#30 "The Prisoners shall Go Free"

D&C 2; 124:25-55; 127; 128; JSH 1:36-39; Our Heritage pp. 58-61

What do you guys like to do for fun? Tell me some of your hobbies and/or interests!
What gets you excited to do them? What do they do for you that you enjoy doing them to the point that you can’t wait to go back the next time?

Personally I love to go on vacations, trips, camping etc. It doesn’t matter where as long as I get to go somewhere. I love experiencing new places, seeing new things, meeting new people, I love the feelings and excitement I feel while planning them, and then the excitement as I carry all those big plans out! It is fun and I enjoy every minute! I am usually sad to go home back to the grindstone, but I continue to look forward to my next trip, and on it goes.

The early Saints also found a new hobby that they loved and looked forward to, they couldn’t wait to start they couldn’t wait to go back time and time again. That hobby was doing baptisms for the dead.

On Aug. 15, 1840 Joseph Smith preached at the funeral of a church member named Seymour Brunson. As part of the sermon he read from 1 Cor. 15 which talks about baptisms for the dead, then he announced that the Saints could be baptized in behalf of their friends and relatives who had died without receiving the gospel. He declared that the plan of salvation was intended to save everyone who was willing to obey the requirements of the law of God. After this sermon, church members began performing baptisms for the dead in the nearby Mississippi River.

After this Joseph Smith went into hiding. He wrote letters to the saints Sections 127 and 128 telling them they had to stop for awhile until they could build a temple to provide the right place for those ordinances. He told them all about doing baptisms for the dead, and what specifications should be made for those ordinances.

Specifically he taught them in 128: 12-13 that baptisms for the dead are in likeness to being dead as they go under the water then being risen to resurrection, therefore the font needed to be placed in the basement of the temple beneath ground level.
128:8 He also spent quite a bit of time talking about the recording and witnesses that should be taking place with each baptism, “whatsoever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatsoever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Or, in other words, whatsoever you record on earth shall be recorded in heaven, and whatsoever you do not record on earth shall not be recorded in heaven; for out of the books shall your dead be judged, according to their own works,” this was very significant because many of the baptisms that were done in the river were just done without witnesses or recording dates, and times, names etc.
If it wasn’t recorded here on earth it was like it never happened, and he explained that this is crucial because in 128:18 “that the earth will be smitten with a curse unless there is a welding link of some kind of other between the fathers and the children, upon some subject or other between the fathers and the children” “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 fullness of times,”

*What does this mean to us? If we don’t record those ordinances on earth they can’t record them in heaven in the book of life talked about in 128:7. And if those things aren’t recorded in heaven our lives can’t be reviewed and judged. This also was a significant scripture to me when I also think of Journal writing. And that perhaps I should do better about recording my life, and my spiritual experiences. That was just a sidebar, back to the baptisms for the dead, Obadiah 1:21 says that we are saviors on mount zion as we perform this work. Literally, we take on the role of the Savior for these individuals doing work they can’t do for themselves. Moses 7:57 says that there is a prison with prisoners D&C 138 explains that all people who had not been baptized or had the opportunity were closed up in prison in the spirit world and couldn’t be released until they accepted the gospel as taught by those faithful members of Gods church had taught them in spirit prison and couldn’t be released until they were baptized on this earth by us, thus we are saviors by setting those prisoners free, releasing them from chains to also go about teaching others in the spirit prison.
Elder John A. Widtsoe said, “In our preexistent state, in the day of the great council, we made a certain agreement with the Almighty. The Lord proposed a plan, conceived by him. We accepted it. Since the plan is intended for all men, we become parties to the salvation of every person under that plan. We agreed, right then and there, to be not only saviors for ourselves, but saviors for the whole human family. We went into partnership with the Lord. The working out of the plan became then not merely the Father’s work, and the Savior’s work, but also our work. The least of us, the humblest, is in partnership with the Almighty in achieving the purpose of the eternal plan of salvation.”
How does this make you feel that until we here do the work for all these names they sit in prison? We promised we would do this work! Our relatives; we can only just glimpse the urgency of this work!

So the work was postponed and they hurried to get ready to build the temple. They laid the foundation then Brigham Young built a temporary baptismal font in the basement of the unfinished temple. They dedicated it then recommenced the work of baptisms, even while the temple was being built around them. Are we this excited to perform these ordinances, to enjoy this hobby, that they had been given?

How many of you have ever done baptisms for the dead? Raise your hands if you’ve ever had a neat feeling or experience while you were doing baptisms for the dead? Even if it is a small or brief experience (See who raised hands and call on them to share their experiences)

As we share experiences with each other about doing this important and exciting work, we can get others excited about it, then we desire to have those neat experiences ourselves.

Joseph wrote to his people D&C 128:19-23 This passage is called the Psalm of Joy because he goes through and describes the joy that comes from doing this work as well as the joy our dead feel as they are baptized and released from their prisons. I want to leave you with Joseph Smiths testimony and admonition to us concerning this hobby this interest of baptizing our Dead and be excited about it, desire to do it with some of our precious spare time.
*Read D&C 128: 22-24
I add my testimony to his that we will receive help, we can have personal experiences, sweet spiritual experiences as we are saviors for our ancestors. In the name of Jesus Christ amen.