Thank you for your comments Peter1000
I wonder if LDS are the only people who baptize for the dead; I know others PRAY for the dead.
I thought about Paul's words on it like -- a 1st century person became a Christian at a catacomb meeting, was arrested that night, died in the arena the next day, and had a baptism by proxy held by Christians who knew he had accepted Christ before death.
I never associated that "baptizing for the dead" in Paul's time with Sadducees, but I know Saducees did not believe in a resurrection
I don't know if there is any other people that baptize a person that has passed on.
But if you think about it, it is the perfect solution to the problem of not having even heard the name of Jesus during your lifetime, which billions of people were in that situation. Does God just cast them into hell because they were born into a country that knows not Jesus Christ? No, he makes provisions for them too.
All men will be given a chance to hear about Jesus Christ, and have a chance to feel the HS witness to them that he is the Christ. Many will believe, and now comes a crucial step in their salvation process. They will want to be baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the HS by immersion.
This is where the LDS church steps in and helps these people. They are baptized by proxy for and in behalf of these poeple who have not had the chance to be baptized.
Here is another crucial piece of this doctrine. An LDS person baptizes a person that has passed on. The person that has passed on has the free agency whether to accept this baptism or not. If that person believes in Jesus and wants to make that important step, then he/she accepts and the baptism is complete. If that person hears about Jesus and rejects, his/her baptism is rejected and will be of no force in the eternities to come. So there is no forcing anyone to accept. We do it, they accept or reject.
This is a tremendous work. This work turns our hearts to our fathers and they turn their hearts to us, and we work together to give all the people that have ever lived the opportunity to be baptized. This is why Elijah came to JS and Sidney Rigdon in the Kirkland temple in 1835. He brought with him the keys of turning the hearts of the father to their children and their children turning their hearts to the fathers. (see Malachi's prophecy in Malachi 4:5-6).
This work will be the center-piece of the millenium. Tie every person to their family tree all the way back to Adam, and then make sure all have heard the gospel and had a chance to accept or reject. And then give all person the opportunity to be baptized and to either accept or reject.
You start by finding your ancestors. Father/Mother/siblings Grandfather/Grandmother siblings,
Great Grandfather/Great Grandmother/siblings.......
Did they know Jesus Christ? Have they had an opportunity to be baptized?
This is what it means to turn your heart to your fathers. Their names may not have been said outloud for hundreds of years, and here you are finding their names and saying them outloud again.
They in turn, will help you to find their names and give you a spiritual experience that you may not have felt for a long time as you persue your past. This is what is called by Malachi, turning the heart of the fathers to their children.
Finally Malachi says that if we do not do this great work, the Lord will smite this earth with a curse. Think about it, if billions upon billions of people are lost to Jesus Christ because they have not heard his name or been baptized in his name, the earth will be a waste for billions upon billions and Christ's whole plan frustrated for those billions. Jesus does not want those billions to suffer in hell for eternity, so he has put forth a plan to save them too. Be a part of it.