VICARIOUS SERVICE OF THE LIVING FOR THE DEAD
A question now arises as to how it is possible for the dead to comply with the terms of the Gospel and do in the spirit what they had failed to do in the flesh. The exercise of faith and the manifestation of repentance by disembodied spirits may offer no great difficulty to human understanding; but that the dead shall obey the ordinances of the Gospel requiring water-baptism and the baptism of the Spirit by the authorized laying-on of hands, appears to many as truly impossible as seemed the new birth to Nicodemus. He listened in amazement to the Savior's words: "Except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God;" and asked: "How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born?" At last he learned that the new birth referred to was baptism by water and the baptism of the Spirit. With equal pertinency it may now be asked: How can a man be baptized when he is dead? Can he enter the second time into his body of flesh and be immersed in water by human agency? The answer is that the necessary ordinances may be performed for the dead by their living representatives, the mortal subject acting as proxy for the departed one. Thus, even as a man may be baptized in his own person for himself, he may be baptized as proxy for and in behalf of the dead.
The validity of vicarious service, in which one person acts in behalf of another, is generally recognized as an element of human institutions; and that such service may be acceptable unto God is attested by the written word. Ancient and modern scripture, the record of history other than sacred, the traditions of tribes and nations, the rites of bloody sacrifice, and even the sacrificial abominations of pagan idolatry, involve the essential conception of vicarious propitiation and of service rendered by proxy. The scape-goat[[33]] and the altar victim[[34]] in the Mosaic dispensation, when offered by constituted authority and with due accompaniment of acknowledgment and repentance, were accepted by the Lord as sacrifices in mitigation of the sins of His people.
The most significant sacrifice of all, the greatest work ever wrought amongst mankind, the pivotal event in human history, the supreme achievement which was at once the most glorious consummation and the most blessed beginning, is the Atonement of Christ; and this was pre-eminently a vicarious offering. No one who believes that Jesus died for man can doubt the validity and efficacy of vicarious ministration. He gave His life as a fore-ordained sacrifice, voluntarily offered and duly accepted as a propitiation for broken law, and the means by which salvation was made possible unto man. That His death was literally an accepted offering in behalf of human kind is thus set forth in the words of the resurrected Christ, given through modern revelation:
"For behold, I, God, have suffered these things for all, that they might not suffer if they would repent, but if they would not repent, they must suffer even as I, 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: and would that I might not drink the bitter cup and shrink—nevertheless, glory be to the Father, and I partook and finished my preparations unto the children of men."[[35]]
The vicarious effect of the atonement of Christ is twofold; it has wrought a universal redemption of all men from the mortal death incident to the transgression of Adam; and it has provided a means of propitiation for individual sin whereby the sinner may attain salvation through obedience. It is by His mortal life and sacrificial death in behalf of others,—and those others, all who have lived or shall live,—that Jesus the Christ earned His title, Savior and Redeemer of mankind. And as He by effort, sacrifice, and suffering, did for men what they never could accomplish for themselves, and so became in very truth the one and only Savior and Redeemer of the race, so may each of us by opening the way to our departed dead whereby they may be brought within the saving law of the Gospel, become in a small measure saviors unto those who would otherwise be left in darkness.[[36]]
In every instance of vicarious ministration, it is an indispensable requisite that the proxy be worthy and acceptable; and of necessity he must himself have obeyed the laws and ordinances of the Gospel before he can officiate in behalf of others. Further, the ministrations of the living representative must be in accordance with Divine appointment, and in no wise a merely human assumption. The acceptable sacrifices of ancient Israel were such as had been definitely specified and minutely prescribed; and the sacrificial rites could be solemnized only by authorized priests. The supreme sacrifice involved in the atoning death of Christ was as truly appointed and fore-ordained. Prophets, through the long centuries antedating the Christian era, predicted the birth, life, and death of our Lord as already provided for;[[37]] and these prophecies were confirmed by Jesus Himself.[[38]] Consider also the testimony of the apostles to the same effect. Peter specifically designates Christ as "a Lamb without blemish and without spot: who verily was fore-ordained before the foundation of the world."[[39]] The designation "Lamb" is indicative of a sacrificial victim. Paul in writing to the Romans characterizes our Lord as the one "Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past."[[40]]
The Latter-day Saints affirm that their vicarious work in behalf of the dead is required of them by the call of the Lord through direct revelation; and that it becomes the duty and privilege of every individual who accepts the Gospel and enters the Church to labor for the salvation of his dead. He is expected and required by the obligations and responsibility he has assumed as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ, so to live as to be a worthy representative of his departed ancestors, in holy ordinance, and to be of clean life, that he may not forfeit his right to enter the sacred confines of the Lord's House, where alone he may officiate in that privileged capacity.
Let it not be assumed that this doctrine of vicarious labor for the dead implies even remotely, that the administration of ordinances in behalf of departed spirits operates in any manner to interfere with the right of choice and the exercise of free agency on their part. They are at liberty to accept or reject the ministrations in their behalf; and so they will accept or reject, in accordance with their converted or unregenerate state, even as is the case with mortals to whom the Gospel message may come. Though baptism be duly administered to a living man in behalf of a dead ancestor, that spirit will derive no immediate advancement nor any benefit therefrom if he has not yet attained faith in the Lord Jesus Christ or if he be still unrepentant. Even as Christ offered salvation to all, though few there be who accept in the flesh, so temple ordinances may be administered for many in the realm of the departed who are not yet prepared to profit thereby.
It is evident, therefore, that labor in behalf of the dead is two-fold; that performed on earth would remain incomplete and futile but for its supplement and counterpart beyond the veil. Missionary work is in progress there—work, compared with which the evangelistic labor of earth is but a small undertaking. There are preachers and teachers, ministers invested with the Holy Priesthood, all engaged in declaring the glad tidings of the Gospel to spirits who have not yet found the light. As has been shown, this great labor amongst the dead was inaugurated by Jesus the Christ, during the brief period of His disembodiment.[[41]] The saving ministry so begun was left to be continued by others duly authorized and commissioned; even as the work of preaching the Gospel and administering therein amongst the living was committed to the apostles in the Church of old.