Customer Reviews

The Counterfeit Gospel of Mormonism: The Great Divide Between Mormonism and Christianity

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This book provides substantive and accurate scholarship. It helps to dispel the misleading image of Mormonism created by the LDS Church's professional public relations firm. The latter is a rosily inaccuate portrayal that all too easily seduces the subjective, feelings-oriented mentality that is so prevalent today. The book is historically, theologically and philosophically excellent. It will be recognized as such by those having more than a superficial knowledge of Mormon doctrine and history. For example, it is abundantly clear from Joseph Smith's "Inspired Version" of the Bible that he did, indeed, intend to write himself into Old Testament prophecy. Those who take the trouble to read the early diaries and historical documents of the Church do not doubt this. This book is an absolute must read. I would give it more than five stars if I could.

The best chapter in this book is by Francis Beckwith, a philosophy professor who has written an academic monograph on Mormonism as well as a number of academic articles (which means, I presume, that he knows something about Mormonism). Ron Rhodes's chapter is second best, but Geisler and Roberts could use some improvement. I think a project like this is good, but it should be a little more tight. It is written clearly and intended for a wide audience. The book is worth buying just for Beckwith's well-reasoned critique of the Mormon concept of God.

talk about an all-star crew of authors!! I'm in Phil Robert's chapter in the book right now. The book was written from an evangelical standpoint for a reason- Mormonism is a divergent, created belief system which has absolutely NO basis in Historic and Biblical Christianity aside from Smith's plagarism of a KJV Bible and his 'modifications' in the so-called 'inspired version'. Not too much new info is presented to those who are already familiar with the LDS (and with older titles on the subject) and their divergencies from Historic Christianity, but for those unfamiliar, this book makes it easy to learn.

This 1998 book contains chapters by noted apologists and anti-Mormon authors: Norman Geisler, Francis Beckwith, Ron Rhodes, Phil Roberts, and Jerald and Sandra Tanner.

The Foreword states, "While this book is partly a response to How Wide the Divide?: A Mormon & an Evangelical in Conversation, its purpose is much broader than that. With Mormonism claiming more fervently than ever that it alone represents the fullness of true Christianity, it is more urgent than ever before for biblical Christians to speak up for truth..."

Here are some quotations from the book:

"Actually, this so-called 'Inspired Version' of the Bible has been an embarrassment to the Mormon Church. It was never published during (Joseph) Smith's lifetime, nor has the Mormon Church ever made an official publication of it. It was given in 1886 by Smith's wife Emma to the Reorganized Church... Their edition of 1887 is even sold in the Mormon Deseret Book Store and is cited by Mormon scholars." (Pg. 28-29)

"Most orthodox Christians admit (1 John 5:7-8) is an interpolation. Why an inspired Mormon Prophet who rejected the doctrine of the trinity would miss correcting this verse is not easy to explain." (Pg. 30-31)

"Finally, the Inspired Version corrects verses in the Bible which are cited by the inspired Book of Mormon as true. It would follow logically that at least one, if not both, of these books is not inspired." (Pg. 32)

"(T)here are no biblical passages that either explicitly or implicitly teach that God is by nature a physical being... although there are passages ... that explicitly teach that God is by nature a spirit." (Pg. 81)

"For some unexplained reason the Holy Ghost became a God without going though an earth existence and receiving a physical body." (Pg. 194)

This book was written in response to the alarming acceptance of Mormonism as a Christian denomination and, in particular, to Stephen E. Robinson's book "How wide the divide"?

I have read countless books on the Mormon cult, so I did not expect to find anything new on this one, but I was surprised to find out that I was wrong.

"The Counterfeit Gospel of Mormonism" is divided in five main chapters, each one written by a well known counter-cult Christian author.

The first chapter was written by Norman Geisler and deals with the LDS view of Scripture; Dr. Geisler briefly explains the evangelical view of the Bible, followed by the LDS position on the Bible and the other Mormon "standard works". This chapter is very interesting and contains some information I had never read before; on the other hand, Dr. Geisler is clearly preaching to the choir and some of his reasonings have not entirely convinced me.

The second chapter is a philosophical analysis of the Mormon concept of God, authored by Francis J. Beckwith. This brief essay proves Mormon concepts such as eternal progression to be logically inconsistent, and shows without a doubt that the Mormon god Elohim is definitely not the living God of the Bible. This chapter is truly inspiring, but it should be noted that Professor Beckwith says that he can't thoroughly analyze all possible Mormon comebacks because of space constraints, yet he finds enough space to advertise three of his books and, in one instance, goes out of context in order to do that.

