How will "thy house" be understood in Acts 16:31?
Acts 16:31 Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved and thy house.
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Asked January 06 2022
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Peggy Johnson
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Tim Maas
In my opinion, the cited verse is not teaching that the faith of the head of a household will also "automatically" save all those who are in that household. Saving faith is an individual, person-by-person decision. In the case of the cited passage, the offer of salvation was being made to each member of the jailer's household, but each one had to accept that offer for himself or herself through belief or faith. The promise being made to each member was "IF YOU believe, YOU will be saved." (Notice that Acts 16:32 says specifically that Paul and Silas preached the gospel to EACH MEMBER of the jailer's household. That would not have been necessary if the entire household could be corporately saved by the decision of the jailer alone.)
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