Can Christians Be Baptized for the Dead?

Can Christians be baptized on behalf of deceased loved ones? That's just one of the questions we'll be answering on today's edition of Core Christianity. Hi there, this is Bill Meyer along with Pastor Adriel Sanchez, and this is the radio program where we answer your questions about the Bible and the Christian life every day. Our phone lines are open right now, and you can call us for the next 25 minutes or so with your question at 833-THE-CORE. You might want to make a note of that number for future reference. You can also call 24 hours a day and leave us a voicemail at 833-THE-CORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673. As always, you can post your question on our Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter accounts. You can watch us live on YouTube, and you can email us your question at questionsatcorechristianity.com. Well, first up today, here's a voicemail that we received from one of our listeners named Sandy.

Hello, I'm calling from Canada. Just for personal reasons, I'm going to stay anonymous for this because my question is regarding family members. Now, I was recently saved, but I do know that biblically women are not ordained as pastors, as they don't fulfill the qualifications stated in the Bible. Now, how do we navigate through our faith with family members such as parents who don't affirm that, and if one of them is a pastor, how do we deal with that lovingly and also biblically?

Thank you for taking my call. Yeah, I really appreciate your question because in the Christian life, we are going to encounter others, brothers and sisters in the Lord, who differ from us on particular doctrines, certain beliefs. There are some doctrines, I think, that strike at the vitals of what it means to be a Christian. We get to the heart of core Christianity, people who might claim to be Christians but deny the resurrection of Jesus or the deity of Jesus.

There's a different way of approaching, I think, that issue in particular because that's a very serious issue. I mean, that's a very serious heresy that essentially would keep someone from the kingdom of God. But then there are other questions that people have or differences within the church that people have. We're not saying this person isn't necessarily a Christian.

We're just saying we disagree with your interpretation of the biblical text. I think one of those questions, one of those issues is just this very one related to women teaching in the church. That is, in particular, holding the pastoral office. It sounds to me like your specific question is more related to how do I approach those kinds of discussions.

The first thing I would just say is one with a heart full of charity, prayerfully. Obviously, you want to build the relationship further and edify and be able to encourage one another through scripture. It seems to me that throughout the New Testament, in particular, Paul's writings, when he talked about having these kinds of discussions, he always emphasized the importance of speaking with grace, with clarity, those kinds of things.

There are a few passages that I would look at. One, I mean, in Colossians, in Colossians chapter four, verses five and six, Paul said this, walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person. Let your speech be filled with grace.

Let it be healing, edifying, building up. That doesn't mean you have to agree with everybody. We can disagree, but we do so graciously. I also think about what Paul said when he was writing to Timothy in 2 Timothy chapter two, verses 24 and 25.

Listen to what he said there. The Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome, but kind to everyone, able to teach patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth. In both of those passages, really, the focus in particular is correcting those who are really outside of the faith. I think there's an application for us, even when we're having discussions with other friends, brothers, and sisters who just differ from us on doctrines that aren't going to keep us from being in the presence of the Lord for all eternity, that kind of a thing. You want to be filled with grace, not be quarrelsome, patient, slow to speak, quick to listen, and pray that the Lord guides your conversation. Thank you so much for that question. Really appreciate that phone call. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Let's go to Dwayne in Boonville, Missouri.

Dwayne, what's your question for Adriel? Yeah, my question is, as believers, do we die? I mean, when we die, do we go to heaven, or do we have to wait for Jesus to return?

Yeah, this is an excellent question, and what an important question, a very practical question. And the answer to your question is, when we die as believers, the believer who dies, that person's soul is immediately in the presence of the Lord. Paul said this to the Corinthians, to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. I also think about what the apostle Paul said in Philippians chapter one, where he's writing to the Philippians about his death.

I mean, he knows that he's going to die really soon, and he's trying to sort of weigh his options. He's thinking, do I want to stay around here and continue to serve the church and minister the gospel, or do I want to depart and be with the Lord? He says, for me to live is Christ, this is Philippians chapter one, verse 21, and to die is gain. If I am to live on in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me, yet which I shall choose, I cannot tell.

I'm hard-pressed between the two. My desire, get this, is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. So Paul, he envisions, when I die, I'm going to depart and be with Christ, and that's better than anything I've ever experienced. Then he goes on to say, but to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account.

Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy in the faith. You also have Jesus' words to the thief on the cross in Luke 23, verse 43, where he says, today you're going to be with me in paradise. I mentioned also what he said, to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. That's second Corinthians chapter five, verse eight, or even this glorious picture that we're given of heaven in Hebrews chapter 12, where it talks about basically the throne of God being surrounded by the saints, by the people of God, who have died and gone on into glory around God's throne. So when we die, we're immediately in the presence of the Lord. We're waiting for the resurrection of the dead when our souls and our bodies are reunited and we're raised up, glorified body, but we're not in a sort of soul sleep or where we're just sort of not conscious, that kind of a thing. We're immediately in the presence of the Lord and enjoying fellowship with him. Thank you, Duane, for that question.

Great question, Duane, and thanks for listening to CORE Christianity. If you have a question for Pastor Adriel about the Bible or the Christian life, you can call us right now. Our phone lines are open for the next 15 minutes or so at 833-THE-CORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673. By the way, we should mention that some of the radio stations that air our program actually air it on a tape delayed basis, so you're not hearing it live. That means if you want to call and actually get into the studio and ask Adriel your question, you want to call at these times, 1130 a.m. Pacific Time, which translates into 1230 Mountain, 1130 Central, or 230 Eastern Time.

Call for that 30-minute period, and that's when you'll get through to the studio. Let's go to Fritz in Indiana. Fritz, what's your question for Pastor Adriel? Yeah, I've got a problem with...

I lived a rough life when I was younger, and I did a lot of bad things. And I was going through Romans, and then when I got to 1 Corinthians chapter 3 verse 16 and 17, it really bothered me. You know, do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him, and the temple for the temple of God is holy, which the temple you are. Does that mean a person can lose their salvation?

Hey Fritz, thank you so much for your call, brother, and I can tell that this is a really important question for you. No, I don't believe that 1 Corinthians chapter 3 verses 15 and 16 teach that you can lose your salvation. Here, the apostle Paul is talking about the fact that we are, through our union with Christ, now filled with the Holy Spirit.

Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, and he's calling the Corinthian church to live in light of that reality. We are called, you are called as Christians to live in light of that reality. Now, the truth is we fail.

We fall short. We don't perfectly obey God's law, and because we don't, oftentimes we can have this angst, this concern, or we look back on our lives, as you were mentioning, and we think, man, I've done so many terrible things. I've sinned in such horrible ways. Does that mean that God is just going to destroy me, that he's done with me? Well, let me tell you something, brother. Jesus Christ is the temple cleanser, and when we go to Jesus, broken as we are, weighed down by our sins, he purifies our hearts by faith through his blood.

In fact, the author of the Hebrews talks about this. He says our hearts have been sprinkled clean from an evil conscience, sprinkled with what? With the blood of Jesus Christ, and so if your concern is, look, I look at my past, and I've failed in so many ways.

I've lived a rough life, as you said. Maybe there's no hope for me. Let me just tell you, Fritz, there is hope for you, and the hope is not that you were sinless or that you lived a really good life. The hope is that the blood of Jesus Christ is sufficient to cleanse even you, my friend.

That's the hope. That's the good news of the Gospel, and because by faith you are cleansed, now Paul there in 1 Corinthians 3 is saying, live in light of that reality. The Spirit of God lives in you, so walk in the Spirit. Paul's going to talk about that in the book of Galatians. Walk by the Spirit, day by day. Now, we're not going to do that perfectly, but it's what we're called to.

It's what you're called to. As we grow in the Word, as we draw near to the Lord through prayer, as we're a part of solid churches that faithfully preach the Bible, we're heeding that call that the Lord gives to us, and so may the Lord, one, Fritz, give you comfort in the blood of Jesus, knowing that you are and can be cleansed by faith in him, and may he also help you to live in light of that great reality. Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, and so we ought to live holy lives following the Lord. God bless you. Thanks so much, Fritz, for your question. Glad to hear that you are digging into God's Word on a regular basis. This is CORE Christianity, and we want to say a huge thank you to our listeners who have joined what we call our Inner CORE.

Your financial support makes this program possible with your gift of $25 or more a month. We send you some very special, exclusive resources, including some video devotionals from Pastor Adriel, also the book CORE Christianity, and you're the first group that receives our new Bible studies and our new resources. So if you join Inner CORE, there's a lot of extra perks for you. We'd love to have you sign up. Just go to corechristianity.com forward slash inner core to learn more. And Bill, can I just add, it really is such a huge encouragement for us. I mean, it's part of how we keep doing what we're doing, and so if you've been encouraged, blessed by CORE Christianity, would you consider please joining the Inner CORE?

