PUZZLE #34 - For The Dead

Consider Moroni 8:22-23 (Page 526)

Two groups of people are identified in the first sentence; Group A is "little children", Group B includes "also all they that are without the law". Group A, little children, are those who cannot comprehend the law, and group B, are those who have no law to comprehend. This verse makes a statement about the redemption of the people in both of these two groups.

The second sentence proclaims that "the power of redemption cometh on all them who have no law". It defines their condition as "not condemned" and those who are under "no condemnation". Those who do not have the law are in the group who are under "no condemnation"; they do not have the law available to them, hence, it cannot condemn them. Verse 22 says that the people of these two groups "cannot repent; and unto such baptism availeth nothing".

This verse specifically precludes any capability of repentance and any need for baptism for the people in these groups. They don't need baptism. It says that "the power of redemption" is theirs without repentance and baptism. It teaches that when people of either group A or group B die, they will have redemption through the "mercies of Christ", and they will be "alive in Christ".

Verse 23 tells us that baptism for the people of either group is a "mockery before God, denying the mercies of Christ, and the power of his Holy Spirit, and putting trust in dead works." Baptism of little children (who can't understand the law) and baptism of people who don't have the law is a mockery before God, and it "availeth nothing".

With this definition from the pages of Moroni, one is then led to ask; Why do Mormons practice baptism for the dead? Every year, Mormons are baptized for and in
behalf of people who are dead. The names of thousands, if not millions of people who have passed on, are used in the Mormon temples, and a vicarious baptism is done on their behalf. The names are taken from public records, or census reports or from any other record that gives names of deceased people.

Those countless people who are dead never had the law (Mormon gospel) in the first place. The Book of Mormon says that they don't need baptism. Wouldn't such a baptism qualify as “a mockery before God, denying the mercies of Christ, and the power of his Holy Spirit, and putting trust in dead works"? Why baptism for the dead, when it says that people who die without the law are redeemed "the power of the redemption cometh on" them, and that their "baptism availeth nothing"?

It's a PUZZLE to me how Mormonism can function so actively in conradiction to their own supposed scripture?