When Christ comes the scriptures say the wicked will be burned. Who will burn? Who will do the burning? How will we be burned?

When Christ comes the scriptures say He will destroy the wicked. Will the wicked judge themselves? Will their torment be as a lake of fire and brimstone?1  When Christ who ministers to those in a terrestrial glory comes through the veils of heaven and telestial beings cannot and wish not to abide his presence, will they continue in a telestial kingdom?  Will a merciful God provide a place where they are more comfortable?2  Will the cycle repeat?3  Joseph said all who have bodies have power over those without.4 Will a God have mercy on them, provide them physical bodies and a new earth whereon these may dwell, that they may work out their salvation?5 Is there a renewing to this process?6 Is this what is meant by His work being first spiritual and secondly temporal, and first temporal and secondly spiritual?

How are we captive without bodies? What is is about mortality that gives us freedom?

 

Notes

1. "A man is his own tormenter and his own condemner. Hence the saying, They shall go into the lake that burns with fire and brimstone. The torment of disappointment in the mind of man is as exquisite as a lake burning with fire and brimstone. I say, so is the torment of man." (Joseph Smith, King Follet Discourse, TPJS p. 357)

2. "Behold, I say unto you that ye would be more miserable to dwell with a holy and just God, under a consciousness of your filthiness before him, than ye would to dwell with the damned souls in hell. For behold, when ye shall be brought to see your nakedness before God, and also the glory of God, and the holiness of Jesus Christ, it will kindle a flame of unquenchable fire upon you." (Moroni, Mormon 9:4-5)

3. "For by the power of my Spirit created I them; yea, all things both spiritual and temporal—First spiritual, secondly temporal, which is the beginning of my work; and again, first temporal, and secondly spiritual, which is the last of my work—Speaking unto you that you may naturally understand; but unto myself my works have no end, neither beginning; but it is given unto you that ye may understand, because ye have asked it of me and are agreed." (D&C 29:31-33)

4. "All beings who have bodies have power over those who have not. The devil has no power over us only as we permit him." (Joseph Smith, TPJS, Section 4, p. 181)

"Before foundation of the earth in the Grand Council that the spirits of all men were subject to oppression, and the express purpose of God in giving them a tabernacle was to arm them against the power of Darkness." (Joseph Smith, Discourse, [19 January 1841], as Reported by William P. McIntire's Notebook, p. 7)

"God is good and all his acts are for the benefit of inferior intelligences— God saw that those intelligences had not power to defend themselves against those that had a tabernacle therefore the Lord calls them together in council and agrees to form for them tabernacles so that he might gender the spirit and the tabernacle together so as to create sympathy for their fellow man— for it is a natural thing with those spirits that have the most power to bear down on those of lesser power, so we see the devil is without a tabernacle and the Lord has set bands to all spirits." (Ibid. p. 18)

5. "God is in no hurry. And he's in no hurry to fix you. He will wait on whatever it is you need to be allowed to dispose of for you to come along. And he will wait." (Denver Snuffer, Be of Good Cheer, Be of Good Courage, Boise, 9/10/13)

"There is never a time when the spirit is too old to approach God. All are within the reach of pardoning mercy, who have not committed the unpardonable sin, which hath no forgiveness, neither in this world, nor in the world to come." (Joseph Smith, HC v. 4 ch. 25. p. 425)

6. "A lake because it engulfs them so tightly they are flooded with the guilt. Fire because it is designed to purge and refine. Brimstone because of the bitterness of the experience. The torment there is 'endless' meaning from God." (Denver Snuffer, Removing the Condemnation)

7. "Broad is the gate, and wide the way that leadeth to the deaths; and many there are that go in thereat, because they receive me not, neither do they abide in my law." (D&C 132:25)