Posted on 10/14/2010 6:07:34 AM PDT by Colofornian
Human communication with the dead, or necromancy, is never encouraged in the Bible and is always condemned (1 Samuel 15:23, 28:6ff). Such a practice was punishable by death (1 Samuel 28:9) in theocratic Israel. Despite these grave warnings, many temple Mormons look forward with great anticipation to possibly being visited by spirits of the dead. In fact, there are a number of recorded sightings of alleged dead spirits who have visited Mormons in LDS temples.
Prior to the dedication of the San Diego temple in 1993, local Mormon families were given a packet entitled Family Temple Preparation Material. Included in this written material were about seven pages devoted to "true stories" of temple patrons who were visited by the dead.
Fourth Mormon Prophet Wilford Woodruff told followers in 1887, "The dead will be after you, they will seek after you as they have after us in St. George (Journal of Discourses 19:229). Woodruff is referring to the St. George temple in southern Utah. He also stated, “I will here say that two weeks before I left St. George, the spirits of the dead gathered around me, wanting to know why we did not redeem them. Said they, "You have had the use of the Endowment House for a number of years, and yet nothing has ever been done for us. We laid the foundation of the government you now enjoy, and we never apostatized from it, but we remained true to it and were faithful to God. These were the signers of the Declaration of Independence, and they waited on me for two days and two nights” (The Discourses of Wilford Woodruff, p.160).
In his book entitled Temple Manifestations, Mormon writer Joseph Heinerman lists several accounts of dead spirits visiting patrons in LDS temples. Such encounters are never condoned by the Bible and as such, should be shunned rather than encouraged.
Zuriel, you are correct. It would be like what I did below. If you take out the versus after v20 and before v29 it becomes a little clearer. And no, I don’t change the meaning by taking these two verses by themselves.
20But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.
29Now if there is no resurrection, what will those do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized for them? (In other words why would people be baptized for a dead person?)
The phrase “what will those do who are baptized for the dead?” is asking, if Jesus had not risen from the dead the people who had been baptized would have been baptized for some dead person and it would do them no good.
Unfortunately the Mormons have interpreted this to mean that they can be baptized in the place of some dead person.
Then HOW do they find out that the MORMONs have done such a special work for them in the baptistry?
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