I love structure. I love things that make sense. I love when things behave in a way that I understand.
Perhaps this is why I have an affection for all studies engineering and physics. I am serious when I say I loved my electrical, civil, and structural engineering classes. I was truly excited to go to my physics classes and to master the homework problems. If I could justify the expense, I would really want to get degrees in all of these studies, just for the understanding it would signify that I had. I also enjoy accounting and math. Numbers make sense.
This is why, spiritual affirmations (of which I've had many) aside, I really love the restored gospel.
It makes so much stinking sense!
It makes sense to me that if God created man, he loves us.
If God loves all men, his creations, how fair is it that only those who know of his plan can be saved. Millions who have lived and millions more who do live do not know of the divine plan.
Are they permanently lost, they just "luck of the draw" had no chance of salvation?
No, I find that theory to be unacceptable and unreconcilable with the assumption that God loves all man.
And yet, the scriptures clearly quote Jesus as saying that baptism is the gate that everyone has to pass through to be His. Even He had to be baptized, "to fulfill all righteousness".
This is why the doctrine of baptism for the dead makes so much sense.
Now, I can somewhat see where some people get all upset over the idea, but I think it comes from a misunderstanding of what it actually is. I mean, the practice does actually say "dead" in the title, creepy right? Brings up the really sick image of baptizing dead people, and people have this instinctive reaction of "not my dead people, don't you dare".
Well, lets clear up some of those misconceptions right here.
1) dead people stay firmly in their graves, no worries.
The actual baptism is done by proxy, which means someone does it for them, in their name. Phew, ix-nay on the reepy-cay.
2) the intended baptizee on the other side, has a choice of whether or not to accept this baptism.
Just like a baptism does close to no good if a person does not choose to follow Christ after baptism here in mortality, it does close to no good if someone after dying still is not going to follow Christ. But on the flip side, if someone learns about this wonderful plan and loves it with all their heart, how awful and unfair would it be if there was no way to be baptized in the flesh?
3) this is not a new thing.
The early, pre-apostate Christian church also performed these baptisms for the dead.
See 1 Cor 15:29, 1 Pet 4:6, John 5: 25, Malachi 4:5-6
4) I wonder why this is not an glaringly obvious gap to those other Christian religions that believe in a just and fair God.
Well, here I have explained why I think the gospel is logical in regards to just one small piece of the plan, but in respect for time and space I am going to have to define the logic of many other things (missionary work, sealing together families, priesthood authority, the Book of Mormon, etc...) in later posts.
Perhaps this is why I have an affection for all studies engineering and physics. I am serious when I say I loved my electrical, civil, and structural engineering classes. I was truly excited to go to my physics classes and to master the homework problems. If I could justify the expense, I would really want to get degrees in all of these studies, just for the understanding it would signify that I had. I also enjoy accounting and math. Numbers make sense.
This is why, spiritual affirmations (of which I've had many) aside, I really love the restored gospel.
It makes so much stinking sense!
It makes sense to me that if God created man, he loves us.
If God loves all men, his creations, how fair is it that only those who know of his plan can be saved. Millions who have lived and millions more who do live do not know of the divine plan.
Are they permanently lost, they just "luck of the draw" had no chance of salvation?
No, I find that theory to be unacceptable and unreconcilable with the assumption that God loves all man.
And yet, the scriptures clearly quote Jesus as saying that baptism is the gate that everyone has to pass through to be His. Even He had to be baptized, "to fulfill all righteousness".
This is why the doctrine of baptism for the dead makes so much sense.
Now, I can somewhat see where some people get all upset over the idea, but I think it comes from a misunderstanding of what it actually is. I mean, the practice does actually say "dead" in the title, creepy right? Brings up the really sick image of baptizing dead people, and people have this instinctive reaction of "not my dead people, don't you dare".
Well, lets clear up some of those misconceptions right here.
1) dead people stay firmly in their graves, no worries.
The actual baptism is done by proxy, which means someone does it for them, in their name. Phew, ix-nay on the reepy-cay.
2) the intended baptizee on the other side, has a choice of whether or not to accept this baptism.
Just like a baptism does close to no good if a person does not choose to follow Christ after baptism here in mortality, it does close to no good if someone after dying still is not going to follow Christ. But on the flip side, if someone learns about this wonderful plan and loves it with all their heart, how awful and unfair would it be if there was no way to be baptized in the flesh?
3) this is not a new thing.
The early, pre-apostate Christian church also performed these baptisms for the dead.
See 1 Cor 15:29, 1 Pet 4:6, John 5: 25, Malachi 4:5-6
4) I wonder why this is not an glaringly obvious gap to those other Christian religions that believe in a just and fair God.
Well, here I have explained why I think the gospel is logical in regards to just one small piece of the plan, but in respect for time and space I am going to have to define the logic of many other things (missionary work, sealing together families, priesthood authority, the Book of Mormon, etc...) in later posts.
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