The third category of those who are subject to the devil follows a secular philosophy of moral relativism. According to this position, heaven and hell are, at best, metaphors, not literal states. Good and evil are relative to the situation, our intentions, and our motives. Even the comparatively modern Joseph Smith might not have foreseen how powerfully the relativistic paradigm would pervade the world’s understanding. Generalizing from (and far beyond) the scientific method that relies on observable evidence, people can intellectually dismiss such unobservable concepts as eternal good and evil. Removing those absolute bounds of ethicality and morality leaves the world open to situational ethics and moral relativism.
Neither Nephi nor the Lord denies that personal and social “times and seasons” vary, that social variations and different understandings of good can prevail, and that it is difficult to tell, in all cases, whether a desired action is following a rule, making an exception to the rule, or breaking a lower law to keep a higher law (perhaps exemplified by Nephi’s slaying of Laban, 1 Ne. 4:14–18). What is dangerous and deceptive about the paradigm of moral relativism is its ultimate denial of Good as an eternal and universal principle.
Like so many of the devil’s tools, it is not the outright lie but the partial falsehood that is so dangerous. This verse does not condemn every action of the complacent, just their specific inability to see and accept the way of God.