Why is baptism for the dead not taught in the Book of Mormon?

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Question

  • Why is baptism for the dead not taught in the Book of Mormon?

Answer

Baptism for the dead would not have been preached before Christ

This ordinance of baptism for the dead would not be practicable prior to the atonement of Christ, for Christ is the one who broke the bands of death and hell and inaugurated the preaching of the Gospel to the Spirit World. Since most of the Book of Mormon is preceding Christ, we would not expect it to be mentioned prior to the book of 3rd Nephi. The book of 3rd Nephi itself is all about the visit of Christ, therefore we would not expect baptism for the dead to be addressed unless Christ Himself instituted it. We also would not expect baptism for the dead to be mentioned in the Book of Ether, which also preceded Christ.

Mormon's abridgement does not tell us whether the ordinance was preached after Christ

This leaves only the books of 4th Nephi, Mormon, and Moroni as the only books during which the ordinance of baptism for the dead could have been described. It is clear, however, that during this time that Mormon and Moroni were both heavily engaged with an apostate people. Both Mormon and Moroni would have been teaching repentance to the people at this time rather than temple ordinances. In other words, the ancient authors and redactors of the Book of Mormon did not think that the topic of baptism for the dead was relevant to the text that they were creating.

This leaves us with only 4th Nephi, about which very little is written other than to say that the people enjoyed almost 200 years of peace. The text does not indicate whether or not this ordinance was instituted among the Nephites. If it was practices, then it would have most likely been done during the time following Christ and prior to the people getting lifted up in wickedness at the end of 4th Nephi. Unfortunately, because of the condensation of Mormon's abridgement and the limitations of space on the plates, all we have for those years is descriptions of a peaceful loving people who followed the teachings of Christ. We can imagine a lot of blessings that would likely have been poured out upon a people, who were righteous for over 200 years, but we have nothing in the text. We would not reasonably expect this ordinance to be taught in the Book of Mormon.

Endnotes

None


Further reading

FAIR wiki articles

FAIR web site

External links

  • John A. Tvedtnes, "The Dead Shall Hear the Voice (Review of Does the Bible Teach Salvation for the Dead? A Survey of the Evidence, Part I)," FARMS Review of Books 10/2 (1998): 184–199. off-site PDF link


Printed material

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