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Title: New Mormon Challenge, The by Francis Beckwith, Carl Mosser, Paul Owen, Richard J. Mouw ISBN: 0-310-23194-9 Publisher: Zondervan Publishing Company Pub. Date: 01 March, 2002 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $21.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.4 (10 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Has its good parts but is philosophically deep
Comment: If anything can be said about The New Mormon Challenge (henceforth TNMC), it has to be that it is sure to create controversy. After all, never before have so many different Christian scholars attempted to respond-in one volume, even-to Brigham Young University professors as well as LDS apologists.
The position taken by the editors assumes that the words of LDS scholars or even the personal beliefs of the laity may supercede that of the First Presidency and Council of the Twelve. For the average Mormon, truth is contained in the four standard works and the current words of the leaders. When one of the editors, Carl Mosser, says that "evangelical apologists" are "jealously" guarding a type of Mormonism that is not believed by Mormons, I ask if Mosser believes the majority of Mormons would hold to the following beliefs: 1) The idea that "As man is, God once was; as God is, man may become; 2) The idea that temple work is essential to reaching the highest level of the celestial kingdom; 3) The idea that ultimate truth is to be found in the Standard Works as well as the LDS prophet and apostles; 4) The idea that a person must be baptized in the Mormon Church to have an authentic baptismal experience; 5) The idea that Joseph Smith and succeeding church leaders were given complete authority on earth; 6) The idea that the Mormon Church is the most trustworthy church in the world.
The list could go on. The point is that I have no doubt that no less than 80 percent of all Latter-day Saints would immediately agree with me that the above six points as fully being Mormon doctrine. I am not sure why Mosser makes a blanket statement to make it appear that Christians involved with LDS outreaches are making up their own brand of Mormonism-a straw man, so to speak-so they can more easily tear the religion down. This, I believe, is just not accurate.
While the editors would like the Christian community to direct more effort to respond to the scholarly LDS community while paying less attention to the teachings of LDS leaders, they forget one very important point. That is, the Mormon Church is considered to be a restoration of the Christianity that is said to have died soon after the time of the apostles. When Joseph Smith was supposedly given the keys of this authority by Peter, James, John, and even by God the Father and Jesus, it is believed by most Mormons that he was personally given the authority the church lost more than a millennium ago.
Indeed, Smith's own history records that the Christian churches "were all wrong" (Joseph Smith-History 1:19). Succeeding leaders have made it a point to declare that there is no true church on the face of the earth except for the Mormon Church itself. Currently Mormons hold that all authority rests with current LDS President Gordon B. Hinckley, his First Presidency, and the apostles. For a vast majority of Latter-day Saints, what a certain BYU professor or FARMS scholar says does not mean half as much as what President Hinckley says, especially at the general conference.
So my question is why focus on the scholars when most LDS members direct their attention of the Standard Works and LDS leadership? (Strange, but I wonder why the Mormon high school seminary students merely study the Bible, D&C, and Book of Mormon during their four years of study. I don't see them studying "Church Scholars.")
Who is this book intended to reach? Perhaps it was meant as a discussion for the scholars. No doubt it will be a great resource for seminary professors and some pastors. It will probably also be a great asset to Christian apologists.
Yet I just don't see how TNMC-though attracting LDS intellectuals to the table of discussion-will have a wide impact on the general LDS community. I doubt most Mormons will ever even hear of this book, let alone pick it up in their lifetime. It can be safely said that the majority of Mormons are too busy with families, church-related activities, donating their time in church ministry, etc. to even care what the scholars, either Mormon or Christian, declare is truth. The Mormon has a burning in his bosom, and no scholar could ever alter this "fact" regardless of the available evidence.
Its depth will probably confuse many readers who do not have a considerable grasp of the book's technical language related to philosophy, logic, and science. Those Christians who buy TNMC thinking it is a witnessing-tip manual will be sorely disappointed as the arguments will be unintelligible to the average Mormon.
With this being said, I need to temper my criticism by saying there are many important arguments raised in TNMC that will be beneficial for many Christians. The best chapters were 3 (Kalam Argument), 8 (Monotheism and the New Testament), and 10 (Book of Mormon and Ancient Near Eastern Background). As far as recommending this book, I would certainly do so for those who are more learned in the fields of philosophy, theology, and the background of the Mormon Church. However, this is not meant to be a popular book or one that can be easily digested by the majority of Christian and Mormon laity. Thus, for such people, I would think that TNMC will have very little impact since much of the material will sail over their heads. Based on this, each reader needs to make a personal choice...
Rating: 5
Summary: Academic essays which take Mormonism seriously!
Comment: I highly recommend this book to intellectual Christians and Mormons, whether involved professionally and/or personally with their faiths. No longer can Christian academia be accused of publicly ignoring Mormon apologetic efforts. This book offers a serious, massively end-noted response by impeccable Christian scholars to important issues raised by the Latter-day Saints' academic community. Several indices and a glossary of terms are included for referencing. What follows is a brief summary of the book's topics:
Paul Copan and William Craig relay a brilliant defense of Christianity's view of God's creation ex nihilo in contrast to the Mormon belief of the world's organization from eternally existing matter.
