Judged by the Reorganite standards of faith and doctrine will this statement bear the light of investigation? Baptism a local commandment, not binding on the Saints! "To the law and the testimony," said Isaiah, "if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them."
In section 128 of the Doctrine and Covenants (sec. CX Reorganite edition), verse 17, in a revelation[[7]] to the Prophet Joseph Smith, we read the following:
"I will give you a quotation from one of the Prophets, who had his eye fixed on the restoration of the priesthood, the glories to be revealed in the last days, and in an especial manner this most glorious of all subjects belonging to the everlasting gospel, viz.: the baptism for the dead; for Malachi says, last chapter, verses 5, 6, 'Behold I will send you Elijah the prophet, before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord; and he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.'"
Not only is the Priesthood which was revealed by Elijah the Prophet, pertaining to the "most glorious of all subjects belonging to the everlasting Gospel," but it is of the most importance, for the Prophet Joseph says:
"The greatest responsibility in this world that God has laid upon us, is to seek after our dead. The apostle says they without us cannot be made perfect. Now I will speak of them: I say to you, Paul, you cannot be perfect without us; It is necessary that those who have gone before, and those who come after us should have salvation in common with us, and thus hath God made it obligatory to man. Hence God said he would send Elijah." (Times and Seasons, 6: 616.)
Moreover, at the conference of the Church held October 3, 1841, he presented,
"Baptism for the dead as the only way that men can appear as saviors on Mount Zion. The proclamation of the first principles of the Gospel was a means of salvation to men individually, and it was the truth, not men, that saved them; but men by actively engaging in rites of salvation substitutionally, become instrumental in bringing multitudes of their kin into the kingdom of God. * * * There is a way to release the spirit of the dead; that is by the power and authority of the Priesthood—by binding and loosing on earth.
"This doctrine appears glorious inasmuch as it exhibits the greatness of divine compassion, and benevolence in the extent of the plan of human salvation. This glorious truth is well calculated to enlarge the understanding, and to sustain the soul under troubles, difficulties, and distresses. * * *
"This doctrine, he said, presents in a clear light the wisdom and mercy of God, in preparing an ordinance for the salvation of the dead, being baptized by proxy, their names recorded in heaven, and they judged according to the deeds done in the body. This doctrine was the burden of the Scriptures. Those Saints who neglect it, in behalf of their deceased relatives, do it at the peril of their own salvation." (Times and Seasons, Vol. 2, pages 577-578, also History of "Reorganized" Church, Vol. 2, pages 545-546.)
Now, whom shall we believe? The "Reorganized" church that has rejected baptism for the dead, declaring it to be a local commandment not binding on them, or the Prophet Joseph Smith who declares that it is the burden of the Scriptures, and that if we neglect it it is at the peril of our own salvation?
The significance of this principle is even more emphatically expressed in section 128 of the Doctrine and Covenants (CX Reorganite edition). Let me quote:
Verse 5. "You may think this order of things to be very particular, but let me tell you, that they are only to answer the will of God, by conforming to the ordinance and preparation that the Lord ordained and prepared before the foundation of the world, for the salvation of the dead, who should die without a knowledge of the Gospel."
Verse 8. "For out of the books shall your dead be judged, according to their own works, whether they themselves have attended to the ordinances in their own propria persona or by means of their own agents, according to the ordinance which God has prepared for their salvation from before the foundation of the world, according to the records which they have kept concerning their dead."
Verse 15. "And now, my dearly beloved brethren and sisters, 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, 'that they without us cannot be made perfect, neither can we without our dead be made perfect.'"
Verse 18. "It is sufficient to know * * * that the earth will be smitten with a curse, unless there is a welding link of some kind or other, between the fathers and the children, upon some subject or other, and behold what is that subject? It is the baptism for the dead. For we without them cannot be made perfect; neither can they without us be made perfect. Neither can they nor we be made perfect without those who have died in the Gospel also; for it is necessary in the ushering in of the dispensation of the fullness of times, which dispensation is now beginning to usher in, that a whole and complete and perfect union and welding together of dispensations, and keys, and powers, and glories should take place, and be revealed, from the days of Adam even to the present time; and not only this, but those things which never have been revealed from the foundation of the world, but have been kept hid from the wise and prudent shall be revealed unto babes and sucklings in this the dispensation of the fullness of times."