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 Mormon reference – yikes!
I kept seeing the quote 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. When it comes to things like this, I’m like a dog on a bone…I’ll search everywhere until I’m confident all resources are thoroughly examined.
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 since its first publication in 1946.
Nibley was a highly respected, not to mention beloved, church historian for over 50 years. Whatever he said was accepted without question. 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 the time of Christ, but I’m fully confident Mr. Nibley’s statement is a lie.
We know with 100% certainty the BoM has been changed over 5,200 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?
This is very sad for those like my mother who’ve spent a lifetime believing their leaders. Be ever diligent in praying for them won’t you?
With Love in Christ;
Michelle
This is an updated post from 2014.
Josef Goebbels, Hitler’s Minister of Propaganda once said; “If you tell a lie to the people often enough, eventually they will believe it.”