“Outer Darkness”

Joseph F. McConkie, Robert L. Millet

Outer darkness, or hell, is made up of those who in mortality spurned the ways of righteousness, those who defied the word of truth, those who chose to walk in their own paths or in paths of disobedience. Joseph Smith pointed out, “The great misery of departed spirits in the world of spirits, where they go after death, is to know that they come short of the glory that others enjoy and that they might have enjoyed themselves, and they are their own accusers” (Teachings, pp. 310-11; compare p. 358). Thus hell or outer darkness is both a place- a part of the world of spirits where suffering and sorrow and appropriate preparation go on- and a state- a condition of the mind associated with remorseful realization.

Doctrinal Commentary on the Book of Mormon, Vol. 3

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