                                LDS and Hell
                                ============


   The Mormon doctrine of Hell is most interesting, to be sure.  A
faithful Mormon provided the following:

   Hell:  That part of the spirit world inhabited by wicked spirits who are
awaiting the eventual day of their resurrection is called hell.  Between
their death and resurrection, these souls of the wicked are cast out into
outer darkness, into the gloomy depression of sheol, into the hades of
waiting wicked spirits, into hell.  There they suffer the torments of the
damned; there they welter in the vengeance of eternal fire; there is
found weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth; there the fiery
indignation of the wrath of God is poured out upon the wicked. (Alma
40:11-14; D. & C. 76:103-106.)

   Hell will have an end.  Viewing future events, John saw that "death
and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged
every man according to their works." (Rev. 20:13.)  Jacob taught that
this escape from death and hell meant the bringing of the body out of the
grave and the spirit out of hell.  "And this death of which I have
spoken, which is the spiritual death," he said, "shall deliver up its
dead; which spiritual death is hell; wherefore, death and hell must
deliver up their dead, and hell must deliver up its captive spirits, and
the graves must deliver up its captive bodies, and the bodies and the
spirits of men will be restored one to the other." (2 Ne. 9:10-12)  It
was in keeping with this principle for David to receive the promise:
"Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell." (Ps. 16:10; Acts 2:27.)

   After the resurrection, the great majority of those who have
suffered in hell will pass into the telestial kingdom; the balance,
cursed as sons of perdition, will be consigned to partake of endless woe
with the devil and his angels.  Speaking of the telestial kingdom the
Lord says: "These are they who are thrust down to hell.  These are they
who shall not be redeemed from the devil untill the last resurrection,
untill the Lord, even Christ the Lamb, shall have finished his
work....These are they who are cast down to hell and suffer the wrath of
Almighty God, untill the fulness of times." (D. & C. 76:84-85, 106.)  As
to the sons of perdition, the revelation says that after their
resurrection, "they shall return again to their own place." (D. & C. 88:3
2, 102), that is, they shall go back to dwell in the lake of fire with 
Perdition and his other sons.  Thus those in hell "are the rest of the
dead; and they live not again until the thousand years are ended, neither
again, until the end of the earth." (D. & C. 88:101.)

   Statements about an everlasting and endless hell (Hela. 6:28; Moro. 
8:13), are to be interpreted in the same sense as those about eternal and
endless punishment. (D. & C. 19:4-12; 76:44, 105.)

   Who will go to hell?  This query is abundantly answered in the
scriptures.  Since those going to a telestial kingdom travel to their
destination through the depths of hell and as a result of obedience to
telestial law, it follows that all those who live a telestial law will go
to hell.  Included among these are the carnal, sensual, and devilish -
those who live after the manner of the  world.  Among them are the
sorcerers, adulterers, whoremongers (D. & C. 76:103), false swearers,
"those that oppress the hireling in his wages," the proud "and that do
wickedly." (Mal. 3; 4; 2 Ne. 9:27-39, 26:10.) 

   Several specific groups of wicked persons are singled out to receive
the prophetic curse that their destination is the fires of hell.  "The
wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forgot God,"
David proclaimed (Ps. 9:17).  Sex sin is rewarded with the torments of
hell (2 Ne. 9:36; Prov. 7:6-27).  "Wo unto all those that discomfort my
people, and drive, and murder, and testify against them, saith the Lord
of Hosts; a generation of vipers shall not escape the damnation of hell"
(D. & C. 121:23).  So also is the fate of liars (2 Ne. 9:34), of all
those that preach false doctrines" (2 Ne. 28:15), of those that believe
the damnable doctrine of infant baptism (Moro. 8:14, 21), of the rich who
will not help the poor (D. & C. 104:18; Luke 16:19-31), and of those who
heap cursings on their fellow men (Matt. 5:22; 3 Ne. 12:22).  "The
sectarian world are going to hell by hundreds, by thousands and by
millions,"  the Prophet Joseph Smith said. (History of the Church, vol.
5, p. 554)

