How is what Romney did any different than any good Christian who prays for the redemption of someone he cares about. Say I have a Hindu friend who I love and care about. Is it wrong for me to pray that God shows mercy on him and lets him into his kingdom to enjoy eternal bliss? By the same token, if my friend tells me he’s going to pray to Shiva for my soul, do I tell him, “Don’t you dare, you dirty heathen”?
Are you familiar with Mormon rituals for the dead -- or aren't you?
It's more than mere "prayer"...it's "proxy" activity in which they assign REAL worth to the act itself.
You know Hebrews 9:27 in the Bible says it's appointed for man to die once, and then the judgment. The key point there coupled with John 3:18 (which talks about people who reject Jesus are judged already on that basis) is that the cross then becomes THE key proxy event prior to that judgment...
Hopefully you’re familiar enough with these verses to note that, no, it’s not some Mormon temple administrator in conjunction with family members dead-dunking a teen proxy boy in an act of necro-baptism that somehow “rescues” the still unredeemed spirit – as if Christ’s proxy act on the cross wasn’t enough to cover him on earth in the first place!
How dare you combine to either belittle the cross of Jesus Christ!
And/or a person exercising real trust and faith in what Jesus Christ did on that cross!
What are some of the things "wrong" with baptism of the dead?
(1) As I said, it negates Hebrews 9:27 "For it is appointed for man to die once, and then the judgement"
(2) It creates a false sense of security for earthly man: "Oh, I can repent AFTER I die"
(3) Lds assume not only can they arrange eternal relationships with God and Jesus Christ post-death, but they can do marital match-making for the deceased. (Someone start the Halloween Morg music): "In the temple, we can perform ALL the ordinances necessary for the exaltation of those who have died. This includes temple marriage." (Official Lds teaching pub -- Gospel Principles, p. 248) [Yeah, all: Think of The Addams family performing ghoulish eternal wedding rituals for the dead]
And, then even more blasphemous is that Mormons deem what fellow Mormons do in these necro-baptisms that they actually label themselves "saviors" -- competitors to Jesus!
Here...I posted this vanity last October which I've also excerpted below -- Are Mormon people LITERAL saviors of dead Jews, others? (The OTHER World Series: Vanity)
The string of Mormon “prophets” of John Taylor, Woodruff, Joseph F. Smith and Joseph Fielding Smith certainly heavily inculcated the idea that “saviors” of the dead were plural – and they weren’t talking about Jesus Christ as being “THE” Savior of the dead!
And, unlike the Bible, which places a definitive “THE” before Jesus Christ as THE Savior (John 4:42; 1 John 4:14), Mormon “prophets” have long and consistently preached that the Mormon churches produces “saviors” – plural! (Lds often cite Obadiah 21, which the KJV renders as "saviors"; the NIV makes it clear that these "deliverers" are there to govern the mountains of Esau; not become proxy saviors taking Jesus' role as Savior of the World!)
Lds “prophet” John Taylor: " ...we are the only people that know how to save our progenitors, how to save ourselves, and how to save our posterity in the celestial kingdom of God;...we in fact are the saviours of the world..." (Lds "prophet" John Taylor, Journal of Discourses, vol.6, p.163)
Taylor: "We know something about our progenitors, and God has taught us how to be saviors for them by being baptized for them in the flesh, that they may live according to God in the Spirit” (LDS "prophet" John Taylor, March 20,1870, Journal of Discourses, Vol. 14, 3/20/1870)
Lds “prophet” Wilford Woodruff: “…YOU will be recognized as Saviors upon Mount Zion…” (Teachings of Presidents: Wilford Woodruff, p. 189, 2004)
Woodruff: “WE become saviors on Mount Zion as we build temples and receive saving ordinances on behalf of the dead.” (Teachings of Presidents: Wilford Woodruff, p. 187)
Lds “prophet” Joseph Fielding Smith: “... mortals have to be saviors on Mount Zion, acting by proxy for the dead." (LDS "prophet" Joseph Fielding Smith, The Way to Perfection, p. 325)
Lds “prophet” Joseph F. Smith: “Teach your children and let yourselves be taught the fact that it is necessary for you to become saviors upon Mount Zion…” (Joseph F. Smith, Teachings of Presidents: Joseph F. Smith, p. 412, 1998)
Lds “prophet” Joseph F. Smith: “…WE have a certain work to do in order to liberate…they…are unprepared for eternal life: we have to open the door for them, by performing ordinances which they cannot perform for themselves, and which are essential to their release from the ‘prison-house,’…” (Joseph F. Smith, Ibid, p. 410)
The Christian counterclaim is that Jesus Christ has already done that, minus any ritual mumbo-jumbo performed in a man-made temple. Jesus said His personal temple – one that would zero in on death – and the only real temple worth anything regarding salvation – was the temple of His body (John 2:19-21). That body was laid on the cross. He liberated us and opened the door; we are free to walk out of the “prison-house” of our sin nature, bondage to this world, bondage to Satan, bondage to a fear of death, etc!
Lds “prophet” Joseph F. Smith emphasized that not only do Lds need to perform “every law and every requirement of the (Mormon) gospel” for themselves, but for the dead as well:
“No man can enter into the Kingdom of God but by the door and through the means that Jesus Christ has offered to the children of men. … Not a soul that has ever lived and died from off the face of this earth shall escape a chance to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. If they receive it and obey it, the ordinances of the gospel will be performed for and in their behalf, by their kindred, or their posterity in some generation of time after them, so that every law and every requirement of the gospel of Jesus Christ shall be carried out, and the promises and requirements fulfilled for the salvation of the living and also for the salvation of the dead.” (Teachings of Presidents: Joseph F. Smith, p. 307, 1998; original source “Latter-day Saints Follow Teachings of the Savior,” Scrap Book of Mormon Literature, 2 vols. 2:561-562).
In other words, Jesus’ proxy blood didn’t fulfill the “requirements” and debt-payments and falling short of fulfilling the law. Mormon proxy sweat labor has to fulfill that. And for how many of the dead of history?
“The work of saving the dead has practically been reserved for the dispensation of the fullness of times, when the Lord shall restore all things. It is, therefore, the duty of the Latter-day Saints to see that it is accomplished. WE cannot do it all at once, but will have the 1,000 years of the millennium to do it in. In that time the work must be done in behalf of the dead of the previous 6,000 years, for all who need it.” (Lds “prophet” Joseph Fielding Smith, Doctrines of Salvation 2:166)
If you somehow think that Mormons like Romney become "co-saviors" -- co-redemptors -- by their ritualistic temple shenanigans, you're off your rocker!
Got who knows???
Is it wrong for me to pray that God tells someone ELSE to give him the TRUTH; instead of ME?
James 2:16
If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it?
Elsie 1:1
If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; Enjoy eternity," but does nothing about his SPIRITUAL needs, what good is it?