This is an article I
posted three years ago. I’m posting it again for two reasons: (1) my workload
is too heavy right now to compose a new article, and (2) many newcomers have
signed on since then and have never read it. In my attempt to make each post
shorter (I know my previous ones have been long), I have divided it into
three parts.
Part I: The LDS
Church’s practice of baptizing deceased celebrities in the Mormon temple—e.g., Mahatma Gandhi,
Whitney Houston, Adolph Hitler, especially Holocaust victims, and the church’s attempt to
remedy the latter—also, the inevitability of your dead ancestors
being baptized in the Mormon temple, and some day, you. And an explanation of where the doctrine originated.
Part II: How Joseph Smith adopted Gnostic
beliefs and baptism for the dead into his church and passed them
off as revelation.
Part III. Other sources, besides
Gnosticism, where Joseph Smith picked up his temple rituals and vicarious baptism.
MORMON BAPTISM FOR THE DEAD: AFTER YOU DIE WILL THE LDS CHURCH BAPTIZE YOU?
(PT I)
The controversy with Jews. A few years back, the headlines of
newspapers blazed across America reporting the hullabaloo over the Mormon
Church posthumously baptizing Jewish holocaust survivors. Jews understandably
considered it an affront to have their ancestors' names inscribed in Mormon
temple records, especially after LDS leaders promised in 1995, as well as
signing a pact with the Jewish community that they would quit. In 2006, it was
discovered that thousands of holocaust victims were still being baptized.
"We are outraged that such insensitive actions
continue in the Mormon temples," said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, Associate
Dean at the Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles.1
"I am a holocaust survivor," says Anti Defamation League's Abe Foxman, also a holocaust survivor. "It is so offensive in the sense that holocaust victims were killed solely because they were Jews. And here comes the Mormon Church taking away their Jewishness, it's like killing them twice."2
"The effort of posthumous conversion stings our collective Jewish soul," says Bernie M. Farber, former CEO of the Canadian Jewish Congress and son of a Holocaust survivor, especially, he explains, "those who were murdered by the Nazis sanctifying God’s name (in the Hebrew faith tradition...) as they were sent to their graves."2a
The LDS Church apologized to the Jewish community, saying it
is the fault of members who ignore church policy and continue to submit Jewish
names. Leaders sent a letter to all wards instructing members to desist or face
disciplinary action, although admitting that no system is foolproof.2b
How many deceased Jews
were baptized? An estimated
600,000 were posthumously baptized. In January of 2012, holocaust victim Anne
Frank was vicariously baptized, as was Asher and Rosa Rapp Wiesenthal, the
deceased parents of Simon Wiesenthal who survived the Nazi death camps and
hunted down perpetrators.
An appeal to Mitt Romney by Nobel Peace Prize winner, Elie
Wiesel, a holocaust survivor and an official at the Wiesenthal Center in Los
Angeles, was issued, requesting that he ask LDS leaders to keep their word and
quit baptizing Jews. Some sources say that Elie Wiesel's name at that time was
in the Mormon database awaiting proxy baptism for when he dies.
In a 2015 article, the LDS website, FAIR (Foundation
for Apologetic Information & Research)
stated, concerning the church’s attempt to honor the agreement with the Jewish
community and remove names from their data base, “frustration may well continue
to surface.” The church blames its over zealous members who try to “circumvent the current monitoring
process for Jews by misspelling names,” but assures everyone:
“[O]ur Heavenly Father directed the restoration of keys of priesthood authority and surely intended no offense to any of His children. Quite to the contrary. He intended to bless them. This doctrine and its ordinances are laden with love and are intended to perpetuate the sweetest of all relationships — in families forever.”(2c)
Who else besides Jews have
been baptized without the family's consent?
Mahatma Gandhi's temple work took place between 1996 and 2009. Hindu
statesman Rjan Zed, in a statement in Nevada (USA) said, as reported by the Voxy
News Engine:
"it was appalling to note that Gandhi, who lived his life as a Hindu and was cremated by Hindu traditions, had been reportedly baptized by proxy by LDS. It was insensitive and hurtful to the feelings of about one billion Hindus spread worldwide."
Celebrities are often baptized. Within two hours of Whitney
Houston's death, her name had been entered into the church's computer; also
Princess Diana.(3) During the 2008 presidential campaign, Barack
Obama's mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, was proxy baptized. Mitt Romney's ancestors
were baptized and also included being posthumously married to multiple spouses
(evidence that the LDS Church still believes in polygamy in heaven).
