Baptism for the Dead
For the Lord thy God is a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children,
from generation to generation, even upon all that hate him,
and showing a multitude of mercies unto them that keep his Commandments.
1. AT every Temple, which thou shalt build unto the Lord thy God, by his Commandment, shalt thou make a fountain for the baptism of the living for the dead.1
29 words,
121 letters.
1. A special dispensation was given to baptize for the dead at Nauvoo, in 1842, and the waters of the Mississippi, in front of the city, sanctified for that purpose, until a place for baptism, should be prepared in the Temple. (D. & C., ciii, 10.)
2. Such a place was made in the Temple, but in the rejection of Nauvoo as a holy city, the baptisms there administered were rejected, and the dispensation forfeited. (D. & C., ciii, 11, 13, 14.) The rejection took place at the time of the exodus from Nauvoo, subsequent to which all baptisms were invalid.
3. Those baptisms, administered down till that time, were valid, when done by competent authority. But those who were baptized, if they followed leaders whom God did not call, were also rejected, with their dead; which leaves the dead without saviours; and yet dependent on the charity of the living. (Mal. iv, 6.)
4. The records of those baptisms were never set in order in the Temple, and are lost. It is necessary, where the baptisms
[1 1st Cor. xv, 29. 1st Peter iii, 19, 20, Ezek. xxxii, 31.
[Page 137]
are valid, that due proof be made before a Recorder, and the baptisms recorded anew. In cases of rejected and invalid baptisms, the rightful representatives should be baptized, as though it had not been done.
5. A dispensation to baptize for the dead at Voree was given August 9th, 1849, and the waters of White River sanctified for that purpose.
6. A dispensation was given to baptize for the dead at Saint James, during the session of the General Conferance, in 1855, and Fount Lake sanctified for that purpose.
2. And for these shall you be baptized: every one of you, according to your several rights, and in your several orders, according to consanguinity, sex, and primogeniture, shall be baptized for any deceased husband, wife, or posterity; or any progenitor, to the third and fourth generation; or any brother, or sister, whom he in faith believes has received the gospel in the spirit.
63 words,
302 letters.
3. Thou shalt also be baptized for any relative, within the fourth degree of consanguinity; for any one betrothed to thee in marriage; for thy fosterfather, mother, brother, sister, or child, whom I shall give to thee by tongue, dream, vision, spirit ministering in fire, word of angel, or by my own voice.
52 words,
238 letters.
Degrees of consanguinity are ascertained by counting each generation, up to the common ancestor, and down from him.
[Page 138]
4. And whensoever I will that any of my faithful servants of the Aaronick Priesthood be baptized for any other, I will send my angels to signify it unto them. But unto my servants of the Melchisedek Priesthood, I will speak by my own voice, or minister in fire.
48 words,
206 letters.
1. When the candidate claims baptism for the dead by revelation, in any form whatever, the Administrator should inquire and judge of the validity of the claim, and the Recorder should briefly state the revelation in the record.
2. Care should be taken that this record is sufficient in substance; otherwise the baptism may be set aside as invalid.
5. But no man or woman among you shall be baptized for the dead, who is not a member of some family, according to the order of the Church of the Firstborn of God; or who is under condemnation of any word of this Law; or who withholdeth anything whatsoever from the treasury of the House of the Lord your God.
60 words,
241 letters.
1. Baptism for the dead is an ordinance of the Temple, and it is only by special dispensation, in consequence of the poverty of the Saints, that it is ever administered out of a Temple. Hence those who withhold of the funds due for the construction of the Temple, are refused baptism for the dead.
2. Those who are under condemnation for disobedience to any word of this Law of God, whether it be a Commandment, a statute, a precept, or whatsoever word it may be, are unfit for saviours of others, because they are not themselves in a
[Page 139]
state of salvation, nor even progressing forward towards it.
3. But those who are not regular members of any family, duly organized, have no place to bring those for whom they shall be baptized; they have no home for them to abide in, in the everlasting life. The chief thing in the salvation promised in the gospel, is in the family relation, and love, of a holy people. They who lack that relationship, are unsaved themselves, unprepared to save others.
6. At every Temple which ye shall build unto the Lord your God, shall High Priests be set apart, and sanctified by anointing with holy oil, and the hands of Apostles and Prophets, to baptize for the dead; for no other shall administer this sacrament.
44 words,
198 letters.
The Chief Shepherd and Counsellors in the Presidency baptize for the dead without being set apart to that calling.
7. Recorders, also, shall be set apart by the laying on of hands of High Priests, to record baptisms for the dead; who shall, be eyewitnesses to the baptisms, and shall record according to the seeing of their eyes.1
38 words,
167 letters.
8. And other witnesses, who see with their eyes, shall sign the records of baptisms, that every one may be proved by the testimony of two or three witnesses. 28 words,
123 letters.
9. But there shall be one record before the King, unto which all records of bap-
[1 D. & C., cvi, 3.
[Page 140]
tisms for the dead shall be brought,1 and all written together in perpetual archives; that what you record on earth, may also be recorded in heaven. At every Temple also shall ye perpetuate the record of such as are there baptized.
