Sources

I promised in chapter 1 that you should throw this letter away if I misquoted anything. Here is everything, so you can check.

Every entry below points back to a specific claim in a specific chapter. Where a source speaks for your Church itself, I’ve said so. Where it’s a Latter-day Saint scholar or apologist defending a position rather than the Church’s own words, I’ve labeled that too — you should know the difference. Follow any link, and if what’s there doesn’t match what I told you, close this letter and don’t look back.

Official LDS Sources

• Holy Bible: Translations and Editions — official guidance to use the King James Version (ch. 2)
• History of the Scriptures — confirms the Church published its own KJV edition in 1979 (ch. 2)
• The Book of Mormon: Keystone of Our Religion — President Benson’s “keystone” address (ch. 4)
• The King Follett Sermon, Ensign, April 1971 — “God himself was once as we are now” (ch. 5)
• Becoming Like God — Gospel Topics essay on exaltation (ch. 5)
• Our Own Liahona — President Kimball denouncing the Adam-God theory (ch. 6)
• Race and the Priesthood — Gospel Topics essay on the priesthood ban’s origin and disavowal (ch. 6)
• Bible Dictionary, “Grace” — “after they have expended their own best efforts” (ch. 8)
• Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses 1:50, April 1852 — the Adam-God sermon (ch. 6). Also scanned in full on archive.org, volume 1, in case that first link ever goes down.
• Scripture Central — an LDS scholarly apologetics organization, on the “land of Jerusalem” defense (ch. 4). Apologetics, not the Church speaking officially.
• Jeff Lindsay’s LDSFAQ — a faithful LDS apologist’s own site, reproducing the Smithsonian’s statement (ch. 3). Also apologetics, not an official Church page.

Scripture Editions

Every King James Bible verse in this letter is pulled straight from the public-domain KJV text bundled into this site’s own dataset — no publisher, no link needed. Check any reference against your own Bible. Every Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, and Pearl of Great Price verse is quoted from your Church’s own site:

• Articles of Faith 1:8 — “we believe the Bible… to be the word of God” (ch. 2)
• Mosiah 15:1–5 — Abinadi: Father and Son “one God” (ch. 4)
• Alma 11:26–29 — Amulek: “No,” more than one God (ch. 4)
• 2 Nephi 31:21 — “one God, without end. Amen” (ch. 4, ch. 7)
• Moroni 8:18 — “not a partial God… unchangeable” (ch. 4)
• Moroni 10:32 — grace “after all we can do,” companion verse (ch. 4)
• D&C 84 — restored priesthood offices (ch. 5)
• D&C 107 — priesthood offices (ch. 5)
• D&C 130 — “the Father has a body of flesh and bones” (ch. 5)
• D&C 132 — the plural marriage covenant, and men becoming gods (ch. 5, ch. 6)
• Official Declaration 1 — the 1890 Manifesto ending plural marriage (ch. 6)
• Official Declaration 2 — the 1978 revelation ending the priesthood ban (ch. 6)

Archaeology & Manuscripts

• Great Isaiah Scroll, Israel Museum — dated to around 125 BCE (ch. 3)
• Isaiah Scroll — Wikipedia — the roughly 2,600-difference count (ch. 3)
• Tel Dan Stele — Wikipedia — the “House of David” inscription (ch. 3)
• Pilate Stone — Wikipedia — the Pontius Pilate inscription (ch. 3)
• Siloam Inscription — Wikipedia — Hezekiah’s tunnel (ch. 3)
• Daniel Wallace on New Testament manuscript counts — nearly 6,000 Greek manuscripts (ch. 3)
• Blue Letter Bible, Strong’s G531 — aparabatos, the “unchangeable” priesthood (ch. 5)
• Gary Habermas, “Minimal Facts” — the scholarly consensus on the resurrection’s core facts (ch. 3)

Ministries

• Faith After Mormonism — community for those transitioning out of Latter-day Saint belief (ch. 9)
• Mormonism Research Ministry — a long-running resource for studying the doctrine with the texts open (ch. 9)

Further Reading

• Lee Strobel, The Case for Christ (Zondervan, 1998) — a journalist’s own investigation into the evidence for the resurrection.
• James R. White, The Forgotten Trinity (Bethany House, 1998) — a fuller treatment of the doctrine chapter 7 only had room to sketch.
• The Back Door to the Trinity — the little tract whose five-question method chapter 7 adapts, rebuilt entirely around your own Bible. I didn’t invent that method; I just handed you the questions with your own verses attached. As it’s printed, the tract credits itself to GospelTruth4U@hotmail.com.

That’s the whole letter, and now the whole paper trail behind it. Nothing above asks you to trust me — only to click, read, and see for yourself whether I told you the truth. If I did, I hope it was worth your time. If I didn’t anywhere, you know what to do with it.

Thank you for reading this far. It was an honor to write to you.

Your friend, Brock