Others include Princess Diana, Adolph Hitler, Ted Bundy, Timothy McVeigh, Joan
of Arc, Charlie Chaplin, Humphrey Bogart, Marilyn Monroe, Rita Hayworth, St.
Patrick, George Washington, Albert Einstein, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.,
Malcom X, and various Catholic Saints.
Are you next? Is this a possibility? Yes. Why? Because the
LDS Church's monumental undertaking is to search and copy all the world's
birth, marriage and death records, and posthumously do proxy baptisms,
priesthood conferring on men, endowments and marriages for them in the temple.
Therefore, with worldwide church genealogists hard at work, at some point after
your death your name may be submitted to the Mormon temple.
What can you expect? (if you're
watching from heaven)
For each of the following ordinances performed in your
behalf, the temple worker will continually state your name aloud.
- temple worker will be given your name on a piece of paper (women's names to women, and men's names to men)
- You will first be baptized by proxy in the basement of the temple in a huge baptismal font with twelve sculptured oxen surrounding it that represent the twelve tribes of Israel. The person who has your name will say it aloud and be baptized in your behalf. This rite allows the deceased person entrance through the gate that leads into the Celestial kingdom.
- You will vicariously be washed and anointed with water and oil; men to become Kings and Priests; the women, Queens and Priestesses.
- You will receive a new name for the deceased and dressed in special undergarments of the Holy Priesthood that has Masonic markings of the square and compass on them. Then you don white clothes.
- You will participate in the Endowment ceremony, where you will watch a drama of the Gods portrayed by actors (and see it through the eyes of the temple worker representing you).
- You learn secret handshakes and passwords that you must never reveal to anyone upon penalty of death except to the angels who guard the gates of heaven.
- Lastly, you will be sealed (eternally married) to your deceased spouse (or spouses, as the case may be). Without this marriage ceremony, you cannot become a God (or Goddesses). But with it, men will become Gods, create a new planet, procreate spiritual children with their Goddess wives, and people their new planet with offspring who will enter the physical bodies of babies on the new earth.
Why does the Mormon Church
do this? The church believes
that proxy baptisms and other ordinances will allow deceased persons to receive
the Mormon gospel in the afterlife, thus giving them a second shot at
salvation; also exaltation (becoming Gods and Goddesses). The departed,
or course, may accept or reject it; but it is believed that once a person
passes to the other side he or she will naturally be made aware that the LDS
Church is the only true church on earth and will readily accept the vicarious
work. The Mormon Church stipulates, however, that there is no second chance for
those who rejected Mormonism when they were alive on earth. LDS Spokesman and
Apostle Bruce R. McConkie reaffirms this:
There is no such thing as a second chance to gain
salvation by accepting the gospel in the spirit world after spurning,
declining, or refusing to accept it in this life.(4)
Nevertheless, for those particular individuals, vicarious
temple work will still be performed for them; but it will only allow them to
avoid Hell and be saved in the second heaven, the Terrestrial Kingdom, never
the highest heaven, the Celestial.
Why is the Mormon Church
so concerned about the dead? The
main reason is that they believe they cannot be saved until all the dead
are saved. Joseph Smith said:
Let me assure you that these are principles in relation
to the dead and the living that cannot be lightly passed over, as pertaining to
our salvation. For their salvation is necessary and essential to our
salvation, as Paul says concerning the fathers [Heb. 11:40]— that they
without us cannot be made perfect—neither can we without our dead be made
perfect." (Doctrine and Covenants 128:15. Emphasis mine.)
Above, Smith, using Heb. 11:40, totally misinterprets it.
The correct interpretation is as follows:
The writer of Hebrews is focusing on the promise of salvation through the atonement of Christ, not only to believers in the New Testament, but also those in the Old Testament. Old Testament prophets and believers lived faithful and heroic lives, but the Law could not make them perfect. They died without having seen the fulfillment of the promise of a Deliverer (the Messiah) who could do away with the Law and make them perfect. However, the NT saints did live to see it, and they were made complete and perfect through Jesus' substitutionary atonement. The writer to the Hebrews is saying that New Testament believers certainly can't be saved by themselves and leave faithful OT believers out in the cold with no salvation. Since the Messiah had come and Jesus died once for all (I Pet. 3:18) both OT and NT saints would ALL be made perfect together through the imputed righteousness of Christ and receive salvation and inherit the heavenly city as one family of God.
