Joseph Smith is often quoted as saying, "I told the brethren that the Book of Mormon was the most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone of our religion, and a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book." According to Rodney Turner, we are yet to appreciate the full significance of Joseph Smith's statement. The Book of Mormon explains--with unequaled power and plainness--the process by which men and women "get nearer to God." In doing so, it provides the most impressive examples to be found in all scripture of how fallen humanity is saved by grace. The conversion of Benjamin's people teaches us that "the power of God unto salvation" (Romans 1:16) transcends testimony, doctrines, ordinances, religious activity, and even virtuous living--it is the power inherent in the blood of Christ, as administered by and through the Holy Spirit, to endow God's fallen children with the very nature of God.
The words of the angel concerning that power are as applicable to the Latter-day Saints as they were to the Nephites. The "natural man" is as much "an enemy to God" today as he was in King Benjamin's time. Irrespective of all other considerations, a Latter-day Saint remains in that same "carnal state" in which Benjamin's people found themselves until he or she is born again through the fulness of baptism.
Such a baptism involves more than the physical ordinance. It has three components: baptism in water, baptism of the Holy Ghost, and the baptism of fire. "All three baptisms," said Joseph Smith, "make one." He explained: "The baptism of water, without the baptism of fire and the Holy Ghost attending it, is of no use; they are necessarily and inseparably connected" All three components of baptism are essential if one is to be born again. "For by the water [baptism] ye keep the commandment; by the Spirit [baptism] ye are justified, and by the blood [baptism of fire] ye are sanctified." (Moses 6:60). It was the baptism of fire--administered by the Holy Ghost--that King Benjamin's people received. (See Mosiah 4:3) It was this culminating baptism that brought them the remission of sins and "peace of conscience." It was through this baptism that they were "born of God" and thereby acquired his spiritual image in their countenances, even a child's physical features and mannerisms reflect those of its parents.
Every natural man and woman aspiring to the celestial kingdom-whether living or dead--must experience total baptism before he or she can enter the "straight and narrow path which leads to eternal life." (2 Nephi 31:17-18) Thus, the ordinance must be completed whether in mortality or--as will seemingly be the case with most who have lived--in the spirit world. For baptism is the only means by which fallen men and women can be born again, obtain the remission of sins, and, in the resurrection, "become holy, without spot." (Moroni 10:33)
Can we be baptized without being born again? Of course. Over forty years after the conversion of King Benjamin's people, Alma asked the baptized members of the church of Christ in Zarahemla: "Have ye spiritually been born of God? Have ye received his image in your countenances? Have ye experienced this mighty change in your hearts?" (Alma 5:14; italics added) We do not know how those in Alma's audience answered his rhetorical questions, but we know that Benjamin's generation would have responded with a resounding, "Yes!" . . .
This mighty conversion of King Benjamin's people foreshadowed the sanctifying fire of the Holy Spirit that later enveloped others among the Nephites and Lamanites, and that will descend upon every Latter-day Saint who diligently keeps the Lord's commandments. This vital Book of Mormon doctrine is one of the primary reasons why Joseph Smith said that we would "get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book."
As a sidenote, Turner writes that the expression baptism of the Holy Ghost is not found in the Standard Works. Instead, the spiritual aspects of baptism are always described as the baptism of fire and of the Holy Ghost. We are born again by water, the Spirit, and the blood of Christ. (See Moses 6:59-60 These three principles correspond to the three phases of total baptism: baptism in water, the baptism of the Holy Ghost, and the baptism of fire and of the Holy Ghost. They may be received individually over a period of time, or on the same occasion--as was the case with the twelve Nephite disciples (See 3 Nephi 19:11-13).
Turner also notes that Daniel Tyler said that Joseph Smith reconciled the three baptisms mentioned in Matthew 3:11 (water, Spirit, and fire) with Ephesians 4:4-5 ("There is . . . one baptism") when he stated: "There is but one baptism; it takes the baptism of water, of the Holy Ghost and of fire to constitute one full baptism." (Hyrum L. Andrus and Helen Mae Andrus, eds., They Knew the Prophet, Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1974, p. 51) [Rodney Turner, "The Great Conversion," in Studies in Scripture: Book of Mormon, Part 1, pp. 224-226]