Saved From Hell

Are mormons trying to save people from hell when they evangelize?

True missionaries with an understanding of what hell really is are motivated by the thought. This was the motivation of the greatest missionaries recorded in the Book of Mormon.

Mosiah 28:3. Now they were desirous that salvation should be declared to every creature, for they could not bear that any human soul should perish; yea, even the very thoughts that any soul should endure endless torment did cause them to quake and tremble.

LDSaints have a convoluted idea about hell. Better yet,they have individual ideas about hell. Ask the LDSaints in the room what hell is and you will get a different answer from each. The latest idea being promoted is that everyone who has ever lived on earth, except so few that it isn't worth considering here, will be glorified in the Kingdom of God and will be happy beyond anything we can possible imagine. They believe that those who were wicked in this life will be restored to that state of happiness. This is totally contrary to the teachings of all 4 of their standard works. For example:

Alma 41:3. And it is requisite with the justice of God that men should be judged according to their works; and if their works were good in this life, and the desires of their hearts were good, that they should also, at the last day, be restored unto that which is good.
4. And if their works are evil they shall be restored unto them for evil. Therefore, all things shall be restored to their proper order, every thing to its natural frame--mortality raised to immortality, corruption to incorruption--raised to endless happiness to inherit the kingdom of God, or to endless misery to inherit the kingdom of the devil, the one on one hand, the other on the other--
5. The one raised to happiness according to his desires of happiness, or good according to his desires of good; and the other to evil according to his desires of evil; for as he has desired to do evil all the day long even so shall he have his reward of evil when the night cometh.
6. And so it is on the other hand. If he hath repented of his sins, and desired righteousness until the end of his days, even so he shall be rewarded unto righteousness.
7. These are they that are redeemed of the Lord; yea, these are they that are taken out, that are delivered from that endless night of darkness; and thus they stand or fall; for behold, they are their own judges, whether to do good or do evil.
10. Do not suppose, because it has been spoken concerning restoration, that ye shall be restored from sin to happiness. Behold, I say unto you, wickedness never was happiness.
11. And now, my son, all men that are in a state of nature, or I would say, in a carnal state, are in the gall of bitterness and in the bonds of iniquity; they are without God in the world, and they have gone contrary to the nature of God; therefore, they are in a state contrary to the nature of happiness.
12. And now behold, is the meaning of the word restoration to take a thing of a natural state and place it in an unnatural state, or to place it in a state opposite to its nature?
13. O, my son, this is not the case; but the meaning of the word restoration is to bring back again evil for evil, or carnal for carnal, or devilish for devilish--good for that which is good; righteous for that which is righteous; just for that which is just; merciful for that which is merciful.

They think that a man who rapes his kids then murders his family, for example, will be restored to happiness beyond anything you can imagine! They will be glorified. Such a person has a place in the Mansions of the Father. this is certainly not what the Book of Mormon nor any of their standard works teach. It should be noted that the later revelations after section 76 in the Doctrine and Covenants takes up debating with the earlier sections.

Somehow, despite Paul's clear teaching, they got deceived along the way.

1 Corinthians 6:9. Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,
10. Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.

Missionaries who know the scoop have for their motivation the “snatching” people out of an everlasting burning, and lead them to being born of God (Mosiah 27:28). Oddly, Joseph Smith, in the King Follett Discourse thought the Everlasting Burning was the place we wanted to be!

Declared the Prophet "Hear it all ye ends of the earth--all ye sinners, repent! Repent! Turn to God, for your religion won't save you, and you will be damned. I do not say how long, but those who sin against the Holy Ghost cannot be forgiven in this world or in the world to come; they shall die the second death. As they concoct scenes of bloodshed in this world, so they shall rise to that resurrection which is as the lake of fire and brimstone. Some shall rise to the everlasting burning of God, and some shall rise to the damnation of their own filthiness--as exquisite as the lake of fire and brimstone".

Even Joseph Smith, in the above, contradicts modernized LDS Doctrine!

As with many of the terms and definitions used by LDSaints, such as saved and heaven, hell is defined and redefined as needed for the discussion at hand. You may think you are having a reasonable discussion with a LDSaint, but you may not realize they are using shifting meanings to the words they are employing.