The third chapter is an analysis of the many differences between the Mormon Jesus and the biblical Jesus, written by Ron Rhodes. Dr. Rhodes is a very talented writer with a special gift for explaining even the most complicated concepts with clear, easy to understand language. Much of the material presented in this chapter is basically the same as in the fifteenth chapter of Rhodes' "Reasoning from the Scriptures with Mormons", but it is still worth reading.

The fourth chapter deals with the differences between the Christian and the Mormon plan of salvation. Here Phil Roberts carefully analyzes the Mormon struggle to obtain salvation by doing good deeds in contrast to the wonderful Gospel of grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is my favorite chapter of the book.

The fifth chapter, written by the Jerald and Sandra Tanner, is a classification of the main differences of terminology used by LDS and Christians, how the Mormon Church have distorted the meaning of some biblical terms, and the fact that most Mormons do not clearly understand these definitions.

The book closes with an invitation to our Mormon friends to trust in Jesus Christ, rather than a human organization, for salvation.

Overall, this is an excellent reference for people interested in Mormonism, or for those Mormons who started to question their organization.

So, to conclude, I think that this book decisively answers Dr. Robinson's question: "how wide is the divide between Evangelicalism and Mormonism?". The divide is wide indeed!

As an atheist who recently became somewhat familiar with several online mormons, I obviously have no bias towards Mormonism, but have knowledge of their beliefs. I bought this book so i could challenge them with hard hitting questions, but even as i read it, I knew there was no reality in this book. Being written from an evangelical standpoint doesn't help matters. Though some of it is true (Mormons don't believe in the Trinity, etc), much else is misleading (such as the charge that in Joseph Smith's Inspired Version of the Bible, he wrote in a prophesy that mentioned him by name-- when in fact it mentioned only his first name, not his whole name). Don't waste your money unless you want a bunch of anti-mormon rants that have no real value. There is plenty wrong with the Mormon belief system, so it is curious that the authors have to make things up!

This books was a disappointment, to say the very least, in acting as a rebuttal to recent Evangelical-Mormon discussions on similarities and differences of faith (e.g. "How wide the Divide").

Time will not permit me to discuss the dozens of falsities packed in this small book, but here are a few from Norman Geisler's essay entitled "Scripture."

Gesiler claims that LDS scripture is counterfeit as changes exist between the 1833 Book of Commandments and subsequent printings of the Doctrine and Covenants, and cites Jeremiah 36:28. However, he fraudulently ignores verse 32 of that same chapter, that shows Jeremiah added unto his original writings, supporting, not negating, what Joseph Smith did.

Also, Gesiler caims that Joseph Smith was a false prophet based on a number of passages from writings. However, some come from vitolic 2nd-hand sources ("An Address to all believer's in Christ" by David Whitmer) or are unfulfilled _commandments_, not prophecies, such as D&C 84:3-5 (see D&C 124:48-52)

Also, Geisler on page 12 cites Jeremiah 36:28 to show that no Prophet ever tampered with scripture. However, if he read verse 32, he would realsie that the opposite is true - here Jeremiah added "many like words" to his original writings that had been burned in a fire by the King of Judah.

This work, alsongside all works critical of Mormonism from Harvest House, inclusive of a lot of the works by the individuals involved, are counterfeit representations of Mormon beliefs, and are full of eisegetical interpretations of the Biblical text, alongside LDS scripture, to disprove a straw-man.

This book really does, as one of the reviewers here notes, represent an all-star cast of anti-Mormons. Its poor quality is all the more striking for that very fact.

Several fundamental problems mar the book. For one thing, its authors consistently offer up the most damning possible version of Latter-day Saint belief -- often in a form that few Mormons, if any, would be willing to accept. Then it compares that caricatured version to the authors' own less-than-obviously-true understanding of the Bible or of Christianity, as if their interpretations were the only ones on the market. Moreover, the authors don't always seem to know much about their subject. (Geisler is a particular disappointment in this regard.)

And, of course, the book's relentlessly antagonistic attitude toward the Latter-day Saints and their faith shouldn't exactly inspire its readers with confidence in the fairness of its approach. But then, lack of fairness probably won't matter to a considerable proportion of the book's audience, who may well get too much pleasure out of seeing the Mormons trashed to worry much about such matters as bias, accuracy, and context.

My only complaint: Let's just take it a step further and say "The Counterfeit Religion of Christianity". All of Christiandom (and Islam and Buddhism and every other "other worldly" religion had the same formative processes that created Mormonism, only so long ago no one seems to muster the critical scope to take it on.

I had to laugh at Ron and Kerry who obviously do not have a clue what the Mormon church teaches. I have not read this book, but until you understand the LDS religion, keep your thoughts to yourself!