Dr. Craig Hazen

"Christian Apologetics" Lecture Notes

by Jason Gastrich

Lecture at Biola University/Talbot Theological Seminary - April 23, 2002

Dr. Craig Hazen

Part 1

Someone who doesn't know God, but expresses the desire to have human rights doesn't make much sense.

Christians have the answers to many of the world's concerns.

1 Corinthians 10:3-6 "For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled."

One of our goals should be to break down barriers that block people's faith.

Ideas have consequences.

For example, the idea of Marxism led to some of the greatest human suffering that anyone has ever seen.

Can you list things that block people's knowledge of God?

We have a spiritual calling to help and break down the barriers that people have.

Sharpening your intellect and ministering to intellectuals is as valid and needed as using your time to feed and clothe the homeless.

There are three things you need to embrace to become a scholar or lay-scholar.

1) You need to learn and master your vocabulary. Learn how to use it until it becomes "yours". Understand words' nuances and contextual meaning. Mastering a vocabulary involves more than simply reading definitions in a dictionary. Consider buying a dictionary of philosophy, religious studies or whatever the subject is that you're studying and debating.

Broadening your vocabulary helps you to be more articulate and more knowledgeable.

Going to seminars and listening to educational tapes can broaden your knowledge and vocabulary.

2) You need to know about the world of publishing. First, you need to know publishers. Who publishes what.

For example, Erdman's is moderate to evangelical. Baker House is usually, fairly conservative to moderate evangelical. Broadman and Holdman is Southern Baptist. Napress, Intervarsity, Zondervan, University Press, Nelson, etc.

University Presses will usually publish more on-the-edge things. They usually charge a lot because they don't sell a lot.

Knowing your publisher tells you a lot about the book.

NYU Press tends to deal with Jews or homosexuals.

Signature Books is a "renegade" Mormon Press. Signature Books can lead you closer to Mormon truths that Deseret Press (another Mormon Press).

You need to know authors. Knowing an author will tell you a lot about a book before you open it.

Read annotated bibliographies. Look online for publishers that publish annotated bibliographies.

Next, the title will tell you something about the book. Duh! *Smile*

Read the cover of the book. Read the back and inside flaps. Check out the table of contents and index. Are there recommendations or endorsements from known authors?

3) Be able to communicate what you know in writing and in speech. You can't master a lot of vocabulary and a new concept until you can put it into your own words. Synthesize what you learn.

You're missing out on something if you don't talk to others about the books you read. Look for a Christian book club.

In order to join the academic community, you need to be able to convey what you read and learn in either a lecture or in writing.

Learn to be guided by senior scholars. Don't reinvent the wheel by reading the bad stuff. Don't waste your time reading a bunch of junk.

Buy some great reference works, especially in your areas of most intense interest.

If you want to read philosophy, you need to get a good dictionary of philosophy.

A long time ago, like in the 1910's, the most intelligent scholars of the time wrote the encyclopedias.

Listen to audio tapes of advanced lectures.

4) Learn to read just above your own level.

5) Don't waste your time with lousy reading material. Learn to be a lover of book reviews.

6) *Learn to read parts of books. Feel free to read only one chapter or two chapters of a book.

7) Learn to speed read. Use a pencil to guide your reading and either make a check or underline the parts that you want to remember or reread.

8) Become a specialist in something. Consider becoming one in an area that nobody else is studying. You can have a broad knowledge, but at least have an area of specialization.

9) Learn to make connections between different fields and ideas.

10) Do research online.

11) Do some writing and teaching on a regular basis.

Part 2

Movie: The Lost Book of Abraham

The Book of Abraham

Was purchased by Joseph Smith in 1835 by Joseph Smith from some travelers. It was written in Egyptian. Nobody could read it at that time.

Joseph Smith and his followers came and built a temple in 1831. He generated enthusiasm and raised money. It took a lot of sacrifice and effort to build.

Michael H. Chandler entered town with four Egyptian mummies and much more. He was a traveling antiquities dealer. All of these corpses had been in the Earth since Bible times.

Five years earlier, Joseph Smith had translated the book of Mormon into English from the seven gold plates. They were written in "reformed Egyptian". These were give to him by Moroni. He had to return them to the angels, so there was no way to prove what he read and translated.

The Book of Mormon was published in 1830.

These scrolls were written on papyrus and it was in ancient Egyptian. The people in Smith's church wanted to know if Joseph Smith could translate these scrolls.

Joseph said they were written by Joseph and Abraham.

1833 - Michael Chandler sold 11 mummies, 2 papyrus scrolls and scroll fragments. Tony Lambolo was the tomb raider who got these things from Thebes (by the Egyptian River).

The Cleveland Advertizer reported on this. In March of 1835, Chandler arrived in Cleveland. He had 4 mummies left.

July, 1835, Chandler arrived in Kirtland, Ohio. July 20, 1835 - W.W. Phelps records the meeting (a Mormon).

The selling price was $2400 (which was an extraordinary amount at this time). Smith got a few investors involved and bought the scrolls.

