Hell was Prepared

by Autumn Dickson

When I was younger, I remember being a bit troubled by the judgment and justice of God towards those who choose to do what’s wrong. If He really loved us, I couldn’t imagine Him wanting to be separated from any of us for eternity. It didn’t make sense to my young mind.

As I’ve grown older and observed the world a bit more, it has come to make more sense. Though I know that I can’t make any final judgments of people and I know that I don’t fully understand the circumstances of others, I can still see enough of the world to understand that people choose their outcomes. And despite all efforts to help people make choices that lead to good outcomes, some people still want to choose things that don’t bring anything worthwhile into their lives.

Why would He send His children away from Himself?

I had an experience with a friend a few summers ago where she expressed some of the same sentiments that I had felt when I was growing up. She was a mother of two, a boy and a girl. She told me she didn’t understand how we could believe in a God who was willing to send some of His children to a place like hell. We all make mistakes, we’re all imperfect. She couldn’t possibly grasp the idea of sending one of her children to hell because they weren’t perfect.

I had this entire response built up in my mind, but luckily the Spirit caught my attention before I could give her that response. I simply asked her, “If your son assaulted your daughter and didn’t change and continued to belittle her, would you force her to spend eternity with him? That wouldn’t be heaven for her.” She didn’t have much of a response, but the Spirit will do that to you.

The Spirit did it to me too in that same moment; I had never looked at it in some real terms because I had never been forced to. I have never yet had to question how I would respond if one of my children was making destructive choices that severely influenced the happiness of my other children. It was at that moment that I understood Heavenly Father just a little bit better. As much as it would make my heart ache forever, I would hope to be wise enough to not sacrifice the happiness of all my other children. If that child changed and chose better, then I would rejoice and cry and throw my arms around them and welcome them home. But if they continued to choose what they wanted at the expense of others, they would have to leave my home.

An understanding of hell

The simple fact of the matter is, there are those who will continue to choose to harm others despite any attempt we might make to help them be happier. We see this so clearly with Laman and Lemuel! Once again, I can’t make any final judgments; I hope they finally figured it out, but they were given every advantage, but they did not want it. Their father taught them how to reach the Lord, but they would not inquire of Him. They saw an angel rebuke them, but that didn’t stop them from hurting Nephi again and again and again. Happiness and salvation were handed to them over and over and over, but they did not want it.

I don’t know why, but some people choose what they want to choose despite all evidence to the contrary. The Lord understood this, and He taught it to Nephi.

1 Nephi 15:33-35:

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.

34 But behold, I say unto you, the kingdom of God is not filthy, and there cannot any unclean thing enter into the kingdom of God; wherefore there must needs be a place of filthiness prepared for that which is filthy.

35 And there is a place prepared, yea, even that awful hell of which I have spoken, and the devil is the preparator of it; wherefore the final state of the souls of men is to dwell in the kingdom of God, or to be cast out because of that justice of which I have spoken.

There is a place prepared for those who would continue to harm others and rob them of the heaven that our Father wants for them. Much of the world believes that this place is scary; we have a different theory.

One of the keys to understanding God is to understand hell. Hell is a word that can mean a couple of different things to us, but let’s discuss it in this context.

One version of hell includes a place called “outer darkness.” There is not much known about this place other than the idea that most of us aren’t even capable of going there. You have to know Christ perfectly and then reject Him. That’s one version, but it’s not super applicable so let’s move on.

Another concept of hell is associated with the three different kingdoms of glory. The concept of hell can expand to mean any place where we are not directly living with God (basically anything lower than the Celestial kingdom). Hell is like a lake of fire and brimstone, not a literal lake of fire and brimstone. The pain of being separated from Heavenly Father is the fire, the brimstone, the hell.

Interestingly enough, sometimes salvation is even expanded to represent anyone found in the three kingdoms. We know that even the lesser two kingdoms are more glorious than what we have on earth. They are beautiful places and Heavenly Father’s children who go there will receive resurrected bodies. In this sense, everyone in one of the three kingdoms of glory experiences salvation to an extent.

In a sense, the lesser kingdoms are places of heaven and hell, and that completely matches up with what I understand of a loving Father. Even as an imperfect parent, I can understand the logic behind this plan of Heavenly Father. I may not be able to have all of my children with me, but I still love them. I still want them to be as comfortable as I can make them for eternity so I will prepare a place for them. It will be a wonderful place, but unfortunately, because of their choices, they will still experience aspects of hell. There is nothing I can do about that except rob them of their ability to choose, and even then, they will still not experience happiness; they will still not feel the full extent of heaven because it will be forced upon them. So I leave them to experience hell to the extent they choose. They will be separated from a loving parent, their siblings, and they will be surrounded by others who make the same kind of choices. I would grieve knowing that some of my children are continuing to hurt each other and that they are separated from me, but I would find peace in the fact that I had done everything I could for them. Everything that could have possibly been done to help them was done.

I love the Plan of Salvation because it makes perfect sense to me. Nothing is arbitrary. I look at the plan, and I see the love of Heavenly Father. If no one had ever told me that God loved me, but they showed me this plan, I wouldn’t have to be told of His love. You can see it in the decisions He has made regarding His children.

I testify of a Heavenly Father who truly loves His children. I testify that He gave us children so that we could better comprehend His choices surrounding us. I testify that He did everything He possibly could to give them everything He has. He sacrificed His perfect Son, gave them the ability to choose happiness, and made up for all of the bad that would occur. I testify of the Savior’s atonement that can make up for all the wrong that happens to us. I testify that what will truly matter at Judgment Day is whether we will be a harmful influence in the Celestial Kingdom because the Savior paid for the mistakes we would make while figuring it all out.

Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives.

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