Carnal, Sensual, and Devilish

In his book The Broken Heart, Bruce C. Hafen commented about the idea common in some of Christianity that men came into this world inherently evil.  To argue against this idea, he quoted Moses 6:54 which reads in part, “Son of God hath atoned for original guilt, wherein the sins of the parents cannot be answered upon the heads of the children, for they are whole from the foundation of the world.”  He also referred to D&C 93:38 in which we find these words: “Every spirit of man as innocent in the beginning; and God having redeemed man from the fall, men became again, in their infant state, innocent before God.”  Elder Hafen said this, “The descriptive terms whole and innocent suggest that those who enter the mortal sphere are at first neither good nor evil by nature” (see chapter 7, Human Nature and Learning by Experience). 

                After reading his words I’ve gone back and read again the scriptures which refer to man as “carnal, sensual, and devilish” that have previously caused me some confusion.  I have generally assumed that these adjectives referred to the general state of man because of the Fall, but I don’t think that this is correct.  We are not evil because we came into the world or because Adam fell, but we are evil because we have heeded the teachings of the adversary.  Enoch taught his people, “Behold Satan hath come among the children of men, and tempteth them to worship him; and men have become carnal, sensual, and devilish, and are shut out from the presence of God” (Moses 6:49).  Succumbing to the temptations of Satan is how men have become over time “carnal, sensual, an devilish.”  Other modern day revelation seems to confirm this: “And gave unto them commandments that they should love and serve him, the only living and true God, and that he should be the only being whom they should worship.  But by the transgression of these holy laws man became sensual and devilish, and became fallen man” (D&C 20:19-20).  It was from the transgression of the law that men became evil, not simply their entrance into the world.  We read in the days of Adam that “Satan came among them, saying: I am also a son of God; and he commanded them, saying: Believe it not; and they believed it not, and they loved Satan more than God.  And men began from that time forth to be carnal, sensual, and devilish” (Moses 5:13).  Again the scripture implies that it was Satan’s temptations and deceiving that caused men to be devilish—it was not the way they were born.  Abinadi put it this way as he spoke about the wicked: “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” (Mosiah 16:3).  The phrase “which was the cause of all mankind becoming carnal” is a bit ambiguous; does the “which” refer to the Fall or to “that old serpent”?  I think I have generally interpreted it as saying that the Fall makes people to become carnal, but perhaps Abinadi was simply saying that it was Satan that caused man to become carnal, and that Abinadi’s use of the words “all mankind” was a general state of the great wickedness among the children of men (and not meant to imply “every single human being”).  The one other verse that uses this language comes in Alma’s teachings to Corianton: “Therefore, as they had become carnal, sensual, and devilish, by nature, this probationary state became a state for them to prepare; it became a preparatory state” (Alma 42:10).  The phrase “by nature” seems to suggest a kind of inherent evilness to men, but Alma explained a couple verses later that “this fallen state… man had brought upon himself because of his own disobedience.”  Again it wasn’t the Fall that made man wicked—it was their own disobedience.  It is choosing to follow Satan that brings upon us the title of “carnal, sensual, and devilish,” and only through obedience and the “atonement of Christ” can we put off the natural man” (Mosiah 3:19).