Make Sure to
Get the New
Notes 
2007 by David A. Prentice
copyright 2003 by David Prentice,
M.Ed., M.A.S.T.
REVISION DATE 09/05/2009
This material is made available by the author
at no charge. It may be reproduced for use in
a Christian environment such as Sunday
schools or Bible classes, but it may not be
used for any commercial purposes.
www.originsresource.org.
2007 by David A. Prentice
?
?
HOW DO YOU
?
KNOW WHAT
YOU KNOW?
Or at least what you think you know?
?
1-1
?
?
2007 by David A. Prentice
Exposing the World’s Beliefs

What must be present, repeatable &
have eyewitnesses?
– Belief

History
Science
Evolution:
– Observable in the present? Yes or No
– Repeatable by humans? Yes or No
– Have eyewitnesses? Yes or No

So, Is Evolution:
– Belief
History
Science
2007 by David A. Prentice
DVD & Class 1 - 2

Questions

What must be present,
repeatable, & have
eyewitnesses

Is evolution presently
happening, is it
repeatable, does it
have eyewitnesses?

So, is evolution
science?
What is evolution?


Answers

Science

No

No

Belief/Religion
2007 by David A. Prentice
DVD & Class 1 - 2


Questions

Answers
What is in the past, &

History
Does Genesis 1-3 have an
eyewitness?
So, is Genesis 1 – 3 belief
or history?

Yes

History

How do they know that?
not repeatable but must
have eyewitnesses



When anyone says
something is fact, we ask
what?
2007 by David A. Prentice
HOW TO TELL SCIENCE FROM STORYTELLING
1. W ___ said
they saw it?
Can I trust
them?
4. H ____ could
I test this
to see if
it’s true?
2. W_____
did they
actually
see?
5. What does
_____have to
say about it?
HOW DO YOU
KNOW THAT?
3. W ___ are they
N __ telling me?
1-25
2007 by David A. Prentice
We Have Lots of
Review to do but
We Want to
Learn About
God, Right?
2007 by David A. Prentice
Let’sAnd
Hold
Him
Give
High
inthe
Our
God
HeartsPraise!
and Smile
2007 by David A. Prentice
???

Does it really matter what you believe?
–

Yes
or
No
“It doesn’t matter what you believe, as long
as you’re sincere.”
– True
or
False
2007 by David A. Prentice
???

“Are all religions just different roads to
heaven?”
– Yes

or
No
“Can anyone really know what happens after
death?”
– Yes
or
No
2007 by David A. Prentice
!
!
!
It Matters What
YOU Believe!
!
1-1
!
!
2007 by David A. Prentice
1. Is there a God?
Yes
No
Can’t know what happens after death
2. Can He communicate if He
Wants to?
No
Can’t know what happens after death
Yes
3. Are there any books that claim
to be words from Him?
No
Yes
Can’t know what happens after death
4. Is there a way to test such
books to see which is really
from Him?
No
Can’t know what happens after death
Yes
WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? TEST THEM!!!
2-1
2007 by David A. Prentice
All Religions Are Not The Same!
2007 by David A. Prentice
Contradictions
All the “Holy
Books”
contradict
each other.
If any one of
them is right,
all the others
have to be
wrong.
2-4
2007 by David A. Prentice
The Mormon Religion
Where Did it Come From?
What Do Mormons Believe?
What’s in the Book of Mormon?
The story of an Israelite family, told by God
to sail to America. Only 1 side worshipped
God. The 2 sides fought until Jesus came to
the Americas. Later, the “bad” side turned
away from God again. So He turned them
dark-skinned. They exterminated the “good”
light-skinned side and lived on as “Native
Americans”. The story was written on a set
of gold plates. Which was later loaned to
Joseph Smith to translate them into the
Book of Mormon.
2-5
2007 by David A. Prentice
Why Can’t We Just Get Along
with Mormons?

Because Mormons believe our Holy Bible is
not enough!

