Conference Report, April 1930, p. 97 “HELL HATH BOTH ENTRANCE AND EXIT During this hundred years many other great truths not known before, have been declared to the people, and one of the greatest is that to hell there is an exit as well as an entrance.
Hell is no place to which a vindictive judge sends prisoners to suffer and to be punished principally for his glory; but it is a place prepared for the teaching, the disciplining of those who failed to learn here upon the earth what they should have learned. … No man will be kept in hell longer than is necessary to bring him to a fitness for something better. When he reaches that stage the prison doors will open and there will be rejoicing among the hosts who welcome him into a better state.” – James E. Talmage
Matthew 25:46 “And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.”
If hell operates like Mr. Talmage said it does, God knows nothing of it.
The word ‘hell’ is mentioned in the Bible 54 times, and not one indicates hell has a type of revolving door where people can come and go as they please.
Mr. Talmage tried to placate fears people may have had of hell by twisting God’s word. It’s reminiscent of God’s warning through the prophet Jeremiah during the fall of Babylon ~
Jeremiah 23:16 “Thus saith the LORD of hosts, Hearken not unto the words of the prophets that prophesy unto you: they make you vain: they speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the LORD.”
While the entire nation was under siege, life as the Israelites knew it was being pummeled but that didn’t stop false prophets from lying! Their main message tried to calm the masses by falsely telling the Israelites there was nothing to fear.
Talmage is like those in Babylon trying to hush questioning minds. Pray for those who listen to and have bought into these lies! Mr. Talmage may have said these things 88 yrs ago, but Mormons today still believe it.
With Love in Christ;
Michelle
I don’t think that Elder Talmage is necessarily suggesting that, “….hell has a type of revolving door where people can come and go as they please”, as you have said in your comments above. Now that would be misleading, because Elder Talmage also said (which apparently has been conveniently
omitted from the passage here), “True, we read of everlasting punishment and suffering and eternal damnation. But the Lord has made plain what these words mean. Eternal punishment is God’s punishment, for He is eternal. And that condition or state or possibility will never exist for the sinner who deserves and really needs such condemnation. But this does not mean that the individual sufferer or sinner is to be eternally and everlastingly made to endure it and suffer. No man will be kept in hell longer than is necessary….”.
Much of this comes down to how you define “hell”. Based on what we believe, we have learned that there are 3 basic “degrees of glory”, as they were detailedly described in the Doctrine & Covenants Section 76 (I would admonish you to read that section of The Doctrine & Covenants). The Apostle Paul did describe briefly two of those glories in 1st Corinthians 15:40-42. Don’t know why he didn’t specifically mention the third, or as we call it, the “telestial glory”.
My question to you is this, “Is the judgment akin to what the Jews faced at Dakow or Auschwitz…..You go this way, you’re saved; or you go that way, you’re doomed??
That seems too simplistically cut and dried to me; our lives as mortals are much more complex than, and God is well aware of that . But I don’t believe God, in his infinite and incomparable mercy, sees it that way.
Feel free to share with me your understanding.
Thank you, and may God bless all of us.
Mitch Long