[TheDon]

Questions about baptism for the dead answered here by an LDS member:

• Why do Mormons believe in baptism for the dead?
• Isn't it wrong to force dead people to become Mormons? I don't want you making my dead grandmother a Mormon - that's offensive!
• Does 1 Corinthians 15:29 really mean that early Christians practiced baptism for the dead?
• Can you show anyplace in the Bible (besides 1 Cor. 15) where baptism of the dead is advocated?
• So what if some early Christians practiced baptism for the dead? There have long been odd and apostate practices.
• Why do you misinterpret 1 Peter 3:19? Christ did not go to redeem the dead by preaching, but to declare his victory and their damnation.
• Baptism into another faith is a supremely important and personal decision. How can you make that decision for others?
• What's this about the Pastor of Hermas and baptism for the dead? Did he really mention that?
• Does the Book of Mormon contradict the idea of baptism for the dead by saying that you can't repent after death?

[Campion]

The passage from the Shepherd of Hermas discussed at the link you gave has absolutely nothing to do with any sort of proxy baptism for the dead in the LDS sense. The "apostles and prophets" referenced are dead and are preaching to the saints of the Old Testament in some sort of purgatory or "limbus patrum" (Limbo of the Fathers). His point is that, even though those OT saints weren't baptized, they are saved by virtue of the prayers and "preaching" of the NT church, which is.

There isn't the faintest shadow in that passage of living Christians on earth going through a literal proxy baptism on behalf of the dead.