Also, our beliefs are so different that if
theirs are right, then ours must be wrong!
2007 by David A. Prentice
Non-Christian Mormon Doctrines
____ & Jesus
____ used to be a flesh1. The Father
and-blood men.
____ (not woman) can become a
2. Each man
God. (Women can only hope to be chosen by
their husbands to receive eternal life or else
they’ll remain “in the grave”)
____
3. Polygamy:
The more wives and
children they have, the more people will
be in their kingdom
2-6
2007 by David A. Prentice
Non-Christian Mormon Doctrines
___ person they’re
4. Each dead
baptized for becomes part of their
kingdom
_____
5. Sinners must shed their own
blood to be forgiven. (This is actually
why Utah still allows death by firing
squad)
2-6
2007 by David A. Prentice
Non-Christian Mormon Doctrines
1. 7. All souls
____ already exist and new
babies just get old souls with
amnesia.
_____ and
8. Humans may become angels
angels
_____ may become human.
_____
9. There are many inhabited planets
throughout the universe.
2-6
2007 by David A. Prentice
Origin of the Book of Mormon:
What really happened.
1. Smith said he received his vision after
revival broke out in 1820.
• There were no revivals in western New
York in 1820.
2. They say, There were 3 “witnesses” who
actually saw the plates and the angel
1. The “Witnesses” only claimed to see a
vision of the plates, not the plates
themselves. All 3 were later
excommunicated from the church.
2-9
2007 by David A. Prentice
Origin of the Book of Mormon: What really happened.
5. Smith claimed to use Biblical tools to
translate
• Smith did his “translation” by looking
into a “seer stone” placed in his hat. The
plates were not even in the room at the
time.
6. Smith said that the first edition of the Book
of Mormon was the “most correct of any
book on earth.”
• Yet the second edition had at least 3,913
corrections!
2-9
2007 by David A. Prentice
On Page 8 – “Smith’s Translation of the Book of Abraham”
WE’RE FINALLY BACK TO
NEW STUFF!!!
What!?!
2007 by David A. Prentice
SMITH’S “BOOK OF ABRAHAM”
- In 1835, Smith purchased 4 Egyptian mummies and
2 scrolls
- Smith declared one of the scrolls to be the “book of
Abraham” much older than most of the Bible
- Smith used his “seer stone” to translate the book
and recorded his translation in Doctrine and
Covenants (4 lines became 49 verses)
- He also produced Joseph Smith’s Egyptian Alphabet
and Grammar, in which he printed several of the
Egyptian characters and their meanings.
2-10
2007 by David A. Prentice
Sadly the Scrolls were Misplaced
But wait . . .
- In 1967, The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New
York found the scrolls and returned them to the
church!
- The church then admitted that they had a piece
of the scrolls but had hidden it for over 130
years.
- Pictures of the scrolls were published. People
who could actually read Egyptian translated
them to find that they were only directions on
how to embalm bodies
2-10
2007 by David A. Prentice
SMITH’S “BOOK OF ABRAHAM”
Photo from The Changing World of Mormonism,
©1980 by Jerald & Sandra Tanner. Used by permission.
- nothing but an Egyptian burial scroll.
His translation was wrong in every detail.
2-10
2007 by David A. Prentice
How Could Anyone Make Up
Such a Story?
Page 9
- In Smith’s day the Rosetta stone had only been
discovered a few years before he purchased the
scrolls
- The Egyptian language was becoming known but by
a very small percentage of people, normal people like
us and Smith would not have heard about it for years
- So, to most people of the day, Egyptian was a
mystery language that no one knew. It would be
pretty safe to make up a story about something like
that!
2-10
2007 by David A. Prentice
Smith’s Death
- Smith Died in 1844, martyred according to
his church
- In reality, a newspaper had begun printing
things about the Mormon church that he
did not want known
- He died in a gunfight with the town after
he burned down their newspaper printing
office and equipment
2-10
2007 by David A. Prentice
Errors in the
Book of Mormon
- The Mormon’s claim to base their faith on
the Book of Mormon but constantly have
to fix things it says through Doctrine and
Covenants, For example:
- The Book of Mormon condemns
polygamy
- It also says that God the Father and the
Son are one God
2-10
2007 by David A. Prentice
More Errors
- Mormons claim the “Egyptian” language
Smith described was used all over North
America, yet not one inscription has been
found
- The Smithsonian reveals that not one of
the places in North America quoted in the
Book of Mormon has ever been located
2-10
2007 by David A. Prentice
Wrong Alphabet
- The Book of Mormon tells us that Jesus
told the Nephites, “I am the Alpha and
Omega” but also says that the Nephites
left Jerusalem before Greek was written
- Why would Jesus tell them He is the first
and last letter of an alphabet they didn’t
know?
2-10
2007 by David A. Prentice
A GLARING ERROR IN THE
BOOK OF MORMON:
“... the Son of God cometh
upon the face of the earth.
And behold, he shall be born
of Mary, at Jerusalem which
is the land of our
forefathers...”
(Alma 7:9-10)
Jesus was born in Bethlehem,
not Jerusalem!
2-11
2007 by David A. Prentice
Page 10
Mormons believe American
Indians descended from
Israelites
Like all living things, humans inherit our DNA
from our parents. One part, mitochondrial DNA,
comes almost entirely from the mother.
By examining similarities between the
mitochondrial DNA of different ethnic groups,
scientists can determine which are more
closely related to each other.
2-12
2007 by David A. Prentice
Extremely simplified diagram
of a cell showing
mitochondria
2-12
2007 by David A. Prentice
The Fundamental Story of the
Book of Mormon: FALSIFIED!
The Book of Mormon says that the American
Indians are descended from Israelites. However,
DNA studies show that American Indians have
almost NO similarity in mitochondrial DNA with
Jewish people. Instead, DNA confirms that they
are extremely similar to the peoples of East
Asia, who have long been suspected to be their
ancestors based on archaeology, linguistics,
and physical appearance.
American Indians are NOT descendants
of the Israelites.
2-12
2007 by David A. Prentice
We’re on Page 11
The Islamic Religion
Where Did it Come From?
What Do Muslims Believe?
Who Told us All this Stuff About
Islam?

