Chapter 16
God redeems men from
their lost and fallen state—Those who are carnal remain as though there was no
redemption—Christ brings to pass a resurrection to endless life or to endless
damnation. About 148 B.C.
1 AND now, it came to
pass that after Abinadi had spoken these words he stretched forth his hand and
said: The time shall come when all shall see the salvation of the Lord; when every
nation, kindred, tongue, and people shall see eye to eye and shall confess
before God that his judgments are just.
2 And then shall the wicked
be cast out, and they shall have cause to howl, and weep, and wail, and gnash
their teeth; and this because they would not hearken unto the voice of the
Lord; therefore the Lord redeemeth them not
3 For they are carnal
and devilish, and the devil has power over them; yea, even that old serpent
that did beguile our first parents, which was the cause of their fall; which
was the cause of all mankind becoming carnal, sensual, devilish, knowing evil
from good, subjecting themselves to the devil.
4 Thus all mankind
were lost; and behold, they would have been endlessly lost were it not that God
redeemed his people from their lost and fallen state.
Mosiah 16:1-4
Continuing, Abinadi proclaimed the day will come when all
the world will see and understand that salvation comes through Christ.
20
And moreover, I say unto you, that the time shall come when the knowledge of a Savior
shall spread throughout every nation, kindred, tongue, and people.
21
And behold, when that time cometh, none shall be found blameless before God,
except it be little children, only through repentance and faith on the name of
the Lord God Omnipotent.
Mosiah 3:20-21
The day will come when all the world will confess His
judgments are just. Alma2
proclaimed the same principle after awakening from blackout. “Yea, every
knee shall bow, and every tongue confess before him. Yea, even at the last day, when all men shall
stand to be judged of him, then shall they confess that he is God; then shall
they confess, who live without God in the world, that the judgment of an
everlasting punishment is just upon them; and they shall quake, and tremble,
and shrink beneath the glance of his all–searching eye” (Mosiah 27:31). The Lord revealed to Joseph Smith, “And this shall be the sound of his trump,
saying to all people, both in heaven and in earth, and that are under the
earth—for every ear shall hear it, and every knee shall bow, and every tongue
shall confess, while they hear the sound of the trump, saying: Fear God, and
give glory to him who sitteth upon the throne, forever and ever; for the hour
of his judgment is come” (D&C 88:104).
At that time, the wicked will be cast out. He Lord said:
9
Yea, verily, to seal them up unto the day when the wrath of God shall be poured
out upon the wicked without measure—
10
Unto the day when the Lord shall come to recompense unto every man according to
his work, and measure to every man according to the measure which he has
measured to his fellow man.
D&C 1:9-10
There will be the weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth
among the wicked. What is meant by the
gnashing of teeth? It is a figurative
term for “a show of anger or dismay; angry complaining”[1]
41
The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his
kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity;
42
And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing
of teeth.
Matthew 13:41-42
This is all brought upon themselves because they refused to
accept the word of the Lord.
The wicked become carnal and devilish. They allow the devil to have power over
them. “For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of
Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the
Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the
atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek,
humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord
seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father” (Mosiah
3:19).
The “old serpent” that
caused Adam and Eve to fall now has power over them. They are subjecting themselves to the devil.
41
Therefore, if a man bringeth forth good works he hearkeneth unto the voice of
the good shepherd, and he doth follow him; but whosoever bringeth forth evil
works, the same becometh a child of the devil, for he hearkeneth unto his
voice, and doth follow him.
42
And whosoever doeth this must receive his wages of him; therefore, for his wages
he receiveth death, as to things pertaining unto righteousness, being dead unto
all good works.
Alma 5:41-42
“The fall … resulted in the conditions of mortality that
predispose a person to sin, that is, to being a fallen, ‘natural man,’ since
"the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam,
and will be forever unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit
(Mosiah 3:19; cf. Mosiah 16:3).”[2]
Because of the fall of Adam, we are all subject to the devil
and will not be able to receive salvation.
Alma2 told Zeezrom, “And
now, my brethren, behold I say unto you, that if ye will harden your hearts ye
shall not enter into the rest of the Lord; therefore your iniquity provoketh
him that he sendeth down his wrath upon you as in the first provocation, yea,
according to his word in the last provocation as well as the first, to the
everlasting destruction of your souls; therefore, according to his word, unto
the last death, as well as the first” (Alma 12:36). He told Corianton, “But behold, it was appointed unto man to die—therefore,
as they were cut off from the tree of life they should be cut off from the face
of the earth—and man became lost forever, yea, they became fallen man” (Alma
42:6).
Were it not for Christ, we would not have been redeemed from
our fallen state.
According to Abinadi, the fall of
Adam and Eve "was the cause of all mankind becoming carnal, sensual,
devilish, knowing evil from good, subjecting themselves to the devil" (Mosiah
16:3–4). From this passage, we learn several things: (1) all men
are carnal in their nature; (2) the cause of all men being carnal in their
nature is directly traceable to the fall of Adam and Eve; and, (3) all men are
not only carnal, but sensual, devilish and they all subject themselves to the
devil. This "subjecting themselves to the devil" that "all
mankind" does is synonymous with sin.3 As
King Benjamin put it, "For the natural [carnal] man is an enemy to God,
and has been from the fall of Adam" (Mosiah 3:19). It would be hard to put
it any more forcefully than that. Nephi comes close when he says,
"Wherefore, all mankind were in a lost and fallen
state" (1 Nephi 10:6).[3]
[1] The Free Dictionary,
Entry – “gnashing of teeth,” accessed October 10, 2014.
[2] Adam's
Fall in the Book of Mormon, Second Temple Judaism, and Early Christianity, Stephen
D. Ricks, Maxwell Institute, October 10, 2014.
[3] Cry
Redemption: The Plan of Redemption as Taught in the Book of Mormon, Corbin
T. Volluz, Maxwell Institute, accessed October 10, 2014.
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