This is a famous passage for Mormons. It has been a thorn on the side for Christian churches with much difficulty to athis against this passage. This passage talks about the baptism for the dead. Basically if a person had a loved one who died and wanted them to get saved and go to heaven, the person would have to get baptised for the deceased, or multiple deceased persons.
1 Corinthians 15:29 “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?”
Mormons baptise for the dead based on this verse, so that the dead can rise and go to heaven.
Let’s look closely at what this scripture says. Did the verse say “rise to go to heaven”? No, it did not. It did not say anything about a soul going to heaven.
What does this resurrection refer to? It is not about the soul rising to go to heaven, it is referring to a bodily resurrection.
1 Corinthians 15:21 “For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.”
This is not about the soul rising to go to heaven, it is about a bodily resurrection. Are Mormons baptising for every deceased loved one to pop out of their graves? No!
The verse says “baptized FOR the dead”, people assume it means to baptise in order for the dead to rise. But this is not true, we do not see open graves today. “For” can mean “because of”. We do baptism because of the dead, not for. If baptism were for the dead to rise, we would have a bunch of zombies walking around today.
Why do we do baptism to begin with?
We do it as a symbol of death to represent us being dead and buried to sins, and resurrected with Jesus Christ. It is a symbol of our soul’s salvation.
It is also a symbol of bodily salvation too, where one’s body that is buried in the grave will one day be resurrected and raptured with Jesus. Baptism is a powerful symbol of your spiritual and bodily salvation.
Romans 6:3-5 “Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:”
Baptism is a picture or symbol of resurrection. It does not save you, but it is in “likeness of his resurrection”.
Baptism does not save
1 Peter 3:21 “The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ:”
Baptism is a “like figure”, a symbol, and it does not save us. Water baptism does nothing for salvation. It does not wash away one’s sins, the answer is right here in the verse. It is for a good conscience towards God, because one would want to do what God wants. It is a picture of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
This easily debunks the Mormon interpretation of 1 Corinthians 15:29 by simply reading the verse exactly as it says.