Temples: Abib

With Moses as their head, the Israelite children prepared for their deliverance from Egyptian bondage. They each borrowed jewels from their Egyptian neighbors, struck the blood of a male firstborn lamb (devoid of blemish) upon their door posts, and ate the flesh as they were girded about their loins with shoes on feet, and staff in hand. They spent through the terrible night where the wonder of God disseminated death upon the firstborn in the land of Egypt.

The morning of their deliverance by the strength of the hand of Jehovah, the I AM, was declared the month Abib. Abib was the beginning of their new calendar, meaning the first month of spring.

I sat this fine spring morning in the baptismal font in the temple- it rests on the back of twelve statuesque oxen, the symbolic fathers of Israel. I was baptized in proxy for souls who've passed into the vale of death*- they called from Jamaica, Mexico, and England.

The power of the baptismal ordinance, and particularly of baptisms for the dead, is allegorically akin to deliverance. As the children of Israel began the journey of their deliverance with a new calendar, headed at Abib, so those souls are respited the continuance of their journey at the time of their proxy baptism. The baptismal work in the temple literally opens the gateway to deliverance from the enemy of all righteousness. It's recording and completion provides the beginning of a new springtime for those who choose to accept their covenant of baptism.

Careening on chariot and horse, the Egyptians pursued as Israel encamped by the sea. Moses, unblenched in faith**, proclaimed,

"Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will show to you this day: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to day, ye shall see them again no more for ever The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace. (Exodus 14:13-14)"

As Moses parted the Red Sea through the power of Jehovah, so do baptisms for the dead open the gate for continual progression toward celestial salvation for those requiring deliverance. Without their baptism, they would be stunted in a darkness unconquerable. Such is the importance of LDS temples.

*As a side note, baptism into the kingdom and salvation of Christ must occur with two elements to sustain validity: baptism must be performed by one in proper authority, and a complete submersion under water must be achieved by the person being baptized. Both of these criteria are upheld in the LDS temple's baptisms for the dead.

**When Moses ukased the children of Israel to sustain faith, he had not yet been given instructions of the Lord on how they would be delivered yet again. It was after he displayed his own personal faith in the salvation of Jehovah that he received the following saying of the Lord,

"..Lift thou up thy rod, and stretch out thine hand over the sea, and divide it: and the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea. (Exodus 14:16)"