Criticism of Mormonism/Books/One Nation Under Gods/Chapter 17

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Contents

Response to claims made in "Chapter 17: Is Mormonism Christian"


A FAIR Analysis of:
One Nation Under Gods
A work by author: Richard Abanes

375 epigraph (PB)

Claim
  • Gordon B. Hinckley is listed as "President, Mormon Church"

Author's source(s)
  • N/A
Response
  • There is no church called the "Mormon Church."
  • Perhaps in this epigraph to a chapter entitled "Is Mormonism Christian?", the author wished to avoid stating the true name of the Church: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints?

375, n3 (PB)

Claim
  • The author presents his second significant reason that people join the Church as "the long-held Mormon notion that Latter-day Saints are innately better than non-Mormons."

Author's source(s)
  • Joseph Fielding Smith, Doctrines of Salvation, vol. 1, 236.
Response
  •  The author's claim is false
  • This claim actually originated with the Tanners. The author also quotes the Tanner's primary source. See: Jerald and Sandra Tanner, The Changing World of Mormonism (Moody Press, 1979), 27.( Index of claims ).
  • Unsurprisingly, there is no mention of gaining a testimony of the Book of Mormon mentioned among the many reasons the author presents for joining the Church—the reason most Latter-day Saints themselves would give.
  • Latter-day Saint culture/Attitude toward non-members

376 (PB)

Claim
  • Does the Church have, as the book claims, a "standard practice" of "not disclosing controversial doctrines?"

Author's source(s)
  • No source provided.
Response

376 (PB)

Claim
  • Did early LDS leaders take a "staunchly anti-Christian stance?"

Author's source(s)
  • No source provided.
Response

377, n8(PB)

Claim
  • Did Joseph actually say that all the churches of Christendom "were all wrong" and that Christian ministers "were all corrupt?"

Author's source(s)
  • Pearl of Great Price, Joseph Smith History 1:19
Response

377 (PB)

Claim
  • Did Joseph claim that all other churches were founded by Satan and part of the "satanic world system?"

Author's source(s)
Response

377, 600n11-14 (PB)

Claim
  • Did LDS leaders spend 150 years calling Christians "derogatory names" and insulting them?

Author's source(s)
Response

378, 601n18-21 (PB)

Claim
  • The book presents a table contrasting "Mormon Beliefs About Jesus" with "Christian Beliefs About Jesus."

Author's source(s)
Response

379 601n22(PB)

Claim
  • Did President Hinckley actually "confess" that Latter-day Saint do not believe in the same 'Jesus' in which non-LDS Christians believe?

Author's source(s)
Response

379-380 603n23 (HB) 601n23 (PB)

Claim
  • Did Bruce R. McConkie discourage people from attempting to form a "personal relationship" with Christ?
  • McConkie said:

"[Y]ou have never heard one of the First Presidency or the Twelve...advocate this excessive zeal that calls for gaining a so-called special and personal relationship with Christ..."

Author's source(s)

Response


380

Claim
  • Is the "LDS teaching" that there exists more than one god is refuted by the Bible?

Author's source(s)
Response

380

Claim
  • If the Bible says that "God will share His glory with no one," then how could one hope to become like Him?

Author's source(s)
Response
  • These verses say God will not give his glory to another. That is, God will not cease to be God or decline in glory. But, the scriptures are clear that God will share his glory with others: "To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne" (Revelation 3:21).
  • Nature of God/Deification of man

380, 603n25 (HB) 601n25 (PB)

Claim
  • Paul said in the Bible that "the natural (or physical) comes first, then comes the spiritual." Why then, did Brigham Young say that people are "made first spiritual, and afterwards temporal?"

Author's source(s)
Response

381, 603n26 (HB) 601n26 (PB)

Claim
  • The author states: "The Christian gospel is the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus (1 Cor. 15:1-4)."
  • The Latter-day Saint gospel, by contrast is represented by a statement by George Q. Cannon, who said to have claimed that LDS believe that "evolution of man until he shall become a god" is "the Gospel of Jesus Christ, believed in by the Latter-day Saints."

Author's source(s)
  • George Q. Cannon, Gospel Truth, vol. 1, 9.
Response

383, 601n29

Claim
  • Do LDS dismiss the Bible's teachings "whenever they contradict official LDS beliefs?"

Author's source(s)
  • Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, 764.
Response
  •  Misrepresentation of source: Elder McConkie wrote simply that "The Church uses the King James Version of the Bible, but acceptance of the Bible is coupled with a reservation that it is true only insofar as translated correctly." Thus, the Bible is scripture, but if the translation or transmission of the text has been corrupted, why ought one to accept it?
  • Latter-day Saints may have a different interpretation of the Bible than the author, or his brand of Christianity. What makes his interpretation valid and another invalid? No two Christian denominations believe in all the same biblical readings.
  • Mormonism and the Bible/Inerrancy
  • Mormonism and the Bible/Textual criticism
  • Bible complete and sufficient?/Sola scriptura

383-4, 601n31

Claim
  • Did LDS leaders repeatedly condemn the Bible?

Author's source(s)
  • Orson Pratt, "The Bible and Tradition, without Further Revelation, an Insufficient Guide," Divine Authenticity fo the Book of Mormon—No. 3," December 1, 1850, 47. Reprinted in Orson Pratt, Orson Pratt's Works, vol. 2.
Response

385

Claim
  • Did the Church present itself as a "Christian organization" only by restricing accurate information about LDS beliefs?

Author's source(s)
  • Author's opinion
Response

385, 601n37-38

Claim
  • Was a "faithful Mormon" excommunicated for "accurately" explaining "Mormon doctrines and history?"
  • Did the Church respond that such information had to be suppressed so that the Church could become more "mainstream" Christian?

Author's source(s)
  • T. LaMar Sleight, letter to Michael Barrett. Quoted in Bill McKeever, "Excommunicated for Publicly Discussing Mormon Doctrine?", Mormonism Researched (Summer 1994), 3.
Response

388

Claim
  • Did Gordon B. Hinckely answer questions about LDS doctrine evasively?

Author's source(s)
  • No source provided.
Response

389, 603n45 (HB)

Claim
  • Gordon B. Hinckley said: "None of you need worry because you read something that was incompletely reported. You need not worry that I do not understand some matters of doctrine. I think I understand them thoroughly."

Author's source(s)
  • Gordon B. Hinckley, October 1997 General Conference Address.
Response

389

Claim
  •  Author's quote: "The masking of Mormonism has continued unabated...Mormonism's smoke-screen of words has served to greatly confuse observers..."

Response

391, n53

Claim
  • Have Latter-day Saints attempted to "infiltrate" Christian churches in order to convert entire congregations?

Author's source(s)
  • Rick Branch, "Mormon Church Infiltrates Christianity," Watchman Expositor, vol. 9, no. 3, 7.
Response

393-400

Claim
  • Is the LDS Church really a "cult?"

Author's source(s)
  • Various
Response

400

Claim
  • The author states that LDS leaders will have to "completely sever its ties with Christianity" in order not to be called a "cult" and gain "legitimacy."

Author's source(s)
  • Author's opinion.
Response

Further reading

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{{To learn more box:responses to: Jesus Christ-Joseph Smith or Search for the Truth DVD}} To learn more about responses to: Jesus Christ-Joseph Smith or Search for the Truth DVD edit
{{To learn more box:responses to: John Dehlin}} To learn more about responses to: John Dehlin edit
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