Endless and eternal punishment

In referring to the judgment that comes upon those who choose not to repent of their sins, the terms “endless punishment” and “eternal punishment” (see D&C 19:11–12) do not refer to the length of time that the wicked will suffer. The Savior said, “I am endless, and the punishment which is given from my hand is endless punishment, for Endless is my name” (D&C 19:10). Because the Savior is Endless and Eternal, the terms “endless punishment” and “eternal punishment” refer to the source of punishment rather than the duration.

With the exception of those who inherit outer darkness, every person who suffers God’s punishment will eventually be redeemed to a kingdom of glory (see D&C 76:31, 38–39). 

Elder James E. Talmage (1862–1933) of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles stated: “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. True, we read of everlasting punishment, unending suffering, eternal damnation. That is a direful expression; but in his mercy the Lord has made plain what those words mean. ‘Eternal punishment,’ he says, is God’s punishment, for he is eternal; and that condition or state or possibility will ever 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 and suffer. 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. The Lord has not abated in the least what he has said in earlier dispensations concerning the operation of his law and his gospel, but he has made clear unto us his goodness and mercy through it all, for it is his glory and his work to bring about the immortality and eternal life of man” (in Conference Report, Apr. 1930, 97).