   To catch souls in his snares and then drag them down to hell is the
plan and program of the devil (D. & C. 10:26; Alma 30:60).  One of his
latter-day wiles is to persuade men that there is neither a devil nor a
hell and that the fear of eternal torment is baseless (2 Ne. 28:21-23).
But Christ, who holds "the keys of hell and of death" (Rev. 1:18), and
can therefore control and abolish them, has power to save and redeem men
from hell (2 Ne. 33:6; Alma  19:29; 26:13-14).  This he does on
conditions of repentance and obedience to his laws.  But the unrepentant
"would be more miserable to dwell with a holy and just God, under a
consciousness of" their "filthiness before him, than" they "would to
dwell with the damned souls in hell" (Morm. 9:4).

   After death and hell have delivered up the bodies and captive
spirits which were in them, then, as John foresaw, "death and hell were
cast into the lake of fire" (Rev. 20:14).  This lake of fire, a figure
symbolical of eternal anguish and woe, is also called hell, but is a hell
reserved exclusively for the devil and his angels which includes the sons
of perdition (D. & C. 29:38; 88:113; 2 Pet. 2:4).

   Speaking of this hell, and writing of events to take place after the
resurrection and the judgment, and thus of a day after those going to a
telestial kingdom have come out of their hell, Jacob says: "And asuredly,
as the Lord liveth, for the Lord God hath spoken it, and it is his
eternal word, which cannot pass away, 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. 9:16).

   Thus, 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 to 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.
 
   As one can see, their doctrine is extremely different from the
classical, orthodox doctrine of Hell.  The following LDS differences are
most noteworthy (based on the fact that, in the Mormon church, all
scriptures, doctrines, and teachings are "interpreted" via their
"prophet" instead of scripture interpreting the sayings, doctrines, etc.
of their "prophet"):
 
   1) Hell is no more than a "prison", and the inmates look forward to
      a "parole" after serving their "sentence" and being "purified" of
      their sins.  Thus they'll reside in the "telestial" heaven, the
      lowest of the 3 Mormon heavens. 

   2) Hell, therefore, isn't eternal.

   3) However, those who are condemned in the "second death", or second
      judgment, will reside there forever ("second death", meaning
      those spirits in "hell" who didn't convert to Mormonism).
 
   4) As such, the "eternal torment" is no more than temporary
      suffering (as the "prophet" defined eternal). 
 
   5) It's the devil's plan to drag people down to hell by convincing
      them that it doesn't exist (by LDS definition, that is).
      However, the BOM in 2 Nephi 28:21-23, if taken at face value
      (without any "prophet's interpretation"), condemns the Mormon to
      Hell since he's convinced that it doesn't exist as classically
      and orthodoxically defined.  Here's the text of the scripture:

    "And others will he pacify and lull them away into carnal
    security that they will say: 'all is well in zion; yea Zion
    prospereth, and is well'-and the devil cheateth their souls, and
    leadeth them down to HELL. And behold, others he flattereth away,
    and telleth them 'THERE IS NO HELL'; and he saith unto them; 'I
    am no devil, FOR THERE IS NONE'-and thus he whispereth in their
    ears, until he grasps them with his awful chains, from whence
    there is no deliverance.  Yea, they are grasped with DEATH, AND
    HELL; AND DEATH, AND HELL, and the devil, and all that have been
    seized therewith must stand before the throne of God, and be
    judged according to their works, from whence they must go into
    the place prepared for them, EVEN A LAKE OF FIRE AND BRIMSTONE,
    WHICH IS ENDLESS TORMENT." (Emphasis authors)  2 Nephi 28:21-23 
 
 
   Even though, the Mormon teaching sounds orthodox, one must remember
that, according to the LDS, everything is to be "interpreted" by their
"prophet" Joseph Smith, Jr.  As such, man, rather than God, is used to
make scriptural judgments.  Therefore, their doctrine is a heresy and as
such paves the way to hell, rather than righteousness (as the LDS would
have the world to believe).


