patch@Grownded
Do Latter-day Saints believe in Hell?
Depends on what you mean by Hell.
If you mean a place of everlasting, eternal torment, beset upon by demons with pitchforks, lakes of fire with Satan ruling over people because they didn't say the magic words of Faith alone, or were one of the billions who never even heard the name Jesus Christ because they were born in the wrong location or wrong time or, even worse, weren't picked by God, then no. We don't believe in that. That makes God out to be a cruel, capricious deity who deliberately makes the vast majority of his creations to condemn them to suffering through no fault of their own.
But do we believe in a place of suffering after this life?
We do.
All Christian tradition is clear that there is a division after this life between those who lived a good life and those who did not. We all believe in a spirit realm following this life. Good people find peace, bad people suffer. We are no different on that account.
But what most people forget is that spirit realm is temporary. While universal resurrection is not universally accepted in Christian tradition, it is widely supported in the Bible and Revelation specifically calls for "Death and Hell to give up their captives" for final judgement AFTER the spiritual separation of good and wicked people
Latter-day Saints also accept this position.
So, where does that leave the LDS position on Hell?
Our first death, our physical death, renders us into the Spirit world. We believe this places us in the condition of either Paradise or Spirit Prison (which aligns strongly with the traditional Christian notion of Heaven and Hell)
Those who have followed Christ, received authorized baptism and kept their covenants with God are received into Paradise. Those who have not are in Spirit Prison, and can be subject to the taunting of demons, as well as facing the unvarnished truth of their own sins in life and harm they inflicted on themselves and others. Those in Paradise are those who have been redeemed by the grace of Christ in life. Those in Prison have not.
Is redemption possible for those in Prison? We believe so. We believe Christ, during the days he was dead, opened the gates of Prison so that those in Paradise could preach the Gospel to the prisoners and bring them the hope of salvation through the grace of Christ. That spiritual work continues today, such that all people who ever lived on earth will have the Gospel preached to them, regardless of when or where they live, and have the opportunity to accept or reject that message, and accept or reject the atonement of Christ.
For this reason we perform proxy, or vicarious, ordinance work for the dead. Believing baptism is an essential covenant with God, commanded by Christ, and necessary to fully partake of His grace, we make that ordinance available to the dead, to accept or reject in the Spirit realm. Doing so, we believe they can be accepted into Paradise, relieved of having to suffer for their sins through Christ, and participate in the Great Commission themselves.
We believe all this work must be completed before the resurrection of souls and the Day of Judgement. Those received into Paradise area party of the First Resurrection taught by John in Revelation. Others will be resurrected in turn, until the final resurrection of those who remain to suffer for their own sins because they do not fully accept Christ's grace through faith and repentance.
Then, in an immortal, resurrected state, all mankind will stand before God to be judged, according to their works written in the Book of Life. (again, Revelation) Only those who utterly reject Christ and his grace, after every opportunity to accept him, will be cast into the Second Death along with Satan and his demons as Sons of Perdition. These will be few, only those who totally reject Christ and rebel against God, as Lucifer and the 1/3 host of heaven did.
