SALVATION FOR THE DEAD.
I TIM. 2:3, 4; II PETER 3:9.—The Lord desires all men to be saved.
ACTS 4:12.—Jesus Christ is the only name given whereby man can be saved.
JOHN 3:5-7.—A man must be born of the water and of the Spirit before he can enter the Kingdom of God.
This birth of the water (baptism) presupposes faith and repentance. As the vast majority of the race have never heard of Christ or His gospel in this life, it follows that they must hear of them in the spirit world.
This is true, for
I PETER 3:18-20.—Christ, after His death, went and preached to the spirits of those who had been destroyed in the Flood; and—
I PETER 4:6.—What He preached was the gospel. As these spirits, as well as all who are in the spirit world, cannot receive water baptism, it will have to be performed vicariously on the earth for those who repent. I COR. 15:29.—Paul refers to baptism for the dead.
DOC. & COV. 127:6-10; Sec. 128.—Joseph Smith explains the doctrine of baptism for the dead.
Note:—Farrar, in his "Early Days of Christianity," Chaps. VII and VIII, makes some interesting comments on these passages, upholding the view taken by the Latter-day Saints on the subject of salvation for the dead.
LUKE 23:42, 43.—The thief on the cross went with Jesus to Paradise—the spirit world.
JOHN 20:17.—The thief did not go to the Father, or to heaven, for Jesus declared to Mary three days later that He Himself had not been there.