The above passage in Hebrews has nothing to do with the OT believers'
salvation hinging on being baptized vicariously by New Testament believers, or
having temple rituals performed in their behalf in the Mormon Temple.
How does the LDS Church
validate baptism for the dead?
From three sources:
From three sources:
(1) Joseph Smith
(2) a single verse in the Bible (I Cor. 15:29)
(3) Apocryphal documents (spurious texts from the periods of the New Testament and first and second century AD that were ruled heretical and not included in the official canon.
(1) Joseph Smith. Here is the revelation claimed by Joseph Smith on January 19, 1841,
which members accept as from the Lord. Verses 26-27 consist of the Lord telling
Smith to build a temple. Then, beginning with v. 28, the "Lord" says:
"For a baptismal font there is not upon the earth, that they, my saints, may be baptized for those who are dead. For this ordinance belongeth to my house, and cannot be acceptable to me, only in the days of your poverty, wherein ye are not able to build a house unto me. But I command you, all ye my saints, to build a house unto me; and I grant unto you a sufficient time to build a house unto me and during this time your baptisms [for the dead] shall be acceptable unto me. But behold, at the end of this appointment your baptisms for your dead shall not be acceptable unto me; and if you do not these things at the end of the appointment ye shall be rejected as a church, with your dead, saith the Lord your God. For verily I say unto you, that after you have had sufficient time to build a house to me, wherein the ordinance of baptizing for the dead belongeth, and for which the same was instituted from before the foundation of the world, your baptisms for your dead cannot be acceptable unto me . . ." (Doctrine and Covenants, Section 124:28-33. See also D&C Sections 127 and 128. Brackets mine.)
(2) I
Cor. 15:29. This is the second source that the LDS
Church claims validates baptism for the dead. In this verse Paul, in a letter
to the Saints at the Corinthian church, is teaching on the bodily resurrection.
He says to them—and note the words I've italicized:
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? (KJV)
If the dead will not be raised,
what point is there in people being baptized for those who are dead? Why
do it unless the dead will someday rise again? (NLT version)
Paul's use of the words "they" and/or "people"
plainly distinguishes the group practicing this rite, from the Christian
Saints. If the Corinthian Saints were the ones baptizing for the dead, his
sentence would have read: "Why are you being baptized for the
dead, if the dead rise not at all?"
Scholars have studied this passage, and they all agree that
Paul was not talking to the true Saints of the Corinthian church. Walter
Schmithals, late Emeritus professor at Humboldt University, Berlin, and author
of Gnosticism in Corinth: An Investigation of the Letters to the
Corinthians, suggests that Paul wasn't fully familiar at that time with the
beliefs of the group doing the baptizing as he became later on; because, if he
had realized that the group doing the vicarious baptisms rejected the idea of
the physical body of the dead being resurrected, only the spirit,
he could do nothing else but reject it because it would have contradicted all
his previous teachings on the resurrection. Other scholars, however, say that
Paul was fully familiar with the group, and mentioned baptism for the dead as a
slam against their eccentric notions in order to turn their beliefs against
them.(5) Either way, it was another group, not the Saints, who were
baptizing for the dead.
After much research, especially wading through Walter
Schmithals scholarly book (a very demanding read), I'm inclined to
believe that Paul was only minimally aware of the group's beliefs that was
baptizing for the dead. He incorrectly surmised they were doing it because they
believed in a physical resurrection. He probably thought, "No harm
done—at least they believe in the resurrection," therefore referred to
them in order to back up his teaching on the resurrection of the body. But if
he had known that the group believed only in the spirit being resurrected, he
would not have used it, or else he would have had to undo all his previous
teaching on the subject. The dead were guaranteed to rise bodily in the
resurrection because of Jesus' redemptive death and His own bodily
resurrection. In view of that, there would certainly be no need to perform
special baptismal rites for dead people.
