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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