No Ma’am, That’s Not History, p 46; “…of all churches in the world only this one has not found it necessary to readjust any part of its doctrine in the last hundred years.” – Hugh Nibley, LDS apologist
Proverbs 13:5; “A righteous man hateth lying: but a wicked man is loathsome, and cometh to shame.”
There are a couple of issues in today’s dilemma – yikes!
I kept seeing the quote I listed above all over the net, but when it came right down to reading it in the original context with my own eyeballs I came up empty handed.
Long story short, this did come from Nibley’s pamphlet ‘No Ma’am, That’s Not History’, but it wasn’t part of the content in Nibley’s original pamphlet. The Maxwell Institute stated the pamphlet has undergone numerous changes over the years from its first publication in 1946.
Nibley was a well beloved historian for the Church. Here’s part of the original document with Nibley’s lie –
“Brodie’s Joseph picks up ideas like a thieving magpie, throws them together haphazardly, and sells them from the pulpit. He is therefore not the man whose teachings are so well-knit and perfectly logical that they have never had to undergo the slightest change or alteration during a century in which every other church in Christendom has continually revamped its doctrines…
…The gospel as the Mormons know it sprang full-grown from the words of Joseph Smith. It has never been worked over or touched up in any way and is free of revisions and alterations.”
The other issue –
Not sure how many churches have existed since Christ, but I’m fully confident that Nibley’s statement is a lie.
We know with 100% certainty the BoM has been changed 4,000 times and we also know teachings and doctrines outside the BoM have been changed numerous times as well.
So…who’s telling the truth now Mr. Nibley?
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