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Baptism leads to salvation; for accountable persons, the absence of baptism guarantees damnation. Those who are baptized and who thereafter keep the commandments will be saved; with those who are not baptized, it will be otherwise. Salvation is for the clean, the spotless, and the sanctified, and for them only. To us in this day the Lord has said: "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, and he that believeth not, and is not baptized, shall be damned." And also: "Every soul who believeth on your words, and is baptized by water for the remission of sins, shall receive the Holy Ghost. [And] they who believe not on your words, and are not baptized in water in my name, for the remission of their sins, that they may receive the Holy Ghost, shall be damned, and shall not come into my Father's kingdom where my Father and I am."
Source: A New Witness for the Articles of Faith, Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 244.
Baptism is not an optional ordinance; it is not something for those only who are especially devout and pious. It is for all men, and it comes from God by way of commandment. Those who are not baptized thereby turn from the order of heaven defy the will of the Lord, and break one of his great and eternal commandments. "Now this is the commandment," the Risen Lord said to the Nephites: "Repent, all ye ends of the earth and conte unto me and be baptized in my name." In his ministry among the Jews, speaking of John the Baptist, Jesus said: "All the people that heard him and the publicans, justified God, being baptized with the baptism of John. But the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the counsel of God against themselves, being not baptized of him."
What answer will the unbaptized give in the day of judgment when the great Judge asks: "Why did you reject the counsel of God, being not baptized? Why did you break my commandment to be baptized in my name?" If we are not baptized, we are not his.
Source: A New Witness for the Articles of Faith, Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 245.