“And Shall Receive a Remission of Their Sins”
Sins are remitted not in the waters of baptism, as we say in speaking figuratively of “washing away” our sins, but rather when the Sanctifier, the Holy Ghost, burns dross and filth out of our souls as though by fire. “Wherefore,” Nephi counseled, “do the things which I have told you I have seen that your Lord and your Redeemer should do; for, for this cause have they been shown unto me, that ye might know the gate by which ye should enter. For the gate by which ye should enter is repentance and baptism by water; and then cometh a remission of your sins by fire and by the Holy Ghost.” (2 Nephi 31:17, italics added; see also Moroni 6:4; Teachings, p. 314; New Witness, pp. 239, 290.)
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