Now if there is no resurrection, what will those do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized for them? 1 Corinthians 15:29

            The baptism of the dead is a ritual where a person gets baptized for another person who couldn’t get baptized.  That substitution, they believe, helps the person move on in the afterlife.

            Paul doesn’t support the baptism for the dead.  He reports it.  In 1 Corinthians 15, he’s making a case for the resurrection of Jesus Christ and wondering why and what’s the use if people were baptizing for the dead.  Even that ritual, he’s saying, means nothing if Jesus didn’t rise from the dead.

            Baptism doesn’t save you.  It’s a public profession of your salvation.  The thief on the cross with Jesus didn’t get baptized, yet Jesus promised he would be in paradise when he died.