The Historical Jesus and the Historical Joseph Smith

Book excerpt: Jesus of Nazareth and Joseph Smith: one makes a claim on our lives that only God can make --the other claims to be the only prophet who can reliably point us to Jesus. This book uses the standard tools of the historian to find the undeniable facts on both men, tools that do not require faith. What we want to know is: are these men trustworthy and consistent enough that we can trust them to lead us to the one true God? As we seek historical bedrock on Jesus and Joseph, we’ll also find some fascinating answers to questions like: Why and when did wine get taken out of the Latter-day Saint sacrament? How do we know whether important doctrines were taken out of the Bible? Do we possess genuine words of Jesus that are not in our Gospels? Were Jesus and Heavenly Father both polygamists? How do we know that the resurrection of Jesus was not a shameless con job?