Of Bears and Squirrels

        A few weeks ago I was visiting some very dear friends in Wisconsin.  One of them was Todd, and aside from being a techy-geek (very much like myself) he has two skills that I doubt I will ever have. 

        1. He is a serious sysAdmin.  You name the platform and he will make your app run on it.  
        2. He used to be a fairly strong Anti-Mormon.  
        
        We were talking about religion and Anti's and I asked a serious question.  I never understood how some folks will try to hurt us or make fun of us by saying that Mormons believe that Jesus and Satan are brothers! 

        pause.... 
        pause again.... 
        nope... I never got that one.  Really... Think about reading in 
        
        Isaiah14:12 How art thou ^afallen from ^bheaven, O ^cLucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the ^dnations!

  13 For thou hast said in thine ^aheart, ^bI will ascend into heaven, I will ^cexalt my ^dthrone above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the ^enorth:

  14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the ^amost High.

  15 Yet thou shalt be brought down to ^ahell, to the sides of the pit.

  16 They that see ^athee shall ^bnarrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms;

        In Revelations - 12

7 And there was ^awar in heaven: ^bMichael and his ^cangels fought against the dragon; and the ^ddragon fought and his angels,

  8 And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in ^aheaven.

  9 And the great dragon was ^acast out, that old serpent, called the ^bDevil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him

        Both of those are NON Mormon unique scriptures... all Christianity believes in it (or they should...).  
        
        So, I think to myself... "What's the problem?  Satan was our brother, he rebelled, he was cast out, he runs around on Earth making things rough for us to hurt/spite Father.  What's everyone griping about?"  

        
        They don't really think that the evil Satan was running around in heaven and Father mostly ignored it, then finally had enough and cast him down the earth.... do they?  Or do they imagine that he was in heaven hiding from God and then simply got caught by the Heavenly Police?

        
        When asking my buddy about this he offered an interesting point of view... He said... You have to understand that others (other religions) look at the different levels of beings as permanent.  God is here (very high up on the org chart), Angels are here (think middle management) lower orders of angels are here (bottom of the chart) and we are humans, destined to sing to god for all eternity.... We are the lower peons...

        Still not getting it, I said, so we are not brothers and sisters?  Todd said... "Think Bears and Squirrels"  Different animals all together.  Angles don't progress (apparently neither do men...).  To say that Jesus (super awesome God) had anything to do with evil wicked, nasty Lucifer... it's heresy.  They were two different types of things, they couldn't have been related. 

        
        Ah, this seems to make more sense... Jesus was God before he was born, and perfect and unchangeable.  Ah, so he didn't need to progress, we didn't exist in that world (do you remember it... I don't..) and Lucifer, simply started causing trouble so the all powerful God thrust him out.  So now saying that Jesus and Satan are brothers, elevates Satan and reduces the pre-eminence of Jesus.... I see... (I don't believe it.. but I see why others would)

        
        In our view, we were all getting ready to come to Earth.  We all needed it.  (You, me, the next door neighbor, Jesus, Lucifer...) We had to gain a body and get experience that we couldn't otherwise get.  By understanding the concept of progression (heretical, I know...) we then understand the fall much better.  This is where the Temple really shines...

        
        Nothing is made more clear in the temple than the Fathers entire focus and desire to get us to come home to him, to protect us from Satan and his tricks and to help us be safe forever with Him.  There are things WE must do, but there are things he has set up as well, and working together we can make it happen.  And to someday  ...sit down, and go no more out. 

Alma 7:25 And may the Lord bless you, and keep your garments spotless, that ye may at last be brought to sit down with ^aAbraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the holy prophets who have been ever since the world began, having your garments ^bspotless even as their garments are spotless, in the kingdom of heaven to go no more out.

 

        
        Thanks Todd, I will never look at bears and squires again, with out being grateful that I know we are not so different from our Heavenly Father that loves us.