By Carolyn Lund
A young man in Pittsburgh positively responded to the missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. But he was hung up on one doctrine ? that faithful members eventually can become gods.
Scott Petersen was one of the missionaries who tried to explain to the man why the church upheld the belief. But his attempts were rejected. Petersen thought he might have been able to get through to the man, if only he had better tools to back up his teachings.
It was this frustration recalled from his missionary days that led the local entrepreneur and BYU adjunct professor to dedicate the past five years of his life to writing, ?Where Have All the Prophets Gone?,? a book written with the non-member in mind.
?I feel the church has done a good job writing to itself, and scholars have done a good job writing to themselves, but they mostly write books that are not readily accessible to the average reader,? Petersen said. ?They don?t have enough background information.?
Petersen said he saw the need to chronicle the history of Christianity without using traditional LDS sources. Instead, he used only the Bible, the pseudepigrapha, the apocrypha, the Dead Sea Scrolls and recent scholarly writings. The book, which starts with Adam and goes through the 19th century, is not meant to necessarily convert non-members. Instead, the aim of the book is to explain how the Restoration fits in with the history of Christianity.
?Go back to Joseph Smith?s time and think about a young boy struggling because he sees all these revelations in conflict with one another,? Petersen said. ?He kneels down to pray in a grove of trees and in five minutes it clarifies, for all of humanity, what people had been fighting about for 1,800 years. It?s incredible!?
The book chronicles God?s revelations to man and man?s responses to them. Petersen said it was especially fascinating to study the beliefs of Christians in the first century and early second century, and then compare that to what Joseph Smith brought forth. The doctrines are identical, he said.
Petersen, a life-long member of the church, dedicated 14 hours a day for three years to extensive research. He said he had no special training, but rather possessed a deep curiosity for religious theology.
?When I sold my first business, it gave me the freedom to choose how I could spend my time,? Petersen said. ?I wanted to give back in a way that I had felt the impressions from the spirit were upon me. For whatever reason, it just felt like something that I was supposed to do.?
Don Norton, professor emeritus in linguistics and the English language, reviewed the book for the St. George Spectrum. He wrote: ?The book, drawing from a mass of primary sources and biblical scholarship, takes readers on a fascinating journey on which they would ordinarily not venture on their own. Christians ? whether lay, clergy or missionary ? could greatly benefit from reading this book.?
While there has been early praise for the book, which was published this past August, Petersen said he is more concerned with gaining personal knowledge than with earning recognition from others.
?I made the decision when I finished the book that if I never published it, I would have gained so much personally that it was worth every minute that I spent,? Petersen said.
?Where Have All the Prophets Gone?? is available in local bookstores and through online booksellers. More information is at www.wherehavealltheprophetsgone.com.