This replica of a temple baptismal font, in the South Visitors Center on Temple Square, is like those in LDS temples where baptisms by immersion are performed by proxy for the dead. The twelve oxen symbolize the twelve tribes of Israel. A distinctive doctrine of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is that the dead as well as the living may receive the gospel of Jesus Christ . Every man, woman, and child who has ever lived or who ever will live on this earth will have full opportunity, if not in this life then in the next, to embrace or reject the gospel in its purity and fulness. It is in harmony with the Jewish idea that the family is the instrument of holiness and redemption and that the dead may need Atonement .
Life is eternal.
Birth does not begin life nor does death end it. In each stage of existence there are ever-higher levels of divine enlightenment and blessedness. Repentance is possible in the next life as well as this one. There is never a time when the spirit is too old to approach God. The family bonds extend beyond death.