Hey guys so according to Latter-day Saint beliefs, is baptism required for
salvation? Well, it depends on what you mean by salvation. What most people
probably mean when they ask that question is do I have to be baptized to
go to heaven? Well latter-day saints believe in
multiple degrees or levels of heaven so technically we believe pretty much
everyone will be saved to a degree of heaven with or without baptism. But in
order to be exalted, in order to live with God the Father after this life, we
believe baptism is required. For the rest of this video, we're gonna take a look at
some different viewpoints on baptism and hopefully come to a better understanding
of the Latter-day saint perspective on this. Let's do it.
Okay so the Bible talks about baptism a lot but let's just get right to the
words of Christ. In John 3 and Mark 16, Jesus answered, "Verily, verily, I say unto
thee, except a man be born of water and of the spirit, he cannot enter into the
kingdom of God. And he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved but he that
believeth not shall be damned." To some faiths including us, it seems very clear
from these and other scriptures that baptism is essential but some other
faiths would say, "Well, what about all these other scriptures like Ephesians 2
that say were saved exclusively by faith?" "For by grace are you saved through faith
and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man
should boast." So what's the deal here? Is baptism necessary or not? In the early
Christian church, people clearly fell on the "baptism is essential" side of the
fence but that belief came with its challenges. For example, since nobody
could be saved without baptism, the church began baptizing infant children
because if an unbaptized child were to die, they'd be damned, right?
And what about all those people who never had the opportunity to be baptized
in their lifetime? Also damned? That doesn't sound fair.
Well, over time people started asking these questions and seeing the
implications of required baptism. So during the Reformation period, the
pendulum understandably swung to the other end of the spectrum and baptism
was an act of faith but just a symbol and not really necessary for salvation.
So in this battle of scriptural interpretation, one group says Christ
said baptism is necessary so these other scriptures have to mean something else
and the other group says Romans and Ephesians say this so Christ had to have
meant something else. For example in the case of John 3:5, some people started to
interpret the term 'water' here as actually a reference to natural birth or
the Word of God or the Holy Spirit, etc. Anything but baptism, even though the
earliest Christians clearly taught that it meant baptism but whatever. Latter-day
Saints have a very unique view on this whole subject that preserves the
integrity of the scriptures and the justice of God. But you'll need a
little doctrinal background. Latter-day Saints believe that after we die we do
not just immediately go to heaven or hell. We go to what we just called the
spirit world where spirits wait for the final judgment that is to take place
after the second coming of Christ. If you die without hearing the
gospel of Jesus Christ, you can be taught that gospel in the spirit world. In the
meantime, we mortals are performing vicarious or proxy baptisms for our
deceased ancestors and in the spirit world they have the option of accepting
or rejecting that baptism. I need to do a whole episode about baptisms for the
dead but the point is we believe that in order to live in the presence of God the
Father after this life, baptism is essential and one way or another,
everyone will have the opportunity to be baptized. But you might be wondering,
isn't baptism still a work? Well sure it's a work. Confessing the Lord Jesus as
Romans 10 instructs is a work, I think just having faith is a work, it certainly
takes work to have faith. But it's the purpose of these works that makes all
the difference. The purpose of faith and repentance and baptism isn't for me to
save myself. I can't do that and that's the point the Bible is trying to make. I
can go dunk myself in water a thousand times and I won't be any closer to
earning my way into heaven. Only God can get me there. We look at baptism simply
as a condition Christ has set on the reception of his gift of grace. For
example, in second Kings the prophet Elijah commands the Syrian captain
Naaman to go and wash in the Jordan River seven times in order to be healed
of his leprosy. He is reluctant at first because of the simplicity of the task.
His servant says, "If the Prophet had bid they do some great thing, wouldest thou
not have done it? How much rather then when he saith to
the wash and be clean?" So Naaman humbles himself and washes and his flesh came
again like unto the flesh of a little child and he was clean. Never once did he
boast of having cleaned himself. He knew who had actually cleaned him and he was
converted to the God of Israel. This story has baptism imagery
all over it. It's even in the same River where John the Baptist would later
baptize Christ. Was it Naaman's work that cleaned him? No, it was the grace of God.
Did naman need to wash in the river to receive that gift? Yes, because that's
what was asked of him and we believe it is also what Christ has asked of us
through baptism. If you have more questions about grace versus works or
salvation versus exaltation check out these videos. There's also more info on
this subject in the description. Have a great day.