The Maze of Mormonism [Paperback]

Walter Martin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1979 | ISBN-10: 0884490173 | ISBN-13: 978-0884490173 | Edition: Rev. and enl

The Maze of Mormonism exposes: *The fortune-telling past of Joseph Smith, Jr., Mormonism's founder. * The ego flattering Mormon doctrine of Exaltation to Godhood. * The racist Mormon doctrine concerning the Negro - including the first in-depth treatment from a Biblical Christian basis of the Mormon "revelation" concerning the blacks! * The occultic practices in the secret temple ceremonies of the Mormon temple. * The anti-Christian boasts of the Mormon Church to be the "restoration" of Christianity among the apostate Protestant and Catholic churches. The Maze of Mormonism is a complete and concise guide to any Christian, lay or clergy, unraveling the confused maze of Mormon Doctrine and practice with the measuring rod of the Bible and the truth which is in Christ alone. The Maze of Mormonism will give you a firm grasp on the truth of Christianity and the means to communicate your life in Christ to the Mormons you meet. --- from book's back cover

Product Details

• Paperback: 377 pages
• Publisher: Vision House Pub; Rev. and enl edition (June 1979)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0884490173
• ISBN-13: 978-0884490173
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #292,235 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent expose on "Peeping Joe", March 29, 2002

By 

Lovin' The Truth (Deep in the South, US of A) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Maze of Mormonism (Paperback)

This is an exceelent book. When you see reviews of both extremes, you know you have a good book. Ignore the rabid rant reviews from LDS. Having been a Mormon myself, I can give you my testimony that this book is a well written, very scholarly book.

The section on the Book of Abraham alone is worth the price of the book. Smith claims he translated a book striking similar to Genesis (complete with King James English)from an Egyptian hieroglyph found in a mummies case. This hieroglyph, thought to be destroyed in the Chicago fire, resurfaced in 1968 (a story in Ensign magazine ran the article). Martin's book gives the REAL translation of this hieroglph...portions of the Egyptian Book of the Dead!
This book is not about hate or making money, it's about common sense (such as why would Israelites write in Egytian???)While we are on the subject of money, the Mormon Church is a coporate empire with wealth equal to a fortune 500 company. Martin lists many of the assets of the Mormon Church (at least what they owned in 1978, which no doubt by now their assets are much larger). Controling interest in Utah Power and Light, The L.A. Times, Roy Rogers Hambugers, to name just a few. 9 million memembers, tithing 10%+, do the math.

The book also shows how Mormonism is so out of align with traditional Christian theology that it can not be called orthodox Christianity. The Trinity, the Virgin Birth, salvation by grace, etc., are all heresies to Mormonism. Martin compares the Bible to Smith and Youngs "revelations", with startling results. When you get this book, you won't believe how your LDS friends will tap dance around the truth and come up with the most ridiculous sounding excuses. Read them the part where Smith predicted everyone alive in 1830 would live to see Christ. Their explanation makes the new math seem easy.

Get a copy of this book! Hopefully the publisher will put it back in print again. Used copies are pricy, but worth it!

24 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Only Mormons Hate the Book, August 26, 2003

By 

GroovyGirl177 (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Maze of Mormonism (Paperback)

I found this to be the most informative book I have read on the doctrine of the Mormon Church, & I have read many. My favorite aspect of this book is that it was not a book of opinion. In research, I don't care what someone "thought" of a situation; I want to know the facts...period. That's what this book is. It cuts to the chase & bypasses opinion. Martin includes photocopies of many, many supportive documents...both from the LDS hierarchy & otherwise. Mormons are the only people I've found that dislike this book; maybe that's because it DOES threaten the foundation of their organization..

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Dr" Walter Martin, June 19, 2011

By 

Gershonite - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Maze of Mormonism (Paperback)

Was 'Doctor' Martin a Doctor?

Walter Martin claims a Doctor's Degree that he doesn't have? Martin received a doctoral degree of sorts in 1976 from California Western University. However, he applied the term doctor to himself well before that date.

In the 1974 court records he said that he received his, "Master's Degree from New York University in Philosophy of Religion, and completed my doctoral studies at New York University pending my thesis."

And asked for further and better particulars he said, "I finished my Master's thesis in 1956, and I finished all my doctoral work up to my thesis in 1968." (Brown 1986, 36)

Later on his Bible Answer Man radio program he said, "My Master's thesis? Let's see, Oh, my Doctoral thesis. I didn't do a Master's thesis." (Brown 1986, 38)

Of course he should realize that you don't do a Doctoral thesis, it would be a Doctoral Dissertation. In speaking of his Master's degree, New York University indicates that, "A thesis was not required for Mr. Martin's field of study." (Brown 1986, 40)

Martin felt entitled to the title of "Doctor" before he actually bought the degree. As early as 1974 there are several examples were Dr. Martin was used to refer to him. Even earlier, in 1966 on his mother's death certificate, he refers to himself as "Dr. Walter Martin." (Brown 1986, 42-48)

The fact that his name on the death certificate was 'Dr' Walter Martin directly contradicted his statements under oath in his 1975 suit against Bruce Johnson in which he says be received his doctorate at a later date than those times he used the title 'doctor' to beef up his claim to be a serious scholar.

Actually Walter Martin likes to make more claims than he can support. In the Christian Research Newsletter of 1977 he said,

"Dr. Martin holds degrees from

Stony Brook School,

Adelphi University,

Biblical Seminary,

New York University, and

California Western University."

That sounds impressive, but Stony Brook is just a high school,

Adelphi University he only attended for about 4 months,

He attended some summer classes at Biblical Seminary.

