1 Nephi 15:29-33

[pam]

Reference Search: 1 Nephi 15:29-33

29 And I said unto them that it was a representation of that awful hell, which the angel said unto me was prepared for the wicked.

30 And I said unto them that our father also saw that the justice of God did also divide the wicked from the righteous; and the brightness thereof was like unto the brightness of a flaming fire, which ascendeth up unto God forever and ever, and hath no end.

31 And they said unto me: Doth this thing mean the torment of the body in the days of probation, or doth it mean the final state of the soul after the death of the temporal body, or doth it speak of the things which are temporal?

32 And it came to pass that I said unto them that it was a representation of things both temporal and spiritual; for the day should come that they must be judged of their works, yea, even the works which were done by the temporal body in their days of probation.

33 Wherefore, if they should die in their wickedness they must be cast off also, as to the things which are spiritual, which are pertaining to righteousness; wherefore, they must be brought to stand before God, to be judged of their works; and if their works have been filthiness they must needs be filthy; and if they be filthy it must needs be that they cannot dwell in the kingdom of God; if so, the kingdom of God must be filthy also.

Quote for Discussion

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</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>Hell<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p>

Latter-day scriptures teach that there are at least three meanings for the term hell. It can describe our suffering here on earth (see <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /><st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Alma</st1:place></st1:City> 36:18). It can refer to a part of the spirit world where those who have not repented suffer for their sins (see <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Alma</st1:place></st1:City> 40:13-14). It is also used to describe the final condition of those who completely turn away from God (see D&C 29:38).

Thomas R. Valletta, ed., Book of Mormon for Latter-day Saint Families, 43<o:p></o:p>

[prospectmom]

Hell

Latter-day scriptures teach that there are at least three meanings for the term hell. It can describe our suffering here on earth (see Alma 36:18)

Sometimes the pain we put ourselves through.. and what we put others through is far worse than whatever hell there is to come.

[Hemidakota]

In the book called "WE BELIEVE" by Rulon T. Burton, A, section, 314, he lists an interesting topic concerning hell: "Hell is not endless; there is an exit to hell as well as an entrance-there is an end to the torment of the damned"

James E. Talmage - Even to hell there is an exit as well as an entrance; and when sentence has been served, commuted perhaps by repentance and its attendant works, the prison doors shall open and the penitent captive be afforded opportunity to comply with the law, which he aforetime violated. . . .

The inhabitants of the telestial world-the lowest of the kingdoms of glory prepared for resurrected souls, shall include those "who are thrust down to hell" and "who shall not be redeemed from the devil until the last resurrection." (D&C 76:82-85) And though these may be delivered from hell and attain to a measure of glory with possibilities of progression, yet their lot shall be that of "servants of the Most High, but where God and Christ dwell they cannot come, worlds without end." (v.112)

Deliverance from hell is not admittance to heaven. (The Vitality of Mormonism, pp. 255-56) DGSM:93

Joseph Smith, - receiving the Word of the Lord

And surely every man must repent or suffer, for I, God, am endless.

5. Wherefore, I revoke not the judgments which I shall pass, but woes shall go forth, weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth, yea, to those who are found on my left hand.

6. Nevertheless, it is not written that there shall be no end to this torment, but it is written endless torment.

7. Again, it is written eternal damnation; wherefore it is more express than other scriptures, that it might work upon the hearts of the children of men, altogether for my name's glory.

8. Wherefore, I will explain unto you this mystery, for it is meet unto you to know even as mine apostles.

9. I speak unto you that are chosen in this thing, even as one, that you may enter into my rest.

10. For, behold, the mystery of godliness, how great is it For, behold, I am endless, and the punishment which is given from my hand is endless punishment, for Endless is my name. Wherefore-

11. Eternal punishment is God's punishment.

12. Endless punishment is God's punishment. (A commandment of God for Martin Harris, March 1830) D&C 19:4-12

Elder Joseph Fielding Smith - Those who enter into the telestial kingdom . . . are the ungodly, the filthy who suffer the wrath of God on earth, who are thrust down to hell where they will be required to pay the uttermost farthing before their redemption comes. These are they who receive not the gospel of Christ and consequently could not deny the Holy Spirit while living on the earth.

They have no part in the first resurrection and are not redeemed from the devil and his angels until the last resurrection, because of their wicked lives and their evil deeds. Nevertheless, even these are heirs of salvation, but before they are redeemed and enter the kingdom, they must repent of their sins, and receive the gospel, and bow the knee, and acknowledge that Jesus is the Christ, the Redeemer of the world. (Doctrines of Salvation, 2:22) DGSM:93

James E. Talmage - What is it to be damned? Does it mean that all who come under that sentence shall be cast into hell, there to dwell forever and forever? The light of the century, given by the Lord, declares the falsity of that construction.

