Because the majority of the house of Israel who were led out of Egypt by Moses were stiffnecked, and would not hearken to the Lord through Moses, the Lord gave them a lesser law, called the law of Moses (v. 14). This law was a “schoolmaster to bring [them] to Christ” (Galatians 3:24). It was symbolic of Christ, showing types and shadows of his coming. Notice that there were holy prophets among them (Mosiah 3:15), but the lay people did not hold the priesthood. The Lord “took Moses out of their midst, and the Holy [ Melchizedek] Priesthood also” (D&C 84:25). “The lesser priesthood continued” (D&C 84:26), and the Lord told Moses to “separate the Levites from among the children of Israel: and the Levites shall be mine” to carry out the priesthood responsibilities (Numbers 8:14). However, God selected certain qualified men and had the higher priesthood conferred upon them. This doctrine is based on the Prophet Joseph’s statement: “All the prophets had the Melchizedek Priesthood and were ordained by God himself” ( TPJS, 181). The prophets were additional witnesses of Christ and his Atonement (Mosiah 3:15). The law of Moses will be considered further in a later chapter.
A fourth group for whom the Atonement was made is now added. Little children, who are under the age of eight, are also covered by the Atonement. The angel told King Benjamin it was not possible for them to sin (v. 16). As Mormon explained to his son Moroni, “they are not capable of committing sin” (Moroni 8:8). Because of the fall of Adam, they are born into a world of sin, and it is natural, “or by nature” in the angel’s words, that “they fall” (Mosiah 3:16). The Lord explained to Adam: “And the Lord spake unto Adam, saying: Inasmuch as thy children are conceived in sin, even so when they begin to grow up, sin conceiveth in their hearts, and they taste the bitter, that they may know to prize the good” (Moses 6:55). Being conceived in sin does not necessarily mean the act of conception, but conceived in a world of sin, or as “they begin to grow up,” they may fall. An oft misunderstood scripture is, “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me” (Psalms 51:5), David’s plea for forgiveness in the Bathsheba affair. A later Psalm by David shows that he understood being conceived in sin as born into a world of sin, in the same manner as the Lord told Adam quoted above. David said, “The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they are born, speaking lies” (Psalms 58:3). The law of Moses could not save the little children, but the atoning blood of Christ in Gethsemane paid the law of justice for the commandments that they break (Mosiah 3:16). The age of accountability for children was revealed to Joseph Smith:
And again, inasmuch as parents have children in Zion, or in any of her stakes which are organized, that teach them not to understand the doctrine of repentance, faith in Christ the Son of the living God, and of baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of the hands, when eight years old, the sin be upon the heads of the parents. [D&C 68:25]
Because the Lord’s people had changed the ordinance of baptism by immersion to “the washing of children, and the blood of sprinkling” (JST, Genesis 17:5–6), the Lord told Abraham: “And I will establish a covenant of circumcision with thee, and it shall be my covenant between me and thee, and thy seed after thee, in their generations; that thou mayest know for ever that children are not accountable before me until they are eight years old” (JST, Genesis 17:11). He set the age for circumcision at eight days old (Genesis 17:12; JST, Genesis 17:17), symbolic of eight years of age being the years of accountability.