Re: "Keep out: serious theologians at work"
Thanks for noticing a subject dear to my heart: the Latter-day Saint effort to offer the ordinances of salvation to everyone who has ever lived. Here's a well-kept secret: Baptism for the dead happens to be mentioned in the Bible: I Corinthians 15:20.
We LDS believe that faith will still be necessary following death. The spirits of the dead live in a state of waiting for the resurrection, where the final proof there that "darn, the Mormons were right, after all" is still pending!
Until the resurrection, it is still possible for a spirit who never had the opportunity to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ during his life to hear and accept it. In effect, he gets the chance to say, "Hey, if I had only heard that during life, I surely would have accepted it and obeyed it." This concept is also "hidden" in the Bible: 1 Peter 4:6. In fact, faithful Latter-day Saints look forward to serving a "mission to hell" after death! Doctrine & Covenants 138:57
http://scriptures.lds.org/en/dc/...en/dc/138/
57#57
Thus the Lord judges men by the choices they made during life, in light of their opportunities and circumstances on earth, but their ultimate salvation still depends on their free-will acceptance of the gospel of Christ before the final judgment.
Christ taught Nicodemus the absolute necessity of the baptismal covenant, involving both water and spirit: John 3:1-8. However, water is a scarce commodity in the spirit world. Hence the need for baptism involving a proxy who has a body of flesh, by immersion in liquid di-hydrogen oxide.
You can dig a little deeper into this wonderful theology, which is very serious indeed, in my essay "LDS Proxy Baptism and Freedom of Choice." http://hthalljr.blogspot.com/200...freedom-
of.html
Tracy Hall Jr
hthalljr'gmail'com