Michael Chandler signed an affidavit about Smith's translations of the scrolls. He believed Smith's translation.

One scrolled was identified as a record of Abraham's writings. - July 5, 1835

Translating Ancient Egyptian

Joseph translated the scrolls by making an alphabet of the Egyptian language. His translation experience was written in his diary. July, 1835 and October 3, 1835

In 1835, there wasn't anyone in the U.S. who could read ancient Egyptian. The Rosetta Stone was the key that allowed us to unlock ancient Egyptian.

Nonetheless, Joseph Smith wrote in his diary that he confidently translated these scrolls. - October 1, 1835, October 7, 1835, November 19, 1835, November 24, 1835, November 25, 1835, November 26, 1835

There was apparently (or allegedly) a book of Joseph and a book of Abraham.

The mummies and scrolls were placed under the floor of the first temple.

Joseph Smith established his own bank and currency. Eventually, he fled. The church relocated in Commerce, Illinois in 1839. They called their settlement Naufoo.

1842 - Joseph Smith published his translation of the book of Abraham in the Mormon publication called, "The Times and Seasons".

Today, the book of Abraham is included in the Pearl of Great Price. This book includes a creation story that is dramatically different than the story from Genesis.

In the book of Abraham, in chapters 4 and 5, it reveals that the "Gods" had help with (angelic beings?) creating the heavens and the Earth.

Joseph Smith promised to continue publishing the rest of his translations, but he didn't. He was assassinated shortly thereafter.

1846-1856 - The Papyri Was Lost to the Church

When the Mormons migrated across America, they went into areas that weren't protected by the United States. They settled the Salt Lake valley and began another temple.

The scroll of Abraham was left with Smith's mother and widowed wife named Emma. Emma sold it to a man named A. Combs. She sold the mummies and the scrolls. - May 26, 1856

Two of these mummies were bought by a Chicago Museum and burned in the great Chicago fire.

Early Suspicions

William West visited the Mormons, viewed the scrolls and expressed serious doubts in 1837.

Book of Abraham 1:12 tells about Abraham on an altar about to be killed. These pictures were printed.

Apparently, the pictures were used to tell a story that wasn't what was written. They were also altered.

The pictures that were revealed were found in many other tombs. They were common in Egyptian burial rituals. However, Joseph changed little things about them and copied them in order to tell his own story.

Osiris was turned into Abraham. A man whose head is a jackal was turned into a human.

James H. Breasted, P.h.D, Chicago (and many others) tell of Joseph's ignorance about the translations he made.

The Improvement Era in (John Henry Evans, February 1913), the Mormon Church had to respond to the criticism of Smith's translations. He said the critics needed to see the originals, but they couldn't, so they shouldn't judge Smith.

1966 - A Dramatic Discovery

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

This museum has 11 papyrus scrolls that used to belong to Joseph Smith. Negotiations between the museum and the church began and they presented the scroll fragments to the church in 1967. With the scrolls was the letter of certification from Emma Smith.

The Critical Link

The church had the chance to either tell the world that the translation was true or push it under the table.

A torn picture from Abraham's alleged, near-death on an altar matched the reproduction perfectly.

Now, we can plainly see that Joseph Smith put a head and a knife on one of the characters in one of the pictures. The original scroll that he had did not have the heads, so he guessed. However, many other identical scrolls have been found with different heads.

Now, Egyptologists could read the original texts and Smith's translations to see if they are accurate or not.

These were funerary documents, buried with a mummy, inside a sarcophagus. They talked about the burial of an Egyptian priest.

In 2001, Dr. Robert Kitner translated the original scrolls and they are a prayer about a dead person. They are about a man named Horace. "May you walk again. May your ears and eyes function, again. May the gods accept you."

Abraham is not mentioned once.

Mormon Defenders

Mormon leaders declined to talk to the makers of this video. However, they referred them to a book by John Gei. He claimed that the scrolls that were bought from the museum were different scrolls than the ones Smith used.

It would be unprecedented and unreasonable to have an insertion about Abraham in the document. It couldn't possibly be more out of place. - Dr. Robert Kitner

There is simply no justification of the types of interpretation by Joseph Smith. They are wrong as far as the gender and everything else. There is no historical validity to his translation, whatsoever. - Dr. Robert Kitner

Everyday Understandings

The makers of the movie contacted Brigham Young University, but they would not talk to them.

Some members of the LDS church spoke on the subject. They basically had blind faith and some qualified that with saying they should think about things and pray to God about them to see if they are true.

Troublesome Questions

"A Book by His Own Hand" was read by a Mormon and it led him to understand how the Book of Abraham was false and Joseph Smith was false - The Gary and Sarah Draper, living in Utah, left the Mormon Church.

The fact that Smith's translation of the Book of Abraham seriously lacks credibility, his other writings lack credibility, now, too. Since the other writings he translated were returned to the angel Moroni, we'll never be able to analyze their scholarship.

Irr.org - Institute for Religious Research - produced this video - consider getting this video for a Mormon friend