Product Description

Mormonism Unmasked: Confronting The Contradictions Between Mormon Beliefs and True Christianity Mormons tend to be model citizens-friendly, honest, hopeful, kind-everything that should be expected f

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #68769 in Books
• Published on: 1998-05-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 184 pages

Customer Reviews

Good at contrasting and comparing Christianity and Mormonism
After reading the reviews about this book by others on Amazon, I half-way expected an Ann Coulter-style rant that lacked anything in the way of true comparison or fact. However, I was pleasantly surprised. You have to read the entire title though to know if it is for you. It is not just "Mormonism Unmasked", instead it is a true comparison between the beliefs held by Christians based on the Holy Bible and those held by Mormons. Therefore, it assumes you are already a Christian and its purpose is to show that Mormonism deviates from Christianity in important and essential ways. If you are not already a Christian, you will probably not be pursuaded by the arguments in this book.
Therefore, this book will probably not pursuade any Mormon to abandon his or her beliefs. From those Mormons I have engaged in conversation on the matter, they are already aware that there are contradictions between LDS writings and those in the Bible, and even between LDS writings of Joseph Smith at one point in time and another. They just attribute it to a matter of "continuing revelation" from God to man. Also remember that Mormons believe the entire church was "lost" from the time that the Romans adopted Christianity until Joseph Smith restored it. Thus they could just attribute deviations between the Bible and their own LDS writings to errors that were introduced into the Bible by uninspired and even corrupt men during this "lost" period.
It is hard for someone to renounce beliefs they have probably held since childhood, especially if it would cost them their friends, family, and entire way of life. After all, if you were born and raised in Algeria, do you have any doubt that you would be a devout Muslim, convinced of the absolute correctness of that religion? Therefore I would recommend the book to Christians who want to know why Mormonism is not Christianity, but don't expect any miracles of evangelism to proceed from it.

An excellent resource for a difficult task
Trying to reason out of scripture is a difficult task with mormons, as many are familiar with just enough of the Bible to be able to agree with much of Christian thought. The average mormon will tell you: they believe in God, they believe in Jesus, that He is the only way to salvation, they can agree with the BASIC terminology of grace and faith. This work gives you a deeper understanding of what comes next. For the Christian, it seems that we agree on an awful lot, but it is harder to pry out of mormons their belief in the need for a number of works, all centered on the mormon church, to ensure the "highest" level of heaven. Despite some typical reviews below, you CANNOT learn what mormons believe by reading the book of mormon. The ideas of mormon/Masonic temple worship, polygamy as a "new and everlasting" covenant, plurality of gods, man's potential to become a god, the word of wisdom, the "restored" priesthood, etc are nowhere to be found in the book of mormon, and are in many ways refuted by Joseph Smith's writings in the book of mormon before he started his ever-shifting changes in doctrine. Modern mormons try hard to pass themselves off as just another Christian church, albeit with some unique modern doctrine. If mormons are going to send missionaries to our doors, they should have no objections to this book. The characterization of the questions raised in this book as being rehashed ignores the reality of the issues they raise and the lack of credible response by mormons. This is not the best work on the subject out there, but it is valuable as a resource tool.

Author seems to have done his homework
R. Philip Roberts gives a very comprehensive review of some of the beliefs of the Mormon church. As a witness to several mormons, I found this book very helpful in understanding the parts of mormonism that the missionaries will NOT tell you. This book is packed with information rather than persuasive arguments, and places an emphasis on witnessing to mormons, not proving them wrong. At the end of each chapter is a very helpful table called "Witnessing Points" which tells christians what issues to target when speaking to a mormon. Each chapter very clearly (using tables) contrasts the differences between christianity and mormon beliefs. Reading some of the other reviews, I have to clarify that this book was written for christians to understand the reasons why mormonism is a false religion(and definitely not christian!), so I wouldn't expect mormons to have a high opinion of it.