Mormonism's Baptism for the Dead
The first step toward being able to go to a Mormon
temple is an interview with the "ward bishop" (roughly equivalent to a
parish priest). During this interview a Mormon is questioned by the bishop
to see if he has been faithful in his commitment to the teachings and ordinances
of the Mormon church.
The questions cover a variety of subjects, including
his tithing track record; use of alcohol, tobacco, or caffeine; sexual
immorality; and any failures to adhere to church doctrines and disciplines.
If the applicant has had difficulties in any of these areas, he will not
receive a temple recommend. For the one who does not pass the interview,
there is no trip to the temple.
It is interesting to note that the majority of
Mormons do not have temple recommends. This is not to say that they fail
their interviews with their bishops. Actually, for a variety of reasons,
most Mormons never make the effort to obtain a temple recommend. But for
the minority who do obtain one, their chief duties in the temple include
baptism for the dead.
On any given day, in more than fifty Mormon temples
around the world, thousands of faithful Mormons are baptized vicariously
for the dead. Most non-Mormons are dimly aware that the Mormons are interested
in genealogy, but they are not sure why. While there is nothing wrong with
being interested in genealogy as a hobby, this is far from a hobby for
Mormons.
They believe people who have died can be baptized
by proxy, thus allowing them the opportunity to become Mormons after their
death. The idea behind baptism for the dead is this: God wants each of
us to be with him in glory. To effect this, he allows us to accept the
Mormon gospel here on earth. If we do not, he sends us to a "spirit prison"
until the Mormon gospel has been preached to us there and we convert.
Mormons believe that their church has missionaries
in the "spirit world" who are busy spreading the Mormon gospel to dead
people who have not yet received it. Should any of these dead people want
to convert to Mormonism, they are required to abide by all its rules, one
of which is water baptism. Hence the need for proxies to receive the corporeal
waters of baptism.
You might be surprised to learn that the Mormon
church has teams of men and women microfilming records of Catholic and
Protestant parishes, cemetery records, birth and death certificates—virtually
any sort of record pertaining to past generations. Temple Mormons hope,
in time, to have all of the dead of previous generations baptized posthumously
into the Mormon church.
Baptism for the Dead v. Baptism of Desire
One reason Mormons advance the practice of baptism
for the dead is a sense of justice. Billions of people have died without
ever hearing the gospel of Christ and without having the chance to be baptized
into his Church. How could God consign such people to damnation without
giving them the chance to be saved? Surely he would give them that chance.
But if they never heard the gospel in this life, when else could they hear
and respond to it except in the next life?
There are a number of problems with this line of
reasoning. Scripture is very clear in stating that this life is the only
chance we get. Once we die, our fate is sealed: "It is appointed for men
to die once, and after that comes judgment" (Heb. 9:27). There are no "second
chances" after death. Consequently, God judges individuals based on their
actions in this life. Since he is a just judge, he does not hold people
accountable for what they did not and could not have known. Thus, those
who do not hear the gospel in this life will be judged based on the knowledge
they did have in this life. God gives his light to all people (John
1:9), and the universe itself gives evidence of God (Ps. 19:1-4), evidence
which is sufficient to establish basic moral accountability (Rom. 1:18-21).
For those who are ignorant by no fault of their own, God will not hold
their ignorance against them; but it is wrong to assume that people have
no light from God unless they hear an oral proclamation of the gospel.
If they live up to the light that has been shown
to them and would have embraced Christ and the gospel had they known about
them, then they can be saved (Rom. 2:15-16). Neither is their lack of baptism
an obstacle. Scripture reveals that sometimes the graces that normally
come through baptism are given early, to those who have not yet been baptized
(Acts 10:44-48). Such people have what the Church terms "baptism of desire"
and are united to God through their desire to do what he wants of them.
In the case of those who have not yet heard the
gospel or learned of God, but who nevertheless seek to follow the truth
as they understand it, they have an implicit desire for God since
they desire to follow the truth. They simply do not know that God is the
truth. Consequently, they also can be saved through baptism of desire;
therefore, a proxy baptism is superfluous, either before their death or
after it. They are already united to God, even if they are not fully aware
of it in this life (cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church 847-848,
1257-1260).
Thus the Mormon argument from fairness is not persuasive.
There are other ways for accounting for God’s justice and mercy in dealing
with those who have not heard of God and the gospel. It is not necessary
to postulate another preaching of the gospel and second chance of repentance
in the afterlife, much less the necessity of proxy baptism for the dead,
on that basis. God can simply let whomever he wants into heaven, whether
they have water baptism or not. God is not bound by the sacraments he himself
instituted (CCC 1257).
The practice of baptism of the dead, then, must
stand or fall based on the direct evidence concerning it, and that is where
the Mormon position runs into fatal problems.
The Bible Doesn’t Teach It
The doctrine of baptism for the dead was first
given to the Mormon church by Joseph Smith in 1836 and is found in his
Doctrine and Covenants, (but not, as we’ll see, in the Book of
Mormon).
In Paul’s first epistle to the church in Corinth,
he treats a number of subjects. This letter was written to counteract problems
he saw developing in Corinth after he had established the church there.
Corinth had its share of pagan religions, but there were also quasi-Christian
groups that practiced variations of orthodox Christian doctrines. Enter
baptism for the dead.
Mormons cite a single biblical passage to support
baptizing members on behalf of dead persons, "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 Cor. 15:29).
Mormons infer that in 1 Corinthians, Paul speaks
approvingly of living Christians receiving baptism on behalf of dead non-Christians;
however, the context and construction of the verse indicate otherwise.