Jim Adams examines the evidence for Mormon belief in pre-existence and eternality of human souls, and of the gods in general, in light of the teachings of the Old Testament.
Stephan Parrish and Francis Beckwith deal with moral law, the human/divine freedom of choice, and how they relate to the Mormon and Christian concepts of God.
J.P. Moreland dissects Orson Pratt's view of humanity and its dependence on material existence.
Paul Owens looks at monotheism from the perspective of the New Testament and how it contradicts the published views of several prominent Mormon scholars.
Craig Blomberg takes up the question of whether or not Mormonism is Christian.
The final section of the book focuses on the Book of Mormon, evalutating it on the basis of linguistics in the ancient Near East (Thomas Finley) and by contrasting principles of translation with possibilities of pseudotranslation (David Shepherd).
For those who crave detailed and cogent arguments, intellectual stimulation, and thoughtful interaction in Christian and Mormon apologetics, look no further than this book and ENJOY!
Rating: 2
Summary: These authors didn't even start from the right place
Comment: Another book written from the ridiculous premise that "Mormonism has 11,000,000 members and is growing exponentially." This is a silly assertion based on no researched facts. I am appalled that these authors, apparently careful in other respects, merely take the LDS church's own figures as fact. The Mormon church has a very liberal way of counting members. First, they have five/six/seven children as a typical family. All of these children are baptized at age eight and remain on the rolls of the church until they are 110 years old. (No, I'm not kidding. They remain on the rolls until they would have reached 110.) Only about l/3 of these baptized children actually attend church or contribute in any way, but they are counted just the same. Then, if a person actually bothers to take the unusual step of notifying the LDS church that they wish to have their name removed, the Mormons have routinely ignored their letters, "lost" their letters, threatened the resigning member with eternal consequences or excommunicaiton, and never bothered removing their name anyway. Thousands DO resign each year and many hundreds of thousands just go inactive with no notification. They are still counted.
Secondly, they send out young men to third world countries to baptize people who don't even speak English. The Mormons admit - themselves - that the retention rate on these baptisms is something like 25% in places like Thailand or Brazil. You can bet that if the Mormons admit to such a dreadful number, it is much lower. The Mormons have their own horror stories to tell about "baseball" baptisms, for example, where whole sports teams were baptized with a chance to play baseball as the incentive. You can bet most of these men are no longer active.
The missionary program is not expanding, it is getting smaller. A little research would have shown these "scholars" that mission fields are closing or shrinking around the world. Missionaries now must "qualify" for missions - prove that they are worthy to enter the program. More young men are opting out of this "rite of passage," anyway.
The Mormons are not apologizing so much as they are just changing their doctrine. At the end of the 1970's, the Mormons suddenly decided that blacks could hold the Priesthood. This was "revealed" to the prophet by God. Since Mormons believe in the voice of God speaking through their present day prophet, then each doctrinal element need only be explained away until it changes. Modern day prophets trump earlier prophets. This church could easily be called "The Church of What's Happenin' Now" as Flip Wilson coined.
I guess the authors of this book needed to justify getting themselves published so they neglect to tell the reader that Mormon churches are not "growing" as fast as the Seventh Day Adventists, the Jehovah Witnesses or the Assembly of God church on any given years. But, we don't bother "refuting" these churches or calculate their "dangerous numbers" within twenty-five years. The right wing political force of Christian coalition, in my opinion, is just as dangerous.
All in all, I think these authors spent a lot of time dealing in nonsense. MOrmonism should not be granted such a scholarly approach. They have done nothing, themselves, to deserve the attention.
Disclaimer: I did not read this book, but would NOT buy it just from the blatant inaccuracies on their book description.
Kaye P. - EX-Mormon
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Title: One Nation Under Gods: A History of the Mormon Church by Richard Abanes ISBN: 1568582838 Publisher: Four Walls Eight Windows Pub. Date: July, 2003 List Price(USD): $22.00 |
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Title: How Wide the Divide?: A Mormon & an Evangelical in Conversation by Craig L. Blomberg, Stephen E. Robinson ISBN: 0830819916 Publisher: InterVarsity Press Pub. Date: 01 April, 1997 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: The Mormon Conspiracy by Charles L. Wood ISBN: 158275067X Publisher: Black Forest Press Pub. Date: 01 November, 2001 List Price(USD): $9.95 |
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Title: No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith : The Mormon Prophet by Fawn McKay Brodie, Peter Dimock, Fawn M. Brodie ISBN: 0679730540 Publisher: Vintage Books USA Pub. Date: 01 August, 1995 List Price(USD): $18.00 |
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Title: Insider's View of Mormon Origins by Grant H. Palmer, Grant Palmer ISBN: 1560851570 Publisher: Signature Books Pub. Date: 01 October, 2002 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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