Love to have you do that. You can do it anytime, corechristianity.com forward slash inner core. Let's go to Anita in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Anita, what's your question for Pastor Adriel? Hi, my question is, a few callers ago a woman had asked about how to speak with a family member who is a woman pastor, why that is not biblically okay. And I know that you had mentioned that there are different ways of looking at that, but my question is, what scripture can you refer me to in the New Testament that states that women are not allowed to be pastors? Please, thank you.

Hey, Anita, thank you for that follow-up. And as I said, I recognize that this is an issue where there's going to be a lot of diversity of opinion. I have friends who disagree with me on this issue, but at the end of the day, as you said, we want to go to the text of scripture. We want to look at what the Bible teaches.

And granted, there are different ways in which some of these passages have been interpreted. My take is that when I look at certain texts, in particular in the pastoral epistles, that it seems to me to be very clear in terms of who should hold the office of pastor or teacher within the church. Now, my view is not that that means that women can't teach in general or teach Sunday school class or that kind of thing, or be theology professors, but that Paul is speaking about something very specific, this office, the office of elder or minister in the church. And some of the places I'd go, well, 1 Timothy 3, Titus 1, where Paul talks about the qualifications for an elder.

And it seems to me there that just in terms of the qualifications, he says they need to be the husband of one wife. But then even a little bit earlier in 1 Timothy and 1 Timothy 2, Paul said in verse 12, I do not permit a woman to teach her to exercise authority over a man. And then he goes on to say in verse 13, for Adam was formed first, then Eve, and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor, yet she will be saved through childbearing if they continue in faith and love and holiness with self-control. And there's a lot in that passage of scripture. You also have a statement from the apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians chapter 14, which seems to indicate also that the office of elder was reserved specifically and is to be reserved specifically for men. Now, having said all of those things, I always want to be very cautious because I want people to understand that that doesn't mean that women don't play a very important role in the life of the church.

So many times when we have these kinds of discussions, the question is, well, okay, you're saying I can't teach or be a pastor within the church, then what can I do? But the fact of the matter is even in the New Testament, you see the prominent roles that women held in the life of the church. One passage I love to go to is in the book of Acts. In Acts chapter 18, you have this guy who's this amazing preacher and speaker. His name was Apollos. And yet, doctrinally, he had some issues in his theology.

He wasn't fully developed yet. And essentially, we read in Acts chapter 18 verse 26, he began to speak boldly in the synagogue, but when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately. I love that. So all of us, men or women within the church, should know God's word and theology so well that we can be Berean, that we can go to our pastor or others and say, hey, I think you were missing it here. And so there is a sense in which we all are called to this, Anita. It's beautiful because Priscilla and Aquila are referred to by the Apostle Paul as co-workers in the gospel. And so I never want to minimize that reality, but it does seem to me that in the New Testament, the office of pastor was reserved specifically for men. So thanks for your question.

Thank you so much, Anita. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. And today, we want to tell you about a book that we are offering. It's actually written by a pastor and theologian who was a hero in World War II. His name was Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Yeah, a hero and also a martyr, someone who died for his faith and clung fast to the gospel. This book, Life Together by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, is really an edifying read.

It's a short read, but it'll help you understand the significance of Christian community, why it's so important, what Christian community ought to look like. There are so many questions about that today. What does fellowship look like? Is it the sort of coffee time after the worship service where we're eating a doughnut and drinking some coffee and catching up on the week? Or is it something much deeper? And it is.

And that's what Dietrich Bonhoeffer gets into in Life Together. So get a hold of this resource. All you have to do to take advantage of this offer is make a donation of any amount at corechristianity.com forward slash offers. That's corechristianity.com forward slash offers.

Or give us a call for that offer or any one of our offers at 833-THE-CORE. Ask us about Dietrich Bonhoeffer's classic book, Life Together. Well, let's go to a voicemail that we received from one of our listeners. It involves a particular passage from 1 Corinthians.

Hi. God bless you. Could you please help me? 1 Corinthians 15, 29 says, As what shall they do which are baptized for the dead? If the dead rise not at all, why are they baptized for the dead?

I don't understand what it means, baptized for the dead. Would you please help me? God bless you, pastor. And thank you. I listen to you every day. Bye.

Thank you for your encouragement. And I do want to help you with this passage of scripture, because it is a text that has been confusing for many people when they read it. 1 Corinthians, again, I'm going to read it again, verse 29, 15, 29. Otherwise, Paul wrote, What do people mean by being baptized on behalf of the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized on their behalf?

