One of the most difficult Christian doctrines for many people, even some evangelicals, to accept is that of an everlasting hell where unsaved people will experience suffering and eternal separation from God. It has been the position of most churches and denominations of the historic Christian faith that hell is a reality and its escape is a primary benefit of receiving Jesus as one’s Savior and Lord.
Indeed, some groups have tried to redefine the meaning or duration of hell to make it more palatable. For example, the Seventh-day Adventist Church’s official doctrine is that after the final judgment, Satan, his demons, and those humans who have rejected the gospel will be thrown into the lake of fire (or Gehenna) and be annihilated completely out of existence.
This is also the position of the Jehovah’s Witnesses. They assert that those who have rejected the chance to be part of God’s Theocratic Organization (the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, of course) will be totally destroyed during or after the battle of Armageddon.
In recent years there has been a renewed advocacy by some supposedly evangelical theologians, such as Rob Bell (Love Wins), Robin Parry (AKA: Gregory MacDonald), and Thomas Talbot, for universalism. That view has been popular in liberal mainline denominations for decades. It says that hell is real but it is only temporary, and that eventually all humanity will be saved and go to heaven for eternity. All of those views are subjects for future articles.
But what about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS/ Mormons)? What is that church’s official stance on the existence and duration of hell? It is sometimes said that Mormonism is a universalist belief system. It is true that the LDS teaches that almost all humanity will have the chance to accept the Mormon gospel after death and be saved to one degree or another.
According to LDS doctrine, when Mormons die their spirits go to a pleasant spiritual waiting place called “Paradise.” Anyone who is not a baptized Mormon goes to an unpleasant waiting place called “Spirit Prison” (not hell as such). Mormon missionaries from Paradise regularly visit Spirit Prison to preach the Mormon gospel to its non-Mormon inhabitants. Non-Mormons can then accept the message and be saved post-mortem, providing a living Mormon goes to the temple to be baptized on their behalf. Therefore, Mormons believe virtually all of the lost souls in Spirit Prison will be baptized by proxy and be saved before or during the Millennium. Mormon doctrine says that everyone will then be judged and go to one of three levels of Heavenly glory: the Celestial Kingdom (only faithful Mormons); the Terrestrial Kingdom (Mormons who do not meet all the requirements for the Celestial Kingdom and good people who are not LDS), and the Telestial Kingdom (wicked people).
All that being said, the LDS does teach the existence of a place of eternal punishment or hell. They usually refer to it as “Perdition” or “Outer Darkness.” Those who go there are called “Sons of Perdition.”
“These are they who had testimonies of Jesus through the Holy Ghost and knew the power of the Lord but allowed Satan to overcome them. They denied the truth and defied the power of the Lord. There is no forgiveness for them, for they denied the Holy Spirit after having received it. They will not have a kingdom of glory. They will live in eternal darkness, torment, and misery with Satan and his angels forever.“ (emphasis added) (See D&C 76:28-35, 44-48 .) (Gospel Principles. Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 2011, p. 273- Available online in PDF at: https://www.lds.org/bc/content/shared/content/english/pdf/language-materials/06195_eng.pdf?lang=eng)
It is generally believed that such “Sons of Perdition” will be few in number. All but a very small number of undeserving wicked humans (egs.: Cain and Judas) will go to glory. Thus, Mormons may feel comforted knowing they do not have to worry about their non-Mormon friends or other humans suffering forever in hell since there will not be many people there anyway. But we must ask, is that comforting assurance really justified? Are Mormons forgetting something?
According to Mormon doctrine, all people lived in a preexistant spiritual world with the Heavenly Father and Mother before their birth on earth.
“God is not only our Ruler and Creator; He is also our Heavenly Father. All men and women are literally the sons and daughters of God. ‘Man, as a spirit, was begotten and born of heavenly parents, and reared to maturity in the eternal mansions of the Father, prior to coming upon the earth in a temporal [physical] body’ (Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph F. Smith [1998], 335).
“Every person who was ever born on earth is our spirit brother or sister. Because we are the spirit children of God, we have inherited the potential to develop His divine qualities. Through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, we can become like our Heavenly Father and receive a fulness of joy. (Gospel Principles. Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 2011, p. 9)
According to the estimates of Carl Haub of the Population Resource Bureau, more than 108 billion human beings have been born in the whole history of the world (about 6.5% of whom are now living). Most of those births have occurred in recent centuries as the population of the earth has exploded. (http://www.prb.org/Publications/Articles/2002/HowManyPeopleHaveEverLivedonEarth.aspx )
So what has this got to do with the Mormon doctrine of hell? Consider this statement from an official LDS textbook:
“Because our Heavenly Father chose Jesus Christ to be our Savior, Satan became angry and rebelled . There was war in heaven. Satan and his followers fought against Jesus Christ and His followers. The Savior’s followers ‘overcame [Satan] by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony’ (Revelation 12:11).
“In this great rebellion, Satan and all the spirits who followed him were sent away from the presence of God and cast down from heaven. A third part of the hosts of heaven were punished for following Satan (see D&C 29:36). They were denied the right to receive mortal bodies.” (emphasis added) (Gospel Principles. Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 2011, pp. 15, 16)
If Mormonism is true, then the number of spirit children of God who, to this point, have left the preexistence to be born on earth is over 108 billion. Likewise, those spirits still in the preexistence who will eventually populate the earth is still growing, perhaps still in the hundreds of billions. It could be never ending. But lets assume that all the spirit children in heaven have, by now, all been given bodies. If no more humans are ever born on earth, then the number of souls in hell after the judgment will be, at minimum, 54 billion! How do we arrive at that number? All we have to do is a simple bit of math. We just take 108 billion and divide it in half.
Of course, the population of the world continues to expand. And we can’t know how many more spirits in heaven are waiting to receive physical bodies. Whatever the growth in the number of human lives that are conceived, then the number of condemned souls will likewise grow proportionately. So, unless Jesus returns soon and closes out the age (as Mormons see it), the Mormon hell will just keep getting bigger and bigger! Not much comfort in that.
© 2018 Tal Davis