Defense of the Faith and the Saints

By B.H. Roberts

Book Overview

Many years ago B. H. Roberts "announc ed] what was then a list of prospective books, the writer declared his intention to publish a 'Scrap Book, ' promising that it should be a choice selection of his... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1889025151
• ISBN13: 9781889025155
• Release Date: January 2002
• Publisher: Brigham Distributing
• Length: 742 Pages
• Weight: 1.70 lbs.

Customer Reviews

A good look at BH Roberts Apologetic Word for the LDS Church

I have always had a strong interest in B.H. Roberts since he is my great-great grandfather. I have read many of his books over the years, but hadn't had a chance to read this one until I found this reprinted book of his. This book was printed in 2002, but is a reprint of two volumes originally published in 1907 and 1912. The title is a good description of what the work is. It is basically a compilation of several papers, speeches, and newspaper articles that he published over the years in defense of the LDS church. Volume 1 is broken into 3 parts. Part one focuses on stating the LDS position on several doctrines and defending those doctrines. He covers such subjects as Mormonism, Joseph Smith, Mormon culture, persecution of the LDS, the relationship of church and state, and polygamy. Part 2 focuses on the Book of Mormon and covers the manner of translating the Book of Mormon and he presents his "Manual Theory" of translation. He also includes a debate on the Book of Mormon with an unnamed person about several common objections that Roberts covers well. He also covers a specific criticism about 3rd Nephi as a 5th gospel. Part 3 focuses on historical and doctrinal issues. He talks about the Lord's Day and explains why we worship on Sunday instead of Saturday. He then discusses several issues related to the apostasy, the reformation and the LDS view of revelation. Volume 2 consists of 6 parts. Part 1 is a debate with Theodore Schroeder on the Spaulding theory of the origin of the Book of Mormon. Part 2 is an address of the LDS first presidency to the world, the criticism of it by the local Ministerial Association and Roberts's rebuttal of it. Part 3 is a vindication of Joseph Smith's doctrines. Part 4 covers some miscellaneous discourses. Parts 5 and 6 are short discourses on peace and a 4th of July speech on the great republic. I found Roberts arguments to be very well elucidated and many are the same that are used by apologists today. Some of his points were so well presented that we no longer see those criticisms today. I recommend this book to anybody interested in historic LDS apologetics and they will find Roberts arguments to be powerful and well thought out.