In formulating their doctrine of baptism for the dead the LDS has jumped to wrong conclusions because of having taken an isolated scripture out of its context. Furthermore, the Bible teaches that we choose the path we follow whilst we are here on earth, and then after death comes judgment (Hebrews 9:27.)

If we plucked a verse out of any piece of literature and attempted to work out what the author was trying to convey by this alone, we would most likely jump to the wrong conclusion. And this is exactly what the LDS church has done here with the Bible. The verse used by them as a proof text for their doctrine on baptism for the dead is 1 Corinthians 15:29. But if we read all the way through from 1 Corinthians 15:12, we'll notice that the subject of this section of Paul's letter was resurrection, not baptism for the dead. The entire chapter deals solely with the resurrection. It is not a teaching on baptism for the dead. Not once in the Bible, did any of the apostles ever teach that we must baptize for the dead.

The historical and cultural background to this section of scripture is as follows:

"Corinth was a Greek city, and the Greeks did not believe in the resurrection of the dead. When Paul had preached at Athens and declared the fact of Christ's resurrection, some of his listeners actually laughed at him (Acts 17:32). Most Greek philosophers considered the human body a prison, and they welcomed death as deliverance from bondage.

This skeptical attitude had somehow invaded the church and Paul had to face it head-on. The truth of the resurrection had doctrinal and practical implications for life that were too important to ignore." (The Bible Exposition Commentary)

In Corinthians 15, Paul is addressing a congregation of fellow believers solely on the subject of resurrection. You will notice that all the way through this chapter he uses the words you, me and I. But when he makes mention of folk being baptized for the dead, he suddenly switches to those, them and they. He says in verse 29:

Otherwise, what will those do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why then are they baptized for them? (1 Corinthians 15:29, NASB)

More or less as a remark made in passing, Paul was asking why should these other folk (who were pagans) carry out this practice if they believed that the dead did not rise at all?

Obviously the Christians whom Paul was addressing did not practice baptism for the dead. Nowhere in the Bible is there any mention of believers ever baptizing by proxy for the dead. Neither Christ nor His disciples ever baptized for the dead or mentioned any necessity for it. So the LDS has no biblical precedent for such a teaching.



TEMPLES

The LDS church claims that their church has the same organization as the primitive church. And they maintain that ordinances for the dead, including baptism, have to be performed in temples. But the primitive church never had any temples and nor did they ever conduct any ceremonies for the dead. Yet LDS Prophet and President Joseph Fielding Smith had this to say:

"The greatest commandment given us, and made obligatory, is the temple work in our own behalf and in behalf of our dead." (Doctrines of Salvation, Volume 2, page 149)

But if this was the greatest commandment ever given, why isn't it in the Bible? And how is it that the primitive church had absolutely no knowledge of it? And what about the fact that Christ maintained that the greatest commandment was to love God with all our hearts, minds and strength?

And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these. (Mark 12:29-31, KJV)

Is there any Mormon who loves God with all of their heart, with all of their soul, with all of their mind and with all of their strength? No, nobody has ever fulfilled this first commandment. And that's why Christ had to die on the cross for us.

Other than for pagan temples, the only other temple mentioned in the New Testament belonged to the unsaved Jews, who fell under the Old Covenant. And they were only permitted to have one temple at a time, which was situated in Jerusalem. (Mormons have temples scattered all over the world, which was a practice followed by idolaters, never ever by the people of God.) And when it came to the people of God, temples were a part of the Old Covenant set up, not the New. (See the informative article on LDS temples compared with those of biblical times, a link to which is provided at the end of this page.)

After Christ had ratified the New Covenant of Grace by His shed blood on the cross, the believers themselves became the temple of God, through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 3:16).

The Old Covenant temple was where sinners took unblemished animals, which they sacrificed to cover their sins. (See Leviticus 1:4, 4:29,33).

Although the primitive church never had a temple, their mandate was to preach the gospel first to the Jews and then to the Gentiles. And it just so happened that the Jews habitually gathered together in the courtyard of their temple. As the earliest believers were all Jewish by birth, they were allowed into the Jewish section of the courtyards of the temple. And they took the opportunity to go there in order to witness to their fellow countrymen about Christ being the promised Messiah, whose shed blood had ratified the New Covenant of salvation by grace.

The Jews worshipped on a Saturday, the seventh day of the week, but the church worshipped on a Sunday, because that was the day that Christ rose from the grave. And they met for worship in one another's homes, not at the temple.



THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH DID NOT TEACH BAPTISM FOR THE DEAD

If baptism for the dead had been a teaching or a doctrine of the primitive church, there would have been some very clear, detailed instructions about this somewhere in the Bible, and it would have been mentioned over and over again in the same way as their teachings are constantly repeated concerning salvation, grace, justification and so on. But the only time that baptism for the dead is ever mentioned at all throughout the entire Bible was in 1 Corinthians 15:29. And then it was in only one isolated verse, where the subject being discussed wasn't baptism for the dead, but resurrection. And those who were baptizing for the dead were pagans, not Christians. Formulating doctrine from an isolated scripture taken out of context is the surest way to end up in error.

