I read somewhere that if a non Mormon died, someone can baptize them thus making them a Mormon. For what purpose is that? Will they go on to become gods even without ever stepping foot inside a temple?
Now I would say that the knee-jerk reaction of many Mormons would be, "Of course not...baptizing dead spirits doesn't open up the door to godhood for them." [That's only reserved for faithful temple Mormons]
But you've hit upon something, Dragonblustar in which there actually IS a relationship -- a correlation -- between a dead person being necro-dunked by the Mormons -- and a person becoming a god!
(Now, I expect the Mormon readers to conclude that I'm really off-base here...but allow me to explain...I'm not talking about the dead spirits becoming gods at all...I'm talking about the worker-bees of the Mormon church...THEIR proposed "godhood" is all bound up in the baptizing -- NOT the dead-dunkers they are immersing by proxy!!!)
Don't believe me?
Last October I posted a thread based upon the official Lds Ensign magazine: Source: The Doctrine of Temple Work October 2003 Ensign Magazine by Elder David E. Sorensen
On post #3, I said: From the article: “Those Saints who neglect [temple work] in behalf of their deceased relatives, do it at the peril of their own salvation.” A key function of temples is to perform ordinance work for our deceased ancestors. When we think of temple ordinances and the necessity to do them perfectly, without error...“… For their salvation is NECESSARY AND ESSENTIAL TO OUR SALVATION...they without us cannot be made perfect—NEITHER CAN WE WITHOUT OUR DEAD BE MADE PERFECT” (D&C 128:5, 15;...).
So here, Sorensen was simply spouting OFFICIAL Mormon Doctrine as found in D&C128:5,15)!
Last October, I added:
Do you catch all that is being said here?
(1) Jesus isn't enough to make people perfect. The dead "without us cannot be made perfect". Wow! Such spiritual elitism! Such gall! Jesus couldn't do it, but we as a group of Mormons can!
(2) And then Mormons have to earn their salvation by working for the dead with genealogical works out their gazoo ensued by drive-by, almost-fast-food like proxy baptisms being done in the temple ...otherwise their salvation is in "peril." This writer says it succinctly: "neither can we without our dead be made perfect." There ya go: The demons have convinced Mormons that dead ghostly spirits are the key to their perfection!
The "peril" Joseph Smith quote comes from this broader excerpt:
"This doctrine, he said, presented in a clear light, the wisdom and mercy of God, in preparing an ordinance for the salvation of the dead, being baptised [baptized] by proxy, their names recorded in heaven, and they judged according to the deeds done in the body. 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. (Joseph Smith, Oct. 15, 1841, both in Times & Seasons...also quoted in one of the official Mormon church manuals as well as Ensign, "The Doctrine of Temple Work," p. 60...and also found in Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 193...)
Smith threatened his followers with their own salvation being at risk if they didn't dead dunk!
Joseph Fielding Smith came along as a later Lds "prophet" & claimed baptizing the dead was THE most important individual responsibility there is --again wrapping that responsibility up in their own works-driven salvation:
“But greater than all this, so far as our individual responsibilities are concerned, the greatest is to become SAVIORS, in our lesser degree which is assigned us, for the dead who have died without a knowledge of the Gospel. Joseph Smith said, ‘The greatest responsibility in this world that God has laid upon us, is to seek after our dead’…It will suffice here to say that the Lord has placed upon us this responsibility of seeing that our dead receive the blessings of the Gospel. Said Joseph Smith: ‘Those saints who neglect it, in behalf of their deceased relatives, do it at the peril of their own salvation.’” (The Way to Perfection, pp. 153-154)
Hence, another Lds "prophet" -- John Taylor-- proclaimed "This doctrine presents in a clear light the wisdom...we are the only people that know how to save our progenitors, how to save ourselves, and how to save our posterity in the celestial kingdom of God;...we in fact are the saviours of the world..." (Lds "prophet" John Taylor, Journal of Discourses, vol.6, p.163).
Hmmm...Jesus' blood, therefore, according to Mormons wasn't enough. His "Saviorhood" is outdone by Taylor's proclamation that "we in fact are the saviours of the world".
Utter idolatrous blasphemy!