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Offenders for a Word: How Anti-Mormons Play Word Games to Attack Latter-day Saints

Daniel C. Peterson and Stephen D. Ricks, Provo, Utah: Foundation for Ancient Research & Mormon Studies (FARMS) Reprint Edition, 1998, 6x9" softbound, 255 pages. ISBN: 0934893357

This book reveals the tactics many anti-Mormons employ in attacking The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In clear, straightforward terms, the authors explain the true beliefs of the church and how to see through the word games that critics use to attack it. Offenders for a Word answers criticsÆ objections to Latter-day Saint beliefs regarding the Godhead, polygamy, salvation by grace and works, eternal progression, the premortal existence, the role of the Prophet Joseph Smith, the nature of the Holy Ghost and much more.

Contents:

• 
  An Investigation of Definitions

• Does the New Testament Define "Christianity"

• 
  Do Denials That Latter-day Saints Are Christians Find Support in the Early
  Church?
• 
  Can the Councils and Creeds Be Used to Banish Mormonism from Christendom?
• 
  Specific Reasons Given for Denying That Latter-day Saints Are Christians



1. Mormons Worship a False Christ

2. 
   Mormons Deny Diety of Christ
3. 
   A physical or Anthropomorphic God
4. 
   Man Can Become Like God
5. 
   Definition of Holy Ghost
6. 
   Creation ex nihilo
7. 
   Premortal Existence
8. 
   Built on Joseph Smith
9. 
   Organization vs. Invisible Church
10. 
    Baptism for the Dead, Secrecy
11. 
    Bible as Sole Authority
12. 
    Virgin Birth
13. 
    Mormons don't use the Cross
14. 
    Doctrine of Original Sin
15. 
    Doctrine of Salvation by Grace Alone
16. 
    Justification by Faith, Salvation now
17. 
    Lucifer - Brother of Jesus

18. Another Gospel

19. 
    Blood Atonement
20. 
    Polygamy
21. 
    Its Theology is in Error
22. 
    Don't Claim They Are Christians

• 
  Conclusion

Review Excerpt:

"This is a great book that talks about many concepts that are traditionally misrepresented about Latter-day Saints." --S. Gordon, California, 2004.

A native of southern California, Daniel C. Peterson received a bachelor's degree in Greek and philosophy from Brigham Young University (BYU) and, after several years of study in Jerusalem and Cairo, earned his Ph.D. in Near Eastern Languages and Cultures from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). Dr. Peterson is a professor of Islamic Studies and Arabic at BYU, as well as a member of the board and associate executive director of its Institute for the Study and Preservation of Ancient Religious Texts, which has produced a computer-digitized version of the Dead Sea Scrolls, electronically recovered damaged documents from the ruins of Herculaneum, Petra, and elsewhere, and is engaged in joint publishing ventures with such institutions as the Vatican Apostolic Library in Rome.

He is the executive editor of BYU's three-part Middle Eastern Texts Initiative, which includes not only the Islamic Translation Series but two sister series: Graeco-Arabic Sciences and Philosophy, and Eastern Christian Texts. These series publish dual-language editions of classical works of medieval Arabic and Persian philosophy, Arabic medicine and science, and early Coptic, Syriac, and Christian Arabic literature. (The University of Chicago Press distributes the volumes.) He is the author of several books and numerous articles on Islamic and Latter-day Saint topics. Dr. Peterson served in the Switzerland Znrich Mission, and, for approximately eight years, on the Gospel Doctrine writing committee for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. As Chairman of the Board of Trustees for the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies (FARMS) he has been referred to as the "Chief apologist for the LDS Church." Dr. Peterson also edits the FARMS Review of Books.

Stephen D. Ricks earned a doctorate in Near Eastern Religions from the University of California, Berkeley, and the Graduate Theological Union, following studies at Brigham Young University and the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He is professor of Hebrew and cognate learning in the Department of Asian and Near Eastern Languages at Brigham Young University.

Ricks has served as president of the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies and as chairman of the FARMS board, as the founding editor of the Journal of Book of Mormon Studies, and as associate dean of general education and honors at BYU.

His publications include Lexicon of Inscriptional Qatabanian, published by the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome; Western Language Literature on Pre-Islamic Central Arabia: An Annotated Bibliography, published by the American Institute of Islamic Studies in Denver, Colorado; The Apocalypse in Germany, a translation of Klaus Vondung's Die Apokalypse in Deutschland, published by the University of Missouri Press; and (edited with Donald W. Parry) New Perspectives on the Dead Sea Scrolls, published by E. J. Brill in Leiden, The Netherlands. He has written widely on topics relating to ancient Israelite religion, the temple in antiquity, and the Book of Mormon.

A review of this book can be found in the following BYU Studies issue:

Title: Offenders for a Word: How Anti-Mormons Play Word Games to Attack Latter-day Saints

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