The writings of every dispensation of the Priesthood evidence that the Creator provided a place of confinement or retention, where intelligences await future events concerning themselves.

Several hundred years before the flood, the Lord, speaking to Enoch concerning the wicked, said: "Behold, these which thine eyes are upon shall perish in the floods; and behold, I will shut them up; a prison have I prepared for them;" P. of G. P., page 20.

The idea of a pit or prison for man, appears to have been quite definite in the mind of Job; speaking of God's dealings with man, he says, "He keepeth back his soul from the pit, and his life from perishing by the sword;" 33. 18.

The Psalmist David called this place hell or place of departed spirits, for he said of the Lord, "Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell;" Psalm 16. 10. The latter part of the passage evidences that he was looking forward to the resurrection of Christ, to open the way for his release, "Neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption."

Speaking of the latter times, the Lord said, through the prophet Isaiah, "Fear, and the pit, and the snare, are upon thee, O inhabitant of the earth. * * * And it shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD shall punish the host of the high ones that are on high, and the kings of the the earth upon the earth. And they shall be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison, and after many days shall they be visited;" 24. 17, 21, 22. This passage from Isaiah is very definite on this subject. The assertion, "After many days shall they be visited," certainly infers that a time would come when they might be released.

The Lord speaking of another person says, "I the Lord have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and will give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles." The following verse shows that the Lord would call and keep this servant of his for a special work, and that was, "To open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house;" 42. 6, 7. This passage explains how those who would be gathered as prisoners into the pit, and be shut up in prison, were to be visited after many days. Of similar import is Isa. 49. 5-9.

The apostle Peter was evidently quite familiar with this subject: "For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: by which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison; which sometime were disobedient, when once the long suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing;" 1 Pet. 3. 18-20. The Nephite, as well as the Jewish prophets, speak of a place of confinement for spirits; "Wherefore, death and hell must deliver up their dead, and hell must deliver up its captive spirits, and the grave must deliver up its captive bodies, and the bodies and the spirits of men will be restored one to the other;" 2 Nephi 9. 12.

These spirits, which are delivered from hell, are not the spirits of the righteous, for, in the thirteenth verse of the same chapter, the prophet says, "For on the other hand, the paradise of God must deliver up the spirits of the righteous."

These passages show us that the spirits of the wicked go to a prison, or hell, and the spirits of the righteous to the paradise of God, a place of light and freedom. Doubtless it was the same paradise which Jesus referred to, when he said to the thief on the cross, "To-day shall thou be with me in paradise;" Luke 23. 43.

The Lord said, in a revelation to the prophet Joseph, "I am the same which have taken the Zion of Enoch into mine own bosom; and verily, I say, even as many as have believed in my name. * * * But behold, the residue of the wicked have I kept in chains of darkness until the judgment of the great day, which shall come at the end of the earth; and even so will I cause the wicked to be kept, that will not hear my voice but harden their hearts;" Doc. & Cov. 38. 4-6.

This subject is still more fully explained in another revelation, through Joseph, the Seer. After the Lord instructed him concerning the first resurrection he says, "And after this another angel shall sound, which is the second trump; and then cometh the redemption of those who are Christ's at his coming; who have received their part in that prison which is prepared for them, that they might receive the Gospel, and be judged according to men in the flesh;" 88. 99. This verse informs us that when Christ comes there will be a class of spirits who will be redeemed from prison, because they will have paid the penalty of transgression, and will have accepted the Gospel which will have been preached to them in prison.

After the spirits who are prepared for redemption shall be brought out of prison by the resurrection, then "Another trump shall sound, which is the third trump; and then cometh the spirits of men who are to be judged, and are found under condemnation. And these are the rest of the dead, and they live not again until the thousand years are ended, neither again, until the end of the earth;" verses 100 and 101. That is, all the dead that remain after the redemption of those prepared, are those who are under condemnation, and they will not come forth through the resurrection until after the Millennium of a thousand years, and not until after the "little season" in which Satan will be loosed; or the end of the earth. It is mournful to think, that, even after so long a period of probation, or trial, there will be then of these spirits those who will still have to remain in the prison house, for verse 102 says, "There are found among those who are to remain, until that great and last day, even the end, who shall remain filthy still."

In another revelation we are informed, that a part of those who inherit a terrestrial glory, will be "The spirits of men kept in prison, whom the Son visited, and preached the Gospel unto them, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, Who received not the testimony of Jesus in the flesh, but afterwards received it;" sec. 76. 73, 74.

Bible.

Job 17. 16 they shall go down to the bars of the pit.

33. 24 deliver him from going down to the pit: I have found a ransom. 28, 30.

Psalm 9. 17 the wicked shall be turned into hell.

28. 1 lest, if thou be silent to me, I become like them that go down to the pit.

30. 3 thou hast kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit.

69. 15 let not the pit shut her mouth on me.

142. 7 bring my soul out of prison, that I may praise thy name.

143. 7 hide not thy face from me, lest I be like unto those that go down to the pit.

Isa. 14. 15 yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.

42. 16 I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not.

61. 1 to proclaim liberty to the captives, to open the prison to those that are bound.

Ezek. 26. 20 bring thee down with them that descend into the pit, and shall set thee in the low parts of the earth.

31. 14-18 for they are all delivered unto death, to the nether parts of the earth. Thou shalt lie in the midst of the uncircumcised. This is Pharaoh and all his multitude.

32. 18-32 several nations enumerated who were slain by the sword, and whose multitudes went down to the pit.

Zech. 9. 11 by the blood of thy covenant I have sent forth thy prisoners out of the pit.

Matt. 12. 32 whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him in this world, nor the world to come.

Luke 12. 47, 48 some shall be beaten with few, some with many stripes.

Acts 2. 34 for David is not ascended into heaven.

Rev. 5. 13 every creature which is in heaven, on earth, and under the earth.

20. 7 when the thousand years are ended, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison.

Doctrine & Covenants.

Sec. 19. 6 it is not written that there shall be no end to this torment.

45. 17 as ye have looked upon the long absence of your spirits from your bodies to be a bondage, I will show you how the day of redemption will come. 45, 46.

54 and then shall the heathen nations be redeemed.

78. 12 be delivered over to the buffetings of Satan, until the day of redemption. Sec. 82. 21.