Modern Evangelicals and other "Mainstream Christians" have many apologists among their ranks. For millennia they have defended the church against heretics, agnostics, and atheists. Biblical apologists, however, devised new tactics when the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and Joseph Smith came on the scene in the 1820s. The main goal of these “mainstream Christian”apologists is to discredit Joseph Smith in any way they can. The earliest apologists defended basic belief in God and Christianity against agnostics and atheists to divert their attacks in order to protect the church against claims and allegations that might destroy the faith of the weaker believers. As the Christian faith aged along, heresies also developed within the ranks of those claiming authority or scholarship, and likewise had to be rooted out. It has been some 200 years now since Joseph Smith made his first claims as a young man proclaimed to have seen the Father and the Son in a vision. ...
Comparing theology of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, to the beliefs and doctrines of Traditional Mainstream Christian churches. The thoughts and opinions expressed are my own and do not represent the church's official positions.