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Stylteralmaldo
Guest
How does the Catholic understanding of “no salvation outside of the church” differ from LDS understanding?
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But_for_Grace
Guest
Well the Catholic Church is the Church that was started by Jesus Christ through his Disciples in 33AD. The LDS are a group that rejecting the authority of the Catholic Church, along with any other religious bodies, attempted to reform (once again, repeating the same error that Martin Luther made) the body of Christ. But any reform of the Catholic faith by nature looses something of the total revalation of Christ and so the LDS do not have the complete Gospel of Christ, just at the protestants also do not have the full Gospel of Christ.
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Stylteralmaldo
Guest
What I mean is: Do LDS teach that we must be within the confines of the LDS church in order to be saved?
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Tmaque
Guest
Stylterado,
LDS believe that you must be within the confines of the church to be exalted(saved). The difference being that the “saving” can take place after death. A person can choose to become LDS after death if they didn’t have an opportunity to do so with full awareness in this life. This is why LDS do temple work (baptizing for the dead, etc.) It is an effort to provide an opportunity for salvation to those who were not LDS in this life.
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papist1
Guest
yes, that is why when they run out of persons names to baptize that are dead, they baptize them again.
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flameburns623
Guest
In LDS theology, most human beings are ‘saved’ to one of three levels of glory ALREADY–Mormonism is quasi-universalist. Only the worst of possible sinners go to “outer darkness”. Merely run-of-the-mill reprobates go to the lowest level of Heaven, the Telestial. More-godly souls are admitted to the Terrestrial Kingdom. Only baptised LDS who have receive all of their Temple endowments are admitted to the Celestial Kingdom.
Before being admitted to any level of Heaven however–all of the dead go to an intermediary place, subdivided into “Paradise”, for faithful Mormons, and “Spirit Prison” for non-Mormons. We will all await the End of the Age in this intermediate place of spirits. The work of the Mormon spirits is to visit those in Spirit Prison and seek to convert those souls to the LDS faith. (It is said that people who have had exposure to the LDS Gospel in this life will find it somehow HARDER to accept that gospel in Spirit Prison; whilst for those who never had opprtunity in mortal life to hear of Mormonism will have a rather easier time of it).
Unfortunately, accepting the Gospel in the Afterlife does not assure admission to the Celestial Kingdom: one must STILL receive baptism, confirmation, the Priesthood (if a male) and Temple ordinances, none of which can be performed in Spirit Prison. Someone on ‘this side of the veil’, someone living on Earth, must perform these ordinances FOR the deceased person. This is the purpose of Baptism for the Dead–and yes, it is not simply baptism on behalf of the dead but also whatever other ordinances the person is likely to need performed on their behalf.
So no–the LDS Church doesn’t really have quite the same concept of ‘no salvation outside the Church’, even if one includes in that doctrine the teachings of ‘baptism by desire’ and/or ‘invincible ignorance’.
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stillsearching
Guest
So someone who has spent his life as a devout Roman Catholic could suddenly see the error of his ways after he dies and then choose to be a mormon? How extraordinary. My goodness. Most generous of y’all. Well, then y’all are free to baptise me after I die for any reason you see fit. I’m sure it won’t hurt me a bit.
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Jo_s_Dad
Guest
Uh, no, once an LDS baptism has been performed it is not performed again. The LDS church believe in one and only one LDS Baptism .
God Bless.
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Stylteralmaldo
Guest
Thanks for that explanation Tmaque. Appreciate the (name removed by moderator)ut.
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Jerusha
Guest
I disagree with you, Jo’s Dad. Some of us watch another board, and there are reports that proxy baptisms for the dead are sometimes repeated, in order to assure that at least one of the proxys is worthy for the job.
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Casen
Guest
You may have heard this but it’s not accurate. The procedure is to conduct each baptism once, unless one of the two witnesses determines that something was done incorrectly the first time, like if the person was not completely submerged in the water or the prayer was given incorrectly, in which case the ordinance would be repeated. Baring that the practice is to only perform one proxy baptism for a given deceased person. There have been some allegations of “sloppy” temple work and of course people make mistakes but the official and correct procedure is to perform the ordinance only once.
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BJ_Colbert
Guest
If you consider the billions of people who have ever lived upon the earth, then I really doubt they will ever run out of names.
And just to put my two cents into the pot, they do not baptize twice, unless as Casen says the prayer is said wrong or the person is not completely emersed then it would be redone immediately. BJ
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stillsearching
Guest
BJ Colbert:
It does rather war with St. Paul, though, who says “Brothers and Sisters, are you unaware that our Baptism was a baptism into His death…”
Well, it has a nice intention, baptising the dead. The efficacy of the act is highly questionable, but the perception must be to view the intention, which in this case, is quite sweet and certainly not harmful to the dead, anyway.
It does rather war with St. Paul, though, who says “Brothers and Sisters, are you unaware that our Baptism was a baptism into His death…”
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