The question I have, and this applies to anyone who claims extra-Scriptural revelation, is why it took so long for this to be made known?
If God had something so important and true to say, why didn’t Jesus just tell us? Why wait 1800 years to do it? Did all those people who weren’t Mormons die and go to hell for all that time? What kind of God would that be?
The mormons have that covered...they baptize the dead by proxy and then perform the ordinances required by the LDS for that soul to reach "exaltation", or the mormon version of Heaven. They baptize EVERYONE, regardless of prior baptisms or lack of same. That includes Jews, Hindus, Scientologists, Hitler and the Popes. And the descendants have no say in the matter.
I never have been able to get anyone to tell me how the LDS church collects tithing from the dead, though. 10% tithing is required of the living in order to partake of the special "ordinances" required for "exaltation".
Why; He DID tell us!!
It's just that EVIL men removed His precious words from us.
You know those guys: the same ones who get quoted a lot by our thorough LDS apologists.
--MormonDude(Glad that JS listened to the two Personages of Great Light!)
“The question I have, and this applies to anyone who claims extra-Scriptural revelation, is why it took so long for this to be made known?”
What exactly is the ‘this’ you think took so long to be made known? We believe gospel as we teach it is what Christ and the apostles taught, but as the church fell into apostacy some things were lost and some things were changed and some things were added. We believe our church to be a restoration of original Christianity.
God didn’t just sit around and wait till 1820 to start the restoration either, he was preparing the world for it all along. The Reformation and the weakening of the power of the Vatican was part of preparing for the Restoration, the formation of the USA with it’s freedom of religion was another major building block.
Those who didn’t get a chance to accept the fullness of the gospel in their life will get that chance between death and the resurection. Even if you don’t believe there was an apostacy, the fact remains that billions upon billions of people through time (and even today) die without even hearing the gospel. By the time we get to the judgment, everybody will have had a fair chance no matter when or where they were born to make it to heaven.
What's more, if the LDS church is supposedly a "true restoration" of the early church, why was there no record of baptism for the dead being performed in South/Central America in Book of Mormon times? Why no mention of this practice in that book if it's the FULNESS of the everlasting gospel? Why no mention of any "second chances" in the BoM?