“Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:3-4).
Baptizo is the transliterated word from Greek. The New Greek Lexicon defines baptism as…
- To dip repeatedly, to immerse, to submerge.
- To wash, to make clean with water.
- To overwhelm.
When a person is baptized by immersion, that person is buried in a watery grave and dies symbolically. He/she lays down into the grave and then is brought up to a new life, symbolic of a resurrection.
This is not possible if water is merely sprinkled on the crown of the head. This leaves only one organization who has both the authority and the proper mode with its accompanying types and patterns. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has the authority directly from John the Baptist to administer in the ordinances of the Aaronic priesthood for Joseph Smith received this authority as did Aaron. By the laying on of hands.
“Upon you my fellow servants, in the name of the Messiah I confer the Priesthood of Aaron, which holds the keys of the ministering of angels, and of the gospel of repentance, and of baptism by immersion for the remission of sins; and this shall never be taken from the earth, until the sons of Levi do offer again an offering unto the Lord in righteousness” (D&C 13).
And when will the sons of Levi make this offering? When a temple is built on the very location where Abraham sacrificed Isaac, the same location where Solomon built his temple—in Jerusalem, on the Temple Mount.