I Cor. 15:29 is the only place in the Bible where baptism
for the dead is mentioned. Neither is it mentioned in other early
"Christian" documents. Mention of these groups were made by
Tertullian (160-225 AD) in, Against Marcion (5, 10); Clement of
Alexandri (153 to 217 AD); in Excerpt 22 of Excerpta ex Theodoto; and
church apologist, Irenaeus, provided valuable information for today's scholars
on other beliefs of the baptism-for-the-dead groups. John Chrysostom also
mentions Christians who left and joined those groups, no longer believing in a
bodily resurrection and wanted to participate in their secret rituals.
Certainly, the idea of secret knowledge had a strong appeal.
This group's practice of baptism for the dead and their
other beliefs spread rapidly throughout the early Christian period, but were
consistently considered deviant by the church and denounced as heretical.
(3) Apocryphal documents. This is the third source the LDS Church is
now using to validate baptism for the dead. These apocryphal documents have
been available only in modern-day findings that contain its rituals during the
early church period. LDS scholars now eagerly quote from them to not only
validate baptism for the dead but their other vicarious temple work for the
dead. (These documents are listed in my article, "The Reliability of the Bible.")
It is doubtful that Joseph Smith had access to these in his day. (The next
post in the series, Part II, will tell you the sources available to Smith; also
local groups that were practicing these concepts.)
Who was this group
practicing Baptism for the Dead?
The importance of knowing who they were, how their influence
grew in the Christian world, and that the church fathers viewed their practices
as unbiblical and heretical, is crucial to understanding that those who
baptized for the dead did not represent traditional, apostolic
Christianity. Who were they? Gnostics!
THE GNOSTICS
Did they just suddenly pop
up at Corinth?
No. Gnosticism dates back before Christianity. They infiltrated the Judean system before Christianity ever arrived on the scene, and Jewish Gnosticism existed alongside of Orthodox Judaism. The mystical Kabbalah of the Jews took many core Gnostic ideas and used them to reinterpret earlier Jewish sources. The Jewish mystics did not, however, use Gnostic terminology but replaced it with language of the Torah.
No. Gnosticism dates back before Christianity. They infiltrated the Judean system before Christianity ever arrived on the scene, and Jewish Gnosticism existed alongside of Orthodox Judaism. The mystical Kabbalah of the Jews took many core Gnostic ideas and used them to reinterpret earlier Jewish sources. The Jewish mystics did not, however, use Gnostic terminology but replaced it with language of the Torah.
After Jesus' death, the Gnostic groups that became
increasingly popular were the Basilidians, Valentinians, Marcionites,
Carpocratians and Marcosians. Therefore, the Gnostics were widespread in the
Syrian-Phoenician region, long before Paul's missionary journeys began. (There
are also Gnostics groups today)
The Gnostic presence in
the Corinthian church.
Corinth was a port city on the Mediterranean and the virtual crossroads of
commerce between the east and west. The city was morally polluted with
unbridled sexual orgies, temple prostitutes, idol worship and doctrinal heresies
of all kinds. The city of Elusis, just north of Corinth, was famous for its
"Elusinian Mysteries." Baptism in the sea was practiced to guarantee
a good afterlife, and in the Temple of
Demeter, in their building called the Telesterion, secret rites and
mysteries were performed which could not be revealed under penalty of death (similar
to the death oaths in the LDS temple ceremony).
And as in Mormonism,
participants repeated formulaic passwords, sat in seats and watched actors play
out sacred dramas of their gods (typical of most mystery religions of the
time). Some scholars conclude that some
form of Sacred Marriage probably took place at the Mysteries. Libations
to the dead were also performed. So considering the milieu, the Corinthians
were heavily influenced by religious customs and beliefs of their environment.
Paul had to straighten them out on more than one occasion.(6)
At the time of Paul's letter to the Corinthians, a group of
Gnostics had no doubt infiltrated the church there and influenced, if not
confused, the saints. (Why Gnostics were attracted to Christianity is
explained below.) Four divisive groups developed, each following after
someone different. Paul mentions how they referred to themselves:
'I follow Paul'; another, 'I follow
Apollos'; another, 'I follow Cephas;' still
another, 'I follow Christ.'
(I Cor. 1:12)
The "I-follow-Christ" group is referred to by
scholars as the "Christ party" or "Christ faction." In
other words, Gnostics who penetrated the church. They believed in a
"Christ Principle" they acquired through Gnosis, special
knowledge for the elite (explained further below). Christianity held a
strong attraction for them because of this, so joining the church at Corinth
was no problem for them and they merged right in with no one (at first)
being the wiser. But they created division.
