About John A. Tvedtnes Expertise Mormonism. Responses to anti-Mormon criticisms. Mormon doctrines. Book of
Mormon, Old Testament. BA in anthropology, graduate certificate in Middle
East Area Studies, MA in linguistics, MA in Hebrew, ABD in Egyptian and
Semitic languages. 18 years of university teaching experience. Published 10
books and 250+ articles.
Question Sir, could you please explain the practice of baptising one's dead relatives. This seems paganistic.Thanks, Rich
Answer It's not paganistic at all. It was practiced by early Christians, as is clear from a number of ancient texts. The only mention of it in the Bible is in 1 Corinthians 15:29. Some of the eastern Christian churches still practice baptism for the dead (the Copts of Egypt and the Abyssinians of Ethiopia) and it is also practiced by the Mandaeans of Iraq and Iran, who claim to be descendants of the disciples of John the Baptist.
Proxy (vicarious) ordinances or rites are known from various parts of the worldand in various religions. Weekly communion is, for Christians, a proxy rite, since the bread and wine are not really the flesh and blood of Christ, but only represent them. Christ's sacrifice was also a proxy rite. Taking upon himself our sins, he died in our stead, paying the debt we owed to justice. For those who accept his sacrifice the debt has been paid and all he asks of us in return is to keep his commandments.
Anyway, the answer to your question is this: Many people died before Christ without knowing about him and even today, much of the world does not acknowledge him as Savior, and many living today know nothing about him. Since Jesus requires that we be baptized by water and the Holy Ghost (John 3:3-7; Mark 16:15-16), how can someone who has died receive those ordinances? It is by vicarious ordinances that we perform in our temples.
From the Bible, we learn that, during the three days his body lay in the tomb, Jesus' spirit went to preach to the dead (1 Peter 3:18-21; 4:6). I realize that many Protestants today do not believe this, but it was one of the most commonly-taught beliefs of the early Christian Church and is even included in the Apostles' Creed that most of Christianity accepts today. We believe that not only did Christ preach to the spirits of all who died before his coming to earth, but that he organized a missionary effort so that his deceased followers could carry on that effort. (This, too, is attested in a number of early Christian texts.) As I noted, we perform the proxy ordinances in our temples (which are different from the buildings where we hold Sunday services), but only the deceased person's acceptance of Christ and these necessary ordinances can really make them effective.
