There are a lot of good people who died without being baptized. Baptism is a necessary ordinance in order to enter the kingdom of heaven. However God in His wisdom has made a way for them to receive that ordinance so that they can progress.
There are verses that do show the importance of baptism which I have already posted. I wanted to point out that the gospel is preached to the dead. Why is the gospel preached to the dead? So they can be judged properly. Why is there baptism for the dead? So they can continue to progress.
Ah but you are talking about the wicked not the more righteous who have died without being baptized. Christ will be the judge of all those who inherit the kingdom of God and those who don't. His judgments will be fair perhaps more than fair since no one deserves His atoning sacrifice. Everything will be taken care of properly. Those who are baptized by proxy will also be judged fairly and receive that which they deserve.
The dead cannot be baptized by us, and to do so is a gross and unacceptable use of the sacred rite that God has given us. God is not even bound by the sacred things that He has given us to do for our own benefit (for the Sabbath is made for man, not man for the Sabbath), and can let anyone He wills into the Kingdom of Heaven if they desire to be with Him in His Kingdom. This is exactly what He desires for all men (1 Timothy 2:4). We trust the dead who were unable to receive baptism prior to death to the mercy of God, because Baptism is not even a guarantee for the living to be saved, let alone the dead. God accepts a person's desire to be baptized to be as good as an actual baptism, so that all that is required for a spirit in prison who had not been baptized to receive baptism from His is their own desire to receive it. A Mormon baptizing a dead person is an affront to the sovereignty of God, Who is Love, and with Whom all things are possible. Anything beyond praying for the souls of the deceased, on our parts, reveals a depraved lack of knowledge of the Love of God, and is outright evil. So go on and keep on doing what you do, and calling it good if you want. But woe unto them that do this.
You said: "The dead cannot be baptized by us, and to do so is a gross and unacceptable use of the sacred rite that God has given us."
Matthew 3, Mark 1, John 1, and Luke 1. More specifically, Luke 1:80
PRIEST - JewishEncyclopedia.com
You said: "Sacraments cannot be received by proxy for another person who does not receive them. If I receive the Eucharist, I am receiving it, not someone else down the street who is not even present at liturgy, and certainly not some random person I've never met whose name is read off of a list of people who died hundreds of years ago."
Still does not say how long John lived in the desert or wilderness or what God taught him.
You said: "that's not how absolution works" This is not about absolution. Not everyone who is baptized will have their sins remitted. God will have mercy on whom he will have mercy:
Will baptism alone free everyone from their sins:
You said: "Baptism is absolutely for the remission of sins, as is preached by the holy apostle St. Peter in Acts 2:38 -- Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive."I'm sorry, was that a question anyone was asking?
You just want to fight this tooth and nail, huh? I understand. To admit otherwise would be an admission that JS was wrong. Can't have that!
I believe that John the baptist had authority from heaven. That means that he had priesthood authority just as Jesus Christ had authority from heaven and that was also priesthood authority. John's father also had priesthood authority and his mother had a lineage of priesthood authority.
You can believe what you want, but it is not based on the truth - Biblical or historical. You keep conflating authority from heaven and priesthood authority. They are not the same. John the Baptist did not have the Aaronic Priesthood.
