Whole House Baptism

A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to teach in the morning Bible study (read Sunday school). We were in Acts chapter 16 and I covered Timothy and Lydia. When we got to Lydia I had to say something about a whole house being baptized, since Luke said that's what happened. And just a little bit later on in Chapter 16 there is the matter of the Philippian jailer and his whole house being baptized. So we took a look at it and I said it looks like there is at least the possibility that their children were included. I mean little ones.

I still have a lot of questions about this matter of whole house baptism, but I am being persuaded that what is meant by whole house baptism is just that, the adults believed and they were baptized, as was everyone else in the house. I wasn't dogmatic but I did present it as a possibility. We are a church that practices believers baptism so I knew this would be different and something to think about. But I figured our goal is to teach, believe, and practice what the Bible says.

This morning the pastor was still in chapter 16 and he took up the matter of the Philippian jailer and his whole house being baptized. I determined not to say anything more, but I felt like there was some "correction" being presented, emphasizing that only professing believers are in view in this case of the Philippian jailer's house being baptized. On the way home, Mary and I talked about this and she brought up something very interesting: in Egypt, when the Israelites applied the blood to their door post and lintel, everyone in the house was covered by the blood, even the littlest ones. Very interesting.

I have read comments on Acts 16 that said house or household occurs frequently in the Old Testament and nearly always includes children and gives us the framework for understanding its usage in the New Testament. You know what this means, don't you? I need to go through the Old Testament and look at this matter of "house" and see just what it says. I think I'm going to be busy!