The Greek phrase rendered by the King James Version as "for the dead" is
huper ton nekron. This phrase is as ambiguous in Greek as it is
in English. The preposition huper has a wide semantic range and
can indicate "for the sake of," "on behalf of," "over," "beyond," or "more
than." Like the English preposition "for," it does not have a single meaning
and does not require the Mormon idea of being baptized in place of
the dead. Such a reading would be unlikely given the more plausible interpretations
available, and even if huper were taken to mean "in the place of,"
it doesn’t mean Paul endorses the practice.
First Corinthians 15 is a key chapter for Paul’s
teaching on the resurrection of the body. He makes no statement on baptism
for dead persons except to note that some unnamed "they" practice it. While
the rest of his teaching in chapter fifteen refers to "we," his Christian
followers, "they" are not further identified. Who this group was may not
be known with certitude today, but there are some reasonable interpretations:
1. Some commentators assume this verse refers to
the practice of giving newly baptized children the names of deceased non-Christian
relatives, with the hope that the dead might somehow share in the Lord’s
mercy.
2. Another interpretation envisions the baptism
of catechumens who have witnessed the persecution and martyrdom of their
Christian predecessors. With their belief that the dead do rise, the Christian
candidates come forward boldly and accept both the faith and its consequences.
3. A related view holds that the group consists
of those baptized in connection with a dead Christian loved one. In the
first century, many families were split religiously, as only one or two
members may have converted to Christianity. When it came time for these
new Christians to die, they no doubt exhorted their non-Christian family
members to consider the Christian faith and to embrace it so that they
could be together in the next world. After the deaths of their Christian
loved ones, many family members no doubt did investigate the Christian
faith and were baptized so that they could be reunited with their loved
ones in the afterlife. At the time, many pagans had at best an unclear
idea of what the afterlife was like, and there were a large number of sects
promising immortality to those who were willing to undergo their initiation
rituals. A pagan husband mourning the death of his Christian wife might
thus have an unclear idea of what her religion was all about, but still
have it fixed in his mind: "If I want to be with her again, I need to become
a Christian, like she was, so I can go where Christians go in the afterlife."
This, then, could prompt him to investigate Christianity, learn its teachings
about the afterlife and the resurrection, and embrace faith in Christ,
receiving Christian baptism for the sake of being united with his dead
loved one. The same is true, by extension, for other family relations as
well, such as parents and children, grandparents and grandchildren. Even
today deathbed exhortations to live the Christian life are not uncommon.
People still resolve to live as Christians in order to please dead loved
ones, to honor their memories, and to be united with them in the next life.
The difference is that, today, most of those being exhorted have already
been baptized.
4. Others advance the possibility that Paul was
referring to the practice of a heretical cult that existed in Corinth.
On this theory, Paul was not endorsing the practice of the group, but merely
citing it to emphasize the importance of the resurrection. Rather, his
point was: If even heterodox Christians have a practice that makes no sense
if there is no resurrection of the dead, how much more, then, should we
orthodox Catholics believe in and hope for the resurrection of the dead.
There is no other evidence in the Bible or in the
early Church Fathers’ writings of baptism being practiced on the living
in place of the dead. Some Mormon writers assert that some Christian commentators
have discussed the possibility of a kind
of "baptism for the dead" among some in the Corinthian
community in Paul’s time. But these commentators do not suggest that the
practice was accepted or mainstream. Given the silence of Scripture and
tradition, we conclude rightly when we see this behavior as another aberration
within a community of believers already soundly scolded by Paul for its
lack of charity, its factionalism, its immorality, its abuse of the Eucharist,
and other matters.
Although we have no way of knowing for sure who
was engaging in this practice, it is certain that Paul was not referring
to orthodox Christians baptizing the dead. Catholic and Protestant scholars
agree on that.
A Flat-Out Contradiction
The case against baptism for the dead is also made
by the Mormon scriptures themselves. The current Mormon doctrine on baptism
for the dead is quite unlike what Joseph Smith first taught. As in other
cases, the Book of Mormon becomes an important tool for the Christian
apologist. It contradicts much Mormon theology, and baptism for the dead
is no exception.
In Alma 34:35-36 we read: "For behold, if ye have
procrastinated the day of your repentance even until death, behold ye have
become subjected to the spirit of the devil, and he does seal you his.
Therefore, the spirit of the Lord has withdrawn from you and hath no place
in you; the power of the devil is over you, and this is the final state
of the wicked."
In other words, those who die as non-Mormons go
to hell, period. There’s no suggestion of a later, vicarious admission
into the Mormon church.
We also see present-day Mormon doctrine contradicted
in 2 Nephi 9:15: "And it shall come to pass that when all men shall have
passed from this first death unto life, insomuch as they have become immortal,
they must appear before the judgment seat of the Holy One of Israel, and
then cometh the judgment and then must they be judged according to the
holy judgment of God. For the Lord God hath spoken it, and it is his eternal
word, which cannot pass away, that they who are righteous shall be righteous
still, and they who are filthy shall be filthy still; wherefore, they who
are filthy . . . shall go away into everlasting fire, prepared for them;
and their torment is as a lake of fire and brimstone, whose flame ascendeth
up forever and ever and has no end."
It is unforunate that Smith abandoned his own,
earlier doctrine. It would not have made the Mormon scriptures any more
authentic, but it would have prevented millions of futile Mormon proxy
baptisms from being performed.
NIHIL OBSTAT:
I have concluded that the materials
presented in this work are free of doctrinal or moral errors.
Bernadeane Carr, STL, Censor Librorum, August 10, 2004
IMPRIMATUR:
In accord with 1983 CIC 827
permission to publish this work is hereby granted.
+Robert H. Brom, Bishop of San Diego, August 10, 2004
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