Hugh Nibley
Three of Hugh Nibley's important essays on the fate of the primitive Christian church and its institutions and beliefs are brought together in a reprinting of the 1970 book ,When the Lights Went Out: Three Studies on the Ancient Apostasy,. The issues that Nibley explores with penetrating insightÂ—traditional Christianity's studied silence regarding evidence for the apostasy, Christ's 40-day postmortal ministry, and the centrality of the templeÂ—are as relevant today as they ever were. ,In "The Passing of the Primitive Church," Nibley presents forty striking and often neglected facets of church history. For example, the apostles did not leave behind written instructions on how the fledgling church should be guided in their absence. "It is hard to conceive of such a colossal oversight if the founders had actually envisaged a long future for the church," Nibley writes. ,"The Forty-Day Mission of Christ" deals with the historical relevance of Acts 1:3, which claims that after Christ's resurrection, he was "seen of them forty days, and [spoke] of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God." Nibley argues that the teaching of the 40 days has not come down to us because, being "the last and highest revelation" given to the apostles, it was top secret. ,Nibley discusses the implications of the loss of the temple during the fall of Jerusalem in his "Christian Envy of the Temple." He explains why the loss of the temple was a crippling blow to the church and why the church fathers were reluctant to talk about it and why Christian scholars ignore or denounce it out of envy and insecurity. He writes, "the temple has cast a shadow over the claims and the confidence of the Christian church from early times, a shadow which is by no means diminishing in our own day."
Religion,Christianity,Lds,History,Nonfiction
When The Lights Went Out: Three Studies On The Ancient Apostasy