How did Joseph Smith know that vicarious baptisms for the dead were performed by some early Christians?
• Do you really think that Peter, Paul, and the New Teatament Christians worshipped the God described centuries later in the post-Biblical doctrine of the Trinity? • If there was no aspostasy, what happened to the prophets of the New Testament Church? Book of Mormon Questions: My Turn! Why does ancient Mesoamerican geography AND culture provide a plausible setting for the Book of Mormon? Very little was known about Mesoamerica in Joseph Smith’s day, certainly not much was known by Joseph when the Book of Mormon was published in 1827. Thus, if he were making up the Book of Mormon, the descriptions dealing with geography and culture in the lands about a “narrow neck of land” would not be likely to correspond to any real candidate for a narrow neck. Yet if the narrow neck of land is in Mesoamerica, specifically in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in southern Mexico, near the Yucatan peninsula, then the Book of Mormon account is consistent with modern knowledge of that area on numerous counts. F
Related Questions
- If Joseph Smith just made up the idea of vicarious baptism for the dead, why do numerous ancient documents validate the LDS claim that this was an authentic early Christian practice?
- How did Joseph Smith know that vicarious baptisms for the dead were performed by some early Christians?
- Did early christians practice vicarious baptizing for the dead?
