Baptism for the Dead: The Great Proof of the Atonement of Jesus Christ

The Biblical background:

In I Corinthians 15, Paul gave his great dissertation on the resurrection. He began by reiterating what he had taught about the resurrection of Jesus and what the saints in Corinth had accepted when they believed and were baptized, focusing on the witnesses who testified of that resurrection – including himself (vs. 1-11). It is important to note that these were Christians to whom he addressed this topic – that they had expressed belief in the resurrection of Jesus as the Christ (Messiah). This discourse did not attempt to convince them of the resurrection; it attempted to teach those who already believed in the resurrection something deeper that they did not understand at that point.

In vs. 12-17, Paul made it clear that those who testified of Jesus based their claims of uniqueness on the reality of “the resurrection of the dead”. Verse 14, especially, is plain and clear. In summary, "No resurrection; no Christ; faith is vain."

Paul then shifted focus in vs. 18-19, by bringing in all who are “fallen asleep in Christ” – those who died believing in Him. Verses 20-23 expand that discussion by stating unequivocally that everyone who has ever lived are resurrected through the resurrection of Jesus – verse 22 being the most explicit. (”As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.”) Verses 24-28 are a description of Christ’s rule AFTER all are resurrected. Then, in verse 29, Paul puts a capstone on his dissertation thus far, by asking two rhetorical questions:

“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?”

In the context of the entire chapter, it is clear that this is a rhetorical question designed to impress upon the early saints of Corinth that the practice of baptisms for the dead was the single most powerful example or proof of the fact that the claim in verse 22 was literal and truly, universally applicable – that ALL truly will be made alive in Christ through an actual resurrection.

If you re-word verse 29 into more modern conversational language, again, keeping in mind the argument of the entire chapter, it might read thus:

“If the dead are not resurrected, what are we doing by baptizing people for them? Why are people baptized for the dead, if that has no practical effect - if those dead, in fact, are not made alive in Christ?”

I have heard other interpretations of that verse that claim baptism for the dead was not an approved practice of the early Church, but not one of them makes sense in the context of the entire chapter - not in the context of actual history, where the practice was so common it had to be banned by council vote over 300 years later.

So, we believe that all people who have ever lived will be resurrected. We also believe that baptism has been commanded of all people who have ever lived as a symbol of their acceptance of God’s Christ/Messiah. (I personally believe in an exception for those prior to the birth of Jesus who were circumcised in token of their acceptance of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, but that’s not revealed, so it’s a personal opinion.) This means that we accept Paul’s rhetorical question - and its applicable inversion:

“Else what shall they do who have died and will rise in Christ, if the commandment is to be baptized but they have not had that chance in this mortal life? Why would we not baptize for the dead?”

We baptize for the dead in order to prove our belief that the Atonement of Jesus truly does cover all of God's children, just as Paul taught the saints in Corinth.