The Vatican Pours Cold Water on Mormon Baptisms

A report and comment on religious trends and events being covered by the media.This week’s item is from the National Catholic Reporter, August 10, 2001, with a headline:“Vatican says Mormon baptisms are invalid.”The baptism conferred by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints cannot be considered a valid Christian baptism said the Vatican’s Doctrinal Congregation.The ruling by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith was published in the July 1617 edition of the Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, after being approved by Pope John Paul II.While the Mormon baptismal rite refers to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Mormon beliefs about the identity is so different from the Catholic and mainline Christian belief that “one cannot even consider this doctrine to be a heresy, arising from a false understanding of Christian doctrine,” said a Vatican explanation of the ruling.The notice dated June 5^th, was signed by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Prefect of the Congregation and by Archbishop Tarcisio Bertone, secretary.An accompanying article in L'Osservatore Romano said the ruling changes the past practice of not contesting the validity of this baptism.“The Church’s refusal to recognize Mormon baptisms won’t affect how the two groups work together,” leaders in both churches said from Salt Lake City.“We have a good relationship with the Catholic Church and that won’t change,” said Dale Bills, spokesman of the National Office of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Salt Lake City. Monsignor J. Terrance Fitzgerald, Vicar for the Salt Lake City, Utah Diocese said that the Vatican ruling doesn’t imply that the Catholic Church has a judgment on an individual Mormon’s relationship with Jesus.He said the good working relationship between Catholics and Mormons in SaltLake will continue.The UnitedMethodistChurch, the nation’s second largest Protestant body, also said last year that Mormon baptisms are invalid.

Tom:

Dave, this is confusing.I know that Roman Catholics regard Mormons as a sect and they have been critical about not just normal baptisms among Mormonism, but baptism for the dead and so on.But then they say, well there’s no problem, we still work together and encourage one another and so on.But baptism for both of these organizations is the heart, it’s their salvation basis.

Dave:

Well according to the Catholic Church this is how you become a child of God.This is how your sins are forgiven.You had it as a baby, an infant.I know [as] a baby you were baptized.How old were you, do you think?

Tom:

Within a week.

Dave:

Within a week, right.You got baptized right away; otherwise you would be in trouble if you happened to die—

Tom:

[I’d] be in limbo.

Dave:

Yes.

Tom:

Even though that’s not an official teaching, that’s what we understood as a Roman Catholic.

Dave:

It’s not biblical.So this is very serious—baptism, and they’re not going to recognize it.Now, if they just said well we’re still going to work together against abortion and against homosexuality and for morals in the community and so forth, you might understand that.But they say, the Vatican ruling doesn’t imply that the Catholic Church has a judgment on an individual Mormon’s relationship with Jesus.So they are saying, you guys are still Christians, you are fine, you are going to go to heaven.Your relationship with Jesus is okay, although you’ve got a wrong Jesus.You’ve got a Jesus who is the spirit brother of Lucifer.He is not God who became a man to die for our sins, but he’s a spirit being who came to this earth to get a body in order to become a god.Salvation isn’t by faith in his finished work upon the cross, but you work for it and it takes exaltation to godhood, we could go down the list of all the heresies that the Mormons believe and yet the Catholics say you’ve got a good relationship with Jesus Christ even though your Jesus Christ is a phony Jesus Christ.He’s a different Jesus Christ and you’re god isn’t the God of the Bible, but he’s a man who got redeemed by another Jesus on another planet and pulled himself up by his bootstraps and over eons of time became a god.And there are trillions of other gods out there just like him, over him and so forth.It is really confusing.

Tom:

Dave the issue of baptism for both organizations is really critical.As we mentioned before you don’t get to heaven through the Catholic Church unless you are baptized.

Dave:

That’s right.

Tom:

And for Mormons it is so serious Joseph Smith supposedly restored the truth, restored the faith.Those who died prior to Joseph Smith, the Mormon Church has a rite, a rite of baptism for the dead.They go back and you pray for your ancestors, you pray for figures in history.This is critical.

Dave:

Yes, those who haven’t become Mormons in this life get baptized by proxy for them all the way back to Adam; they say they’ve got to do that which of course won’t work.

Tom:

So both baptisms, which is my point here, neither one is biblical.

Dave:

That’s right and they are both very important, but nevertheless the Catholics say you’ve got a good relationship with Jesus Christ.Now maybe even more incredible Tom, John Calvin accepted Catholic baptism, even though he was one of the leaders of the Reformation, one of the reformers along with Luther and so forth.Nevertheless, he said if you were baptized and he even put it in these terms, an unbelieving Catholic priest, nevertheless you became a child of God, your sins were forgiven, and that made you one of the elect.And you know that not only the Catholics, but the Calvinists and the Lutherans killed the Anabaptists.These were people who had been Catholics and they realized it was a false gospel when they came to faith in Christ and they were saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone and they realized they had not been Christians before, and they said well now we should be baptized as believers.These were Anabaptists meaning to be baptized again.Calvin persecuted them.They were killed by the Lutherans, the Calvinists, and the Catholics.These were the Anabaptists.So that was how amazingly Calvin and Luther accepted infant baptism as making you a Christian even if you were baptized by a Roman Catholic priest who didn’t believe and was opposed to Calvinism.

Tom:

Yes, now I am sure there are people out there listening who think now wait a minute, you are saying baptism, that’s not the way to heaven?The biblical perspective on baptism?

Dave:

“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.” Paul said, Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel.He said I can’t even remember which of you I baptized, and in 1 Corinthians:4:15For though ye have ten thousand instructers in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers: for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel.
See All... he says, “but I have begotten you…you are my children in the faith because I have begotten you through the gospel.”And Peter says we are born again not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the Word of God that liveth and abideth forever.It is through faith in Christ in the gospel that we are saved, that we are born again.It is not through baptism.An infant that is baptized doesn’t even know the gospel.They don’t even know that they are being baptized.But when we believe in Christ, then we should be baptized as—it’s symbolic, it’s declaring that we have been crucified with Christ, we’ve identified ourselves with him, we’ve been buried with him in baptism, and we’ve been raised to new life.It is for believers.The Ethiopian said to Philip, “Here’s water, what hinders me to be baptized?”Philip says, “Oh nothing hinders you, just babies can be baptized—no he said, “If you believe with all your heart you may be baptized.”This is baptism in the Bible.