The Mormon elders claim that this verse means a future probation for those that lived before the Flood, also the heathen who have not had the light of the Gospel in its fulness. The whole meaning of the chapter is not with the thought of saving somebody who is dead or being baptized in their behalf. The meaning of all of Paul's argument is that Christ died and rose again, and in that rising is our hope. If that were not true, then even those that had fallen asleep in Christ are perished. It is His death and resurrection that avail, but if He has not risen from the dead, what shall they do who have been baptized with that very thing in view? With certain death facing them, and their only hope in Christ and His resurrection, their faith has led them to believe in Him and believe Him to be the resurrection and the life. So they have been baptized in faith in that thought. Read the entire chapter, letting emphasis rest where the apostle has placed it, on the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, dying for our sins, rising for our justification; connecting with it such passages as Rom. 6:3, "Are ye ignorant that all we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?" and then see how forcible is Paul's argument—of what use is it to be baptized with all that in view, if there is no resurrection, if Christ is not risen again?