In chapter 4 of the first book of the Book of Mormon, the spirit of god is explicitly said to repeatedly command and, at length, convince one character to murder another while the latter is passed out and helpless. Mormons have tried to justify the killing by various means. Certainly, the narrator establishes that Laban was a horrible person who shall not be much missed. He is first introduced accusing one of Nephi's brothers of being a thief (without having any real cause to make such an accusation) and trying to kill him. Then, when Nephi and his brothers bring him all their father's wealth in order to broker a deal, Laban steals it and has his servants try to kill them. There's no question he was a truly despicable human being (or fictional character, take your pick).
But there's also no question that what Nephi did to him was the act of murder. Laban was helpless, passed out drunk on the street, when Nephi found him. There was no struggle from Laban as Nephi took Laban's sword and used it to cut the other man's head off. Apologists point out that Laban more than had it coming and that the act was therefore an execution. I won't argue that Laban didn't deserve his fate, but executions are matters carried out by the governments God has established (Romans 13:4) or the proxies they appoint, and it has always been so. Nephi was neither a government authority nor authorized to act as one and so--as his flight from Jerusalem proves he knew all too well--the slaying of Laban was murder.
It's not like murder never happens in the Bible or that, in the Bible, God never uses murders to bring about His plan (the Bible does say He works all things together for good, inclusive of our sins). But God explicitly forbids it in the Ten Commandments and never, ever commands anyone to commit it. Killings in war are commanded at times (even to the extent of genocidal total war), and kings and their appointed commanders use their authority to kill many, but murders are never portrayed as being commanded by God. But in the Book of Mormon the idea that god commanded a murder is inescapable.
Even more telling than this comparison is taking a look at how god commanded the murder. Two passages occur which are eerily similar to passages in the Bible (my guess, worded that way intentionally by Smith in hopes the appearance of familiar phrases would assuage the reader's conscious at the murder). The first reads, "Behold the Lord hath delivered him into thy hands. Yea, and I also knew that he had sought to take away mine own life" (1 Nephi 4:11). Then there's the more often-quoted line of Nephi's final decision in verse 13: "It is better that one man should perish than that a nation should dwindle and perish in unbelief" (an argument which stands only if the sole available copy of the book of the law that could possibly have been acquired by Lehi's family was in Laban's possession and unobtainable by any means except murder--which is a pretty big stretch). Comparing these verses with their original sources in the Bible is chilling.
The first passage in verse 11 is highly reminiscent of two passages in 1 Samuel, 24:4 and 26:8. In both scenes, Saul, the wicked king of Israel who has pursued, hounded, and tried to kill (many times) his divinely-appointed, righteous successor, David, lies helpless at David's mercy, unaware of his predicament. David's men urge him in the first instance, "Behold the day of which the LORD said unto thee, Behold, I will deliver thine enemy into thine hand, that thou mayest do to him as it shall seem good unto thee." But David refrains, only cutting off the hem of Saul's garment--and even that gives him a guilt trip. Later, when David again stands over a sleeping Saul, one of David's lieutenants says, "God hath delivered thine enemy into thine hand this day: now therefore let me smite him, I pray thee, with the spear even to the earth at once, and I will not smite him the second time." But again, David refuses and they leave the wicked king unharmed. In these passages, there's no question that Saul deserved to die. There's no question that, by divine providence, David was placed in a situation where he had the perfect opportunity to kill him. Since David had already been anointed as king by the prophet Samuel, he arguably had the authority of legitimate government (that Nephi lacked) with which to make it an execution rather than a murder. But David doesn't see it that way. Though the man is a renowned warrior, he refused to kill Saul, his greatest enemy, or to let any of his men do it. He considered it morally wrong. Later, he was greatly praised for his restraint. It's a stark contrast: in the Bible, these phrases appear in a story where a godly man spares his enemy's life though friends urge him to violence; in the Book of Mormon, the phrase appears in a story where god urges a reluctant man to murder his helpless enemy, rather than sparing him as David did.
The second passage in verse 14 actually echoes a New Testament verse almost exactly: John 11:50. "Consider that it is expedient for us, that one man should die for the people, that the whole nation perish not." These are the words of the High Priest Caiaphas, in the council where the Jewish religious leaders decided to try to get Jesus executed. But, as John points out, "this spake he not of himself: but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus should die for that nation; and not for that nation only, but that also he should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad" (John 11:51-52). So in the Bible, the idea that one man should die for a people does not pertain to the god-commanded murder of a helpless wicked man so that others may receive a law of righteousness, but to the foreordained sacrifice of one righteous man, so that others may receive freedom from the law of death and sin. It's a complete reversal!
Not only does the Book of Mormon command murder, which the Bible condemns, but even the phrases used to incite the murder of Laban are used in the Bible for the opposite purpose: not to bring death to enemies, but to spare them...not to kill sinners, but to save them. For me, the contrast between the Bible and the Book of Mormon couldn't be sharper!
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