You are correct, the truth will stand on its own. That is exactly what I believed when I set out to become an LDS apologist and fight the “anti’s”. What I found out was that the TRUTH stood on its own, while the LDS church and its doctrines fell and fell hard.
Lets look at the verse right before where you started, shall we?
Matthew 7:15 -16 Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits.
Christ is speaking here of FALSE PROPHETS, like JS. You will know them by their fruits as well. What is JS’s fruit? Polygamy, bondage, heresy, false prophecies.
I posted this part on another thread, but it fits here as well:
YOU SAID : But the many who are also in the mainstream but their hearts really follow the Lord, Jesus Chirst or they would be over here bashing the LDS!
It did not feel like love either when I was LDS and people would witness the errors of Mormonism and the Truth of Jesus Christ of the Bible to me. I took offense. Yet God wooed me to Him, and I later came to see that those who offended me with the truth loved me more than those who did not.
Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth? (Galatians 4:16, KJV)
It seems the other way around I have become your enemy, because I tell you the truth!