Wednesday, January 10, 2018

1877 LDS Catechism for youth on Baptism and Adoption

In a catechism for Latter-day Saint children, under chapter XI (Baptism), we find the following question and answer on the relationship between water baptism and our adoption as (covenant) sons and daughters of God, an important facet of baptism in Latter-day Saint theology:

13. Q. What is baptism sometimes called?
A. The law of adoption, or the door of the kingdom of God.

14. Q. Why is baptism so called?
A. Because mankind having become, through sin, strangers and aliens to God, they, by obeying the ordinance of baptism, become his adopted children, and members of his kingdom. (Elder John Jaques, Catechism for Children Exhibiting the Prominent Doctrines of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints [Salt Lake City: 1877; repr., Mormon Heritage Publishers, 1976], 38)


 Personally speaking,  I would love if a catechism like this was introduced to primary-age kids in the Church as it would result in a good grasp of LDS doctrine, but that is just me.