Anti-Mormon Claims
Anti-Mormon ClaimsCES Letterfaith crisisessays

The CES Letter

Does the CES Letter destroy the Restoration?

Bible

The Bible answers

Bible · 1 Peter 3:15

KJV + NRSVUE

King James Version

But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear.

NRSVUE

But in your hearts sanctify Christ as Lord. Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you.

Our explanation

Be ready always to give an answer. A PDF is not a court. Read the answers.

Book of Mormon

The Book of Mormon answers

Moroni 10:4–5

And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true… and by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things.

Our explanation

Ask God, with a sincere heart. The CES Letter wants you to stop asking Him.

Faithful answers

FAIR

A faithful reply to the CES Letter

FAIR Latter-day Saints

Jeremy Runnells gathered Book of Mormon anachronisms, First Vision variants, polygamy, Book of Abraham papyri, and DNA into one document. That is a genre: the cluster bomb. Each cluster has a literature. Read the essays. Read the replies. Then pray. The Holy Ghost is still the epistemically promised way to know, and the secondary literature is no longer hiding in a seminary closet.

The CES Letter’s power is formatting. Its weakness is that the Church has been answering these items in public for years.

  • Gospel Topics Essays exist specifically for this cluster of issues.
  • A list of difficulties is not a cumulative disproof.
  • FAIR, Interpreter, Scripture Central, and the Light and Truth Letter have point-by-point work.
Read the original

Light and Truth Letter

The Light and Truth Letter

Austin Fife

Austin Fife read the CES Letter, Mormon Stories, and the critics’ sources, lost his faith, then spent years walking back through the same pile. The letter is a free, public reply to that exact stack — not a seminary pamphlet, not a paid ministry. Use it when someone treats Runnells as the last word. Then still pray. A PDF does not get to be the Holy Ghost.

The CES Letter is not a new discovery. It is a format. The Light and Truth Letter answers in the same format, from a believer who already did the dark tour.

  • Free online at lightandtruthletter.org (and as an audiobook).
  • Written to the CES Letter Foundation, Mormon Stories, and the usual critics.
  • A stacked list of difficulties is still a list. Walk it. Then ask God.
Read the original

Suggested videos

Faithful voices only. Most of these are independent — not official Church productions unless marked as such.

Thoughtful Faith

My Faith Crisis And A Message To Those Who Struggle

Watch on YouTube

Keystone (David Snell)

The REAL reason we can't prove the Church is true

Watch on YouTube

The Stick of Joseph (David Snell, guest)

Facing Anti-LDS content with spiritual maturity | David Snell of Keystone

Watch on YouTube

Further reading

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