Some critics
of Latter-day Saint theology argue that there are no real differences between
Jesus and Satan as we believe they, and
everyone else, are sons and daughters of God (for more, see the section “The
"Mormon Jesus" being a "Spirit Brother" of Satan--what the
Bible really says” in Refuting
Jeff Durbin on "Mormonism"). Alvin Dyer (1903-1977), an LDS apostle, wrote
the following about Satan’s rebellion in heaven, which should show that there
are no meaningful similarities between Jesus and Satan in LDS theology:
The Assumption of Lucifer
In his effort to gain ascendency among the
Gods, Lucifer evidenced no love for the subjects who would come under his power.
His aim was for position without respect for the rights of the individual his
plan violated. In this effort he disobeyed at least three eternal principles of
progression. First, he rebelled
against God; secondly, he sought to
destroy agency so that his advocated doctrine of compulsion could function; and
thirdly, he sought to make himself
equal with God on the premise that the plan he advocated was of such noteworthy
quality, that he was entitled to singular recognition as its author (Moses 4:1,
3, 4). His plan was rejected and he and his followers were cast out of the
realm of that existence, suited to that of non-regenerative type of personages,
is made ready for them (D&C 76:44-48).
Lucifer and his disobedient and arrogant
angels in the pre-mortal realm, proved themselves unsuited for and incapable of
progression. Consequently, they are denied the experience of embodiment with
element in mortality, with its promise and purpose of eternal progress in the subsequent
estates of immortality . . .
. . .
Conditions of Lucifer’s Request
We have already suggested the various reason Lucifer’s
rebellion which won for him the support of a third part of the hosts of the
pre-existence. There are other revelations from God which tell of Lucifer’s
final bid for ascendancy and of his rejection and expulsion. There can be no
doubt that Lucifer occupied a very high position in the pre-mortal existence.
Some have called him “the” son of the morning, but the revelation from God
simply identifies him as “a” son of the morning (D&C 76:25-27). Still, he
was recognized, and had a plan by which he proposed that the earth be peopled
and the inhabitants redeemed. The Prophet Job declares that Lucifer presented
his plan after having been upon the earth which had been organized for man’s
occupancy (Job 1:6, 7) prior to Adam and Eve.
The fact that Lucifer had traveled to the
earth through space and, having surveyed it, returned to present his plan
before the council of Gods, is probably the reason for his having earned the
title which the Prophet declared him to be called by—the prince of the power of air.
The answer to the council of God’s to Lucifer’s
plan is summarized in this declaration of God the Father to Moses:
Wherefore because that Satan rebelled against
me, and sought to destroy the agency of man, which I, the Lord God, had given
him, and also, that I should give unto him mine own power; y the power of mine
Only Begotten, I caused that he should be cast down; And he became Satan, yea,
even the devil, the father of all lies, to deceive and to blind men, and to
lead them captive at his will, even as many as would not hearken unto my voice.
(Moses 4:3, 4)
This rebellion of Lucifer and his angels is
spoken of further in a revelation to the Prophet Joseph Smith and Sydney
Rigdon:
And this we saw also, and hear record, that
an angel of God who was in authority in the presence of God, who rebelled against the only Begotten Son
whom the Father loved and who was in the bosom of the Father, was thrust down
for the presence of God and the Son, and was called Perdition, for the heavens
wept over him—he was Lucifer, a son of the morning. (D&C 76:25, 26)
It is fully established that Lucifer’s
downfall, together with those who followed him, came about for two basic
reasons which are convincingly stated in the revelation to the prophet Moses. First, he sought to destroy the agency
of man, and second, he sought
unwarranted ascendancy over the God’s of the great premortal council (Moses
1:19). (Alvin R. Dyer, Who Am I? [Salt
Lake City Deseret Book Company, 1966], 144-45, 230-32)
On the use
of “Lucifer” for Satan, see the informative article by Benjamin McGuire, Lucifer
and Satan