January 21 — Baptisms for the Dead. 1 Cor. 15:29 “Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all? why are they then baptized for the dead?”
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Our understanding of this pagan ritual practiced by some in the early church is complicated even further by the contradictory messages of the Mormon Church. They claim it has to be done because of ‘the apostate darkness’ of early Christianity, but there’s simply no evidence the early church went through any such era. Furthermore, Paul told us this is totally unnecessary, as did Jesus when he told the young man not to worry about his father who had died in Luke 9:59-60. Lastly, the LDS Church has totally misinterpreted what the passage in Corinthians was saying.
Ask the Mormon in your life for their opinion about this biblical passage and show from historical documentations what was going on; i.e., the Corinthians who didn’t believe in the resurrection, the futility of baptizing corpses, etc.
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Mormon Doctrine, p. 52 “…during the frequent periods of apostate darkness when the gospel light does not shine, and also in those geographical areas where legal administrators are not found, hosts of people live and die without ever entering in at the gate of baptism so as to be on the path leading to eternal life. For them a just God has ordained baptism for the dead, a vicarious-proxy labor. (D. & C. 124:28-36; 127; 128; 1 Cor. 15:29.) Baptisms for the dead were not performed in pre-meridian dispensations…” – Bruce McConkie
Baptism for the Dead and Spirit Prison are about as reputable as the Kinderhook Plates. For those of you that are not familiar with the Kinderhook Incident, you ought to check it out (Google Kinderhook Incident). What happened there was an embarrassment to the Mormon church and, in my opinion, revealed the true character of Joseph Smith. If he was caught in such an act of deception as the Kinderhook Plates, why in the world would anybody put faith in anything else that he had to say?
Yep, there were many a hoax Smith tried to pull off in his short tenure as prophet. We also have a few articles on this – you can read one here https://lifeafterministry.com/2014/02/24/mormon-dilemma-864-kinderhook-plates-hoax/
Moral to the story? A little homework goes a long way!
As a Christian investigator, baptism for the dead was an absolute deal breaker…it scared the living daylights out of me.
This June I plan on going to the Manti pageant (possibility the last pageant), and people will be touring the temple, and I just can’t bring myself to even enter the temple …it creeps me out. It’s demonic.