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Carnal security

The non-Biblical phrase “carnal security” is used in 2 Nephi 28:21, in the context of repudiating Universalist claims that there is no hell and no devil :

And others will he [the devil] pacify, and lull them away into carnal security, that they will say: All is well in Zion; yea, Zion prospereth, all is well—and thus the devil cheateth their souls, and leadeth them away carefully down to hell.

In print, the phrase can be traced as far back as 1563 where French Protestant John Véron mentions it in his English writings, A Fruitful Teatise of Predestination, and of the Divine Providence of God (spelling modernized):

We must consider that there Saint Paul doth write against certain of the Church of Corinthus, which did live in a carnal security or carelessness, and the being puffed up with a vain confidence, did forget their own infirmity and weakness, and so did fall into horrible sins. Such vain confidence and carnal security, did prophets rebuke, in the people of Israel. But because that Satan the Devil is wont to wrest(?) this place, for to put men in doubt of their salvation, whereby it cometh to pass that many men’s confidences are horribly tormented, we shall note and mark, that there is a certain secutity and confidence which is most holy and godly, and which cannot be separated from the true faith. (Margin says “a Godly security”)

— Folio 51

Therefore the blessed Apostle St. Paul doth dilligently warn the Corinthians to take head and beware of such vain confidence and carnal security because that he did perceive that some of them were given to it, and did please themselves in their own conceits and foolish opinions, but he doth not bid them to doubt of the good will of God towards them, or to be in fear, as uncertain of their own salvation, which they have through Christ, in whom we are chosen afore the foundation of the world were laid. To be short, St. Paul doth here speak against those that were high minded and puffed up with a vain confidence and trust, which was grounded upon men, and not upon God. But when he speaketh of the true security or quietness of mind, and of the true confidence and trust, he saith plainly this: Stand steadfast, being grounded and rooted in Christ.

. . .

(Regarding the Twelfth Chapter of Mathew) For, besides all other doctrines that may be gathered out of it, we do learn there, that if our Savior Jesus Christ, doth of his mere goodness and mercy deiliver us once from the spirit of unbelief, we must not be puffed up therefore, nor give ourselves unto a carnal security, which is the mother of all mischief and which making us to forget the judgement of almighty God, doth choke up altogether the fear of God in our hearts, but that we ought rather to watch and pray, acknolwedging unfeignedly, and even from the bottom of our hearts, our own infirmity and viableness(?), and to submit ourselves unto the might hand of our heavenly pastor.

— Folio 55

The phrase can be found again in A Brief Explication of the First Fifty Psalms, 1655, by David Dickson, as well as two novels by the widely-read John Bunyan (1678, Pilgrims Progress, (character named Carnal-security) reprinted 1814, 1817, 1822, 1823; and 1682, The Holy War Made by King Shaddai Upon Diabolus, to Regain the Metropolis of the World, Or, The Losing and Taking Again of the Town of Mansoul, again with the same character Mr. Carnal Security, reprinted 1713, 1737, 1806, 1811, 1818). After that, Nicholas Clark used the phrase in 1718, and Thomas Shephard in 1797, among other uses.

Our final usage of the phrase was by Thomas Boston, 1720, in Human Nature in its Fourfold State, (reprinted for a century, see 1788, and 1799, 1807, 1816, 1820) which we saw in another Book of Mormon phrase, natural man is an enemy to God.

Is it claiming too much to ask, what was Nephi doing quoting Thomas Boston 2,000 years beforehand? (Is a 7-gram long enough to be considered a quotation?) Or, failing that, John Bunyan? etc. Since they are all dependent on John Véron, who, as far as we can tell, coined the phrase, in the context of 16th century discussions of election and predestination, what is Nephi doing bringing up these ideas? Or what is Nephi doing discussing Protestant concepts at all, which were all reactions to the letters of Paul, before they had been written? Or what is Nephi doing discussing Jesus Christ, before the Christian era? Honestly, even trying to nail down a simply-worded claim, regarding influences and paratext, that can’t be countered with God’s use of time travel, makes my head ache. I’m sure Protestant ministers and preachers used the phrase “carnal security” quite often by the time JS Jr. heard it and wrote it into the Book of Mormon, if he didn’t read it, himself, in Bunyan or Boston.

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