 We don't know, but it's definitely not biblical. What is baptism of the dead or baptism for the dead? It's obviously a practice that we don't employ as Christians today, but the question is what exactly did Paul mean or what was he referring to in 1st Prince 1529? So let's go there. He says in verse 1529 he says otherwise what do people mean by being baptized on behalf of the dead if the dead are not raised at all? Why are people baptized on their behalf? Well the issue here is Paul is bringing about this issue of resurrection and that's really Paul's point. There are some people apparently that's giving him some push back as far as believers being resurrected to life, but Paul's point is if you don't believe that, well then why are people in your religion, your pagan faith, what have you, why are people baptized for the dead or on behalf of the dead? We're not sure where this practice comes from. We're not sure what it leads to, why, who originated. There's, you can ask probably a thousand different scholars or historians as to what this means and you're going to get a litany of various different theories and that's really all we have, theories. There's no real hard concrete proof. Now there were people who baptized for dead in various faiths, but we're not totally sure who Paul is referring to, who he's speaking to, or what particular faith. All we do know is this. One, it's not biblical. Two, he's not mentioning that we as believers, we as Christians, are baptizing anyone for the dead or on behalf of the dead. Once a person is dead, that's that. There is no baptism. By the way, let's just be clear, baptism in water anyway is not what saves a person, but for them though, without that making that the subject, for them the issue also with Paul was not even the issue of baptism. He didn't go into why that's wrong or right or anything like that, but his whole point in focusing in what he just said in the previous verses was that the focus should be on resurrection and so if you all, you pagans, you people who aren't believers, don't believe in the resurrection, the point is then why then are you baptizing for the dead? And notice he says the reason why if the dead are not raised at all, then why are you baptized on their back? Again, we're not totally sure as to what was happening. All we do know is two things. While we don't know, again, we're not totally sure what was happening, but we do want again, we're not totally sure what was happening, but we do know one thing. While this is some pagan something that's not biblical, it's not taught in scriptures, but the point that Paul's focusing on is the resurrection. So my friends, I hope this has been helpful. Again, no one knows and I think that's really the point. It's not all that significant or important, but the main point that Paul is getting at in this chapter, really all throughout, is that we should put our faith in Christ and then therefore allowing us to be resurrected or be a part of the resurrection to be with him for eternity. Amen.