Now, there is a sense in which LDS scripture may appear to promulgate an Arminian notion of original sin. As a result of the Fall, humankind was “cut off both temporally and spiritually from the presence of God” (Alma 42:7). That is, humans will die and are no longer in God’s immediate presence. After the Fall, all persons would be in a state contrary to that in which God created them and would be naturally evil (Mosiah 3:19; Alma 41:11; 42:10). Because they would be captive to the devil (2 Ne. 9:8-9), no one would be free to choose good because they would be subject to the devil (Mosiah 16:3)—that is, except for the atonement of Christ (2 Ne. 9:6-7; Alma 42:14-16). Because of the Atonement, all persons overcome spiritual death (alienation from God’s immediate presence) and will be resurrected to return to God’s presence “to be judged according to their works” (Alma 42:23; 2 Ne. 9:13-16; Alma 41:3-4). Only “through the merits, and mercy, and grace of the Holy Messiah” can persons dwell in the presence of God (2 Ne. 2:8). Because of the Atonement, all persons are delivered from their servitude to the devil and evil natures and are made free to act for themselves:

And the Messiah cometh in the fulness of times, that he may redeem the children of men from the fall. And because they are redeemed from the fall they have become free, knowing good from evil; to act for themselves and not to be acted upon, save it be by the punishment of the law at that great and last day, according to the commandments which God hath given.

Wherefore, men are free according to the flesh; and all things are given them which are expedient unto man. And they are free to choose liberty and eternal life, through the great Mediator of all men, or to choose captivity and death, according to the captivity of the devil. (2 Ne. 26-27; emphasis mine).

Thus, it may seem that LDS scripture adopts the same position as Arminianism that we would be guilty of original sin but for the Atonement. However, that is not what the LDS Scriptures teach. Rather, they teach that we would not be free to choose for ourselves if there had been no atonement. What we inherit as a result of “original sin” is not moral culpability for the acts of another, but the ways of being and perpetuated patterns of behavior that enslave us and chain us to forever continue in the same sinful state. We would be captive to the devil, unable to choose for ourselves because we are stuck with our pasts and unable to escape the inevitable loss of freedom that comes with addition to sinful ways of being if there were no atonement. We would be stuck in our sins because we would not be free to choose for ourselves but merely to choose as our past dictates. Thus, rather than being guilty of Adam’s sins if there had been no atonement, we would not be free to choose or escape the evil choices that we always find that we have already made whenever we reflect on our lives. Without the Atonement, it is not the case that we would be guilty of the acts of another, but we would lack freedom to act for ourselves. We would not be able to find healing or forgiveness without the Atonement because we would merely continue to make the same mistakes and commit the same sins over and over. Thus, LDS scriptures adopt a view of hypothetical moral impotence and addiction not sin as a result of the fall of Adam but reject the notion that we can be morally culpable for the acts of another. The doctrine of inherited evil in LDS thought it not about inheriting the moral culpability of another but about our total inability to act as moral agents at all.

Therefore no person, according to the Book of Mormon, is actually evil or depraved as a matter of human nature. At birth, all are automatically delivered as a matter of human nature. At birth, all are automatically delivered by the atonement of Christ from servitude to evil and of all the effects of the Fall except for our inherited mortality, which is overcome by the resurrection. Thus, the Book of Mormon indeed promulgates a concept of “original sin,” but it is a “hypothetical original sin” which does not actually affect persons unless they freely reject the Atonement and choose sin. However, those who freely reject Christ during their mortal probation, having a knowledge of good and evil, return to servitude to the devil and a naturally evil, unredeemed state. That is, persons become evil because o their evil choices, freely made after they become capable of singing and refraining from sin (unlike little children); evil is not the result of Adam’s transgression nor of one’s inherently evil nature:

Thus, all mankind were lost; and behold, they would have been endlessly lost were it not that God redeemed his people form their lost and fallen state.

But remember that he that persists in his own carnal nature, and goes in the way 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 of God. (Mosiah 16:4-5; emphasis mine)

The subjunctive tense used in this and other LDS scriptures indicates that the notion that persons are lost because of the Fall is counterfactual; because of the Atonement, persons really are not lost. However, persons may become continually evil and captive to the devil out of the evil choices they freely make (2 Ne. 2:29; 9:16; Alma 41:5-7, 11-12). Thus, the Atonement results in a gift of freedom to choose that is prevenient or necessarily prior to any human choice. In this sense, the Atonement is the ground of human agency.