“Glad Tidings... for the Living and the Dead”: A Note on Baptisms for the Dead and the Atonement of Christ

Once I read a story – certainly embellished over time and most definitely not relating an actual historical event – of a monk called Abba Macarius. One day, or so the story goes, Abba Macarius comes across an old skull in a desert. To his surprise, the skull speaks, and so Macarius asks the skull who it is.

The skull relates a sad tale – it was a high priest for one of the old religions devoted to idol worship, and so was consigned to suffer in hell for eternity – his only crime was not knowing the true nature of God, and so received little mercy. He offers little hope for his fate, only consigned to believe he is at least better off than those who had done worse than he.

Macarius weeps over the skull and is bereaved over such a fate. The skull offers only a simple request to the merciful monk – don't stop praying. For, it explains, when Macarius and the monks pray for those consigned to hell, their punishment is alleviated for only a brief moment. They are at least able to see one another's faces as the prayer is said, giving some semblance of hope for the damned souls. At least they could feel as though they had not been abandoned completely during this godsent time.[1]

There are two takeaways from this sad story that stood out to me. First, even in the depths of darkness and hell, the love of another is a great mercy sent by God. And even more striking, it seemed to me that Abba Macarius was infinitely more loving and merciful than the God whom he worshipped.

Of course, the God of Macarius is not the Christian God; at least, not in the truest sense of the word and most faithful reading of the Bible. Far from the being who is "without body, parts, or passions," as the Westminster Confession states, the Bible clearly identifies not only an embodied God,[2] but a passionate God.

"He that loveth not knoweth not God," the Apostle John declared, "for God is love" (1 John 4:8).  Love, the greatest passion of all, defined Christ's ministry and defines God's relationship with the sinful world we live in.

It was love that drove the Lord Jesus to Gethsemane and Calvary. "This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." "I am the good shepherd... and I lay down my life for the sheep...Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father" (John 15:12–13; 10:14–15, 17–18. Emphasis added).

It is the love of God that drove Abraham to worship and have faith, even in the midst of the greatest trials of his life, even as he and his son once climbed the quiet Mount Moriah with no lamb to offer for sacrifice.

Abraham, like the Apostles, "was called the Friend of God" (James 2:23, cf. John 15:14, D&C 84:63). He was beloved by God, and the world likewise:

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved" (John 3:16–17).

To an Israel who believed themselves to have been abandoned and forgotten, the Lord declared then and now how he could never abandon us, because He loves us. "Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, [as unlikely as it may seem,] they may forget [even after suffering unbearable pain and losing so much blood and sweat in a process that not all women survive], yet will I not forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; [Roman nails were my writing instrument, leaving a permanent reminder of the time when I suffered pain 'which suffering caused myself, even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit,' when I willingly laid down my life, so that you could become begotten sons and daughters unto God]" (Isaiah 49:15–16, cf. 1 Nephi 21:15–16; D&C 19:18; with commentary).

The Lord might well have asked, "Oh Israel, how could I ever forget you?" And the answer will always remain the same: He loves us too much; it would be entirely against His nature to do so.

Because the Father loves His children, He presented in the grand councils of heaven His plan, and because of the pure love the Son had for His brothers and sisters, for us, did He volunteer to go down into the world to be our Savior.

"Where wast thou," the Lord asked a weary and downtrodden Job, "when I laid the foundations of the earth? ...When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?" (Job 38:4, 7).[3] We rejoiced upon hearing the Plan of Salvation, and faith led each of us to accept it in those eternal courts on high.

That plan demands us to act. As Christ acted on the behalf of others who had no power to lift themselves out of despair, so too are we called to take part in the salvific work of Christ, taking the blessings of His Atonement to all people who could not accept the Gospel while in mortality.

Though relatively few New Testament apostolic writings survive, and no early Church manual survives detailing all facets of Christian worship, baptisms for the dead were practiced in antiquity and endorsed by Paul in his defense of the resurrection to the Corinthians: "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).

