While many Latter-day Saints are familiar with the mechanics of redeeming the dead through family history and temple work, the theology behind it—whether it’s just a “fix” or something more fundamental to God’s plan—is a deeper question. As we study the scriptural foundations for this work in the Doctrine and Covenants (especially D&C 124, 127, 128, and 138) for Come Follow Me, a recent interview from the history blog From the Desk offers key insights. The post features Dr. Amy Harris, author of Redeeming the Dead: Themes in the Doctrine and Covenants, who provides a perspective that moves beyond the procedural and into the deeply personal and redemptive heart of this unique doctrine.
One of the first points Harris makes is that this work was never “Plan B.” It was foundational to the plan of salvation from the beginning, designed to counteract the “infuriating unfairness” of mortal life. As she states in the interview:
It is no surprise that baptism for the dead was established before the world began—even before baptism for the living. This shows that offering universal salvation was always part of God’s plan … It is the core of God’s plan, not a come-lately fit-it to the problem that most people would never have the chance to be baptized.
Harris also offers a striking interpretation of Malachi’s prophecy. Rather than seeing it as just another scriptural story, she frames it as a radical rejection of the dominant scriptural narrative:
After reading a draft of Redeeming the Dead: Themes in the Doctrine and Covenants, a friend observed that Malachi’s prophecy runs counter to nearly every story in scripture.
Family conflict dominates much of the Bible and the Book of Mormon, yet Malachi—and its iterations in Restoration scripture—rejects that pattern and calls for something better… generations turning their hearts to one another so fully that the world is saved from selfishness, hardness of heart, greed, hatred, destruction, and waste.
This is a powerful reframing: the work for the dead is an active antidote to the scriptural and human pattern of family conflict.
The interview also personalizes the doctrine by focusing on the experience of Jane Neyman, the first person to perform baptisms for the dead. Harris reminds us of the profound, immediate grief that fueled this revelation, noting that when Neyman was baptized for her son Cyrus, she was a “newly bereaved widow” whose husband had passed away just three days earlier. This context recasts the way that the doctrine was introduced as a deeply pastoral act of comfort.
Perhaps the most unique and challenging point from the interview is Harris’s discussion of record-keeping. She draws a sharp contrast between “holy records” and the “unholy records” of history—documents created to control and oppress.
Many of these are unholy records—created by those in power to enforce oppression or control. American slave census schedules are an obvious example, as is the tracking of deaf individuals in the late 19th century, or any record that reduces a person’s life to details incidental to their oppression, exclusion, or victimization.
When we read records born of inhumane practices and extract the details of a single human soul from their suffering and oppression, we are, in effect, creating a new record of humanity—one that honors each of God’s children.
In this light, family history work becomes a sacred act of redeeming our ancestors not just from a lack of ordinances, but from historical records that dehumanized them. We create a “new record of humanity” that reflects their true worth.
This is just a sample of the insights in this interview. For more—including Dr. Harris’s thoughts on Moroni’s unique version of Malachi’s prophecy and her wish for Wilford Woodruff’s 1894 revelation to be canonized—head on over to the Latter-day Saint history blog, From the Desk, to read the full interview on Redeeming the Dead: Themes in the Doctrine and Covenants.
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