Now if there is no resurrection, what will those do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized for them?
1 Corinthians 15:29 (NIV)
Along my spiritual journey, I have worshipped and served in a number of different denominations and traditions. While they all shared that salvation was by grace through faith in Jesus, they varied in other thoughts, in their rituals, and in their worship. In some cases, I didn’t agree with some of what I considered to be non-essential beliefs, but I chose to respect them and to learn as much as I could. My experiences helped hone my own beliefs, taught me things I would have never otherwise learned, and gave me a far broader love for and understanding of what the Apostle’s Creed refers to as the “holy catholic church” which does not refer to the Roman Catholic denomination but rather to all believers everywhere, no matter their particular tradition or denominational bent.
For Paul and the other Apostles, one of the biggest challenges they faced was a combination of lack of human control, poor communication lines, and all sorts of competing religious thoughts and philosophies that crept into the local gatherings.
In today’s chapter, there are two fascinating things mentioned by Paul in one verse (the one at the top of today’s post). It refers to one major issue that became a major issue in the church in the first few centuries. The other is a curious and largely forgotten ritual. Let’s start with the major issue.
Gnosticism was an emerging religious philosophy in Paul’s day and took on many different thought traditions of its own. Basically, it taught that humans and the material world were the lesser meaningless creation of a minor god, and that the spiritual realm was the only thing that mattered. It also taught that salvation came from “secret knowledge” of one’s true and spiritual identity. So, gnostics denied Jesus was God (no spiritual being would choose to become human), Jesus died for sin (there is no sin, only ignorance), or rose from the dead (there is no bodily resurrection, only leaving the material behind to attain the spiritual). In today’s chapter, Paul is addressing some within the local Corinthian gathering of believers who are embracing the notion that there is no resurrection and undermining the essential core beliefs of Christianity.
In making his argument for resurrection, Paul mentions that some of the Corinthian believers were being “baptized for the dead.” He doesn’t explain it. He doesn’t condemn it. He just mentions it in passing as part of his argument and it doesn’t appear anywhere else in the Great Story. Apparently, Corinthian believers were being baptized on behalf of people who were physically dead in hope and anticipation of effecting that person’s after-life status in some way. We don’t know and the ritual obviously was not perpetuated, though the practice was curiously “resurrected” (pun absolutely intended) as part of the theology of Latter Day Saints in the 1800s.
A few days ago I quoted St. Augustine who taught that there should be unity in the “essentials” and liberty in the “non-essentials.” In the quiet this morning, I couldn’t help but think about the fact that we have in one verse a rather interesting combination of the two. For Corinthians to deny that Jesus rose from the dead undermines the foundational and essential belief of the faith itself and what Jesus Himself claimed and taught. At the same time, Paul references this curious practice of baptizing people for the dead, a non-essential ritual that was not widely practiced, never referenced anywhere else, and died away with time.
Along my spiritual journey, I’ve learned and benefitted from understanding the difference between essentials of my faith and belief in Jesus and His teaching, and the non-essentials of ritual and tradition that vary widely all over the world. I have learned from and even spiritually benefitted from learning and practicing non-essentials from traditions that are different than mine. I confess that some of them didn’t resonate with me or I found them silly. In all those different experiences, I met brothers and sisters who shared the same essential beliefs with me and whom I will enjoy seeing in heaven.
If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.
