The Bible Supports Baptism for the Dead
I answered the following question as posed on the Q&A website, Quora (link):
How does the LDS Church interpret biblical passages to justify practices such as proxy baptism, and what are the arguments against this interpretation?
My answer:
To start with, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints does not teach baptism for the dead because of an interpretation of the Bible. But the Bible does support this doctrine.
When the Prophet Joseph Smith was just 18 years old his older brother Alvin died. Alvin’s funeral was presided over by a Presbyterian minister who in his preaching declared that Alvin, having not been a member of the minister’s congregation and having not been baptized, declared that Alvin had gone to hell. Alvin and Joseph’s father, who had engaged the preacher for the service, was distraught over this. But the family accepted this at the time, despite the fact of its seeming injustice, considering that Alvin had been an honest and moral man who did believe in Jesus Christ.
In January 1836, many years after Alvin’s death, Joseph Smith received a vision of the celestial kingdom, in which he saw that Alvin, as well as his mother and father, would someday inherit that kingdom. Joseph “marveled how it was that [Alvin] had obtained an inheritance in that kingdom, seeing that he had departed this life before the Lord had set his hand to gather Israel the second time, and had not been baptized for the remission of sins” (D&C 137:6). The voice of the Lord then came to Joseph, declaring:
“All who have died without a knowledge of this gospel, who would have received it if they had been permitted to tarry, shall be heirs of the celestial kingdom of God; also all that shall die henceforth without a knowledge of it, who would have received it with all their hearts, shall be heirs of that kingdom; for I, the Lord, will judge all men according to their works, according to the desire of their hearts” (D&C 137:7–9).
It was in 1840 that the doctrine was more fully revealed and began to be practiced, although the Lord, in another revelation, revealed that the ordinance belonged to His temple, which had not yet been built. What does the Bible say about this?
In 1 Corinthians chapter 15 the Apostle Paul uses baptism for the dead as a support for the doctrine of bodily resurrection as follows:
“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?” (1 Corinthians 15:29)
Modern-day Christians do not understand this verse. They have come up with various explanations why it doesn’t actually mean what it says. But consider what it means in connection with what Jesus told Nicodemus about the necessity for baptism.
“Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” (John 3:5)
This is perhaps more clearly stated as to necessity when it comes to what Jesus told John the Baptism when Jesus came to be baptized by John.
“But John forbad him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me? And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: **for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness.** Then he suffered him.” (Matthew 3:14,15)
John recognized that Jesus, being the sinless Lamb of God, did not need baptism. But Jesus made it clear that baptism was nevertheless required of him. And so it was done.
But what of those who, despite believing in Jesus Christ or who never even heard of Jesus Christ, are never baptized? Are they, all multi-billions of them, going to go to hell as that Presbyterian minister said? Just because they lived in the wrong time or place, through no fault of their own, are they truly going to be condemned to suffer in hell for all eternity? Does this sound like a merciful or even a righteous God?
No, say the Latter-day Saints. There is an option made available to them. That option is baptism for the dead, just as the Apostle Paul wrote.
In conversation with non-LDS Christians one comes away with the impression that they believe consignment to Heaven or Hell occurs at the moment of death, that right at death the soul finds itself immediately enjoying glorious joy and comfort, or is tossed without delay into a lake of fire. But the Bible does not teach this.
At the Crucifixion of Jesus, Jesus told the repentant thief “Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise.” (Luke 23:43) But was that Heaven? Apparently not, for Jesus himself was not in heaven while his body lay in the tomb after his death on the cross. When on the third day he was resurrected the first person to meet him was Mary Magdalene, who, when she recognized him ran to him to embrace him, was told by him
“Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father…” (John 20:17)
He hadn’t ascended? Where was he? Presumably in Paradise, where he told the thief he would be, but what was he doing there? Well, we have the answer, and it is found in 1st and 2nd Peter.
“For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison;” (1 Peter 3:18,19)
“For for this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit.” (1 Peter 4:6)
Modern Christendom pretends to know what happens after death to all those who never got to hear of Jesus Christ and were never baptized, although they don’t all believe the same thing. Some say they simply don’t know. Some believe they’re in hell. Some find middle ground, and suggest there’s some form of mercy where the ignorant dead neither suffer nor celebrate. But the answer stares at them from the very scriptures they claim to believe. And yet they don’t see it, or don’t want to see it.
The answer is that Jesus went to the place where the dead were and preached to them. And as 1 Peter 4:6 suggests, that preaching continued after Jesus was resurrected and ascended to His Father — for what else would Jesus’ disciples do at their own deaths but resume their labors of preaching the gospel, this time in that place of the dead which Jesus called Paradise?
And how could those among the dead who believed the preaching they received be baptized? As Paul said, this was work that could be done by the living, on behalf of those dead. And this doctrine was restored to the earth through the Prophet Joseph Smith, which is why Latter-day Saints throughout the work visit temples in order to provide the opportunity of baptism for those dead who may have died without it.
What are the arguments against it?
Well, there really aren't any. Early church fathers writing hundreds of years after the deaths of the apostles seemed not to know much about it. Some considered it a useless or invalid practice, but otherwise harmless. Others felt it was a heretical practice. What little discussion there was about it was equivocal -- they weren't consistent about it.
Tertullian, for example, was aware of 1 Corinthians 15:29, but concluded that the practice had no validity, but that it showed correct faith in a bodily resurrection. He considered it a superstitution. Cyril of Alexandria, called it “an aberrant custom.” Epiphanius attributed the rite to the Cerinthians and Marcionites, labeling it heretical.
But all of these worthies were writing hundreds of years after Christ and the apostles, and their opinions are not scripture.
Given the necessity for all of mankind to have the opportunity to hear of Christ, choose to follow him (or not), and be baptized — if God be a truly loving God and not a respecter of persons — then the lack of knowledge in today's Christian churches about salvation for the ignorant dead is strong evidence that the true Church of Jesus Christ did enter a state of apostasy! For a fuller discussion of this, please see my article Baptism for the Dead is Evidence for the True Church.
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