Ankerberg & Weldon,
– The Facts on Islam

Dr. Robert Morey
– An Analysis of the Hadith

Dr. Muhammad Muhsin Khan
– The Translation of the Meaning of Sahih ABukhari
2007 by David A. Prentice
The Islamic Religion
Like Christianity, it has a billion or more
professing members worldwide
 Islam is the religion and Muslims are the
members
 Muslims believe that the Bible is
corrupted and that their holy book, the
Koran or Qur’an, is the true word of God
 Next to the Bible, the Koran is the most
influential book in the world

2007 by David A. Prentice
Bible vs. Qur’an

The Bible contains a great deal of history
and prophecy as well as preaching

The Qur’an is almost entirely a preaching
book dedicated to telling how one should
live

It contains 114 chapters/“Suras”
2007 by David A. Prentice
About Suras

They’re arranged according to tradition,
not chronology or doctrine

Each can also be identified by its name
usually taken from a significant feature
– Ex: Sura 2 is also known as “Al-Baqarah” (The
Cow) because that animal is mentioned
prominently
2007 by David A. Prentice
ORIGIN OF ISLAM AND THE QUR’AN
• Muhammad claimed to begin receiving revelations
from the angel Gabriel (the “holy spirit”) about 600
A.D
• Being unable to write, he dictated what He heard
often while in a trance
• Sura 68:1, tells us that at first he wasn’t sure if he
was mad or possesed but later became convinced
that he was really hearing from God
• They wrote on any material available (leaves,
stones, bones, etc) - much is preserved in the
Qur’an but none of the originals have survived
2-13
2007 by David A. Prentice
THE PRESENT VERSION OF THE QUR’AN
• Muhammad didn’t bother to collect all of the
pieces of the Koran before his death in 632 A.D.
• So, for about 19 years there were four
contradictory versions in circulation
• In 651 A.D., the 3rd caliph Othman, compiled the
present version (the Othmanic Rescension) and
had all other copies destroyed
• They claim that an original of that compilation
exists but they won’t let non-muslim scholars
see it
2-13
2007 by David A. Prentice
Other Islamic Religious Books
• Muslims also reverence the Hadith, a collection of
sayings of Muhammad, his wives, and his
successors
• Different sects accept different amounts of these
sayings from only a few thousand to 70,000
• The Hadith is so massive that few Muslims have
read it nor know what it says
• For instance, Vol. 1, no. 63; Vol. 4, no. 709; Vol. 6,
no. 507 & 510 confirm that there were
discrepancies in the Koran until Othman made his
final copy
2-13
2007 by David A. Prentice
ALLAH, THE GOD OF ISLAM
Few Muslims
realize that the
crescent moon
on the ancient
symbol of Islam
dates back
before 570 A.D.
when “Allah”
was the name of
the Arabic moon
god.
Muslims believe
that they are
worshipping
Almighty God,
not some sort of
moon god.
Allah is a god of power, not love.
2-14
2007 by David A. Prentice
DO CHRISTIANS AND MUSLIMS
WORSHIP THE SAME GOD?
NO!
The God of the Bible has a Son named Jesus,
who created the universe and became a man
to die for our sins and now offers eternal life
to all who are convinced that He can
Allah of the Qur’an has NO SON. (18:4-6, 23:91 et al.)
Jesus is merely one of Allah’s many prophets
Allah Offers NO SALVATION
They believe salvation is through one’s works
2-15
2007 by David A. Prentice