Jacob's Teachings on Hell

In 2 Nephi 9:5-19, Jacob spoke about what happens to us after death, describing hell along with temporal death, spiritual death, and a lake of fire and brimstone.  These terms can seem confusing, especially when we often mistakenly think of hell as meaning only one thing.  The Bible Dictionary has an excellent description of what the scriptures teach about hell, and I think it aligns exactly with what we read in these verses in the Book of Mormon. 

                Jacob testified how the atonement of Christ helps us to “escape from the grasp of this awful monster; yea, that monster, death and hell, which I call the death of the body, and also the death of the spirit” (v10).  That death of the body is obviously easy to understand, and Jacob bore witness that deliverance from this comes by “the Holy One of Israel” such that temporal death will be forced to “deliver up its dead; which death is the grave” (v11).  In other words, because of Jesus Christ all who have died will be resurrected and retain their physical body unconditionally.  Without Him, “this flesh must have laid down to rot and to crumble to its mother earth, to rise no more” (v7).  The other death that he spoke of was the “spiritual death,” which will also “deliver up its dead” (v12).  In other words, people who die spiritually will not do so indefinitely, just like those who die physically do not remain physically dead forever.  This is exactly what the Lord taught in our dispensation: “Nevertheless, it is not written that there shall be no end to this torment, but it is written endless torment” (D&C 19:6).  Hell, meaning the punishment of the sinner who does not repent, will not last forever.  From other modern scripture we learn that the group which must endure this hell to suffer for their own sins is exactly that group which will ultimately inherit the telestial kingdom—but this suffering comes before the final judgment when they are sent to that kingdom (D&C 76:84-85). 

                There is a second kind of punishment, though, which will last forever.  Jacob wrote, “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” (v16).  The first hell—the spiritual death—happens between the time of physical death and the resurrection; this punishment spoken of here is after the resurrection and final judgment.  What this verse from Jacob clarifies is that it is only the “devil and his angels” that go here to what we commonly call outer darkness or the lake of fire and brimstone.  Those “angels” presumably refer to those who followed Satan in the premortal existence and those few who become sons of perdition.  Jacob summarized what is most important for the righteous saints: “[God] delivereth his saints from that awful monster the devil, and death, and hell, and that lake of fire and brimstone, which is endless torment” (v19).  In other words, the righteous will be delivered from physical death, from having to suffer for their own sins in hell, and from a never-ending torment where the devil and his angels will go.  We praise the Holy One of Israel with Jacob for providing a way to escape all of these as we believe in Him and “endure the crosses of the world” (v18).