55 words,
246 letters.
Total—9 sec., 417 words, 1,842 letters.
NOTE ON BAPTISM FOR THE DEAD.
1. To millions of mankind the gospel was never preached in life. If it is not to be preached to them in another state of being, then the salvation which the gospel promises is not offered to them. And if the gospel is not preached to them at any time, then they are denied the possibility of entering into life.
2. Many Christians, unwilling to admit that salvation was not offered to all men, have asserted that those to whom the gospel was not preached were saved, on the general ground that as they did not know the Law of God, they were not under condemnation for breaking it.
3. Admitting this to be true, the consequence would be that ignorance of the gospel was as pleasing to God as obedience; and the just conclusion would be, that the gospel was not revealed to save men, but as an excuse for damning them. For, if all who are ignorant of the gospel are to be saved, universal ignorance would have produced universal bliss.
4. If they fall back on the old Christian faith of the Fathers, that there is no salvation without obedience to the gospel,
[1 D. & C.., cvi, 4.
[Page 141]
then without preaching to and baptism for the dead, those to whom the gospel was never preached may justly claim that they were lost; not because they would not obey, but because they could not hear.
5. If, to avoid both horns of this dilemma, the Christian shall say that the sincere and wellmeaning of every nation will be saved, whatever his religious faith, then they are not saved by the gospel, but by their own righteousness; not by obedience to the word of God, but by integrity to the institutions of their several countries and nations.
6. God, having established the rule that all shall be destroyed who obey not the Law of the gospel, (2d Thess. i, 8. ii, 12. Rev. xxii, 14. Mark xvi, 16,) has provided for the preaching of the gospel to the spirits in prison, (1st Peter iii, 19. iv, 6. Luke xxiii, 43,) and the baptism for the dead, (1st Cor. xv, 29,) that salvation may be offered to all men, and only those lost who take pleasure in unrighteousaess. (Matt. iii, 10.)
7. When Jesus had finished his testimony on earth, and offered himself for the sins of men, he went in the spirit and preached to the spirits in prison, (Ist Pet. iii, 19, 20,) and opened unto them a dispensation of the gospel, before he ascended to heaven. (John xx, 17.)
8. The dispensation being opened, and he having, by a stainless life, and a sacrifice of himself for the salvation of others, become worthy of the keys of the resurrection and everlasting life, ascended to heaven, received all power, and sat down at the right hand of God.
9. Those who become partakers of the same calling with him, as they leave their ministry on earth, go to minister among the spirits of the dead; that they, by obedience to the gospel, may be saved, as are the living.
from generation to generation, even upon all that hate him,
and showing a multitude of mercies unto them that keep his Commandments.
1. AT every Temple, which thou shalt build unto the Lord thy God, by his Commandment, shalt thou make a fountain for the baptism of the living for the dead.1
29 words,
121 letters.
1. A special dispensation was given to baptize for the dead at Nauvoo, in 1842, and the waters of the Mississippi, in front of the city, sanctified for that purpose, until a place for baptism, should be prepared in the Temple. (D. & C., ciii, 10.)
2. Such a place was made in the Temple, but in the rejection of Nauvoo as a holy city, the baptisms there administered were rejected, and the dispensation forfeited. (D. & C., ciii, 11, 13, 14.) The rejection took place at the time of the exodus from Nauvoo, subsequent to which all baptisms were invalid.
3. Those baptisms, administered down till that time, were valid, when done by competent authority. But those who were baptized, if they followed leaders whom God did not call, were also rejected, with their dead; which leaves the dead without saviours; and yet dependent on the charity of the living. (Mal. iv, 6.)
4. The records of those baptisms were never set in order in the Temple, and are lost. It is necessary, where the baptisms
[1 1st Cor. xv, 29. 1st Peter iii, 19, 20, Ezek. xxxii, 31.
[Page 137]
are valid, that due proof be made before a Recorder, and the baptisms recorded anew. In cases of rejected and invalid baptisms, the rightful representatives should be baptized, as though it had not been done.
5. A dispensation to baptize for the dead at Voree was given August 9th, 1849, and the waters of White River sanctified for that purpose.
6. A dispensation was given to baptize for the dead at Saint James, during the session of the General Conferance, in 1855, and Fount Lake sanctified for that purpose.
2. And for these shall you be baptized: every one of you, according to your several rights, and in your several orders, according to consanguinity, sex, and primogeniture, shall be baptized for any deceased husband, wife, or posterity; or any progenitor, to the third and fourth generation; or any brother, or sister, whom he in faith believes has received the gospel in the spirit.
63 words,
302 letters.
3. Thou shalt also be baptized for any relative, within the fourth degree of consanguinity; for any one betrothed to thee in marriage; for thy fosterfather, mother, brother, sister, or child, whom I shall give to thee by tongue, dream, vision, spirit ministering in fire, word of angel, or by my own voice.
52 words,
238 letters.
Degrees of consanguinity are ascertained by counting each generation, up to the common ancestor, and down from him.
