You folks spend more time dwelling on these things than the LDS.
Most are busy earning a living to support their family and do their church calling and being good neighbors and citizen.
When one I keeping their covenants they allow the Lord to edify them.
From your natural man mind set all you can do is faultfind but if you were doing the Will of the Heavenly Father as Jesus taught you would find this kind of behavior repugnance.
The LDS eyes were open because of the Book of Mormon than when one reads the Bible the eyes see the truth was always there, but unable to see or discern it because of the conditioning by the Tradition of Men, in the n=manner they had framed the Lord words. But when one allows the Holy Spirit to teach, many marvelous things began to surface.
Mosiah 3:
19 For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father.
When one is truly in the light of the Lord they would find this kind of behavior of faultfinding bashing of their neighbor faith abhorrence!
In the spirit of you sharing a quote from the Book of Mormon I’d like to share a quote from Frodo in the Lord of the Rings. “I know what I have to do, Sam. The ring was entrusted to *me*. It’s my task, mine, my own!” Just like King Benjamin, Frodo is a well-meaning and caring individual. And just like Benjamin, Frodo is fictional and will always be fictional.
But alas I no longer think the #1 problem for the Mormon church is that the Book of Mormon is fictional. Their #1 problem above all others that is screaming at the top of its lungs is simply that it FAILS TO TELL THE TRUTH. Its absurd to what extent the church goes to in its efforts to whitewash its history. For example, Boyd K. Packer openly advocates that seminary teachers ought to not tell their students the truth on church history. As a result there are many who are in the church who are very misled on the church’s past. And its especially important if they want credibility that they learn their history and be prepared to answer questions honestly. Most people really won’t judge Mormons so much by how difficult their claims are to believe, but by how completely honest they are with them. So when questions come up about Mormonism I hope you won’t commit sins of omission in trying to hide or coverup any church history/doctrines. Just tell it the way it is and you’ll gain more respect from those who are honest seekers of truth.
I do appreciate your patient replies. Clearly if I was given a choice of neighbors between a Mormon family and a Muslim family I would want the Mormons to be my neighbor. However, that would not mean they are Christians.