The worst enemies of the Church are among those who were once members of it. Such leave the Church but find it impossible to leave it alone. Thereafter, their lives are devoted to opposition to those truths that once afforded them peace and joy. Obviously it would have been better for them to have never known the truth than to become enemies to it.
“It Would Have Been Better for You That Ye Had Not Known Me”
To refuse obedience to the gospel standard is obviously a greater sin for those who have received the witness of the Spirit than it is for those who never knew it.
Peter taught the principle thus: “For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning.
For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them.” Such, he said, is as the dog that returns to its own vomit or “the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.” (2 Peter 2:20-22.)
The book of Alma explains: “After a people have been once enlightened by the Spirit of God, and have had great knowledge of things pertaining to righteousness, and then have fallen away into sin and transgression, they become more hardened, and thus their state becomes worse than though they had never known these things” (Alma 24:30).