The Paradox)

We’ve already spent a good while discussing salvation, and whether it comes by faith or works. In the last post, I encouraged us to accept each of the different messages in scripture, even if they initially seem contradictory to us. I said we should accept that Jesus meant it when he declared that belief and baptism were necessary to be saved and also believe it when Paul said that salvation is purely by grace through faith. By accepting both positions, we allow space for God to explain how this works. So long as we reject one side for the other, we shut ourselves off from the revelation of how God bridges the gap between.

So let us accept the primacy of both faith and works and be comfortable in the paradox that we find there. Jesus said that baptism was one of the steps necessary for salvation, and so we accept it, but he also said that “God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.” Such a plan of universal salvation sounds wonderful, but how can that work when the majority of God’s children, billions and billions of souls, have lived and died without ever knowing the name of Jesus, and never having the opportunity to be baptized in his name? Did Jesus come to save the world, or to create conditions that would exclude it?

We do not want to dismiss Jesus’s command to be baptized, but neither do we want to dismiss his claim of universal reclamation. Is it possible that God has ordinances that are necessary for salvation, and that those who died without those ordinances could still be saved?

The Solution)

There is in my LDS theology, and apparently in the practices of the early Christians, a practice of performing the ordinances of salvation for the dead, including baptism. Not as a way of forcing those that have gone before into Christian faith, but with the understanding that the individual soul may freely accept or reject the ordinance according to the alignment of their heart.

I know that suggesting this solution might be controversial outside of the LDS faith, but the practice is explicitly spoken approvingly of by Paul:

Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all? why are they then baptized for the dead?
-1 Corinthians 15:29

Problems Resolved)

This theology of proxy ordinances resolves the issue that we raised just prior, explaining how baptism can be required for salvation but also how those who died without access to it can still be part of Christ’s universal invitation to salvation, but that is not all. This theology also answers the very debate that we began this study with: faith vs works.

By accepting the practice of baptisms for the dead, we can see why Paul speaks so emphatically about the sufficiency of faith alone. We can now understand that if a person conforms their heart and will to the Almighty, then that is what is absolutely essential in this life, because then they can accept the ordinances of salvation in the next one. If a man spends his life cultivating a believing and submissive spirit but dies without knowing Jesus or without being able to perform all the necessary ordinances, it is alright. He got his heart right, and Christ and his church will take care of the rest.

Some works and ordinances are still required for salvation, but those that accept Jesus in true faith can rest comfortable in the knowledge that whether they die tomorrow or in eighty years, God has made a way for all those necessary works to all be accomplished. We have no more argument of faith vs works, we see the false dichotomy for what it is, and we are able to fully embrace the primacy of both.

Now I realize that not all of my readers may be able or willing to accept this doctrine of baptisms for the dead. If that is you, no worries. I would still urge you to keep a mind open to finding some way in which the scriptures can all be satisfied, both the ones that suggest that faith is the key to salvation, and also the ones that say certain ordinances are necessary also. Do not accept arguments that ask you to reject half of the scriptures on the matter, or which require you to twist their interpretation in unnatural ways. Let your beliefs follow the natural interpretation of God’s word, and not the other way around.

Anyway, this is where I will conclude the study. I hope, if nothing else, it has opened up some new questions and new considerations for you. May God lead you to reject the false dichotomy of faith vs works, and to embrace both as beautiful and essential parts in His plan for mankind.