Baptism

LDS Quotes on Baptism

Spencer W. Kimball Portrait

“[The keys] will be given to those who have passed off this stage of action and have received their bodies again. . . . They will be ordained, by those who hold the keys of the resurrection, to go forth and resurrect the Saints, just as we receive the ordinance of baptism then receive the keys of authority to baptize others for the remission of their sins. This is one of the ordinances we can not receive here [on the earth], and there are many more.” (JD, 15:137)

Spencer W. Kimball  |  “Our Great Potential,” Ensign, May 1977

Topics: , , ,

“After baptism, all men sin. None obey the Lord’s law in perfection; none remain clean and spotless and fit for the association of Gods and angels.”

Bruce R. McConkie  |  A New Witness for the Articles of Faith

Topics: ,

“Every child that comes into this world is carried in water, is born of water, and of blood, and of the spirit. So when we are born into the kingdom of God, we must be born the same way. By baptism, we are born of water. Through the shedding of the blood of Christ, we are cleansed and sanctified; and we are justified, through the Spirit of God, for baptism is not complete without the baptism of the Holy Ghost. You see the parallel between birth into the world and birth into the kingdom of God.”

Joseph Fielding Smith  |  Doctrines of Salvation

Topics: ,

“Sometimes Latter-day Saints express the wish that they could be baptized again—and thereby become as clean and worthy as the day on which they received their first saving gospel ordinance. May I respectfully suggest that our Heavenly Father and His Beloved Son do not intend for us to experience such a feeling of spiritual renewal, refreshment, and restoration just once in our lives. The blessings of obtaining and always retaining a remission of our sins through gospel ordinances help us understand that baptism is a point of departure in our mortal spiritual journey; it is not a destination we should yearn to revisit over and over again.

“The ordinances of baptism by immersion, the laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost, and the sacrament are not isolated and discrete events; rather, they are elements in an interrelated and additive pattern of redemptive progress. Each successive ordinance elevates and enlarges our spiritual purpose, desire, and performance. The Father’s plan, the Savior’s Atonement, and the ordinances of the gospel provide the grace we need to press forward and progress line upon line and precept upon precept toward our eternal destiny.”

Elder David A. Bednar  |  Always Retain a Remission of Your Sins

Topics: ,

Joseph Smith Portrait

“Baptism is a holy ordinance preparatory to the reception of the Holy Ghost; it is the channel and key by which the Holy Ghost will be administered.”

Joseph Smith  |  Teachings: Joseph Smith, 95–96

Topics: ,

Joseph Smith Portrait

“Being born again, comes by the Spirit of God through ordinances.”

Joseph Smith  |  Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith

Topics: ,

“As members of the Lord’s restored Church, we are blessed both by our initial cleansing from sin associated with baptism and by the potential for an ongoing cleansing from sin made possible through the companionship and power of the Holy Ghost—even the third member of the Godhead.”

Elder David A. Bednar  |  Always Retain a Remission of Your Sins

Topics: ,

The ordinances of baptism by immersion, the laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost, and the sacrament are not isolated and discrete events; rather, they are elements in an interrelated and additive pattern of redemptive progress. Each successive ordinance elevates and enlarges our spiritual purpose, desire, and performance. The Father’s plan, the Savior’s Atonement, and the ordinances of the gospel provide the grace we need to press forward and progress line upon line and precept upon precept toward our eternal destiny.

Elder David A. Bednar  |  Always Retain a Remission of Your Sins - April 2016

Topics: , , ,

Joseph Smith Portrait

“You might as well baptize a bag of sand as a man, if not done in view of the remission of sins and getting of the Holy Ghost. Baptism by water is but half a baptism, and is good for nothing without the other half—that is, the baptism of the Holy Ghost.”

Joseph Smith  |  Teachings: Joseph Smith, 95–96

Topics: ,

“Water baptism is only a preparatory cleansing of the believing penitent….whereas, the Baptism of fire and the Holy Ghost cleanses more thoroughly, by renewing the inner man, and by purifying the affections, desires, and thoughts which have long been habituated in the impure ways of sin.”

Orson Pratt  |  “The Holy Spirit,” 49–64, in Orson Pratt: The Writings of an Apostle, Mormon Collector Series, vol. 2 (Salt Lake City: Mormon Heritage, 1976), 57.

Topics: ,