volved in the atoning death of Christ was as truly appointed and fore-ordained. Prophets, through the long centuries antedating the Christian era, predicted the birth, life and death of our Lord as already provided for;[1] and these prophecies were confirmed by Jesus Himself.[2] Consider also the testimony of the apostles to the same effect. Peter specifically designates Christ as "a Lamb without blemish and without spot: who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world."[3] The designation "Lamb" is indicative of a sacrificial victim. Paul in writing to the Romans characterizes our Lord as the one "Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past."[4]
The Latter-day Saints affirm that their vicarious work in behalf of the dead is required of them by the call of the Lord through direct revelation: and that it becomes the duty and privilege of every individual who accepts the Gospel and enters the Church to labor for the salvation of his dead. He is expected and required by the obligations and responsibility he has assumed as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ, so to live as to be a worthy representative of his departed ancestors, in holy ordinance, and to be of clean life, that he may not forfeit his right to enter the sacred confines of the Lord's House, where alone he may officiate in that privileged capacity.
Let it not be assumed that this doctrine of vicarious
- ↑ Deut. 18:15, 17-19; Job 19:25-27; Psalms 2:1-12; Zech. 9:9; 12:10; 13:6; Isa. 7:14; 9:6,7; Micah 5:2.
- ↑ See Luke 24:27, 45, 46.
- ↑ I Peter 1:19, 20.
- ↑ Rom. 3:25. See further Rom. 16:25, 26; Eph. 3:9-11; Col. 1:24-26; II Tim. 1:8-10; Titus 1:2, 3; Rev. 13:8.
