Changing LDS Church History

Have their been changes to the LDS church history, as well as Joseph Smith’s personal history? Who was involved? When did it happen? How did it happen? Are modern LDS church leaders and general membership aware of these changes? If so, are they willing to admit that changes have been made, or will they insist that there were no changes ever made? These quotes and documents outline the answer to these questions and more, as we kick off this series investigating the nature of these LDS church history changes.

1:00 – Overview of the 2 major historical rewrites (History of the Church & Saints)
1:42 – Brigham Young “commenced revising the history of Joseph Smith” Apr 1, 1845
5:12 – “The date when Brigham Young began revising the history”
5:47 – Charles Wandell: “after Joseph’s death his memoir was ‘doctored’ to suit the new order of things, and this too by the direct order of Brigham Young to Doctor Richards”
8:11 – Wilford Woodruff’s journal July 11, 1856 quoting Brigham Young stating “it is not essential to be inserted into the history and it had better be omitted”
12:37 – J. Reuben Clark “the printed Documentary History is not one that we can invariably rely upon… if facts got int he way [of the church’s thesis] it was too bad, and they were omitted”
15:03 – Wilford Woodruff Aug 6, 1856 journal describing Brigham Young asking why a 13+ year old story was not included in the history
17:12 – Brigham Young’s Oct 1866 story added retroactively into 1840s church history
20:37 – Willard Richards’ “Happiness Letter” added retroactively (1855) into church history as one of Joseph Smith’s journal entry, erroneously added a week after it appeared in a newspaper

For show notes, discussion and video presentation, visit https://hemlockknots.com/8


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