First, context is key. What is the context of 1 Corinthians chapter 15? The context is the apostle Paul is addressing a problem in the Corinthian church where people had begun to essentially believe that there was no resurrection of the dead. Back in verse 12 of chapter 15, Paul said, Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?

This is a serious issue. Some of the Corinthians, who knows how many, but they had bought into this lie, this heresy, that there was no resurrection. And Paul is explaining in 1 Corinthians 15 how devastating that would be. He says, Look, if Jesus Christ didn't actually bodily rise from the dead, then we're still dead in our sins. There's no hope for us because our resurrection is wrapped up in his resurrection.

We know we're going to rise from the dead because he rose from the dead, and so there's this great hope that we have as believers, but if you get rid of Christ's resurrection, we're hopeless. Christianity, what's the point? Sometimes people say, Look, Christianity is about helping people to live a better life, and it'll make you more moral, and that kind of a thing.

Paul says, No, actually, I disagree. The kernel of Christianity, the main thing is not, Hey, be a nice person. It's Jesus Christ rose from the dead, and because he rose from the dead, he has conquered sin and death, and in him you can have life. Now, an implication of that is, Love the Lord and walk with him. But the essence of the gospel is that Christ rose from the dead, and that was what was being called into question there in Corinth.

So that's the issue. Now, the language of verse 29 is really important, and a lot of people miss this. Listen, again, Paul says, Otherwise, what do people mean by being baptized on behalf of the dead? He doesn't say, What do we mean by baptizing people on behalf of the dead? He uses a verb, the third person plural.

He says, What do they mean? What do they mean when they talk about being baptized for the dead? In other words, this was not a practice that the apostles were doing. The apostles were not going around baptizing people for the dead.

You know who does that actually today? The Mormon Church. The Mormon Church will appeal to this passage, and they'll say, Oh, look, the apostles, this was even happening in apostolic days. But Paul's point here is not that this is something we do, that this is an apostolic thing that happens. His point is there's a group out there that denies the resurrection of the dead, but still baptizes people on behalf of the dead, and he's saying, Look at the inconsistency.

What are they even doing? That's the issue. It's people who were denying the resurrection of the dead. He uses the third person plural. He says, What do they mean by being baptized on behalf of the dead? There's an inconsistency with their doctrine.

He's exposing it. He's not saying, We, the apostles, baptized for the dead. This is not an apostolic practice. It's not something that we're called to do as Christians, and it's not something that even the apostle is encouraging here. In fact, in verse 30, he switches to the first person plural. He says, Why are we in danger every hour? So he could have said, Why are we baptizing people for the dead?

But he doesn't. He's pointing to another group that was doing it, probably a sect in the first century, and he rejects it. And the key is focusing on the resurrection of Jesus. And so, thank you so much for that question, sister. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Let's go to Laura in Whitewater, Kansas.

Laura, what's your question for Adriel? Yes, gosh, we touched good questions today. I wanted to know, when I'm reading the Bible, I noticed that Jesus, when he's referred to in a pronoun, he's referred to with a capital H. But when the Bible refers to God, it's in a lower case.

And I know it's a silly question, but it kind of always fits with me. Shouldn't both be upper case? Both are important. Thank you. Hey, Laura, thank you for that question. Well, the first thing I'd want to say is, the capitalizations, those are essentially done by Bible translators. So this isn't something that we see in the original Greek text per se, but it's something of an interpretive move that's being made in and out of respect for the name of God or for the Lord himself. They capitalized it to show that they're talking about God, the deity. Now, sometimes, there are interpretive questions. If you're looking at a passage in the Old Testament or even in the New Testament, where the question is, well, who's the subject here?

Is it God or is it someone else? So sometimes they'll be capitalized in some Bibles and not in others. But I don't think that we need to make too big of a deal about it because it's not really something that we see in the original text. It really is just to sort of, as I said, out of respect. And it does help you to see that they are talking, or at least the interpreters believe that this subject here was referring to God. It is God who is the subject there. And so that's why you have that there. Now, isn't it true that with the Jewish people, they actually wouldn't even write the name of God?

Yeah, that is true. I mean, they wouldn't say the divine name. They would say Adonai instead, again, out of respect. So there was this great emphasis on the Lord, his transcendence, his glory, even our inability to say his name. But we do know Jesus reveals to us God perfectly, and so we look to him. Adonai.