Episode 177: D&C 76 – Section 101, Part 2
Parable time!!! Always be watchful that the enemy may steal all your stuff… or maybe don’t be a terrible manager? Then go buy a bunch of land out in Missouri. It’s the episode where Bryce’s foster dog is jingling a collar the entire time.
Drink Count – 6
Patron Bonus: Marie and Joel tour the Ark Encounter
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My Book of Mormon 
October 16, 2017 at 2:12 am
I think you’re right that this is our first mention of “outer darkness” in the D&C, but the phrase did already show up in the Book of Mormon, in Alma 40, and it was originally taken from the Gospel of Matthew, where it’s used no less than three times, always associated with “weeping and gnashing of teeth”. As used in the D&C, outer darkness seems to refer only to the concept currently taught in the church as “Spirit Prison”, the temporary hell before the final judgment. I don’t think “Outer Darkness” as a proper name referring only to the final destination of Satan, his fallen angels, and the Sons of Perdition, came along until the 1850s or so, and that usage isn’t in the D&C. You can still make it work doctrinally, if Spirit Prison is the same place as Outer Darkness, and is just what you call it when you don’t have to stay there forever, I guess.
Verse 80 is notable: “And for this purpose have I established the Constitution of this land, by the hands of wise men whom I raised up unto this very purpose, and redeemed the land by the shedding of blood.” This is the basis a lot of Mormons have for believing the US Constitution to be on par with holy scripture, directly inspired by God. That is, at least the parts of the Constitution they like. I’ve heard some people hem and haw about how only the original portions were inspired by God, or only the amendments up through 1833, when this revelation was given, since God obviously couldn’t be referring to the amendments which hadn’t even been written yet. One wonders how much this Mormon concept of the sanctity of the Constitution lay behind the LDS church’s vehement (and successful) opposition to the Equal Rights Amendment in the 1970s.