Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Mormonism Unmasked

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Response to Mormonism Unmasked

A FAIR Analysis of: 'Mormonism Unmasked', a work by author: R. Philip Roberts

This is an index of claims made in this work with links to corresponding responses within FairMormon Answers. An effort has been made to provide the author's original sources where possible.

Chapter 1: Mormons on Your Doorstep

Summary: Chapter 1: "Mormons on Your Doorstep" is a fictionalized account of a series of encounters between Latter-day Saint missionaries and an investigator family. There are no glaring inaccuracies in this chapter, although the "investigator" family is a little too ideal. This chapter sets the stage for the remainder of the book.

Chapter 2: The Marketing of an Image

Summary: Responses to specific critical or unsupported claims made in "Chapter 2: The Marketing of an Image" indexed by page number.

Jump to Subtopic:

• Response to claim: 16 - "Mormonism therefore practices proselytization, of the conversion of a person, not just to faith in the Christ of Mormonism but to the Mormon Church itself"
• Response to claim: 16 - converts to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are encouraged to "renounce the validity of their own denominations"
• Response to claim: 17 - the Book of Mormon is "fallacious" and that it contradicts "all that historians and anthropologists know about the Americas"
• Response to claim: 18 - Mormons teach that if the whole family "obeys and serves the church, then they will spend eternity together"
• Response to claim: 19 - the concept of performing ordinances for deceased relatives is contrary to the Bible
• Response to claim: 19-20 - "Generally the claim of the LDS Church to be the one true Church, the fact that LDS baptism is essential for eternal progression, and questions raised about the integrity of the Bible are not mentioned by the missionaries to potential converts"
• Response to claim: 20 - Mormonism "adds a nonbiblical dimension" to the law of tithing by "teaching that tithing is essential to gain the celestial kingdom
• Response to claim: 21 - "since the general authorities of Mormonism are comprised of business executives, there is a built-in stratum of money-making minds within the church hierarchy"
• Response to claim: 22 - Joseph Smith stated that "all Christian denominations were wrong, their confessions an abomination, and their professors and members corrupt"
• Response to claim: 25 - "due to the negative connotation of the word Mormon and its identification with anti-Christian beliefs, now the 'Mormons urge use of formal name'-The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints"
• Response to claim: 25 - "on the surface, Mormons sometimes look and sound Christian"

Chapter 3: The Making of Religion

Summary: Responses to specific critical or unsupported claims made in "Chapter 3: The Making of Religion" indexed by page number.

Jump to Subtopic:

• Response to claim: 27 - Joseph Smith: "I have more to boast of than ever any man had"
• Response to claim: 28 - “During this time, Joseph and his father became increasingly engaged in folk magic, using magical seer stones and divining rods to look for buried treasure and lost items”
• Response to claim: 28 - “Due to a tremendous revival in his neighborhood in 1820, Joseph Smith became concerned about which church he should join”
• Response to claim: 29 - The author claims that Joseph “did not publish his account of his first vision until 1842”
• Response to claim: 30- The author claims that “the revival that Smith described…did not happen until 1824-25, not in the year 1820”
• Response to claim: 30 - The author states that “as of 1820, Joseph Smith was teaching that the Father and the Son both had physical bodies”
• Response to claim: 30 - The author states that the “early documents of Mormonism show that during the 1820s and early 1830s, Smith was teaching there was only one God”
• Response to claim: 30 - Joseph Smith’s “plural god doctrine was not put forward until the 1840s in Nauvoo, Illinois”
• Response to claim: 30 - In Joseph’s 1832 First Vision account, he said he was fifteen when “the Lord” appeared to him
• Response to claim: 30 - In his 1835 First Vision account, Joseph stated the he saw “many angels”
• Response to claim: 30 - in the 1832 account, Joseph “mentioned that he had already concluded that all churches were in apostasy before he went into the woods to pray
• Response to claim: 30 - the “earliest publication to print a ‘full history’ of the rise of Mormonism, the ‘’Messenger and Advocate’’, failed to mention Smith’s vision in 1820
• Response to claim: 31 - Joseph Smith “engaged in folk magic and was occasionally hired to use his magical stone"
• Response to claim: 31 - The author notes that in 1826 Joseph was charged with being a “disorderly person” and “glass looker”
• Response to claim: 31 - “Did he use the Urim and Thummim, prepared by God and stored with the plates, to translate the record, or did he use the chocolate-colored stone found in Mr. Chase’s well?”
• Response to claim: 32 - The author claims that Joseph attempted to “join the Methodist Church in 1828, eight years after the Father and Son allegedly told him that all the churches were apostate
• Response to claim: 33 - “the LDS concept of a total apostasy contradicts Christ’s promise that ‘I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it”
• Response to claim: 33 - the Book of Hebrews “explains that the Aaronic priesthood was brought to an end with the death of Christ and that Christ is our only eternal High Priest ‘after the order of Melchizedek’”
• Response to claim: 33 - the Church was originally named “The Church of Christ,” followed by “The Church of the Latter Day Saints"
• Response to claim: 34 - Joseph received the promise that a temple in Independence, Missouri would be “reared in this generation"
• Response to claim: 35 - The author states that Joseph Smith predicted that the Lord would come within “fifty-six years”
• Response to claim: 35 - The 1835 edition of the Doctrines and Covenants contained “major revisions to already published revelations"
• Response to claim: 36 - The 1835 Doctrine and Covenants included a declaration that “one man should have one wife”
• Response to claim: 36 - Oliver Cowdery referred to this relationship as a “dirty, nasty, filthy affair of his and Fanny Alger’s"
• Response to claim: 36-37 - Joseph secretly practiced polygamy “through the rest of his life, always with denials”
• Response to claim: 37 - "Obviously, these papyri do not relate to the Abraham of the Old Testament, as Joseph Smith claimed"
• Response to claim: 37 - “Smith turned once again to treasure hunting to solve the church’s financial problems” by going to Salem, Massachusetts to look for treasure in the basement of a house there
• Response to claim: 38 - Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon created the impression that the Kirtland Safety Society was “created by God, that it had a sacred mission, and thus was invincible”
• Response to claim: 38 - “Mormon leaders organized a sort of secret church police called the ‘Danites’”
• Response to claim: 40 - Joseph incorporated many elements of Masonry into the temple endowment ceremony
• Response to claim: 41-42 - The author discusses the Council of Fifty
• Response to claim: 43 - The author notes that “two guns were smuggled” into Carthage Jail and that Joseph and Hyrum “using the guns that had been smuggled in to them...tried to defend themselves"
• Response to claim: 44 - “nine of the LDS apostles were charged with counterfeiting, and to avoid arrest, the fled in the night”

