You have a very simple mindset don't you. You can't get it around Roberts' own words, I'll repeat them here for the lurkers -
"There were other Anti-Christs among the Nephites, but they were more military leaders than religious innovators... they are all of one breed and brand; so nearly alike that one mind is the author of them, and that a young and underdeveloped, but piously inclined mind. The evidence I sorrowfully submit, points to Joseph Smith as their creator. It is difficult to believe that they are a product of history, that they came upon the scene separated by long periods of time, and among a race which was the ancestral race of the red man of America.”
- Studies of the Book of Mormon, by B.H. Roberts, p. 271
I simply quoted Roberts - not put words into his mouth - as it was unnecessary to do so. Read his own words, if that represents my saying Roberts 'lost his testimony', then he lost his testimony - for he no longer believed the alleged historical framework for the bom.
In response you pull out FAIR. LOL, the bunch of hacks that they are. They cite out of context the same letter you excerpted, written in 1922, as some sort of defense and still cannot get the timeline straight, it has nothing to do with "A Book of Mormon Study". As usual, FAIR tosses everything including the kitchen sink into the fray to obfuscate the issue. (yes the same FAIR that calls tapirs "horses" - and is not an official mouth piece for the mormon church)
Sadly, Roberts invested everything as a mormon apostle - his power and future godhood. That the eminent apologist would lose faith would be unthinkable for the TBM. So why were these extracts from "Studies from the Book of Mormon" suppressed by the mormon church for 50 years? I guess since he wrote things like
Was Joseph Smith possessed of a sufficiently vivid and creative imagination as to produce such a work as the Book of Mormon from such common knowledge as was in the communities where he lived in his boyhood and young manhood; from the Bible, and more especially from the View of the Hebrews, by Ethan Smith? That such power of imagination would have to be of a high order is conceded; that Joseph Smith possessed such a gift of mind there can be no question.
No need for the gold plates, seer stone or the rest of the mythology - Smith had a vivid enough imagination to make the story up and use material present (and popular) at the time. Roberts did more to show that the bom is the work of man, not the mormon god, than most others, and sadly remained brainwashed to the end.
The obfuscation is incredible. The say so much yet say nothing. I looks impressive from a distance, but in the end it is nothing but smoke and mirrors..
The lurkers have all his words, thus the long post I sent.
No need to skim your snippet out of context.
You have a good day.