                   Bible and Hell
                   ==============


   The Bible, being God's established scriptural standard, has a
different story to tell.
   Hell is the destination of all souls who've chosen to reject Jesus
and live in their sins.  The Book of Revelation is an excellent reference
to defining Hell and all who'll reside there at the times of Judgment.
   Jesus, Himself, gave vivid and graphic descriptions of Hell.  Here
are some of His teachings:

   1) Hell is a place of outer darkness (Mat. 8:11-12, 22:11-14,
      25:31-46).

   2) Hell is eternally separated from Heaven and God.  As such, once  
      in Hell, there is no escape to Heaven, or anyplace else (Luke    
      16:19-26). 
 
   3) Hell is a place of eternal fire and torment (Mat. 13:40-43,
      25:31-46, Mark 9:45-48).

   As one can see from the above examples, Hell isn't a pleasant place,
or one that anyone can escape from once placed there.


               The Book of Mormon and Hell 
               =========================== 


   The Book of Mormon tends to agree with the Bible where the subject
of eternal Hell is concerned.  Here are some passages from it.  All
emphases are the author's, single quotes are for clarity only, they do
not appear in the cited passages:

    "And others will he pacify and lull them away into carnal
    security that they will say: 'all is well in zion; yea Zion
    prospereth, and is well 'and the devil cheateth their souls, and
    leadeth them down to HELL.  And behold, others he flattereth
    away, and telleth them 'THERE IS NO HELL'; and he saith unto
    them; 'I am no devil, FOR THERE IS NONE'-and thus he whispereth
    in their ears, until he grasps them with his awful chains, from
    whence there is no deliverance.  Yea, they are grasped with
    DEATH, AND HELL; AND DEATH, AND HELL, and the devil, and all that
    have been seized therewith must stand before the throne of God,
    and be judged according to their works, from whence they must go
    into the place prepared for them, EVEN A LAKE OF FIRE AND
    BRIMSTONE, WHICH IS ENDLESS TORMENT.  2 Nephi 28:21-23

    "For behold, if ye have procrastinated the day of your repentance
    even until death, behold, ye have become subjected to the spirit
    of the devil, and he doth seal you his; therefore, the spirit of
    the Lord hath withdrawn from you, and hath no place in you, and
    the devil hath all power over you; and this is the final state of
    the wicked."  Alma 34:35

    "Now, repentance could not come unto men except there were a
    punishment, which also was eternal as the life of the soul should
    be, affixed opposite to the plan of happiness, which was as
    eternal also as the life of the soul."  Alma 42:16

    "Therefore if that man repenteth not, and remaineth and dieth an
    enemy to God, the demands of divine justice do awaken his
    immortal soul to a lively sense of his own GUILT, and PAIN, and
    ANGUISH, which is like AN UNQUENCHABLE FIRE WHOSE FLAME ASCENDETH
    UP FOREVER AND EVER.  And now I say unto you, that mercy hath NO
    CLAIM on that man; therefore his final doom is to ENDURE A
    NEVER-ENDING TORMENT.  O, all ye old men, and also ye young men,
    and you little children who can understand my words, for I have
    spoken plainly that you might understand, and I pray that ye
    should awake to a remembrance of the awful situation of those who
    have fallen into transgression.  And moreover, I would desire
    that ye should consider on the blessed and happy state of those
    who that keep the commandments of God.  For behold, they are
    blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and if they
    hold out faithful to the end they are received into heaven, and
    thereby they may dwell with God in a STATE OF NEVERENDING
    HAPPINESS.  O remember, remember that these things are true; for
    THE LORD GOD HATH SPOKEN IT."  Mosiah 2:38-41
 
   As one can see, according to the BOM, the doctrine of no hell or
devil is from the devil, and those who profess same are bound up in his
chains and destined for the hell that they don't believe in.  Hell is a
place of  eternal pain, anguish, and torment with no chance of relief,
whereas heaven is eternal happiness to those who follow the commandments
of God, not man (or a "prophet", for that matter!).  It seems that the
Mormon church has a lot to learn from their own "Bible."
 
 
                              Ken Simmons

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