Thus apostasy began; men fell away from the truth even in the day of righteous Adam; men turned to carnal and ungodly practices even in the day when there were living witnesses to tell them of Eden's beauty, of the fall and promised redemption, and of angelic ministrations and heavenly revelations of the mind and will of Him whose they are and we are."
Bruce R. McConkie, Mortal Messiah, 1:229-30
While it is entirely possible that Satan, in a literal way, came among Adam's children, i.e., appeared as a person to them, such an experience is so much out of the normal experience of students (or for that matter almost all people) that much more understanding of what happened to Adam's children may be obtained by comparing the situation to something nearer to home. It may well be that the text is personifying the spirit of apostasy as Satan. Certainly the apostate believes he is the "son of God" who is on the right track, while the Church and its leaders are accused of having gone astray.
CES PGP outline, Ellis Rasmussen
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