The Liquid Grave

In our recent trip to New York, we visited the Whitmer farm where the Church was officially organized on April 6, 1830. One of the missionaries there mentioned how there were some baptisms that took place that day nearby. The Saints book recounts, “Later, Joseph stood beside a stream and witnessed the baptisms of his mother and father into the church. After years of taking different paths in their search for truth, they were finally united in faith. As his father came out of the water, Joseph took him by the hand, helped him onto the bank, and embraced him. ‘My God,’ he cried, burying his face in his father’s chest, ‘I have lived to see my father baptized into the true church of Jesus Christ!’” This was ten years since Joseph had prayed to know which church to join, a time when his family was divided as to religion. He recorded that “four of them had joined [the Presbyterian faith]” but that he was “somewhat partial to the Methodist sect” (JSH 1:7-8). His father, though religious, did not want to join any of them because he “felt that attending no church at all was preferable to the wrong one.” Now, a decade later, Joseph had the joy of seeing his parents united through the waters of baptism in the same faith. The Saints book further described the emotion he felt at this day when his parents were baptized: “That evening, Joseph slipped away into some nearby woods, his heart bursting with emotion. He wanted to be alone, out of sight of friends and family. In the ten years since his First Vision, he had seen the heavens open, felt the Spirit of God, and been tutored by angels. He had also sinned and lost his gift, only to repent, receive God’s mercy, and translate the Book of Mormon by His power and grace. Now Jesus Christ had restored His church and authorized Joseph with the same priesthood that apostles had held anciently when they carried the gospel to the world. The happiness he felt was too much for him to hold in, and when Joseph Knight and Oliver found him later that night, he was weeping. His joy was full. The work had begun.”                These baptisms took place because of the authority that was restored through John the Baptist. And it was the Book of Mormon that was the instigator of that priesthood restoration. The Prophet Joseph and Oliver Cowdery were translating the book when they learned about the Savior’s teachings to the Nephites regarding baptism. These were perhaps the words of the Savior that motivated them to seek for baptism for themselves: “Verily I say unto you, that whoso repenteth of his sins through your words, and desireth to be baptized in my name, on this wise shall ye baptize them—Behold, ye shall go down and stand in the water, and in my name shall ye baptize them. And now behold, these are the words which ye shall say, calling them by name, saying: Having authority given me of Jesus Christ, I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen. And then shall ye immerse them in the water, and come forth again out of the water” (3 Nephi 11:23-26). Oliver later recorded how they felt: “No men, in their sober senses, could translate and write the directions given to the Nephites from the mouth of the Savior, of the precise manner in which men should build up His Church… without desiring a privilege of showing the willingness of the heart by being buried in the liquid grave, to answer a ‘good conscience by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.’ After writing the account given of the Savior’s ministry to the remnant of the seed of Jacob, upon this continent, it was easy to be seen, as the prophet said it would be, that darkness covered the earth and gross darkness the minds of the people. On reflecting further it was as easy to be seen that amid the great strife and noise concerning religion, none had authority from God to administer the ordinances of the Gospel. For the question might be asked, have men authority to administer in the name of Christ, who deny revelations, when His testimony is no less than the spirit of prophecy, and His religion based, built, and sustained by immediate revelations, in all ages of the world when He has had a people on earth? If these facts were buried, and carefully concealed by men whose craft would have been in danger if once permitted to shine in the faces of men, they were no longer to us; and we only waited for the commandment to be given ‘Arise and be baptized.’” They yearned for the opportunity to be baptized for themselves, and this is what they sought. As they prayed in the woods near the Susquehanna River, John the Baptist appeared to them and conferred upon them the Aaronic Priesthood. He commanded them to baptize each other, which they did. Oliver rejoiced in the experience with these words, “What joy! what wonder! what amazement!” They had indeed been buried in a liquid grave, to rise up as the first in this dispensation to be baptized through the power of the Aaronic Priesthood.