A prominent evangelical leader observed:
"The problem with the typical evangelical historical effort to find a smoking gun in Mormon teaching is that it hasn’t been very successful.
In 1998 two evangelical scholars, Carl Mosser and Paul Owen, authored a lengthy essay in a journal published by Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, entitled “Mormon Scholarship, Apologetics and Evangelical Neglect: Losing the Battle and Not Knowing It?”
The title summarized their story nicely. They argued that Mormon scholars had pretty much provided adequate responses to evangelical criticisms of Mormonism’s historical claims. And even where those Mormon responses haven’t been compelling to those of us who continue to be critical of Mormon claims, the Mormon thinkers have at least succeeded in showing that the situation is more complex than would appear from the evangelical critiques.
In short, Mosser and Owen argued, “the sophistication and erudition of LDS apologetics has risen considerably while evangelical responses have not.”
And to make things worse, they reported, evangelicals have continued to rehearse their standard arguments against Mormonism without even demonstrating any awareness of the relevant writings by Mormon scholars."
Source: Talking with Mormons: An Invitation to Evangelicals; Mouw
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