Speaking to a receptive audience, Benjamin described human nature soberly and relatively objectively. In contrast, Abinadi used emotionally forceful language to describe fallen humanity to King Noah and his priests. “They are carnal and devilish,” he declared, “and the devil has power over them.” Like Benjamin, he ascribed this condition to Adam and Eve’s transgression, but without naming them. His focus is on the third character in the drama:
…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.
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.
But remember that he that persists in his own carnal nature, and goes on in the ways of sin and rebellion against God, remaineth in his fallen state and the devil hath all power over him. Therefore he is as though there was no redemption made, being an enemy to God; and also is the devil an enemy to God.
Mosiah 16:3-5
Stark words from the uninvited prophet! His core message—that our natural bodily tendencies are inimical to God’s purposes—is the same as Benjamin’s, but the devil looms large in Abinadi’s version, collaborating with those inborn inclinations to keep people separated from God. In Benjamin’s telling, the task is to “put off the natural man” and develop positive attributes with God’s help. Abinadi, in contrast, sees people persisting in their carnality, intentionally doing wrong. Ironically, he characterizes those stubborn people as having relinquished their agency. They are the devil’s willing subjects, and he wields “all power over them.”
Abinadi’s trio of descriptors emphasizes this collaboration. Carnal means “fleshy,” emphasizing our earthy physical constitution. Sensual emphasizes our instinctive perceptions and reactions to the world. Devilish describes the nature of our consequent decisions and perhaps of our allegiance.
It’s a striking pivot for Abinadi, who entered the scene with a call for collective repentance to avoid collective punishment. After providing a detailed explanation of a passage from Isaiah at the request of the priests, and after defying the king’s demand for his removal, he is no longer urging Noah and his people to repent en masse. He is now issuing a more personal warning, a warning that is heeded by one of the priests in the room: Alma, who would preserve and share Abinadi’s words.
When Alma’s son, also named Alma, later experiences a miraculous conversion, he uses Abinadi’s words to describe what he has been saved from:
Marvel not that all mankind, yea, men and women, all nations, kindreds, tongues and people, must be born again; yea, born of God, changed from their carnal and fallen state, to a state of righteousness, being redeemed of God, becoming his sons and daughters;
Mosiah 27:25
The younger Alma’s close friend, Aaron later uses the same terminology as he preaches to a Lamanite king:
Aaron did expound unto him the scriptures from the creation of Adam, laying the fall of man before him, and their carnal state and also the plan of redemption, which was prepared from the foundation of the world, through Christ, for all whosoever would believe on his name.
And since man had fallen he could not merit anything of himself; but the sufferings and death of Christ atone for their sins, through faith and repentance.
Alma 22:13-14
And when Alma urges his own son Corianton to change his behavior, he characterizes humanity using Abinadi’s three descriptors: carnal, sensual, and devilish (Alma 42:10).
Abinadi’s description of human nature offered an interpretation of the Fall which not only explained humanity’s condition but also motivated individuals to seek God’s help to rise above it.
Today, I will look for language which is both explanatory and motivating, remembering that my words have the capacity to positively influence other people’s decisions and actions.
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