“Otherwise, what will those who are baptised for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, then why are they baptized for them?” 1 Corinthians 15:29.
There have been several interpretations of this verse throughout the years, these have ranged from illogical to the refined, even now the Church of latter-day Saints (Mormons) in their religious doctrine still continue this practice of baptising for the Dead today. I contend that Paul possibly was not referring to the Church practicing this custom but rather he was talking about other pagan religious practices, in an effort to reinforce the resurrection of Christ and to show how if the lost can believe in this how much more should we be assured of our own resurrection. Perhaps this is what he intended when he made the statement in V. 29.
This verse is perhaps one of the most controversial verses in the Bible, it is also possibly one of the hardest to define as well. It has without a doubt been used to support a number of questionable and …show more content…
This is reinforced by the evident truth in scripture that you are saved through grace, and that only you can accept salvation for yourself, it is not possible for another to make the confession of repentance for someone else. If you or they were to die prior to baptism then they are indeed saved. Baptism is an element of the great commission given to us by Christ in Matthew 28:19. So if we assume that Paul was referring to baptism in the sense that if you were saved it was assumed that you were baptised which h may well have been the case in the early church. This conclusion is given strength in that they both occurred closely together as we see in Acts 4:4 and other places, where numbers of people heard the message of the apostles believed and were then baptised that very
There have been several interpretations of this verse throughout the years, these have ranged from illogical to the refined, even now the Church of latter-day Saints (Mormons) in their religious doctrine still continue this practice of baptising for the Dead today. I contend that Paul possibly was not referring to the Church practicing this custom but rather he was talking about other pagan religious practices, in an effort to reinforce the resurrection of Christ and to show how if the lost can believe in this how much more should we be assured of our own resurrection. Perhaps this is what he intended when he made the statement in V. 29.
This verse is perhaps one of the most controversial verses in the Bible, it is also possibly one of the hardest to define as well. It has without a doubt been used to support a number of questionable and …show more content…
This is reinforced by the evident truth in scripture that you are saved through grace, and that only you can accept salvation for yourself, it is not possible for another to make the confession of repentance for someone else. If you or they were to die prior to baptism then they are indeed saved. Baptism is an element of the great commission given to us by Christ in Matthew 28:19. So if we assume that Paul was referring to baptism in the sense that if you were saved it was assumed that you were baptised which h may well have been the case in the early church. This conclusion is given strength in that they both occurred closely together as we see in Acts 4:4 and other places, where numbers of people heard the message of the apostles believed and were then baptised that very