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MORMON STUDIES PRESENTS:
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MORMON STUDIES PRESENTS:
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[iii] DEDICATION This book is dedicated to Walter Martin, author, comparative religion professor, and director of Christian Research Institute. He maintained for 25 years that Solomon Spalding was the true source of The Book of Mormon. [v] ACKNOWLEDGMENTS We would like to thank all those whose help made our exhaustive research possible. Our deep appreciation is extended to Dr. Waiter Martin and his assistant, Mr. Jerry Bodine, for their continued assistance in the project. The excellent legal work of attorneys Reinjohn, Marchetti, and their associates supported this work a great deal. We would like to thank document experts Henry Silver, Howard Doulder, and William Kaye for their professional services. David Hagelberg and Arthur Vanick labored on some of the most tedious portions of the manuscript, for which we are grateful. Kurt VanGorden obtained many valuable records and affidavits for us. Countless librarians supplied us with photostatic copies and microfilm materials which greatly aided our research. Mrs. Farabe, an instructor in Amity, Pennsylvania, and the wife of the great-great grandson of Joseph Miller (a close friend of Spalding), sent us a great amount of information on the Spalding issue. Gary Lloyd's information was also invaluable. We are grateful for the assistance of Mrs. M. C. Cowles of Oberlin College and of Oberlin's photographer, Stillwell, for supplying photographs and a microfilm of the Spalding manuscript. A special note of thanks is due Terrie Broadaway, who led us to our first document expert. We are very thankful to all of our typists who worked so hard in this manuscript. [ vii ] FOREWORD I feel privileged to write the preface to a book whose impact will be, I am sure, almost incalculable. Since its beginning in 1820 (the year of its founder's first vision), the story of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints has been riddled with controversy. Opinion concerning the church's source ranged from those who said it was God's restoration of His true church, through suspicion of some sort of fraud, all the way to fiery denunciation of the supposed demonic entrapment of this "organization of Satan." After extensive research into the "foundation stones" of the Mormon Church 25 years ago, I was convinced that I knew the true source of The Book of Mormon, one of the Latter Day Saints' sacred books. Although some agreed with me, most thought that my assertion of Spalding's part in the mystery of Mormonism was the assertion of one naive of the facts. For 25 years I have known that the Spalding source could be proved if one only had the time and the dedication to ferret it out. Wayne Cowdrey, Don Scales, and Howard Davis have had that dedication, and this book is the result. Walter Martin, Ph.D. [ ix ] CONTENTS
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