Chapter 4: Polytheism Reborn

Summary: Responses to specific critical or unsupported claims made in "Chapter 4: Polytheism Reborn" indexed by page number.

Jump to Subtopic:

• Response to claim: 46 - The author states that "not only does the LDS church teach that there are three gods in the Godhead, but that there are other gods as well"
• Response to claim: 46 - The author claims that the LDS church teaches that "God has not always been God"
• Response to claim: 46 - The author states that the Old and New Testaments say that there is "only one absolute, holy God"
• Response to claim: 47 - The author states that Joseph Smith taught that God was once a "finite man on another world"
• Response to claim: 49 - The author states that the Bible cannot be used to attribute human characteristics (body parts) to God, and that John declared that "God is a spirit"
• Response to claim: 49 - That author states that Mormons believe in an "infinite regress" of gods, and that if this is true, then "no gods could have ever come to exist"
• Response to claim: 53 - The author states that nothing in the scriptures indicates that God has a wife
• Response to claim: 54 - The author discusses the Mormon concept that "Jesus and Lucifer are our older brothers"
• Response to claim: 55 - The author asks, "Do Men become Gods?"
• Response to claim: 56 - The author notes that Mormons do not believe that the world was created "out of nothing"
• Response to claim: 57 - The author claims that the Book of Mormon does not support a plurality of gods

Chapter 5: Confronting the Mormon Jesus

Summary: Responses to specific critical or unsupported claims made in "Chapter 5: Confronting the Mormon Jesus" indexed by page number.

Jump to Subtopic:

• Response to claim: the "most important single error" of Mormonism is to have "reduced Jesus from his deserved status as the infinite and eternal Son of God"
• Response to claim: 69-70 - The author claims that "LDS theology teaches that Jesus was no different essentially than any other human child of God"
• Response to claim: 70 - "Jesus was conceived, not by the Holy Spirit, but by a special physical visitation of God the heavenly father to earth"
• Response to claim: 70 - The author claims that Mormons do not worship the "Real Jesus"

Chapter 6: This is Good News?

Summary: Responses to specific critical or unsupported claims made in "Chapter 6: This Is Good News?" indexed by page number.

Jump to Subtopic:

• Response to claim: 77-78 - Jesus promised that his Church would never be destroyed
• Response to claim: 78 - the first "fallacy" of Mormonism is that it claims that the Church's teaching are the same as those of the early Church and that it is a restoration of that Church
• Response to claim: 78 - the second "fallacy" of Mormonism is the claim that there was a great Apostasy
• Response to claim: 82 - Mormons believe that "both Adam and Eve lost their purely 'spiritual state' and became physical beings"
• Response to claim: 82 - The author claims that "Mormon thinkers speak of Adam and Eve as therefore fulfilling God's will, not having sinned at all"
• Response to claim: 84 - The author attempts to distinguish between what he calls the "Mormon Jesus" and the Jesus of the Bible
• Response to claim: 85 - "Mormonism also claims that Christ's death brought salvation to an 'infinite number of earths'"
• Response to claim: 86 - The author claims that Mormons believe that "most of the inhabitants of the terrestrial kingdom, it seems, are inactive or at least not fully faithful Mormons"
• Response to claim: 89 - The author states the Mormons believe that "Hell, in fact, is reserved for apostates who leave the church"

Chapter 7: Revealing Revelations

Summary: Responses to specific critical or unsupported claims made in "Chapter 7: Revealing Revelations" indexed by page number.

