20 But behold, we know that this is a wicked tradition, which has been handed down unto us by our fathers, to cause us that we should believe in some great and marvelous thing which should come to pass, but not among us, but in a land which is far distant, a land which we know not; therefore they can keep us in ignorance, for we cannot witness with our own eyes that they are true.
21 And they will, by the cunning and the mysterious arts of the evil one, work some great mystery which we cannot understand, which will keep us down to be servants to their words, and also servants unto them, for we depend upon them to teach us the word; and thus will they keep us in ignorance if we will yield ourselves unto them, all the days of our lives.
22 And many more things did the people imagine up in their hearts, which were foolish and vain; and they were much disturbed, for Satan did stir them up to do iniquity continually; yea, he did go about spreading rumors and contentions upon all the face of the land, that he might harden the hearts of the people against that which was good and against that which should come.
The claim that preachers aim to enslave and ensnare the gullible is one of Satan’s great deceptions. We have heard it echoed repeatedly in the Book of Mormon from Laman and Lemuel to Korihor. 

Here, those who have begun to see signs of the coming of Christ have nevertheless become numb to the signs because of Satan’s lies. They are driven by the belief that if they cannot personally see the things being preached about that those teachings must be false.

We see these same arguments in our day. We are told that preachers are doing it only for prestige and power. And unfortunately in some circumstances this may be true. But nevertheless, most who preach of Christ do so at personal expense and out of a love for him. And especially in Christ’s Church missionaries sacrifice much to go out and preach. It is often the enemies of Christ that profit most from their sophistry and lies.