Hell, the devil, and the Telestial Kingdom

In the description of those who will inherit a telestial glory in D&C 76 we read, “These are they who are thrust down to hell.  These are they who shall not be redeemed from the devil until the last resurrection, until the Lord, even Christ the Lamb, shall have finished his work” (D&C 76:84-85).  My understanding of “hell” as mentioned here is that it is where those who did not receive the Savior will be punished for their own sins.  What is surprising to me in this description is the mention of the devil in connection with hell.  The verse seems to suggest that the devil plays some kind of role in this hell where the wicked will be punished.  The punishment must come to satisfy the justice of God, and yet in some way the devil plays a role in administering it.  Several other scriptures seem to confirm this fact, though there is little detail on how that will actually take place. 

                Amulek taught the Zoramites to not procrastinate their repentance, and described the consequence if they did: “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ye have become subjected to the spirit of the devil, and he doth seal you his; therefore, the Spirit of the Lord hath withdrawn from you, and hath no place in you, and the devil hath all power over you; and this is the final state of the wicked” (Alma 34:35).  That the devil will “seal” the unrepentant and have “all power” over them seems to signify that in some way the devil will be in control of “hell” where the unrepentant will be suffering for their own sins.  Lehi described it this way to Jacob, “And not choose eternal death, according to the will of the flesh and the evil which is therein, which giveth the spirit of the devil power to captivate, to bring you down to hell, that he may reign over you in his own kingdom” (2 Nephi 2:29).  So here we seem to learn that hell itself is the kingdom of the devil.  Alma encouraged the people of Ammonihah to prepare the way of the Lord and warned them that those who were evil “shall reap the damnation of their souls, according to the power and captivation of the devil” (Alma 9:28).  The word “captivation” again suggests some kind of power the devil will have to administer punishment in hell.   We have no information about how this will work or why Satan will be allowed to have this power, but in some way he will be given temporary power to punish the wicked.  It seems at least somewhat similar to how the Lord in the Book of Mormon to allowed the wicked Lamanites to act as the inflictors of punishment to the Nephites when they did not remember the Lord. 

                Jacob taught that hell, though, ultimately would not last forever: “And this death of which I have spoken, which is the spiritual death, shall deliver up its dead; which spiritual death is hell” (2 Nephi 9:12).  Satan’s power will be short-lived, and those who have suffered for their own sins will escape into the telestial kingdom, a place of glory, while the devil and his angels will “go away into the lake of fire and brimstone” (D&C 76:36).