“Temple Ordinances Unite, Connect, and Seal,” Liahona, Sept. 2025.
Historical Perspectives on the House of the Lord
Temple Ordinances Unite, Connect, and Seal
The history of temple work in the latter days shows enthusiasm and line-upon-line revelation for vicarious baptisms for the dead.
Illustration by Dan Burr
Betsy King Duzette waded into the frigid water of the Mississippi River. The 58-year-old widow and convert from Connecticut was then baptized for her uncles, mother-in-law, and her husband’s stepfather.
The Prophet Joseph Smith had recently taught the Saints, in August 1840, about the doctrine of baptism for the dead. In their excitement, they performed baptisms in the river, since the Nauvoo Temple was not completed. Women were baptized for men and men for women. Soon, however, the Lord revealed to Joseph Smith that baptisms for deceased ancestors must be done in dedicated temples (see Doctrine and Covenants 124:28–35). And in 1845, Brigham Young announced that women should be baptized for women and men for men.
Betsy’s husband, Philemon Duzette, had died six years earlier. She braved the chilly waters to be baptized for his deceased relatives as well as her own. That included baptism for Philemon’s stepfather, Jesse Peas, who died 50 years earlier when Betsy was a young girl. She may never have met him but likely knew of him and knew his name and his relationship to Philemon and his mother, Martha Wing. Betsy had known Martha when she was alive.
Betsy was baptized as proxy for Jesse almost immediately following the revelations on baptism for the dead. And she and her husband named one of their children after Jesse. Philemon’s biological father, also named Philemon, died when he was an infant, and Jesse Peas became his stepfather when Philemon was three and helped Martha raise him.
Stepparenting was common in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century America. High mortality rates and high remarriage rates meant many people lived in stepfamilies or blended families. Thus, the Duzette-Peas family ties were reconstructed twice: once when Philemon’s mother married Jesse Peas and a second time through baptisms for the dead.
Drawing of the baptismal font in the original Nauvoo Temple
Redeeming Loved Ones
Vicarious baptism brought those mortal connections together in a way that would endure for eternity. As Joseph Smith wrote, baptism for the dead is a “welding link” that binds the living with the dead, “for we without them cannot be made perfect; neither can they without us be made perfect” (Doctrine and Covenants 128:18).
Joseph Smith taught that without this welding link, the earth would be smitten with a curse, something that would render the earth a waste, created for no purpose (see Doctrine and Covenants 128:17–18). Against this stark pronouncement was Joseph’s glorious revelation about a power to bind all God’s children together for eternity.
In addition to the importance of proxy ordinances on behalf of deceased family members, Joseph emphasized that the living also benefit: “And now, my dearly beloved brethren and sisters, let me assure you that these are principles in relation to the dead and the living that cannot be lightly passed over, as pertaining to our salvation” (Doctrine and Covenants 128:15).
For Joseph Smith, these revelations were deeply personal. His eldest brother, Alvin, had died in 1823, and Joseph felt the loss in his life. In an 1836 revelation, Joseph had a vision of the “celestial kingdom of God, and the glory thereof” and “the transcendent beauty of the gate” and “the beautiful streets of that kingdom.” In the middle of this grand vision about the celestial kingdom, he also saw individual family members he knew and loved, including his brother Alvin. He “marveled” that Alvin, who had never been baptized, was an heir “of the celestial kingdom of God.” (See Doctrine and Covenants 137:1–6.)
Before the Foundation of the World
The connection between living and deceased loved ones demonstrates the majestic scale of human salvation, for those who “die without a knowledge of the gospel” (Doctrine and Covenants 128:5) are known and a path for their redemption provided before they came to earth. Indeed, baptism for the dead was established for our “salvation from before the foundation of the world” (Doctrine and Covenants 128:8). Revelations about baptism for the dead were followed by later revelations about sealing ordinances. Sealing of children to parents became a culminating ordinance that provided links for everyone who ever lived (see Doctrine and Covenants 138:47–48).
In a beautiful general conference address from April 2018, Elder Dale G. Renlund of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles described the power of those sealing connections:
“God, in His infinite capacity, seals and heals individuals and families despite tragedy, loss, and hardship. …
“… Through His atoning sacrifice, Jesus Christ offers these blessings to all, both the dead and the living.”
Just as Betsy King Duzette believed and trusted when she waded into the Mississippi River on behalf of her stepfather-in-law, we, all of us, can be connected, sealed, bound, and welded together eternally.