John the Baptist baptized with water and foretold of Christ baptizing with the Holy Spirit.
This whole thing doesn’t make any sense to me at all. There is no spirit to be baptized in a dead corpse.
Should be no surprise, this is the teaching so the Mormon Church.
I agree - can't convert an empty husk to any religion.
I had to convert from Catholicism (and attended other denominations for a while) to non-denominational to get an understandable and simple idea of what our relationship with God is supposed to be. I also have trouble understanding why folks would want to pray to dead mortals (the Saints) when they have been given a direct path to God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.
Baptism of the Dead is consistent with Mormon theology, although not with Christian doctrine. The person actually baptized is a surrogate for the departed. My understanding is it is like the guy who stands in for the groom at a long distance wedding. Probably nothing that simple, but...