President David O. McKay Believed That Joseph Smith Wrote The Book of Mormon

[Everybody Wang Chung]

Have you ever wondered why David O. McKay never once publicly testified of the divinity/truthfulness of the Book of Mormon? Well, wonder no more. Reddit has a very interesting post about an interview with Hugh Nibley where Hugh stated that President McKay believed Joseph Smith was the author of the Book of Mormon. I doubt you will ever hear this taught in Sunday School.

Greg Prince chapter of Joseph Geisner's Writing Mormon History. Here's the relevant text:

I interviewed Hugh Nibley in 1995, in his office at BYU. Nibley was probably the preeminent LDS scholar-apologist of the 1950s and 1960s. "Popcorn" is a good metaphor for the interview, for he popped from one subject to another, rarely completing one narrative before moving to the next. To get the essence of an important part of the interview, I include it verbatim: "I had a talk–I don't think I should even tell you about this. I had a real argument with David O. McKay. No, I won't tell you about it, because I have never told anybody about it."

He then asked me to turn off the recorder, which I did, after which he related a time in the mid-1960s when, upon returning from a trip to Israel to see the Dead Sea Scrolls, he made an appointment with McKay. He was excited to tell the president that the scrolls "will prove the historicity of the Book of Mormon," and shocked when McKay replied, "Well, we already know that Joseph Smith wrote the Book of Mormon." He blamed O. C. Tanner, a former LDS educator and very successful businessman, for polluting McKay's mind on the subject, and spent much of the rest of his career trying to reinstate the Book of Mormon as an authentic ancient record.

He then allowed me to turn on the recorder again, and a few minutes later, this time on the record, he retold the same story:

At that particular time, Brother McKay was under strong pressure from O.C. Tanner, I think, who was his very dear friend. They talked down the Book of Mormon, they didn't only neglect it. Of course, that group up there, they really talked it down. Well, the main thing, as we [Tanner and Nibley] were driving back to the bus station, O.C. Tanner said to me, "We've got to get rid of the Book of Mormon. That's why we had this meeting. It's driving the best minds out of the Church. We can't have it any more. Now you don't understand this, but me, with my training and my education, I can see all these things." And then I [Nibley] started giving him some arguments. He [Tanner] got so mad he could hardly control himself. We had a time. And I've never told anybody about that. That's the way it was. But I've always admired and loved President McKay. That's why I've never told anybody about it. But he said that, "Joseph Smith wrote the Book of Mormon."

https://www.reddit.com/r/Mormon/comment ... utm_term=1

[Gadianton]

Imagine if McKay were to tell MG that.

[Everybody Wang Chung]

Imagine if McKay were to tell MG that.

It would crush MG. It might even drive him back into the comforting arms and solace he once found from a bottle of Snapple Iced Tea.

[Dr Exiled]

This must be lies or misinterpretations or something, right ????!!!!!????? Didn't Mckay see Jesus and hear it from His lips of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon? If this happened, well, I guess those that point out how the Book of Mormon tracks a lot of the New Testament, is really Bible fan fiction, and how there aren't any evidences of Nephites and how the apologetics are utterly lacking, perhaps these so-called critics have a point.

[Moksha]

Imagine if McKay were to tell MG that.

Would MG find a saying or analogy to work around it? Perhaps where there is a will, there is a way.

[I Have Questions]

Imagine if McKay were to tell MG that.

Unless MG is going to accuse Tanner, Nibley, or Prince, of making the whole thing up, then McKay did just tell him that.

[Ego]

Let’s not forget BH Roberts’s testimony of the same thing. By the mouth of two witnesses are all the Lord’s words established.

[Philo Sofee]

Imagine if McKay were to tell MG that.

MG would just bear his testimony to the prophet and perhaps take some time and go home teaching to obey the prophet..... I wonder if Interpreter could spook up a research article on that with some extra ancient Hebrew etymology of Book of Mormon names thrown in for fun to show Nibley was right and Tanner wrong. Or is Greg Prince just making it up on the fly because he lost his testimony now also?

[drumdude]

I’ll believe the Book of Mormon is historical whenever the rest of the non-Mormon world believes it is historical.

I have a lot of respect for McKay if he was able to see outside his small confined provincial worldview and actually live in the real world. That’s a sign of deep intelligence and thoughtfulness. It’s unfortunate he didn’t feel safe sharing that belief with the church he led.

[Philo Sofee]

I’ll believe the Book of Mormon is historical whenever the rest of the non-Mormon world believes it is historical.

I have a lot of respect for McKay if he was able to see outside his small confined provincial worldview and actually live in the real world. That’s a sign of deep intelligence and thoughtfulness. It’s unfortunate he didn’t feel safe sharing that belief with the church he led.

Amazingly too, he actually encouraged Hugh Nibley to write the Melchizedek Priesthood manual for the church his book "An Approach to the Book of Mormon"! The committee wanted to scrap it as it was too deep and he said "Let them dig." And if he wasn't believing it, yet allowed that that also says he was intelligent. However, he was also sort of afraid of the implications if he came out against it, obviously. I wonder how many other intellectuals of that era was on McKay's side but didn't come out, such as was noted B. H. Roberts as well. I mean look at how the apologists spit all over themselves to try and defend Roberts so-called "testimony."