On the surface they did not appear that much different from
the Corinthian Saints. Merging into the church, they blended in like
chameleons, the small lizard whose skin adapts its color to its surroundings.
They could speak in tongues like the saints did, and their use of common terms
like "salvation," "redemption," "Christ,"
"gospel," etc. fooled the Saints into believing their use of those
terms held traditional Christian meanings. (Similar to Mormon who use
Christian terms but with different meanings.)
One of the major problems of the Gnostics was that they did
not believe Jesus the man was the Christ. The Christ Principle came into
the man Jesus at his baptism, but left at the crucifixion; therefore, Jesus the
man was not the Christ. Paul then gave the Saints a test question to
distinguish true Christians from Gnostics: "No man speaking by the
spirit calleth Jesus accursed." (I Cor. 12:3) Because of
the prevalence of this doctrine, John also reiterated it: "Every spirit
that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: And
every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh
is not of God." (I Jn 4:2-3; 2 Jn 7. Emphasis mine)
The Gnostics' other problem was that they considered
themselves more elite than other Christians because they had "Gnosis,"
special knowledge that brought salvation to their spirits. They were not
concerned about the body at all. They believed the flesh was evil and the
spirit only was good. They were saved regardless of what their bodies did. To
demonstrate (and flaunt) their spiritual, elitist salvation to the rest of the
church, they allowed their bodies to indulge in incest and eat meat offered to
idols (I Cor. 7:1; 8:1-13). This confused the Saints so much, that Paul
had to write and set things straight on that matter as well.
Why did the group practice baptism for the dead?
Resurrection of everyone's spirit (including the dead's)
mattered. All the spirits of the dead had to be saved before they
themselves could be saved. Without the ascension of all spirits of Gnostics,
dead and alive, the body of Christ, which is scattered in pieces in all men,
would be incomplete in heaven. Vicarious baptisms would set the spirits of the
dead free so they could resurrect spiritually and merge into the Pleroma of God
(more on the Pleroma later); thus hasten the living Gnostics' salvation.
Mormons follow suit. They believe they can only be redeemed when all
the dead are redeemed through Mormon rites.
How prevalent were Gnostic
beliefs?
Gnostic beliefs continued throughout the New
Testament period and into the early centuries of the church, spread by zealous
missionaries and apostles. Irenaeus (circa 202 AD), early church father and
apologist, noted:
At the time of the
birth of Christ and thereafter, no religious movement besides the Christian
movement organized and executed such
an extended and deliberate missionary work as the Gnostic enterprise. (source
unknown)
What were the Gnostics'
other beliefs? There were
many Gnostic groups in the early centuries, each teaching a variation on their main doctrines. They are very complex and too lengthy to include in this
three-post series.
However, in Part II, I will list the basic beliefs, and
include a comparison to the Mormon Church's beliefs. It will show that Joseph
Smith adopted Gnostic beliefs into his church, to which LDS scholars readily
admit. In fact, they pride themselves on referencing early Gnostic documents to
validate their baptism for the dead and other temple rituals.
THANK YOU FOR VISITING!
IF YOU ENJOYED THIS ARTICLE, PLEASE CLICK THE SHARE BUTTONS.
IN PART II (NEXT MONTH), FIND OUT THE SHOCKING GNOSTIC BELIEFS THAT JOSEPH SMITH BORROWED AND THEN CLAIMED AS REVELATION!
DON'T MISS IT!
Until next time,
Janis
Endnotes
1. "Mormons
apologize for posthumous Jewish baptisms" by Jennifer Dobner. Seattle
Times, Feb. 14,
2012; also in many other
newspapers)
2. http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4194298,00.html
2a. http://tinyurl.com/7t9m6ts
2. http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4194298,00.html
2a. http://tinyurl.com/7t9m6ts
3. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2107396/How-Diana-baptised-Mormon.html.
4. Mormon Doctrine, 685-687.)
5. See "Heretics and Baptism for the Dead" by David W. T. Brattston at http://tinyurl.com/7eh8pk7
4. Mormon Doctrine, 685-687.)
5. See "Heretics and Baptism for the Dead" by David W. T. Brattston at http://tinyurl.com/7eh8pk7
6. See "The Elusianian
Mysteries" at http://users.erols.com/nbeach/eleusis.html.
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