Salvation for the Dead

A man once said to me, "I'm saved," in a rather boisterous tone. And I said, "What about your father and your grandfather and your great-grandfather?" He said, "I guess they've gone to hell." And I said, "Are you more deserving of the blessings of the Savior of the world than those who gave you life, and through whom your inheritance has come, of mind and body and spirit? Can there be a just God who is not a respecter of persons who would deny the one group that which has been given freely to another?" (Birmingham England Fireside, August 29, 1995.)
Gordon B. Hinckley




Ordinances can be performed vicariously. In centuries past many people have lived and died without knowing of the gospel. How will they be judged in the absence of this knowledge? Peter said that after Christ was crucified, "but quickened by the Spirit he went and preached unto the spirits in prison" (1 Peter 3:18-19). Then he adds, "For for this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit" (1 Peter 4:6). Thus, those who die without knowledge of the gospel will have the opportunity to hear and accept it and to accept baptism.

Does it seem reasonable that persons who have lived upon the earth and died without the opportunity of baptism should be deprived throughout eternity? Is there anything unreasonable about the living performing the baptisms for the dead? Perhaps the greatest example of vicarious work for the dead is the Master himself. He gave his life as a vicarious atonement, that all who die shall live again and have life everlasting. He did for us what we could not do for ourselves. In a similar way we can perform ordinances for those who did not have the opportunity to do them in [their] lifetime.
Howard W. Hunter