Today we’re asking:
What are the correct words that should be used when baptizing?
In the Book of Mormon we read –
3 Nephi 11:24-25; “And now behold, these are the words which ye shall say, calling them by name, saying: 25 Having authority given me of Jesus Christ, I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.”
A revelation given to Smith in Fayette, NY as early as summer of 1829 repeats the same instructions –
D&C 20:73; “The person who is called of God and has authority from Jesus Christ to baptize, shall go down into the water with the person who has presented himself or herself for baptism, and shall say, calling him or her by name: Having been commissioned of Jesus Christ, I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.”
However, we see in Mosiah where the exact words weren’t used properly…
Mosiah 18:13; “…Helam, I baptize thee, having authority from the Almighty God, as a testimony that ye have entered into a covenant to serve him until you are dead as to the mortal body; and may the Spirit of the Lord be poured out upon you; and may he grant unto you eternal life, through the redemption of Christ, whom he has prepared from the foundation of the world.”
According to the Church’s website if these procedures aren’t followed exactly, the baptism is invalid.
Family Guidebook, (2006); “The baptism must be repeated if the words are not spoken exactly as given in Doctrine and Covenants 20:73 or if part of the person’s body or clothing was not immersed completely.”
Since Mosiah supposedly took place before the time 3rd Nephi did, and the wording is obviously different from the Church’s mandate, were the baptisms performed in Mosiah valid or invalid?
According to the Church baptism, which they consider a saving ordinance, is eternal. This means one of two things; either the Church changed the eternal ordinances, or the baptisms in the BoM aren’t valid.
“The sacred ordinances of the gospel as requirements for salvation and exaltation were ‘instituted from before the foundation of the world’ [D&C 124:33].”
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