The New Mormon Challenge

by Francis J. Beckwith; Carl Mosser; Paul Owen

Publisher:

Zondervan

, 2002

Overview

Written by an international team of respected Christian scholars, this freshly researched rebuttal of Mormon truth will aid those sharing the gospel with Mormons and those investigating Mormonism on their own. It will help readers to accurately understand Mormonism through biblical, historical, scientific, philosophical, and theological discussions.

Contents

Top Highlights

“The more one studies the differences between lds and orthodox Christian theologies, the more apparent it becomes that the chief differences from which most others stem is this: while the orthodox Christian traditions all affirm that there is but one God who is the absolute Creator of all other reality, Mormonism has historically denied the absolute creation of the world and has affirmed a plurality of deities. The chief point of theological dispute between Christians and Latter-day Saints, then, is whether there is one unique God who is a true Creator or not.” (Page 23)

“Today people are more often attracted to Mormonism’s high moral values and its stress on the importance of families.” (Page 29)

“Even the world’s foremost authority on the Pseudepigrapha, James Charlesworth, acknowledges parallels between the Pseudepigrapha and the Book of Mormon that he describes as ‘important parallels … that deserve careful examination.’⁵⁷ Since many of the texts in which such parallels are found were not even discovered until the twentieth century, Mormons challenge the world to explain them apart from Smith’s claim to divine revelation. They in effect ask: ‘Is it really rational to believe that a New York farm boy recreated so many elements of the ancient world all by himself? Could anyone in the nineteenth century have pulled this off?’” (Page 76)

“Mormonism was birthed, in part, as a radical exercise in Christian apologetics. Although Smith and his followers developed a movement that held intellectual appeal to potential converts in the nineteenth century, they did not, in the process, restore a pristine Christianity immune to all of ‘apostate’ Christianity’s shortcomings. Rather, they so changed the contents of Christianity as to create a new religious movement, one that, as subsequent chapters will show, faces very serious intellectual problems of its own.” (Page 29)

Praise for the Print Edition

I applaud the sensitivity and understanding invested in this enormous work.

—Ravi Zacharias

Product Details

• Title: The New Mormon Challenge
• Authors: Francis J. Beckwith, Carl Mosser, Paul Owen
• Publisher: Zondervan
• Print Publication Date: 2002
• Logos Release Date: 2011
• Pages: 536
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
• Subjects: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints › Apologetic works; Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints › Doctrines
• ISBNs: 9780310493693, 9780310231943, 0310493692, 0310231949
• Resource ID: LLS:NEWMORMON
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2022-09-30T01:47:24Z

About the Authors

Francis J. Beckwith is professor of philosophy and church-state studies, and codirector of the program in philosophical studies of religion in the Institute for Studies of Religion, at Baylor University in Waco, Texas. A graduate of Fordham University and the Washington University School of Law, St. Louis, his books include Law, Darwinism, and Public Education: The Establishment Clause ad the Challenge of Intelligent Design, To Everyone An Answer: A Case for the Christian Worldview, and Do the Right Thing: Readings in Applied Ethics & Social Philosophy.

Carl Mosser has published significant articles on Mormonism in both evangelical and Mormon journals.

Paul Owen is assistant professor of Bible and religion at Montreat College. He has published significant articles on Mormonism in both evangelical and Mormon journals. He lives in Asheville, North Carolina.