This practice was restored by Joseph Smith in Nauvoo, Illinois. "Now, what do we hear in the gospel which we have received? A voice of gladness! A voice of mercy from heaven; and a voice of truth out of the earth; glad tidings for the dead; a voice of gladness for the living and the dead; glad tidings of great joy" (D&C 128:19).

The prayers of Macarius that could alleviate the pains of hell for only a moment pale in comparison to the hope for eternal life and exaltation that is offered in the true Gospel. As Peter the Chief Apostle and Joseph F. Smith each saw in glorious vision, the hosts of the righteous dead were organized by Jesus, and He, having loosed the bands of death and hell, sent them forth to preach the Gospel to the hosts who could not accept the Gospel in this life (see 1 Peter 3:19–20, 4:6; D&C 138). Just as the hosts of the dead perform a great work in the salvation of others, we are called to perform a great work as well.

One day, as Elder Melvin J. Ballard sat in the Logan Temple, he beheld a truly glorious vision. He recounted:

All at once a vision opened to me, and I beheld a great congregation of people gathered in the east end of the font room. One by one, as each name was baptized for, one of these people climbed a stairway over the font to the west end of the room. Not one soul was missing, but there was a person for every one of the thousand names done that day.[4]

President Wilford Woodruff likewise taught that the work being done beyond the veil was not only successful, but immeasurably so:

I tell you when the prophets and apostles go to preach to those who are shut up in prison, and who have not received the gospel, thousands of them will there embrace the gospel. … 

There will be very few, if any, who will not accept the gospel. Jesus, while his body lay in the tomb, went and preached to the spirits in prison, who were destroyed in the days of Noah. After so long an imprisonment, in torment, they doubtless gladly embraced the gospel, and if so they will be saved in the kingdom of God. The fathers of this people will embrace the gospel.[5]

President Lorenzo Snow shared similar beliefs:

The great bulk of those who are in the spirit world for whom the work has been done will receive the truth. The conditions for the spirits of the dead receiving the testimony of Jesus in the spirit world are a thousand times more favorable than they are here in this life.[6]

A wonderful work is being accomplished in our temples in favor of the spirits in prison. I believe, strongly too, that when the Gospel is preached to the spirits in prison, the success attending that preaching will be far greater than that attending the preaching of our Elders in this life. I believe there will be very few indeed of those spirits who will not gladly receive the Gospel when it is carried to them. The circumstances there will be a thousand times more favorable.[7]

God is love. The main tenet of Christianity is that God loved the world so much that He was willing to do all in His infinite power to save us from death and hell, and the doctrine of baptisms for the dead is one of the ways wherein God’s love reaches out to lift His children from darkness and unto the marvelous light of His love.

It is not a futile work. It is the work of Almighty God, and we as members of the Church of Jesus Christ are invited to participate in the salvation of the world – truly, we can say that these are indeed “glad tidings” for the whole world as we take part in this sacred and holy calling.

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[1] This story is related in Benedicta Ward, trans., The Sayings of the Desert Fathers (n.p.: Cistercian Publications, 1975), 136-137.

[2] See, for example, Genesis 1:27, Exodus 24:10, Exodus 33:11, Acts 7:56, Philippians 3:21, and Revelation 22:4.

[3] Verse 21 of the same chapter contains the answer the Lord provides to His rhetorical questions: “Surely you know, for you were born then, and the number of your days is great!” (NRSV).

[4] Nolan Porter Olsen, Logan Temple: The First 100 Years (Providence, UT: Keith W. Watkins and Sons, 1978), 170.

[5] G. Homer Durham, comp., The Discourses of Wilford Woodruff (Salt Lake City, UT: Bookcraft, 1990), 152, 158.

[6] Millennial Star, Oct. 6, 1893, 718.

[7] Millennial Star, Jan. 22, 1894, 50.