“A Child Is Not Guilty Because of Its Parents”

Joseph F. McConkie, Robert L. Millet

This is subtle. It is a carefully contrived argument which plays upon a -truth to put forward a falsehood. To be sure, all mankind are fallen creatures as a result of the transgression of our first parents in Eden. The Lord, however, atoned for the “original guilt” (Moses 6:54) associated with that specific act of transgression. A child is indeed not guilty because of its parents (see Articles of Faith 1:2), but the child does inherit a fallen or mortal nature through conception, a nature which must be renovated through the cleansing powers of the blood of Christ.

Doctrinal Commentary on the Book of Mormon, Vol. 3

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