267 lines
14 KiB
Plaintext
267 lines
14 KiB
Plaintext
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
|
|
|
|
For more information see below:
|
|
|
|
This file has been brought to you by the ministry of the;
|
|
|
|
Southern Maryland Christian Information Service BBS, (SMCIS)
|
|
(301) 862-3160 HST
|
|
|
|
P.O. Box 463
|
|
California, MD 20619
|
|
|
|
Sysop: Buggs Bugnon
|
|
|