Confirmation

After baptism, new converts were confirmed members of the church “by the laying on of the hands, & the giving of the Holy Ghost.” According to JS’s history, the first confirmations were administered at the organization of the church on 6 April 1830. By March 1831, elders performed the ordinance at meetings specifically held for that purpose. The term confirmation was also used more generally to describe any bestowal of spiritual blessings, such as priesthood ordination, by the laying on of hands. In the 1840s, JS taught that baptism and confirmation were among the ordinances that church members could perform by proxy for those who died without these saving ordinances. See also “,” “,” and “.”