“Nephi describes in a graphic way why death and hell are considered to be such awful monsters. Without the atonement of Christ, we would stay permanently in the state of death and hell, ‘to an endless duration.’ Our bodies would have been ‘laid down to rot and to crumble to … mother earth, to rise no more.’ Under those circumstances, our spirits would ‘become subject’ to Satan, and ‘must have become like unto him, and we become devils, … to remain with the father of lies, in misery, like unto himself’ (2 Nephi 9:7–9). No wonder he felt to exclaim, ‘How great the goodness of our God!’” (Parry and Parry, Understanding Death and the Resurrection, 145).