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JOE - If God is all knowing and all good why would he create Hell and then create children that He knew would go into Hell? Why not just decide not to create those people in the first place so that all could go to Heaven?
JOEL - This is a hard question for those who believe that God created us ex Nihilo or from nothing and who believe we go either to Heaven or Hell; nothing in between.
But God did not create us from nothing. God created us ex materia or from existing material. We already existed in the eternal past as intelligences that were coeternal with Him. "Man was also in the beginning with God. Intelligence, or the light of truth, was not created or made, neither indeed can be.(D&C 93: 29)
The Lord showed Abraham the intelligences that were organized before the world was" (Abr. 3:22).
As intelligences our personalities already were who we were going to be before Heavenly Father and Mother created or organized our spirits out of those intelligences. We have no idea how that was done.
As spirits we were then able to choose to come to earth and work out our salvation, with the ability to choose right or wrong.
Another important factor is that we believe that, except for a very few, almost everyone is going to end up in some level of heaven; Telestial, Terrestrial, Celestial(1 Cor 15: 40-42) and not burn in Hell where Satan reigns. The level of Heaven we go to depends on the choices we make and how faithful to Jesus Christ we were and who we have become as a result of living the gospel.
This doctrine is different from most other Christian faiths who believe that everyone either goes to Heaven or burn in Hell.
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