Salvation is graded ever upward until it culminates in the glorious condition of exaltation. . . . o [also] damnation is graded; else what did the Lord mean as recorded in the twelfth chapter of Mark . . . . "These shall receive greater damnation?" Well, if there be a greater damnation there are lesser degrees of damnation and the term is used in the sense of deprivation and forfeiture. That man enters into a degree of damnation who has forfeited his opportunities and therefore has rendered himself incapable of the advancement that would otherwise be possible. . . .

[E]xcept for those few . . . who have betrayed their trust and who have forfeited the very ability to repent-and they are few-every soul that has ever been tabernacled in flesh upon the earth shall be redeemed and shall be saved in his degree of worthiness and desert.

During this hundred years [since 1830 when the gospel was restored to earth] many other great truths not known before, have been declared to the people, and one of the greatest is that to hell there is an exit as well as an entrance. Hell is no place to which a vindictive judge sends prisoners to suffer and to be punished principally for his glory; but it is a place prepared for the teaching, the disciplining of those who failed to learn here upon the earth what they should have learned. True, we read of everlasting punishment, unending suffering, eternal damnation. That is a direful expression; but in his mercy the Lord has made plain what those words mean. "Eternal punishment," he says, is God's punishment, for he is eternal; and that condition or state or possibility will ever exist for the sinner who deserves and really needs such condemnation; but this does not mean that the individual sufferer or sinner is to be eternally and everlastingly made to endure and suffer. No man will be kept in hell longer than is necessary to bring him to a fitness for something better. When he reaches that stage the prison doors will open and there will be rejoicing among the hosts who welcome him into a better state. CR1930Apr:95-97

James E. Talmage, - also quoting Joseph Smith

So general were the ill effects of the commonly accepted doctrine, unscriptural and untrue though it was, regarding the endless torment awaiting every sinner, that even before the Church had been formally organized in the present dispensation, the Lord gave a revelation through the Prophet Joseph Smith touching this matter, in which we read: "And surely every man must repent or suffer; for I, God, am endless. Wherefore, I revoke not the judgments which I shall pass, but woes shall go forth, weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth, yea, to those who are found on my left hand. Nevertheless, it is not written that there shall be no end to this torment, but it is written endless torment. Again, it is written eternal damnation. . . . For behold, I am endless, and the punishment which is given from my hand is endless punishment, for Endless is my name. Wherefore, Eternal punishment is God's punishment. Endless punishment is God's punishment." (D&C 19:4-10) AF:56

Author's Note: "There is an exit to hell as well as an entrance-there is an end to the torment of the damned," except for the sons of perdition. In the words of Bruce R. McConkie, "for those who are heirs of some salvation, which includes all except the sons of perdition (D&C 76:44), hell has an end, but for those who have wholly given themselves over for satanic purposes there is no redemption from the consuming fires and torment of conscience. They go on forever in the hell that is prepared for them." (Doctrinal New Testament Commentary, 3:578-79)

[Hemidakota]

“I Have a Question,” Ensign, Apr 1986, 36–41

Questions of general gospel interest answered for guidance, not as official statements of Church policy.

What is the meaning of the Book of Mormon scriptures on eternal hell for the wicked?

H. Donl Peterson, “I Have a Question,” Ensign, Apr. 1986, 36–38

H. Donl Peterson, professor of Ancient Scripture, Brigham Young University. In the Book of Mormon, “hell” is the destination of the wicked following death. Among these are “the wise, and the learned, and the rich, that are puffed up in the pride of their hearts, and all those who preach false doctrines, and all those who commit whoredoms, and pervert the right way of the Lord.” (2 Ne. 28:15; see also 2 Ne. 9:34, 36; Luke 16:19–25.) Matthew indicates that hell awaits those who habitually turn away from their fellowmen in need. (See Matt. 25:40–46.)

Nephi calls hell “spiritual death” (2 Ne. 9:12), a place where the wicked are “cast off … as to the things which are spiritual, which are pertaining to righteousness. …

“Wherefore there must needs be a place of filthiness prepared for that which is filthy.” (1 Ne. 15:33–34.)

Two Hells

The prophet Alma explains that the wicked “shall be cast out into outer darkness; there shall be weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth, and this because of their own iniquity, being led captive by the will of the devil.” (Alma 40:13.)

On the other hand, “the spirits of those who are righteous are received into a state of happiness, which is called paradise, a state of rest, a state of peace, where they shall rest from all their troubles and from all care, and sorrow.” (Alma 40:12.)

