J
JAHS
Guest
I’m not sure if this is the right place for this but I am responding to some incorrect information found in an article on this web site called, “Mormonism’s Baptism for the Dead”. It concerns the following statement:
“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 Therefore, the spirit of the Lord has withdrawn from you and hath no place in you; the power of the devil is over you, and this is the final state of the wicked.”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.”
There are two problems with how these scriptures are used to prove their point. If not read out of context the Alma scripture is only talking about those who are already members of the Church.
He is talking to church members who have already been baptizd, but who have committed sins and have not repented for them. He is not talking to people who have neer heard the Gospel yet. Read the entire chapter.
The second scripture in 2 Nephi is talking about the very end time at judgment after the resurrection, after people have obtained their immortal bodies and after everyone has had the opportunity to hear the gospel either on earth or in the Spirit prison and either chose to not be baptized while on earth or chose to not accept the baptisms that were performed for them on earth by proxy.
JAHS
“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.”
There are two problems with how these scriptures are used to prove their point. If not read out of context the Alma scripture is only talking about those who are already members of the Church.
He is talking to church members who have already been baptizd, but who have committed sins and have not repented for them. He is not talking to people who have neer heard the Gospel yet. Read the entire chapter.
The second scripture in 2 Nephi is talking about the very end time at judgment after the resurrection, after people have obtained their immortal bodies and after everyone has had the opportunity to hear the gospel either on earth or in the Spirit prison and either chose to not be baptized while on earth or chose to not accept the baptisms that were performed for them on earth by proxy.
JAHS
