Imagine if you will what it might have been like in the time of Christ's advent and the establishment of the Church, The Bride of Christ. There was no Buddhism (sorry Tiger). There was no Islam (sorry Barry Soetoro). There was nothing but the History of Judaism and the scriptures used in Jesiwh worship ... and of course, there was the pantheon of gods, a system of belief so poorly sustained that Roman Emperors declared themselves members of the pantheon, much the way Joseph Smith has been declared so by Bringham Young and other Mormonism leaders.
Power was the ultimate ruler of men's hearts. We can discern this state of life from the conflicts which Paul and Silas and Barnabas found themselves in places like Ephesus, where this new religion appeared to cancel the worship of 'the goddess' for whom many people were employed in statuary and such, used in the worship of 'the goddess'.
But it went further, deep into the intellectual community, as seen with Paul's reasoning on Mars Hill. The point of the lesson is really, Whom indwelt the members of Christ's Bride? From that indwelling Spirit, the humble believers eschewed the flowery worship of goddesses and emperors and the pantheon of gods. This caused the list of martyrs and the painful death of every single one of the disciples (except JOhn the beloved) who went to the four corners of the known world to carry the good news of Salvation in Jesus Christ!
A careful reading of the New Testament books/letters instructs us that Paul and the missionaries were very concerned about a bastardization of the simple Gospel of Grace found in the atoning work of Jesus.
Let's draw a parallel here. The assertions of Mormonism are in many ways very similar to the judaizers Paul admonished against. These segments of the New Testament are great reading, especially with an Oxford Companion to the Bible and a Holman's Bible dictionary/encyclopaedia! Paul spent long passages in his letters instructing the new converts (these people he wrote to were just that, new converts, in a new expression of Judaism, the most unexpected revelation any Jew of that day or student of Judaism would have expected; did you know Pilate had sent members of his educated Centurian guard out into the Jewish populace, to discover what their religion was all about so that he could work out difficulties with these stiff-necked people?).
Now, if the dissembling of the simple message was not a big deal, why would Paul and others spend so much energy admonishing the new converts to stay away from the 'extras' inserted by some who came behind Paul and Silas, and Barnabas, and Nathaniel, and Timothy, and Andrew sowing seeds of 'do this and do that to be worthy of the Grace of God'?
I think you instinctively know the answer to that one. The Grace of God in Christ is not something earned. When one reverts to doing their best to be worthy, they always fail because the tempter is stronger than their will power. ONLY God's presence within can bring forth the fruit of the spirit. And He only comes 'within' when the innocent blood is sprinkled upon the mercy seat for the broken and contrite spirit.
Jesus is The Deliverer (in the Greek, he is titled 'soter'). Being born again is the start of a new life with God's Holy Spirit indwelling the newly born, as the earnest of the inheritance which will not be realized while still in this body inherited from Adam. As God created the entire Universe and thus all in it, He also has a new creation in mind for those faithing (yes, I meant it as a verb) in Jesus.
Cults that seek to enlist members from Christian numbers always, without fail, use some form of the lie Satan told to Eve in the Garden. That lie was so powerful, it worked on someone who actually walked with God! Someone who was absolutely innocent and loving. That lie was so powerful, it is used by cults like Mormonism to usher seeking souls into a cocoon which has an ever thickening dead-spirit shell which rejects the simple Gospel message. Does it actually happen like that? ... Well, yes, Eve even stated to Satan a very simplified version of God's Grace, yet she succumbed to the lie and disobeyed.
And she died. Oh, not physically, yet. But she died in spirit the day that she disobeyed. Now, if dying spiritually is so easy, how could God prevent such a fall in every single person who confesses trust in Jesus as Savior? When one trusts in Him, the most terrible effect Satan could accomplish would be to destroy that salvation. But he can't ... By simply removing the responsibility from the one who professes faith in Christ, God has defeated Satan, as in past tense, future tense, present tense!
Eve was closer in her walk with God than you or I, yet she died, spiritually. Jesus makes of her a reborn being. That is His work. Soterism is not something men can accomplish, even men like Joseph Smith who proclaimed himself so vital to God's 'needs' (blasphemy at the root of it). ONLY Jesus can deliver a man freom his fallen spiritual state. Only God can make of Satan a defeated liar. You can't do it, I can't do it, and I'm absolutely convinced no Mormon can do it either. No matter how sincere.
Now here's the point of the lesson/the ramble/the homily: if Eve could die so easily, spiritually, what would make a man believe he is man enough to maintain his own salvation, even if he claims he has been born again? Why would the God of creation leave in the hands of already feckless men and women the most precious Grace possible in Heaven or Earth? ... He doesn't. And when Mormonism, or Jehovah's Witnesses, or any other Christian look-a-like gaggle tells men that they must follow these several steps on a list, you can be sure that religion, that religious discipline is not of God.
Why is this releveant to your slur against Christians contending against Motrmonism on FR threads? ... Just like in the first days of the blossoming Church of simple believers/faithers, the one who hates God and sees the souls of men and women as a way to stick knives in God's heart, that one will make a religious discipline seem so close to Christianity that people will follow a false belief and not faithe in the Deliverer, will not place their faith and life in His hands for deliverance. And they will be deadmen walking, even as they appear so goodly and separated from the sins of the world.
The Pharisees of Jesus's day walked righteous, self-righteous, even decorating the hem of their garments with religious material and wearing philacteries on their foreheads, containing a verse or verses from their Testament/Bible. Jesus said of them that they were whited sepulchres/tombs of the dead! Devout followers of Islam make a spectacular show of goodliness, but they are dead of spirit, as evidenced by the many strictures they murder folks for not following to the letter in service to their god, allah.
If aliveness in spirit were the goal of Islam, would Islamist murder people for such? If aliveness in spirit were the goal of Mormonism, would Mormonism leaders place a burden upon followers which even Eve could not fulfill? ... Think about it, brother. Can you change the DNA you inherited from your father and mother? ... Can you be unborn from their family? God has made a way for faithing people to remain His, in His hand. Mormonism teaches people to earn their deliverance. It has never been so from the day Jesus called His disciples. Peter should tells us that searing lesson.
That is why some of us suffer the isults of fellow freepers, to oppose the cult of Mormonism which is a Christianity look-a-like which cradles followers right out of their immoratls souls! That's a serious matter, brother.