“In Defense of Truth” is set in a courtroom as a fictitious mock trial of various churches all against two missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. These ministers all try to prove that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is wrong because they do not follow the Bible and that their churches teachings are correct, even though none of them agree with each other. The Bible is the only scripture allowed to be used to prove their cases. The Missionaries then defend the position of the church using only the Bible to prove that they are right and that these other churches do not conform to the teaching in the Bible therefore making them all false.
While A. Melvin McDonald was serving in the Northern States Mission in the early 1960’s, he began to collect arguments of detractors of the church. He had previously received tapes of debates between various clergy and his brother Robert McDonald while Robert was serving a mission in the late 1950’s in the Southern States Mission. Near the end of Melvin’s mission he organized all this information and typed a manuscript entitled “The Day of Defense”. It is based on the tapes and arguments he encountered while on his mission. A. Melvin McDonald printed a limited number of copies as an aid to missionaries everywhere to answer the all too frequently asked questions that arise while presenting the true gospel. This manuscript was copied and distributed by many missionary.
In 1973, Peter Covino, Jr. ran across a copy of the manuscript. Though it was hard to read with numerous typos, Peter retyped the entire work, edited it, changed and added numerous passages, added appendixes and an index, and designed a cover. He then printed and published it as a book from 1973 to 1979 through his company, Alpha Publishing. It sold all over the world wherever missionaries were serving. Without the efforts of Peter, this book would not have ever been realized. Melvin had long since lost any copies of his original work. Peter sold it at cost. A. Melvin McDonald took over the copyright and published Peter’s edition many years later.
In 2008 Peter, reorganized, updated, and rewrote the entire book based on the information in his 1973 edition. It is now published under the title “In Defense of Truth”, published by Alpha Publishing.
You will find The Book of Mormon Challenge in Appendix 1 very useful in teaching the gospel. It is changed slightly for use as a missionary flyer at the web site as a free downloadable.
This book answers, with scripture, references to most of the questions which will arise while teaching the gospel.
Feel free to contact us through our web site listed at the copyright page for any reason, suggestions, or comments.
