Description: Restoring the Ancient Church Joseph Smith & Early Christianity Bickmore LDS Mormon__________________________________________ Restoring the Ancient Church - Joseph Smith & Early Christianity by Barry Robert Bickmore Published by Foundation for Apologetic & Research (1999) Condition:Like New Softcover Book! The binding is tight and all pages within are bright white with no writing, underlining, high-lighting, rips, tears, bends, or folds. The covers are near perfect as can be seen in my photos. You will be happy with this one! Always handled and packaged with care! Buy with confidence from a seller who takes the time to show you the details and not use just stock photos. Please check out all my pictures and email with any questions! Thanks for looking! About the Book:This book carefully, meticulously examines the writings of the Early Christians and Ante-Nicean Fathers and examines the doctrines embraced by them throughout the centuries after Christ. Some Book Reviews:5/5 stars - The "Orthodox" Christians will not like the truthI must commend Reviewer: David Baines - Look at it this way ..., January 7, 2004 He is absolutely correct. Even some scholars from mainline Christian sects acknowledge the re-writing of scripture and development of non-biblical doctrine by Church fathers. These fathers deserve all the credit in the world for saving Christianity, as they saw it. However, many of the creeds and doctrines they made up diluted and confused the teachings of the original apostles. Below I submit a couple of books that support what Barry Bickmore has to say in this book. If anyone can read these books and still say orthodox Chrisian sects and the Catholic Church are strictly Bible based, then they are very reluctant learners:The Father Is Not the Son - 1890828076How Greek Philosophy Corrupted the Christian Concept of God - 0882906070--R. Bartlett 5.0 out of 5 stars - Confirmation of a Self StudyThis really is an excellent book. It's hardly the "be all" source of information about early Christian doctrines. It's not trying to be. Bickmore is a Mormon and he is obviously just showing that Mormon doctrines that are condemned today were taught anciently by some of the greatest heroes of Catholicism/Protestantism. (Athanasius, for example.) This is hardly surprising considering diversity of beliefs back then. Bickmore explains his purpose upfront and then proves it beyond doubt. Will it convince you to be a Mormon? Nope, not even close. But then that wasn't the point, was it? I have studied this topic quite a bit myself. After a friend of a different religion from mine claimed that there were always people who believed like him, I decided to take up the challenge and study early Christian writings up to the 3rd century. I was shocked at what I found. The early Christians are a very diverse group of people that believed a lot of different things. (A condition not unlike today, I suppose.) They certainly did *not* subscribe to many things the Western Christian world (i.e. Catholicism and Protestantism) holds near and dear today. The Nicene creed was certainly not part of early Christian beliefs. Whether you choose to see this as departure from an original truth or development to a better understanding of the truth is entirely a matter of point of view. You can't prove either position. I was delighted that after my own personal study, I found that Bickmore had found the exact same things I did. It confirmed that independent people studying the same subject would draw very similar conclusions. Did Bickmore find any thing that wasn't readily and obviously available? Not really. In a few days time I had found the same jarring differences between early Christian doctrines and modern Christian doctrines. Bickmore just found a lot more support for it due to obviously having studied it quite a bit more than me. Were the ancient Christian's Mormons (or any particular religion today) in belief? Nope - not even close. But Barry Bickmore is careful to point this out several times. (A point lost on some of the reviewers here. Did you actually read the book?) It's one of the reasons his book is so good. He's very fair - if somewhat speculative at points. But he tells you when he's speculating. Did the early Christians hold a lot of beliefs that are today condemned by Protestants/Catholics as heretical? (Deification being the most obvious example) Yup. Sorry, get over it. If this bothers you, you can always claim that they were human and they made mistakes as doctrines developed. A believable position, in my view, but you should probably stop condemning other religions for believing similar doctrines to the great heroes of your own religion. Let's face it, that's not a very logical thing to do. Bickmore's purpose was simply to show this inconsistency.--Bruce Nielson 4/5 stars - Provides excellent insight into Mormon beliefs.I have been trying for years to understand Mormon claims that Catholicism is in apostasy from early Christianity as Jesus taught it. Catholics and Mormons alike can agree that Mormonism is a Gnostic religion. Mormons can claim a miraculous restoration, while Catholics can say that Joseph Smith and friends borrowed from Mosheim's history of the church and the Early Church Fathers' accounts of the Gnostic heresies.--Mary
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All returns accepted: ReturnsNotAccepted
Features: Illustrated, 1st Edition
Format: Paperback
Personalize: No
Subject: Religion & Spirituality
Topic: Religious
Book Series: LDS
Vintage: No
Country/Region of Manufacture: United States
Ex Libris: No
Edition: First Edition
Language: English
Publication Year: 1999
Book Title: Restoring the Ancient Church
Intended Audience: Adults, Young Adults
Author: Barry Robert Bickmore
Original Language: English
Narrative Type: Nonfiction
Publisher: Foundation for Apologetic & Research
Inscribed: No
Signed: No
Genre: Spirituality, History
Type: History