Jump to Subtopic:

• Response to claim: 95 - The author depicts a dialogue between an evangelical and a Mormon
• Response to claim: 97 - "despite repeated claims to the contrary, the LDS Church does not actually believe the Bible is accurate and can be trusted"
• Response to claim: 98 - the Bible "plays only a small part in the religion of Mormonism anyway"
• Response to claim: 103 - "most LDS descriptions of the translation process say Smith utilized the Urim and Thummim...Years later they stated that Smith actually used a small magic rock called a "seer stone"

Chapter 8: Jesus Is Coming Again

Summary: No claims are currently addressed in this chapter.

Chapter 9: By Whose Authority?

Summary: Responses to specific critical or unsupported claims made in "Chapter 9: By Whose Authority?" indexed by page number.

Jump to Subtopic:

• Response to claim: 138 - "The priesthood of the Old Testament was brought to an end with the death of Christ"
• Response to claim: 138 - The author states that "God set the minimum age of the Aaronic Priesthood at twenty-five"
• Response to claim: 138-139 - "the only Christian priesthood mentioned in the New Testament is the spiritual priesthood of every believer"
• Response to claim: 139 - The author states that "Mormon high priests do not offer any sacrifices, so they are not following the Old Testament pattern"
• Response to claim: 140 - The author claims that 1 Corinthians 12:27-31 refers to "various ministries or gifts in the early church" and that it is "not listing specific offices of the priesthood"
• Response to claim: 140 - The author claims that 1 Corinthians 12:27-31 refers to "various ministries or gifts in the early church" and that it is "not listing specific offices of the priesthood"
• Response to claim: 140 - "Paul lists apostles first and prophets second, indicating their order of importance"
• Response to claim: 140 - The author states that the only men who could be chosen as apostles were those who were an "eyewitness to the full ministry of Jesus"
• Response to claim: 140 - The First Presidency plus the twelve apostles is equal to 15 apostles. The author states that this is not the same as Jesus' twelve apostles
• Response to claim: 141 - The author claims that "bishop is not a separate office in the church but one of the elders"
• Response to claim: 141- a deacon cannot be a 12-year-old boy, but must be mature men and "the husbands of one wife"
• Response to claim: 141 - "Teachers" must be "mature Christians" that are "able to teach others" rather than teenagers
• Response to claim: 141 - The author states the the LDS Church "does not have any pastors"
• Response to claim: 141 - The author states that "Evangelist" and "Patriarch" are not the same
• Response to claim: 142-143- The author claims that the Bible justifies a paid ministry
• Response to claim: 143 - The author claims that "Many of the Mormons are not aware that their apostles receive a salary"
• Response to claim: 144 - Church finances are not made public
• Response to claim: 145 - baptism does not need to be done "by someone holding a special priesthood"
• Response to claim: 145 - "Joseph Smith supposedly restored the original temple ceremony of the Old Testament"
• Response to claim: 147 - The author states that Paul condemned "endless genealogies" and that this contradicts the idea of performing temple marriages for the dead
• Response to claim: 147 - The author claims that Paul was not advocating the practice of baptism for the dead in 1 Corinthians 15:29, and that he was only emphasizing resurrection
• Response to claim: 148 - temples became unnecessary after Christ and that they were replaced by the atonement of Christ

Chapter 10: Meeting the Mormon Challenge

Summary: No claims are currently addressed in this chapter.

Louis Midgley, "Orders of Submission: Review of essays on Mormonism. Southern Baptist Journal of Theology 9/2 (Summer 2005): 1–81."

Louis Midgley,  The FARMS Review, (2006)

Though both The Mormon Puzzle and Mormonism Unmasked attack the Church of Jesus Christ and the faith of Latter-day Saints, the book is less irenic than the video. However, they are both well within the genre of aggressively adversarial "evangelism" that is typical of the countercult industry; they are not what one might expect from officials in a respectable, sophisticated, mainline Protestant denomination. Latter-day Saints seem to have ignored Mormonism Unmasked. Critical attention was, instead, focused more on The Counterfeit Gospel of Mormonism, on the widely distributed video, and on the accompanying packet of anti-Mormon literature.

In addition to the sinister mask on the cover of Mormonism Unmasked and the lurid title setting the tone, the back cover declares that this volume will "lift the veil from one of the greatest deceptions in the history of religion." Roberts claims to have demonstrated that "Mormonism is a fabricated and artificial form of Christianity. It is a new religion produced by the false prophet Joseph Smith." Other similar highly adversarial packaging sets the stage for the actual contents of this book. Readers of Mormonism Unmasked are promised, with much florid rhetoric, that within the pages of this book they will learn how to "expose and put an end to their false teachings" (back cover). However, the book does not spell out exactly how Baptists who are inflamed by what they find in Mormonism Unmasked are "to put an end" to LDS teachings.