These statements may seem to reflect the traditional Christian view of heaven and hell. (See Matt. 13:36–43.) But the Book of Mormon takes us a step farther. It describes these conditions as being, for most of mankind, temporary. Alma, for example, states: “Now this is the state of the souls of the wicked, yea, in darkness, and a state of awful, fearful looking for the fiery indignation of the wrath of God upon them; thus they remain in this state, as well as the righteous in paradise, until the time of their resurrection.” (Alma 40:14; italics added.)

The Bible alludes to that fact in a number of places. David is promised that his soul would not remain in hell (see Ps. 16:10; Acts 2:27, 31), and it was promised that others as well would be delivered from spirit prison (see Isa. 49:8–9; John 5:25). This, in fact, happened when Christ opened the doors of hell to missionary work among the dead. (See 1 Pet. 3:18–19; 1 Pet. 4:6; D&C 138:6–37.)

Those who hear and accept the message of salvation, whether in this life or in the spirit world, are raised “unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.” (John 5:29.)

At their resurrection, Nephi explains, all men “must appear before the judgment seat of the Holy One of Israel; and then … must they be judged according to the holy judgment of God.

“And assuredly, as the Lord liveth, for the Lord God hath spoken it, … that they who are righteous shall be righteous still, and they who are filthy shall be filthy still; wherefore, they who are filthy are the devil and his angels; and they shall go away into everlasting fire, prepared for them; and their torment is as a lake of fire and brimstone, whose flame ascendeth up forever and ever and has no end.” (2 Ne. 9:15–16; see also Rev. 22:11.)

In the Book of Mormon, therefore, as in the Bible, two distinct states are referred to as “hell.” One is the temporary condition of the wicked between death and the resurrection. The other is the never-ending state of the wicked for whom there is no mercy because they, “like unto the son of perdition” (3 Ne. 29:7; John 17:12), have rejected the mercy of Christ and would sell him “for silver and for gold, and for that which moth doth corrupt.” (3 Ne. 27:32.) These are they, called perdition and the sons of perdition, who come out “in open rebellion against God” and “listeth to obey the evil spirit, and becometh an enemy to all righteousness. …

“Therefore [their] final doom is to endure a never-ending torment.” (Mosiah 2:37, 39; see also 2 Pet. 3:7; Rev. 20:13–15; D&C 76:31–46.)

For the most part, it is this second hell, or “second death,” to which the Book of Mormon prophets refer when they speak of eternal hell and damnation. (See Jacob 3:11; Alma 12:16–18; Hel. 14:16–18.)

Some readers of the scriptures wonder why the Lord often uses phrases like eternal damnation and endless torment to refer to the kind of punishment he administers.

The Lord explains that “every man must repent or suffer, for I, God, am endless. …

“Nevertheless, it is not written that there shall be no end to this torment, but it is written endless torment.

“Again, it is written eternal damnation; wherefore it is more express than other scriptures, that it might work upon the hearts of the children of men, altogether for my name’s glory.

“Wherefore, I will explain unto you this mystery, for it is meet unto you to know even as mine apostles. …

“For, behold, the mystery of godliness, how great is it! For, behold, I am endless, and the punishment which is given from my hand is endless punishment, for Endless is my name. Wherefore—

“Eternal punishment is God’s punishment.

“Endless punishment is God’s punishment.” (D&C 19:4–12.)

These verses go far to help clarify some statements in the Book of Mormon and the Bible which refer to the temporary hell as being endless.

The Spirit World

As Latter-day Saints, we are fortunate to have four books of scripture, as well as latter-day prophets, to help us understand doctrines that have confused Christianity for centuries. We understand, for example, that the spirits of all who die enter the spirit world to await their resurrection. But even though the righteous enter a state of happiness, rest, and peace, they feel confined. The large assemblage of spirits who awaited Christ’s visit to them shortly after his crucifixion were anxiously anticipating their “deliverance.” The Doctrine and Covenants explains that “the dead had looked upon the long absence of their spirits from their bodies as a bondage.” (See D&C 138:49–50.)

Thus, the peace that the righteous experience in the spirit world is not the ultimate state of happiness most of Christianity think of as heaven. It is only when the spirit and body are “inseparably connected” that mankind can “receive a fulness of joy. And when separated, man cannot receive a fulness of joy.” (See D&C 93:33–34.) In this context, all spirits between death and resurrection are in confinement.

