Mormon strongly denounced the practice of infant baptism. He declared that it was “solemn mockery before God, that ye should baptize little children” (Moroni 8:9). The Prophet Joseph Smith (1805–44) taught that infant baptism denies the character of God and the saving power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ: “The doctrine of baptizing children, or sprinkling them, or they must welter in hell, is a doctrine not true, not supported in Holy Writ, and is not consistent with the character of God. All children are redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ, and the moment that children leave this world, they are taken to the bosom of Abraham” (History of the Church, 4:554).