[Page 138]
4. And whensoever I will that any of my faithful servants of the Aaronick Priesthood be baptized for any other, I will send my angels to signify it unto them. But unto my servants of the Melchisedek Priesthood, I will speak by my own voice, or minister in fire.
48 words,
206 letters.
1. When the candidate claims baptism for the dead by revelation, in any form whatever, the Administrator should inquire and judge of the validity of the claim, and the Recorder should briefly state the revelation in the record.
2. Care should be taken that this record is sufficient in substance; otherwise the baptism may be set aside as invalid.
5. But no man or woman among you shall be baptized for the dead, who is not a member of some family, according to the order of the Church of the Firstborn of God; or who is under condemnation of any word of this Law; or who withholdeth anything whatsoever from the treasury of the House of the Lord your God.
60 words,
241 letters.
1. Baptism for the dead is an ordinance of the Temple, and it is only by special dispensation, in consequence of the poverty of the Saints, that it is ever administered out of a Temple. Hence those who withhold of the funds due for the construction of the Temple, are refused baptism for the dead.
2. Those who are under condemnation for disobedience to any word of this Law of God, whether it be a Commandment, a statute, a precept, or whatsoever word it may be, are unfit for saviours of others, because they are not themselves in a
[Page 139]
state of salvation, nor even progressing forward towards it.
3. But those who are not regular members of any family, duly organized, have no place to bring those for whom they shall be baptized; they have no home for them to abide in, in the everlasting life. The chief thing in the salvation promised in the gospel, is in the family relation, and love, of a holy people. They who lack that relationship, are unsaved themselves, unprepared to save others.
6. At every Temple which ye shall build unto the Lord your God, shall High Priests be set apart, and sanctified by anointing with holy oil, and the hands of Apostles and Prophets, to baptize for the dead; for no other shall administer this sacrament.
44 words,
198 letters.
The Chief Shepherd and Counsellors in the Presidency baptize for the dead without being set apart to that calling.
7. Recorders, also, shall be set apart by the laying on of hands of High Priests, to record baptisms for the dead; who shall, be eyewitnesses to the baptisms, and shall record according to the seeing of their eyes.1
38 words,
167 letters.
8. And other witnesses, who see with their eyes, shall sign the records of baptisms, that every one may be proved by the testimony of two or three witnesses. 28 words,
123 letters.
9. But there shall be one record before the King, unto which all records of bap-
[1 D. & C., cvi, 3.
[Page 140]
tisms for the dead shall be brought,1 and all written together in perpetual archives; that what you record on earth, may also be recorded in heaven. At every Temple also shall ye perpetuate the record of such as are there baptized.
55 words,
246 letters.
Total—9 sec., 417 words, 1,842 letters.
NOTE ON BAPTISM FOR THE DEAD.
1. To millions of mankind the gospel was never preached in life. If it is not to be preached to them in another state of being, then the salvation which the gospel promises is not offered to them. And if the gospel is not preached to them at any time, then they are denied the possibility of entering into life.
2. Many Christians, unwilling to admit that salvation was not offered to all men, have asserted that those to whom the gospel was not preached were saved, on the general ground that as they did not know the Law of God, they were not under condemnation for breaking it.
3. Admitting this to be true, the consequence would be that ignorance of the gospel was as pleasing to God as obedience; and the just conclusion would be, that the gospel was not revealed to save men, but as an excuse for damning them. For, if all who are ignorant of the gospel are to be saved, universal ignorance would have produced universal bliss.
4. If they fall back on the old Christian faith of the Fathers, that there is no salvation without obedience to the gospel,
[1 D. & C.., cvi, 4.
[Page 141]
then without preaching to and baptism for the dead, those to whom the gospel was never preached may justly claim that they were lost; not because they would not obey, but because they could not hear.
5. If, to avoid both horns of this dilemma, the Christian shall say that the sincere and wellmeaning of every nation will be saved, whatever his religious faith, then they are not saved by the gospel, but by their own righteousness; not by obedience to the word of God, but by integrity to the institutions of their several countries and nations.
6. God, having established the rule that all shall be destroyed who obey not the Law of the gospel, (2d Thess. i, 8. ii, 12. Rev. xxii, 14. Mark xvi, 16,) has provided for the preaching of the gospel to the spirits in prison, (1st Peter iii, 19. iv, 6. Luke xxiii, 43,) and the baptism for the dead, (1st Cor. xv, 29,) that salvation may be offered to all men, and only those lost who take pleasure in unrighteousaess. (Matt. iii, 10.)
7. When Jesus had finished his testimony on earth, and offered himself for the sins of men, he went in the spirit and preached to the spirits in prison, (Ist Pet. iii, 19, 20,) and opened unto them a dispensation of the gospel, before he ascended to heaven. (John xx, 17.)
8. The dispensation being opened, and he having, by a stainless life, and a sacrifice of himself for the salvation of others, become worthy of the keys of the resurrection and everlasting life, ascended to heaven, received all power, and sat down at the right hand of God.
9. Those who become partakers of the same calling with him, as they leave their ministry on earth, go to minister among the spirits of the dead; that they, by obedience to the gospel, may be saved, as are the living.