Accountability

All are accountable before God for their own sins (see T&C 101:17). No one can escape responsibility based on their willful ignorance. If one has the scriptures, he knows he cannot be saved in ignorance.¹ All have been warned that the scriptures have information that is able to teach them about salvation (see 2 Timothy 1:9). There also is the Lord’s warning to search into the scriptures if one expects eternal life (see John 5:7). When this is before one, it is impossible to sin ignorantly, even if that ignorance is a result of one’s own neglect (see 3 Nephi 3:3).² King Benjamin’s testimony was that the atonement would allow everyone to repent, and even those who sin “ignorantly” would be forgiven of their sins (see Mosiah 1:15). To king Benjamin’s thinking, the great error was willfully doing what one knows was against God’s will. However, even then, King Benjamin invited his listeners to repent and reclaim the mercy God offered (see Mosiah 1:15). His sermon presumes that his audience were sinners and suffered from myriad shortcomings. As King Benjamin explained, Men and women, in their natural state, are out of harmony with God and have been since the Fall of Adam. This disharmony will continue from eternity to eternity, unless they yield to the guidance of the Holy Spirit, abandon their fallen nature, and become holy through the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ. They should strive to become like a child, humble, meek, patient, and full of love, willing to accept everything that the Lord deems appropriate for them, as a child obeys their parents (Mosiah 1:16 CE). This doctrine is astonishing because it: makes each person individually accountable to follow the Holy Spirit; presumes that the Holy Spirit will entice you directly; puts each person in a position to be submissive to God as a child would obey their parents; accepts the fact that life, because of this disharmony, will always test even the best of us; makes God the one who allows for life’s challenges; and bids us to accept everything that wise, Eternal Parents deem appropriate for us. They know what those challenges might be, what our limits are, and where the bounds of Satan to tempt and afflict are set. King Benjamin is remarkably democratic in his view of God and His involvement in men’s and women’s lives. God is direct, immediate, and involved with everyone.³ “The Book of Mormon is a record that will be used as evidence we have been warned. In plain language and with sufficient truth to hold us all accountable, this is the standard by which we are to find our way back to the Lord in this last dispensation before His return.”⁴