect for all of these people – how they lead their lives, and their devotion to Jesus Christ. However, one experience I had a few years ago serves to illustrate why Mormons believe we are Christian, and why we have trouble understanding why some people do not believe we are Christian. While attending vacation bible school with some friends in Raleigh, North Carolina, the pastor divided the adults into two classes – the “advanced” bible class, and the “beginner” bible class. My wife and I both served Mormon missions as young adults, and though a little leery decided to attend the “advanced” Bible class. It turned out that of the 40-50 adults, 6 people, including us, went to the advanced class. The class over the course of the week turned out not to be about the bible, but about the creeds of the Christian churches.
The first creed discussed was the Apostle’s Creed, which states:
=-=-=-=
I believe in God, the Father Almighty, the Creator of heaven and earth,
and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord:
Who was conceived of the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended into hell.
The third day He arose again from the dead.
He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty,
whence He shall come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic church,
the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting.
Amen.
=-=-==
The teacher, who was not the pastor, then asked each student around the table what they thought of this creed. One expressed some reservation about Jesus “rising from the dead” and the part about “the resurrection of the body”, in that it implied that Christ arose with a body and that there will be a physical resurrection. Another did not believe the portion of the creed that indicated that Christ descended into hell. Another questioned how he could sit at the right hand of God if he was God.
My wife and I were the last ones to speak. Both of us answered that we felt the creed reflected the biblical teachings of Christ and the Apostles correctly, and we believed in the creed 100%.
My point is that many people “cling” to the different beliefs of Mormons from other Christian churches, while ignoring the fact that the core Mormons beliefs match the creeds of the early Christian church closer than the beliefs of their particular sect.
Even the controversy about Mormon belief/disbelief in the Trinity is enlightening. Mormons believe in the Trinity, although not in same way as most other Christian sects teach the Trinity. Mormons believe that the three members of the Trinity can be referred to as one God, as they are one in purpose, and never vary from one another in thought. Indeed, Mormons believe that if you have seen Christ you have seen the Father, because they look, act, think, and do exactly alike. The only difference between the beliefs, which is entire exagerrated, is that most other Christian sects believe the three members of the Trinity are three manifestations of the same being. But if the three are separate beings but think, act, and do as One, isn’t the net result the same thing?
There are many beliefs in different sects that outsiders could call “bizarre”, but at the core, Christians, including Mormons, believe the same basic things. Some examples of “bizaare things” that are either shared beliefs that Mormons have with other Christians, or are believed and taught by other sects, are:
Transubstantiation – (not a Mormon belief)
Virgin Birth – (a Mormon belief)
Worship of Saints – (not a Mormon belief)
Earth created in 6000 years – (most Mormons don’t believe, but no official Church stance)
Infallibility of the Bible – (not a Mormon belief)
Faith Healings – (a Mormon belief)
Prophecy – (a Mormon belief)
Speaking in Tongues – (a Mormon belief)
Jesus casting evil spirits into Pigs (Mark 5) – (a Mormon belief)
EverFaith’s Response:
Jesus loves all nations and wants all to come into a relationship with him. He is the only way, the truth and the life. Your Mormon beliefs tell you that what Christ did for us on the cross was not enough for salvation. Mormons believe there are several levels of heaven. A recent post from an ex-Mormon on the Christian Worldview Network states:
“When people come out of Mormonism, it is not because of hatred, it’s because they have found the love of Jesus Christ. When Christians tell of their experience in Mormonism,or try to tell what Mormonism is,it isn’t out of hatred. It’s out of concern for those people, and for their salvation. Eternity is a mighty long time. If Mormons were to be right, Christians are still ok; they’ll obtain at least the second degree of Mormon heaven. But if Mormons are wrong ,and Christianity is correct, then those Mormons are in for a big surprise! They’re not going to be gods after all! But they will spend eternity in a very unpleasant place. We know that most Mormons are very sincere about what they believe, but they are sincerely wrong. When someone tells me that what Christ did on the cross was great, but it wasn’t enough, and that you have to go out and work your way to heaven, then that’s when a red flag should go up, and you turn from the person and run. If that were the case,if you could save yourself by good works, Jesus Christ, our Lord, wasted His time coming down here. The Father could have just sent a work schedule instead Jesus Christ. Jesus said in John 14:6 ;I am the way ,the Truth, and the Life.No man Cometh unto the Father but by Me. He is still the only Way to the Father. Please read God’s Word the Bible, and consider the truth that is in it. Sincerely, An Ex-mormon”
I couldn’t say it better myself. I stand my earlier words. Mormons are very good people who are in the middle of deception, and I will be praying for them to find the love of Jesus Christ.