We will now examine the thirty-second verse; it is:
"But behold, at the end of this appointment, your baptisms for your
dead shall not be acceptable unto me."
That means, of course, the baptisms in the river shall not be
acceptable after the font is built. But listen to this:
"And if you do not these things at the END OF THE APPOINTMENT ye
shall be rejected as a church, with your dead, saith the Lord your
God."
If you do not do what things? Does it mean if you do not build the
Temple at the END of the appointment? That would be absurd. It means,
if you do not perform your baptisms for your dead and the ordinances
for the dead at the end--not the beginning, but the end--of the
appointment, then will you be rejected with your dead. So you see
it was not the failure to finish the attic, or to carve figures in
the woodwork, or embellish the building by placing pictures on the
walls, or painting them; it was not for this that the Church was to
be rejected; but it was to be rejected with its dead if it failed to
perform the work in the Temple for the dead when the opportunity was
afforded. Now let us see if this view is not in harmony with other
Scriptures. I turn to the second section of the Doctrine and Covenants.
Here the angel says:
"Behold, I will reveal unto you the Priesthood, by the hand of
Elijah the prophet, before the coming of the great and dreadful day
of the Lord.
"And he shall plant in the hearts of the children the promises made
to the fathers, and the hearts of the children shall turn to their
fathers.
"If it were not so, the whole earth would be UTTERLY WASTED AT ITS
COMING."
Why would the earth be wasted? Simply because if there is not a welding
link between the fathers and the children--which is the work for the
dead--then we will all stand rejected; the whole work of God will fail
and be utterly wasted. Such a condition of course, shall not be. When
Elijah restored this Priesthood, he said that the time spoken of had
fully come, and that the dreadful day of the Lord was near, even at the
doors.
Let us now see what Joseph Smith had to say in relation to this.
Speaking of the baptism and salvation for the dead, he said:
"The GREATEST RESPONSIBILITY in this world that God has laid upon
us, is to seek after our dead. The apostle says they without us
cannot be made perfect. Now I will speak of them: I say to you,
Paul, you cannot be perfect without us; it is necessary that those
who have gone before, and those who come after us should have
salvation in common with us, and thus hath God made it OBLIGATORY
to man. Hence God said He would send Elijah." (Times and Seasons,
6:616).
Moreover, at the conference held October, 1841, to which I have already
referred, the prophet said this:
"Baptism for the dead is the only way that men can appear as
saviors on Mount Zion. The proclamation of the first principles of
the gospel was a means of salvation to men individually, and it was
the truth, not men, that saved them; but men by actively engaging
in rites of salvation _substitutionally_, become instrumental in
bringing multitudes of their kin into the Kingdom of God."
"This doctrine"--that is, baptism for the dead--"he said, presents
in a clear light the wisdom and mercy of God, in preparing an
ordinance for the salvation of the dead, being baptized by proxy,
their names recorded in heaven, and they judged according to the
deeds done in the body."
Now here comes the most important statement.
--"This doctrine was the BURDEN OF THE SCRIPTURES. Those Saints
who NEGLECT it in behalf of their deceased relatives, do it at the
PERIL OF THEIR OWN SALVATION."
There we have the key to the whole situation. If we neglect the
salvation of our dead when we have the opportunity to save them, then
we ourselves will be rejected, and that is just what the revelation of
January 19, 1841, says. In the Doctrine and Covenants, Section 128,
verse 5, we are told that baptism for the dead was prepared from before
the foundation of the world, "for the salvation of the dead," mark
this, "WHO SHOULD DIE WITHOUT A KNOWLEDGE OF THE GOSPEL!" And in verse
15:
"And now, my dearly beloved brethren and sisters, let me assure you
that these are principles in relation to the dead and the living
that cannot be lightly passed over, as pertaining to our salvation,
as Paul says concerning the fathers, 'that they without us cannot
be made perfect, neither can we without our dead be made perfect.'"
Here we have it in this revelation that if we do not save our dead we
cannot ourselves be saved, therefore if we neglect their salvation, we
ourselves will be rejected. Now verse 18:
"It is sufficient to know * * * that the earth will be smitten
with a curse, UNLESS there is a welding link of some kind or
other, between the fathers and the children, upon some subject or
other, and behold what is that subject? IT IS THE BAPTISM FOR THE
DEAD. For we without them cannot be made perfect; neither can they
without us be made perfect. Neither can they nor we be made perfect
without those who have died in the Gospel also; for it is necessary
in the ushering in of the dispensation of the fulnesss of times,
which dispensation is now beginning to usher in, that a whole and
complete and perfect union and welding together of dispensations,
and keys, and powers, and glories, should take place, and be
revealed, from the days of Adam even to the present time; and not
only this, but those things which never have been revealed from
the foundation of the world, but have been kept hid from the wise
and prudent shall be revealed unto babes and sucklings in this the
dispensation of the fulness of times."