08AR13-03

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Apologia Report 13:3

January 25, 2008

Subject: Hidden Gospels? Great response from Christian History mag

In this issue:

EVANGELICALISM - identifying distinctives between USA and UK

GNOSTICISM - Christian History magazine knocks one out of the park

MORMONISM - Romney bid spotlights ever more LDS worldview oddities

SCRIPTURE, GENERAL - contrasting global promotional efforts behind the Bible and the Koran

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EVANGELICALISM

As one learns about evangelicalism in the United Kingdom, it becomes clear that there are differences in the movement between the US and the UK. If you've often wondered at this, you may be interested in Richard Turnbull's recent book, Anglican and Evangelical? [1]. Reviewer Vaughan Roberts reports that the book "seeks to describe what it means to be both Anglican and Evangelical. In so doing it aims to help those outside the Evangelical tradition to understand a movement that seems set to play an increasingly significant role in the Church of England and wider Anglican Communion, and also to urge those within the tradition to understand and return to their roots." Turnbull "focuses on four points: Authority (founded on Scripture as the full and clear world of God), Doctrine (focuses on the substitutionary atonement of Christ), Spirituality (a personal relationship with Jesus), and Transformation (a concern for both individual change through conversion and social action). This is mainstream Evangelicalism in the tradition of Newton, Shaftesbury, Ryle, and Stott." Expository Times, 119:3 - 2007, pp136-137.

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GNOSTICISM

The Fall 2007 issue of Christian History & Biography magazine constitutes an excellent introductory apologetic regarding modern gnosticism, its roots in the past, and applications to the present. Numerous features treat the reliability of the New Testament in opposition to the many false gospels and attacks against traditional Christian faith mounted over the past decades in popular culture. If you've experienced and/or anticipate a run-in with someone who doubts the reliability of the New Testament message - due to the likes of The Da Vinci Code, New Age influences, or liberal scholars - you would do well to snag this publication. Few tools offer its blend of engaging graphic design with a concise yet authoritative and soundly evangelical response.

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MORMONISM

"From Polygamy to Propriety" (no byline) -- this main feature in the December 22 issue of The Economist (pp39-41) consists of three full pages because, as the subtitle explains, "America's next president might, conceivably, be a Mormon." One of the sections within addresses the subject of what Mormons believe with a substantial amount of it entertaining questions of credibility. The Book of Mormon, the story tells us, "reads like a pastiche of the King James Bible, and contains some startling theology. The story of its origins, however, raises sceptical eyebrows. ... "Parts of the text are supposedly a contemporary account of events that took place more than 1,500 years ago. Yet historians note various anachronisms, such as horses, steel and wheat. Neither the archaeological record nor any account besides the Book of Mormon suggests their presence in pre-Colombian America. "Most religions make extraordinary claims. What distinguishes Mormonism from more established faiths is that its founding revelations occurred quite recently. Perhaps because of this, they have been vigorously challenged. For example, in 1835, [founder Joseph] Smith bought some ancient Egyptian papyruses. One, he said, had been written by Abraham, the Jewish patriarch. He translated it and published it as the Book of Abraham. At the time, no one in America could read hieroglyphics, but when professional Egyptologists first saw facimlies of Smith's papyrus, they recognised them as fragments from an ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead that bore no relation to his translation. ... "The very early Mormons were quite liberal for their time: their neighbours in Missouri complained that they did not own slaves. But Mormon scriptures say some harsh things about dark-skinned people and until 1978 blacks were barred from the priesthood, which, in Mormon parlance, includes more or less any devout male over the age of 12."

Along similar lines is "A Mormon's Ultimate Doorbell" by Laurie Goodstein (New York Times, Dec 9 '07, n.p.) which observes that Romney's bid has "jump-started the discussion about what makes Mormonism problematic." For example: "Mike Licona, the director of apologetics and interfaith evangelism at the North American Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, is publishing a three-part series on what he sees as errors in Mormon teachings. The most troubling, he said in an interview, is the Mormon concept of multiple gods, and the belief that men can become gods of their own worlds. "The church has walked a fine line for years between emphasizing what it has in common with traditional Christianity and not shying away from its distinctions." Goodstein makes another broad observation when she acknowledges that "Mormon theology is a challenge to all Christian denominations." When Richard J. Mouw, president of Fuller Theological Seminary, is "asked why the hostility to Mormonism is so enduring, he said that there is a 'history of nastiness' between the sides that stretches back to Smith's declaration that the Christian concept of the Trinity - Father, Son and Holy Ghost - was a great apostasy." Clear enough? <http://tinyurl.com/yrwhkz>

The fruit of all this increased scrutiny cuts both ways. In "Mormons on a Mission," Daniel Brook concludes that the LDS have "the most successful missionary force on the planet. ... "Though the church now has more foreign members than Americans, the missionary corps and church hierarchy remain overwhelmingly white and Middle American. ... "Any small evangelical church in the Sun Belt can send members down to Honduras to preach in Spanish. But only the Mormons, due to the scale and sophistication of the MTC [Missionary Training Center in Salt Lake City], can preach the gospel in Hmong and Haitian Creole. Their willingness to study obscure tongues helps them corner the market on conversions in certain parts of the world. ... "They also believe that when Jesus returns to Earth, the New Jerusalem will be located on the Missouri side of suburban Kansas City." The Week, Sep 21 '07, pp44-45.

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SCRIPTURE, GENERAL

"The Battle of the Books" (no byline) -- subtitled "The Bible v the Koran," includes some interesting facts. "Americans buy more than 20m new Bibles every year to add to the four that the average American has at home. Yet the state of American biblical knowledge is abysmal." This is explained, and then contrasted to the state of affairs regarding the Koran, which is comparably poor. The story concludes that "the battle of the books is certainly at the heart of the battle between the two religions. People who get hold of Bibles or Korans may not read them or understand them. Unless they are introduced to the books they will certainly remain heathens. Even an imperfect report on the state of the battle tells us a lot about the world's two great missionary religions. "The Christians entered the 21st century with a big head start. There are 2 billion of them in the world compared with 1.5 billion Muslims. But Islam had a better 20th century than Christianity. The world's Muslim population grew from 200m in 1900 to its current levels. Christianity has shrivelled in Christendom's European heart. Islam is resurgent across the Arab world. Many Christian scholars predict that Islam will overtake Christianity as the world's largest religion by 2050." The reader is then given reasons which hedge on the likelihood of this outcome. One of the strongest is that Muslims are "uncomfortable with translations. The Holy Book says sternly that 'we have sent no messenger save with the tongue of his people.' Today most Muslims tolerate translations - there are now more than 20 English translations - but do so reluctantly. Most translations are as literal as possible." And, though the greatest Muslim honor is to have memorized the Koran which "means 'recitation'" in the mandatory Arabic, the story notes that "Many students of the Holy Book do not understand much of what they are memorising" because they lack literacy. The Economist, Dec 22 '07, pp80-82.

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Sources, Monographs:

1 - Anglican and Evangelical? by Richard Turnbull (Continuum, 2007, paperback, 178 pages) <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0826481647/apologiareport>

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