As we see in the picture, The salvation of the family is the idea that is achieved in homes or whole families are saved simultaneously. The salvation of the whole family is achieved through the faith of the family leader.
A correct understanding of the Bible's teaching on home salvation should begin with knowing what the Bible teaches about salvation in general. We know that there is only one way to salvation, and it is by faith in Christ (Matthew 7: 13-14; John 6: 67-68). We should also know that the mandate to believe is directed at people and the act of believing is a personal action. Therefore, salvation can come to an individual who personally believes in Christ.
The fact that a family member believes does not guarantee that the rest will believe.
Jesus himself points out that the gospel divides families. In Matthew (10: 34-36) Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace if not sword. Because I have come to dissent the man against his father, the daughter against his mother, and the daughter-in-law against the mother-in-law; and the enemies of man will be those of his house. These words completely compromise the concept of the Salvation of the family and in a more logical sense we could say that the Pentecost was saved all Israel of those times if we took into account the three thousand.
If people are saved as individuals, then how are we going to interpret those passages in the Bible that seem to contain a promise of salvation for the family? How can we understand people's need to believe to be saved and verses like Acts 11:14? In this passage, Cornelius is promised that his family would be saved. First of all, as with any other passage of Scripture, we must consider the genre or type of book in which this situation occurs. In this case, it is found in the book of Acts, a historical narrative of real events. A principle related to the biblical story is that no event can be taken automatically to be applied in each situation. For example, Samson took the city gates with his two pillars and his bolt, threw them over his shoulder, and left and climbed them to the top of the mountain (Judges 16: 3), but this does not mean that if we leave grow hair, we will be able to perform the same feats. In Acts 11, the fact that God promised Cornelius that his whole family would be saved does not mean that the same promise applies universally to all homes throughout all times. In other words, Acts 11:14 was a specific promise to a specific person at a specific time. We must be careful in interpreting those promises as if they were universal; They should not be separated from their historical context.
Second, it is important to know how God fulfilled His promise to Cornelius. In Acts 10, Cornelius receives Peter in his house and says: "We are all here" (Acts 10:33). In other words, the whole Cornelius family gathered to hear everything Peter was going to preach. They all heard the gospel, and they responded. Everyone in Cornelius' family believed and was baptized (Acts 11: 15-18). This is exactly what God had promised. Cornelius' family was not saved because Cornelius believed, but because the whole family believed.
Another passage that contains the promise of home salvation is in Acts 16:31. Here the Philippian jailer asks Paul and Silas: "Gentlemen, what must I do to be saved?" The missionaries responded: "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your house." Again, this promise is given to a specific person in a specific context; However, here is an additional promise that is clearly universal and encompasses all time periods and contexts. That promise is not from the salvation of the family, but is totally consistent with any other verse in the Bible that speaks of salvation. It is the promise that if you believe in the Lord Jesus, "you will be saved." In addition, salvation came to the jailer's home as a result of hearing God's Word and an individual response through faith: Paul and Silas "spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house" (Acts 16:32). The whole family heard the gospel. All of them were saved, just as God had promised, but their salvation was not because they were members of the jailer's family but because they believed for themselves in the gospel.
A third verse in the New Testament that some use to teach the salvation of the family, is 1 Corinthians 7:14: "For the unbelieving husband is sanctified in the wife, and the unbelieving wife in the husband; otherwise your children they would be unclean, while now they are saints. " This verse seems to teach that a husband or wife who is not a believer can be saved because of the faith one of them has in Christ. It also seems to say that his children will be holy before the Lord, because one of his parents is saved. But that conclusion would be inconsistent with the general teaching of the Scriptures. In this context, the word sanctified is not referring to salvation or being holy before God. On the contrary, it refers to the sanctity of the marriage relationship itself. Paul taught that Christians should not be in "unequal yoke" with unbelievers (2 Corinthians 6:14). The fear of some in the church was that since they were already married to unbelievers, therefore they were living in sin, their marriage was not "holy" and the children of that union were illegitimate. Paul allays his fears: believers who are already married to an unsaved person must remain married while the unbeliever consents to remain married. They should not seek divorce; their marriage relationship is sanctified (holy or set apart in the eyes of God), based on the faith of the believing spouse. Likewise, the children of their marriage are legitimate in the eyes of God.
The fact that 1 Corinthians 7:14 is not talking about home salvation is clearly seen in the question Paul asks in 1 Corinthians 7:16: "Because what do you know, oh woman, if perhaps you will save your husband? Or what do you know, oh husband, if perhaps you will save your wife? " If the family's salvation were true, then the wife would have already been saved (based on the husband's salvation); Paul would not need to refer to a future time for her salvation.
God does not promise salvation for the home. But that does not mean that a godly father or mother does not have a profound spiritual influence on the children of that family. The household leader sets the course for the family in many aspects, even spiritually. With all our heart we must wait, pray and fight for the salvation of our families. There are many occasions when the God of Abraham became the God of Sara, and then the God of Isaac and Jacob. As Charles Spurgeon said: "Although grace does not run through blood, and regeneration is not of blood, nor of birth, yet it happens very often... It happens that God, through someone in a home, attracts the rest to Himself. He calls a person, and then uses it to be a kind of spiritual decoy to bring the rest of the family to the gospel network.
