The fire into which we are cast if we refuse to repent and turn to God is not fire as we know it; it is not a giant bonfire. President Joseph Fielding Smith explained, “It is not actual fire, but it is the torment of the mind.”26 There is yet another sense in which fire is used in the scriptures: referring to the glory of the Lord, which can either preserve and exalt or disintegrate and destroy. See commentary at Helaman 5:23–50 and 3 Nephi 25:1.
There are two spiritual deaths that some will experience: the first when they come to earth and are removed for a time from the presence of God, and the second when they depart this earth and are removed forever from the presence of God because of their disobedience and disinterest in repentance.