Barry Bickmore's Responses to J. P. Holding, "The Mormon Defenders" (2001) on Baptism for the Dead and the interpretation of 1 Peter 3:18-20

In 2001, J. P. Holding published The Mormon Defenders: How Latter-day Saint Apologists Misinterpret the Bible. To be fair to Holding, it was a cut above the standard fare from Evangelical Protestants (his interaction with LDS sources was much better than, say, that of Ron Rhodes and Marian Bodine in their 1995 Reasoning from the Scriptures with the Mormons, for e.g.)

 

Over 20 years ago, then-LDS apologist Kevin Graham assembled some other apologists to respond to the chapters in the book. Barry Bickmore, author of Restoring the Ancient Church, wrote responses to the chapter on baptism for the dead and the appendix on 1 Pet 3:18-20. As they are no longer available online (even via archive.org), I have put the responses on dropbox as they contain a lot of useful information:

 

Barry R. Bickmore, "Dead End or Dead On?" (review of J. P. Holding, "Baptism and Beyond: the Mormon Doctrine of Baptism for the Dead," in The Mormon Defenders: How Latter-day Saint Apologists Misinterpret the Bible [2001], 63-79)

 

Idem., "'Every prudent man dealth with knowledge': A Critique of J. P. Holding's non-response regarding baptism for the dead"

 

Idem, Response to “Appendix: 1 Peter 3:18-20—The Augustinian Interpretation”