Release for the righteous spirits comes at the beginning of the millennium. At this time, the heirs of the celestial kingdom will come forth from paradise and receive glorified, celestial bodies in the “morning” of the first resurrection, the resurrection of the just. (See 1 Cor. 15:20–42; D&C 88:97–98; D&C 76:17; Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, sel. Joseph Fielding Smith, Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1938, pp. 295–96.) Following the glorious resurrection of the celestial candidates, the heirs of the terrestrial glory will be resurrected. Their resurrection too, though later, is still considered a part of the first resurrection. (See D&C 76:71–80; 2 Ne. 9:26.) Elder Bruce R. McConkie stated that the terrestrial heirs will come forth in “the afternoon of the first resurrection” which takes place after the “Lord has ushered in the millennium.” (Mormon Doctrine, 2d ed., Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1966, p. 640; see also D&C 88:99.)

The Temporary Hell

Among those at death who are assigned to hell are the heirs of the telestial kingdom and the sons of perdition. These spirits will remain in hell, or spirit prison, suffering “the wrath of Almighty God” until the millennial reign is over. (See D&C 76:106.) At that time, they will be resurrected in the last resurrection, the resurrection of the unjust. (See D&C 76:16–17, 81–85; John 5:28–29.)

Those who inherit the telestial kingdom constitute the filthy of the earth—the sorcerers, the adulterers, the whoremongers, “and whosoever loves and makes a lie.” (See D&C 76:103.) But through the mercies of God, even these people will be given a degree of glory. They will be “heirs of salvation,” capable of being instructed by the Holy Spirit and by ministering angels. (See D&C 76:88.)

Elder McConkie wrote that even most murderers will come out of hell, or the spirit prison, in the last resurrection to live in telestial glory:

“When the Lord paraphrases the language of Rev. 21:8 in latter-day revelation (D&C 63:17–18 and D&C 76:103–106) he omits murderers from the list of evil persons. Their inclusion here by John, however, coupled with the fact that only those who deny the truth after receiving a perfect knowledge of it shall become sons of perdition, is a clear indication that murderers shall eventually go to the telestial kingdom, unless of course there are some among those destined to be sons of perdition who are also murderers.” (Doctrinal New Testament Commentary, 3 vols., Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1965–73, 3:584.)

Hell, then, is a temporary quarter of the spirit world where the wicked are restrained in order for justice to be served and to give them a chance to repent. The Lord’s promise is that all who do repent will receive a kingdom of glory, according to his judgment of their works. Even those who merit no kingdom of glory will be resurrected, for Christ’s atonement broke the bands of death for all mankind. (See 1 Cor. 15:22; 2 Ne. 9:14–16.) Following the resurrection, then, that temporary quarter of the spirit world called hell will no longer be necessary. “After all men are resurrected,” wrote Elder McConkie, “the [post-earthly] spirit world will be without inhabitants.” (Mormon Doctrine, p. 762.)

The Hell That Has No End

The three degrees of glory provide eternal homes for the vast majority of God’s children who merited earth life. There is a fourth destination, however, for those “comparatively few” who cannot abide even a telestial glory. The Lord explains that the destiny of the sons of perdition is a kingdom without glory (see D&C 88:24), and “the end thereof, neither the place thereof, nor their torment, no man knows,” only those “ordained unto this condemnation” (see D&C 76:43–49). These are they who “cannot repent.” They “sin against the Holy Ghost” and “put Christ to open shame.” (See Joseph Fielding Smith, Doctrines of Salvation, comp. Bruce R. McConkie, 3 vols., Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1954–56, 1:47–49.)

“All who partake of this, the greatest of sins, sell themselves as did Cain to Lucifer. They learn to hate the truth with an eternal hatred, and they learn to love wickedness. They reach a condition where they cannot repent. The spirit of murder fills their hearts and they would, if they had the power, crucify our Lord again, which they virtually do by fighting his work and seeking to destroy it and his prophets. …

“Before a man can sink to this bitterness of soul, he must first know and understand the truth with a clearness of vision wherein there is no doubt. The Change of heart does not come all at once, but is due to transgression in some form, which continues to lurk in the soul without repentance, until the Holy Ghost withdraws, and then that man is left to spiritual darkness. Sin begets sin; the darkness grows until the love of truth turns to hatred, and the love of God is overcome by the wicked desire to destroy all that is just and true. In this way Christ is put to open shame, and blasphemy exalted.

“How fortunate it is that in the mercy of God there will be comparatively few who will partake of this awful misery and eternal darkness.” (Ibid, p. 49.)

Thus, hell has an end for all consigned to it except the sons of perdition. They alone remain in a hell which has no end.

[prospectmom]

Thanks Hemi for posting such good info...