Damnation. Two possible definitions:

1. Those who do not reach the top level of the celestial marriage. According to 10th President Joseph Fielding Smith, “What is damnation? It is being barred, or denied privileges of progression, because of failure to comply with law. All who fail to enter into the celestial kingdom are damned, or stopped in their progression, but they will enter into some other glory which they are entitled to receive” (Doctrines of Salvation 2:227). BYU professor Daniel H. Ludlow said, “The basic meaning of the word damned is ‘to condemn to a punishment or fate’; another meaning is ‘to be constricted in or prevented from growth and progress.’ A person is damned whenever he is prevented from reaching his potential as a son or daughter of God. This damnation may result from the poor choices of the individual, from his unwillingness to obey those laws upon which certain blessings are predicated, or from his lack of valiancy. Therefore, even a person in the lower degrees of the celestial glory might be considered as damned in that he does not have the power of eternal increase and cannot enjoy eternal life nor reach his potential as a son of God” (A Companion to Your Study of the Doctrine and Covenants 2:58).

2. A place reserved for Satan and one-third of our brothers and sisters from premortality because they did not qualify to receive bodies. “Ultimate and total damnation comes only to the devil and his angels, who rebelled in the first estate, and to the sons of perdition, who are damned eternally and denied entrance into any kingdom of glory hereafter” (Encyclopedia of Mormonism 1:354).

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