Salvation for the Home
Dear Pastor Riley,
As you know Acts 16:31 ends, "and thy house." I have asked others about the meaning and they do not know. Do you have any explanation? Who is meant by "thy house"? It cannot mean unsaved relatives in one's house. How about the household of faith mentioned in Ephesians 2:19?
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Dear brother,
In order to answer this question, you must consider the background set forth in God's Word, and the time period involved.
The passage means exactly what it says. From Adam throughout most of human history, the man was accepted as the God appointed head of his home without question. In that position he was also the "priest" [spiritual leader] of his home, if you will pardon me for using that expression. In Biblical times and throughout most of human history, the "family" decisions made by the husband and father of the home were obeyed without question by the family. If the father believed in and followed a certain god, that was the god that his whole family believed in and followed. The father was looked up to and respected by his family, and his word was honored. He was the "authority figure" in the home. This is a Scriptural and historical truth, and there are many examples of it to be found in the Scriptures.
Such regard for the father as the physical and spiritual leader of the family was practiced by true believers right through the centuries. But it was also practiced even by lost families. Whether the feminist like it today or not, it was the man who was the head of his home and who made the final decisions for the family throughout most of human history, and those decisions were honored and obeyed by the family. A study of the Bible and history reveals that this practice only ceased during times of extreme wickedness and apostasy.
Brother, I am old enough that I can remember that as a child all "family" decisions were made by the father, and all the members of the family, including the wife, respected those decisions because they believed that it was supposed to be that way. Right here in this country, that practice continued in the majority of the population right up until the beginning of the second World War. It was during the second World War that the women left the home to work in the defense plants, made their own money, became independent, and began to reject the leadership of their fathers and their husbands. Then in the wicked 60 's the feminist movement sprang up in America and swept through our entire society. One of the major results of these two things; the women leaving the home, and the feminist movement, has been an almost total loss of respect by women for any decisions made by "a man." About the only women today who sti! ll look up to their fathers and their husbands as the decision makers for the home and family are the few women left who are truly dedicated to the Lord.
What a sad state of apostasy. Houses divided cannot stand. The Lord said so! No wonder the divorce rate has soared and the crime rate has kept pace with it in America. Children don't obey their parents today because of their role models in the home. "Mom" doesn't pay any attention to what "Dad" has to say, so why should the kids do so? Do you get the picture?
Brother, it wasn't like it is today throughout most of human history. And what we see today is not what the Lord wants. From the very beginning He wanted whole families to be saved. He didn't just clothe Adam with skins. He clothed them both. It was Noah that found grace in the eyes of the Lord. But it wasn't just Noah that the Lord took into the ark. The Lord took in Noah and his whole family. God didn't tell the mother to bring up her children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord [Ephesians 6:4]. He said, "And ye fathers,.....bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord." But in the average home today, "Mom" don't want it that way, and "Dad" has abdicated his God appointed position.
Dear brother, when the father stopped being the "authority figure" in the home, that is exactly when apostasy began, and as a result we have lost a whole generation of children to Satan and the world because of it.
Now in answer to your question..... When Paul told the Philippian jailor, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house," Acts 16:31, the Apostle Paul knew that the jailor would ".....command his children, and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord.....," Genesis 18:19. And isn't that exactly what happened? Acts 16:32 says, "And they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house." As Paul preached, I can almost hear that Philippian jailor saying to his family, "He is telling us the truth. Believe what he is saying." And his family obeyed their father and believed, and his house was saved. That is very obvious from the two verses that follow. Glory! Praise the Lord!
Oh, if we only had such "authority figures" in the homes of America again. Whole families could be saved. What a miserable mess our society is in! What spiritual chaos Satan and his followers have wrought in the homes of America! God have mercy on us all, and God have mercy on our lost children. Most of the young people are wandering in a fog today, with no moral role model in the home to point them to Christ and with no "authority figure" to command them to believe on their father's God.
Brother, I am in tears as I write this to you. How I weep for our homes and families today, because the father is no longer the "authority figure" in the average home, and the mother in the average home has her eyes blinded by the same deception Satan pulled on Eve in the garden, Genesis 3:1-6.
Sadly, there is no solution to this problem today. Only the coming of our Lord will clean up this apostate mess and set the right Scriptural and moral order in the home again. May God hasten the day!
Brother, because of the truth that the Lord has laid on my heart in this email, I am taking the liberty of sending my answer to you on to the Five Doves website. I am sure it will cost me fellowship with some that read it, for I can almost see some of the women bristling with anger as they read it, but that is okay. It will not be the first time I have had people become angry over truths that I have written. God will it won't be the last! I know that the truly Godly women who read this will acknowledge the truths I have presented, and will praise the Lord for my have had the courage to say what needs to be said. For such Godly women I have nothing but praise. May God increase their numbers.
God bless you dear brother. Pray for me.
Pastor F. M. Riley
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Dear John,
Please print only what is above. Thank you and God bless you.
Bro. Riley
-----Original Message-----
From: RobertBelanger1@cs.com
To: Fmrglbd5@aol.com
Sent: Mon, 11 Feb 2008 2:11 pm
Subject: A Question re: Acts 16:31
Dear Pastor RIley,
As you know Acts 16:31 ends "and thy house." I have asked others about the meaning and they do not know. Do you have any explanation? Who is meant by "thy house"? It cannot mean unsaved relatives in one's house. How about the household of faith mentioned in Eph 2:19?
Thanks in advance for your thoughts.
Bob