In a sermon
dated June 5, 1859, Brigham Young was recorded as having said the following
wherein he affirms baptismal regeneration (i.e., water baptism being the
instrumental meaning of one's initial remission of sins):
I will now answer another question propounded
by brother Clements, when he said he could not answer all questions, stating
that baptism was instituted, but he could not tell why. You remember reading,
in the last book of the New Testament, that in the beginning God cursed the
earth; but did he curse all things pertaining to it? No, he did not curse the
water, but he blessed it. Pure water is cleansing—it serves to purify; and you
are aware that the ancient Saints were very tenacious with regard to their
purification by water. From the beginning the Lord instituted water for that
purpose among others. I do not mean from the beginning of this earth alone; and
although we have no immediate concern in inquiring into the organization of
other earths that do not come within reach of our investigation, yet I will say
that water has been the means of purification in every world that has been
organized out of the immensity of matter.
The Lord has instituted laws and ordinances,
and all have their peculiar design and meaning. And though we may not know the
origin of the necessity of being baptized for the remission of sins, it answers
that portion of the law we are now under to teach the people in their ignorance
that water is designed for purification, and to instruct them to be baptized
therein for the remission of their sins. If the people could fully understand
this matter, they would perceive that it is perfectly reasonable and has been
the law to all worlds. And this world, so benighted at present, and so lightly
esteemed by infidels, as observed by brother Clements, when it becomes
celestialized, it will be like the sun, and be prepared for the habitation of
the Saints, and be brought back into the presence of the Father and the Son. It
will not then be an opaque body as it now is, but it will be like the stars of
the firmament, full of light and glory: it will be a body of light. John
compared it, in its celestialized state, to a sea of glass. (JOD 7:162-63)