Lastly, baptism for the dead does not fit into the big picture of the whole of the rest of the Bible. It actually contradicts what the Bible teaches, i.e. that in this life we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone in Christ alone, and that after death comes the judgment. Nowhere does the Bible tell us that we can have a second chance after death, only judgment.

And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment (Hebrews 9:27, KJV)

THE BOOK OF MORMON

Although the Book of Mormon is claimed to the keystone of the religion of Mormonism, and to contain the fullness of the everlasting gospel, it does not teach the practice of baptism for the dead. So the LDS does not have a precedent to follow when it comes to the Book of Mormon either.



HEBREWS 11:40

Hebrews 11:40 is used by the LDS to back up the LDS teaching that one of the many requirements for personal salvation is genealogical work and work for the dead, including baptism for the dead:

"And now, my dearly beloved brethren and sisters, let me assure you that these are principles in relation to the dead and the living that cannot be lightly passed over, as pertaining to our salvation. For their salvation is necessary and essential to our salvation, as Paul says concerning the fathers; that they without us cannot be made perfect; neither can we without our dead be made perfect." (Doctrine and Covenants 128:15) (Emphasis by editor)

The phrase quoted above, i.e. "that they without us cannot be made perfect" comes from Hebrews 11:40. But its use as a proof scripture for baptism for the dead has been nullified by Smith's own altered translation of the Bible (see Joseph Smith's Inspired Translation of the Bible ). Provided below is the King James translation of this verse, followed by Joseph Smith's translation:

The King James Version of Hebrews 11:40:
God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.

The Joseph Smith Translation of Hebrews 11:40:
God having provided some better things for them through their sufferings, for without sufferings they could not be made perfect.

The reason for this confusion is that Joseph Smith invented Mormonism as he went along. And when perpetrating an ongoing deception, one needs to have a very good memory. When he came to Hebrews, Joseph had forgotten all about having used Hebrews 11:40 as a proof text for baptism for the dead. And so he slipped up and gave a new translating for it. Spiritual deceptions invariably result in contradictions, and Joseph slipped up sadly in many places besides his massive calamity here in Hebrews 11:40. For instance, there are nine known differing and contradictory versions of his first vision — see Joseph Smith's First Vision and the Controversy Surrounding It .) As a consequence of his ongoing deception, he has left a legacy of contradictions for his followers to try to untangle (see Contradictions in Mormon Scriptures.)

Nevertheless, we will examine Doctrine and Covenants 128:15. And we will discover that the prior to changing his mind altogether, Joseph Smith both misread and misunderstood the biblical phrase, "that they without us cannot be made perfect," from Hebrews 11:40, because the subject matter of Hebrews 11 is not salvation, but faith and the perfection of that faith, not the perfection of salvation. The epistle of Hebrews was addressed to Jewish Christians, hence the name "Hebrews," and the whole of chapter 11 concerned only faith and the perfection of that faith, not salvation. At the start of chapter 11 the writer was talking about the promise of God and His plans for the nation of Israel. Their faith was resting in God's promise of a coming Messiah, and this faith in His promise was "made perfect," or fulfilled by the coming to earth of Christ, the Jewish Messiah, and the salvation wrought by Him, resulting in the formation of the body of Christ, the church. (The primitive church was entirely Jewish.)

So the last sentence in Doctrine and Covenants 128:15 quoted above, i.e. "Neither can we without our dead be made perfect," is a wrong conclusion brought about through the misreading of the Bible earlier on by Joseph Smith, due to his having mistakenly taken the verse concerned out of its context. There is nothing in the Bible that even remotely suggests that we need to do work for the dead in order to perfect our salvation. That is purely a mistaken and unbiblical idea introduced by the LDS church. But, as already pointed out, this doesn't matter anymore, as later on Joseph re-wrote their proof text to read differently in his inspired translation of the Bible, so that it now invalidates Doctrine and Covenants 128:15. (This is obviously one of the reasons why the LDS church doesn't use their own prophet's inspired translation of the Bible, and instead uses the KJV, which Joseph declared to be filled with errors and omissions.)

The reason why baptism for the dead is both wrong and unnecessary, will be better understood after reading the article on "Baptism and the Use of Biblical Symbolism," which will be found by following this link:

Baptism and the Use of Biblical Symbolism

This next link is to an article on temples, explaining why the biblical church of Jesus Christ did not have a temple:

LDS Temples Compared with those of Biblical Times

By clicking on the "home" button at the bottom of this page you will arrive at a comprehensive index of fully referenced articles, comparing various aspects of Mormonism with what the Bible teaches.

Should you wish to contact the editor, you are welcome to email me at response@bibtruth.com



Copyright 2007, by Mormonism and Biblical Truth. All rights reserved.