Customer Reviews

What Do Mormons Really Believe?: What the Ads Don't Tell You

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

A number of people who are reviewing this book are attempting to discredit the authors. This is an attempt to get folks to avoid reading this book. I note that these people are not addressing some of the serious questions about the Mormon faith that are raised in this book. Any Christian, believing in the Jesus Christ of the Bible, who understands their own relationship with Christ, and can back their understanding of who Christ is Biblically, would have to consider some serious differences in who and what the LDS consider Christ. I do have friends who are LDS and they have backed many of the assertions of the authors that show distinct differences in a Christian ( Biblical) view of Christ and the LDS view. I know that the words may be painful for any LDS member to read, but consider the actual Mormon works cited and put the pieces together for yourself. When held against God's word (the Bible), many of them show falsehoods and inconsistancies.

God bless and guide us.

I rarely take the time to write reviews, but this book was bad enough I felt obligated to warn the reading public. These authors have gone back to early mormon sources from the mid-1800s, some fairly obscure and others really obscure (Orson Pratt, for example) and written a fairly hateful (and often inaccurate) anti-mormon tract. Some of the book may be interesting in a historical sense, but unfortunately it doesn't correlate much with what mormons really believe. If you're interested in finding out what Mormons believe, I recommend "Latter Days: An Insider's Guide to Mormonism, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints" by Coke Newell--it's thorough and addresses a number of controversial topics (The Book of Mormon, polygamy, etc.).

I believe that this book is very important to understand the Mormon Church. Historical background is a very important aspect in dertermining the validity of a faith.
I would also like to respond to the reader from Baton Rouge, who wrote their review on August 15, 2002. To say that the historical background of the Mormon Church no longer reflects the beliefs currently held by the Church members today is to undermine the reliablitlity of its doctrine in the first place. A Church who's own past and founding principals is no longer reliable or in line with current belief should stop and take a look at how they got to where they are today. Unlike Mormonism, Christianity (not in any way affiliated with Mormonism) is consistent today with historical background and evidence, including medical, anthropological, and non-Christian history evidence. I encourage you to thouroughly research objectively the beleifs and doctrines of the Mormon Church and contrast them to Christianity. You may be surprised.

I was very saddened to read this work. The one star is only for the portion of historical content that was true. It is a shame that men in their positions of influence would publish fiction- that's more polite than saying lies. Like the Apostle Paul wrote- "professing themselves wise, they became fools". It is sad that many people will ultimately place their faith in the works of these 2 men, accrediting their "learned book knowledge", without ever researching their references and quoted scriptures for themselves. I found it contradictive that the primary thrust of this book was to attack that Joseph Smith was not a prophet based on setting forth that he may have made a prediction that has yet to be fulfilled. If that is true, Then we must also have to disclaim Isaiah, Daniel, Jeremiah, Saint John and many others (in fact all others making prophecies in eschatology) who have prophecies yet to be fulfilled. And then to pull Deuteronomy 18:20 as a sole hinge to supposedly prove that Joseph Smith wasn't a Prophet, because he was killed- allowed to be killed- martyred, (hmm like Jesus and the Apostles?) was pitiful. The verse itself that they set forth, in stating "THAT PROPHET SHALL DIE" presupposes that if this verse is applicable to Joseph at all, then HE WAS A PROPHET. I sincerely hope that readers will recognize the spirit of Christ is not one of contention as they see the apostle Paul's fulfillment of scripture as these 2 writers "Profess themselves wise, ..becoming fools." My heart aches for those who will be mislead by it's message, which is easy to see thru if one will actually look under the guidance of the Holy Spirit for themselves at the issues. Their type statements and logic would teach me that Jesus actually did sin because he was rude to, and destroyed the possessions of, those in the Temple when he cleansed it. Yet we know there is more to the purpose and truth of that story. Even so, that is the type of surface scanning, attempt at objectivity taken in this book. I trashed it.

My review will be brief since a multitude of other reviewers dictated my thoughts about this book. I do give Weldon and Ankerberg the credit of doing a good job of research in this book. They analyze Mormon documents and appear to have a sophisticated knowledge of the Momron Church. However, my praise really stops there. The books makes several errors in its abstraction of evidence from out-of-context situations. Often the authors regard minute points in the Mormon faith far beyond their significance. They harp on points that really don't matter in the larger scheme. The result is that one must sort though a mess of writing before coming to a final conclusion. This makes the book very exacting to read. I suggest one reads something else before tackling the arcana these two authors invent.

Ankerberg and Weldon are a powerful, educated (at least 6 postgraduate degrees between the two of them) writing team with dozens of books to their credit. This book is a condensed version of their earlier book, Behind the Mask of Mormonism. They research the Bible, original and primary Mormon resources, and deliver a well-reasoned comparison of Mormonism and Christianity. Read this book and ponder truth.

I do not agree or believe in Mormonism myself, but this book is total and utter immaturity. It is like Jack Chick's badly-drawn anti-Catholic propaganda, only prettier looking.

PEOPLE, LIVE AND LET LIVE. So WHAT if Mormons believe what they do? They can believe God is the Easter Bunny for all I care! As long as they aren't hurting anyone, what does it matter? If you all claim to be TRUE followers of Christ, then go and do what he commanded: be kind, loving, charitable and so forth. NOT sit around and write hate literature and make yourselves richer by demeaning people whose only crime is having different views from you.

All I have to say is if you have a question, go to the source. I don't care how many degrees, doctorates or whatever these authors have, they are not LDS and are just trying to discredit the religion. I would suggest to any person who is searching for answers about the LDS religion to go to a member of that religion and ask. Someone who is not LDS is going to twist things to their own way to make people believe the way they do.

(I put one star because there isn't an option to put zero stars.)