As we have noted, God saw that His children had become capable in and of themselves to tell right from wrong, end good and evil. The Sacred Record says, “Men had become as God, knowing good end evil.” Our first parents, now alone out in the world, were free agents to act “according to their wills and pleasures, whether to do evil or to do good.” To the end that men should prove themselves worthy of God’s blessings, just laws and divine commandments were given unto them by Heaven’s gracious plan. Thus a choice was placed before them. The alternative, to obey the laws and commandments or not, was their sacred right. We also noted that to these laws were affixed two opposites—happiness and misery. Happiness to those who obeyed them, and misery to those that through neglect or a refusal to obey, ignored them. A just punishment awaited all who disobeyed.
2 Ne. 1:20)
Now, the punishments for infraction of divine law were eternal, not subject to change. They were everlasting, of infinite duration, even “as the life of the soul should be.” They were “affixed opposite to the Plan of Happiness, which was as eternal also as the life of the soul,” which is never ending. To escape the punishment which God had decreed for disobedience, men were urged to repentance. The fear of punishment made alive in men a continuing impulse for good, but without the fear that they would be punished for sin there would be no repentance, because there would be no punishment to fear. In this dispensation the Lord has said through the Prophet Joseph Smith: “Eternal punishment is God’s punishment. Endless punishment is God’s punishment.” In explanation of these terms, He also said: “Wherefore, I revoke not the judgments which I shall pass … nevertheless, it is not written that there shall be no end to this torment, but it is written endless torment … For, behold, I am endless, and the punishment which is given from My hand is endless punishment, for Endless is my Name.” (Doctrine and Covenants, D&C 19) We can see clearly in this that when Christ preached to the spirits in prison, he went to the prison-house to loose them from the bands that held them, and end their punishment. He brought them forth from the prison-house, but the law that affixed their punishment was in itself endless.