He received his Bachelor's degree from an unaccredited school in 1951 and 1952. At the time that he applied for admission to New York University they accepted credits from unaccredited schools. (Brown 1986, 31-35)

Is Dr. Martin's doctoral degree legitimate? California Western University where Mr. Martin obtained his Ph. D. degree advertises in its literature that "No classroom attendance is required." (Brown 1986, 51).

The California Department of Education says about the school, "California Western is an non accredited degree granting school, which has been operating since 1973 or '74. The school is basically a correspondence school with an instructional staff of four persons who are all called deans."

"It is entirely possible that this school offered a degree in Comparative Religion in '76; however, we have no record of this." (Brown 1986, 52)

Walter Martin says that California Western, "isn't a correspondence school at all, and it is accredited in the State of California." (Brown 1986, 55).

The Director of graduate admission at UCLA explains that, "California Western University in Santa Ana is not accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges which is the accrediting association for the State of California." (Brown 1986, 63).

California Western was only recognized as a candidate for accreditation from the National Association of Private Nontraditional Schools and Colleges, Grand Junction, Colorado. (Brown 1986, 58)

The secretary of the accrediting association for California wrote, "the National Association of Private, Nontraditional Schools and Colleges in Grand Junction, Colorado, is not recognized by the Council on Post secondary Accreditation of the U.S. Office of Education." (Brown 1986, 59)

The Christian Research Institute attempted to refute these claims in a 1993 report. They started with the statement: "Facts which are not disputed concerning *Walter Ralston Martin* are as follows: He is an ordained Baptist minister and a member of the Southern Baptist Convention." We have already seen where both of these statements were in fact false.

California Western University lost a name infringement suit in 1981 and so they changed their name to California Coast University. (Brown 1986, 61)

CRI quoted a report by Dr. Bear: "California Coast University...was one of the first of California's non-resident universities...CCU is the only non- resident school in California to have received state approval of all degree programs offered...each faculty member holds recognized degrees from traditional schools."

CRI also quoted from the California State Department of Education has stated in the California Education Code, Section 94310(b): An institute may be granted full institutional approval if the superintendent approves every degree offered by the institution. The law mandates the superintendent to determine -- in advance of issuing an approval and in renewing such approval -- by a qualitative review and assessment of the institution through the use of an institutional self-study and a comprehensive onsite evaluation by a qualified visitation committee impaneled by the superintendent: that the curriculum is consistent in quality with curricula offered by established accredited institutions; and the courses achieve their professed objectives, with verifiable evidence of the students' academic achievement being comparable to that required of graduates from accredited institutions.

But in the case of California Western University, this doesn't seem to have occurred. At least the State of California, Department of Education responded in 1981, "California Western is an non accredited degree granting school, which has been operating since 1973 or '74. The school is basically a correspondence school with an instructional staff of four persons who are called deans. It is entirely possible that this school offered a degree in Comparative Religion in '76; however, we have no record of this." (Brown 1986, 52)

It would appear that the superintendent did not make the evaluation as outlined in the code quoted above because they have no record of the Comparative Religion degree. The Christian Research Institute's report concluded with a statement, "Yes, Walter Martin's doctoral degree is legitimate, and no, it really does not matter." They were wrong again about it being a legitimate degree and it matters a great deal. This establishes Walter Martin's credibility. He was not interested in the truth, he was interested in twisting the information and even lying if it would support his priestcraft. This is particularly obvious in his assertion that he was a descendent of Brigham Young.

Was Dr. Martin an Ordained minister?

Walter Martin has made several claims to authority to the ministry. However, the only ordination he had, when he first began his ministry, was revoked two years later. Since then, at various time over the next thirty-three years, he has falsely claimed to be an ordained Baptist minister, and ordained minister of the American Baptist Convention, and he presently claims to be an ordained minister of the Southern Baptist Convention. Our research indicates that he is none of the above. (Brown 1986, 3)

The fact that he was ordained in 1951 has been confirmed by a letter from his ordination pastor. However that same letter also states that his ordination was revoked.

"A few days before the ordination we discovered that Walter Martin's wife had obtained a divorce in Reno, Nevada. This fact was presented to the Ordination Council. We proceeded with the ordination on July 16, 1951 but with the understanding with Walter that if he ever re-married, we would have to revoke his ordination."

"It was in 1953 that we learned that Walter was re-married. We called the Ordination Council and informed them of our church's decision to revoke Walter's ordination, which our church did." (Brown 1986, 7)

In 1973, Walter Martin's first wife took him to court because she didn't feel that he was living up the the divorce agreement. Among other things she charged that he was he free-lance preacher. His reply is a matter of court record, "I would like to state that I am not a free-lance preacher, but an accredited professor of biblical studies and an ordained Minister of the American Baptist Convention in good standing" (Brown 1986, 298)

In 1984 the American Baptist were asked if they had record of an ordination of Walter Martin. Reverend Linda Spoolstra responded, "Walter Ralston Martin is not listed in the American Baptist Churches' Professional Registry, nor is he listed in our Directory of Professional Church Leaders. This means that he has no standing in our denomination." (Brown 1986, 9)

In 1975 Walter Martin filed suit against Bruce Johnson and the Latter-day Saints (which he lost). Under oath he made the following statements: "I am on the staff of the Melodyland Christian Center in Anaheim, and I am an ordained member of the Southern Baptist Convention, although I came from the American Baptist Convention" (Brown 1986, 13)

In Literature from the Christian Research Center which was founded by Walter Martin he again claims in 1980 to be a ordained minister and a member of the Southern Baptist Convention. However, Barbara Denman from the Home Mission Board responded, "We have searched our Southern Baptist annual, our Arizona convention annual and our own Home Mission Board personnel records for the name of Walter Martin, but were unable to come up... Read more ›