“All in the same hour?” is a question. Did every person in a family really decide to follow Jesus, each one alone, in the same hour? This page asks that question about four families in the Bible.
What is this page about?
The Bible tells about four families, or households, that were baptized together.
Household
A household is all the people who live in one house under one head. In Bible times this meant the husband, the wife, the children of every age, the servants, and sometimes other family members.
The man who writes this site believes this: it is very unlikely that every person in several households decided to follow Jesus, each one alone, within minutes of each other. He thinks it is simpler to say this: the whole household received baptism together, in faith, and followed the lead of the head of the house.
He asks three questions.
- How likely is it that every person in one house came to faith, each one alone, in the same hour?
- How likely is it that this happened again and again, in several houses?
- Which way of reading the Bible stories is more natural?
This page looks only at these questions. Another page, Did the Babies Stay Home?, asks if there were babies in these families.
There are two ways to read these stories. This page gives them short names.
The first way · this page holds it
The household togetherThe head of the house heard and believed. The whole house was baptized with him or her, as one family, and shared that faith.
The second way · this page tests it
One by oneEvery person in the house decided alone to follow Jesus. Each one made his own promise. It just happened that they all did it at the same time.
Many good Christians believe the second way. This page tries to explain it fairly.
What this page does not say
This page does not say that these families had babies. It does not say that nobody in the families believed. It does not say that God cannot change a whole family in one hour. It does not name any church or any person as an example.
Six points
- Today many churches ask each person to do certain things before baptism. Each person must be sorry for his sins, believe, and say so in front of the church. Some churches also ask for classes.
- Only one story tells us the time. The prison guard’s family was baptized in the same hour of the night. Lydia’s family was baptized after one meeting. The other two stories do not tell us the time.
- The Bible tells us about the faith of the head of the house. God opened Lydia’s heart. The guard asked, “What must I do?”
- In Bible times, a family followed the head of the house. Sometimes families were divided, and the Bible says so. But it does not say this about these four.
- The chances are small. If each person decides alone, it is very unlikely that all of them decide in the same hour.
- “God did it all at once” is a strong answer, but it changes the question. If God gave faith to everyone in the house together, then faith was a gift. It did not depend on each person’s own decision.
This is my own opinion. When I read that the guard “was baptized, he and all his household”, I do not imagine someone asking every servant and child, one by one, “Are you ready?” in the middle of the night. The Bible does not say that.
I imagine a man who was told, “You will be saved, you and your household.” He brought his family with him to be baptized, as families did in his time. That is not a weaker faith. For most of history, the Church expected a family to share its faith like this.
What must each person do?
Many churches today baptize only people who first say that they believe. A well-known statement of faith from the year 1689 says that only people “who do actually profess repentance towards God, faith in, and obedience to, our Lord Jesus Christ” should be baptized.
Profess and repent
To profess means to say openly what you believe. To repent means to be sorry for your sins and to turn back to God.
So each person must do these things for himself:
- hear and understand the good news about Jesus
- be sorry for his sins
- decide to trust Jesus
- tell others what happened to him
Some churches also ask for a meeting with the pastor, or some weeks of classes. Nobody can do these things for another person.
A church says: “If you want to be baptized, please come to four classes on Sunday afternoons. Then meet with our leaders and tell them how you came to faith. We baptize people four times a year.”
In this view, each person must believe and say so for himself before baptism. So if a whole family was baptized, every person in it must have done this.
How much time was there?
Let us look at the clock in each story.
The prison guard
But about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone’s bonds were loosened.
Acts 16:25–26 · World English Bible
In simple words: At midnight Paul and Silas were singing in prison. There was an earthquake. All the doors opened.
The guard woke up. He thought the prisoners had run away, and he wanted to kill himself. Paul stopped him. Then the guard asked a question:
“Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” They said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.” They spoke the word of the Lord to him, and to all who were in his house. He took them the same hour of the night and washed their stripes, and was immediately baptized, he and all his household.
Acts 16:30–33 · World English Bible
In simple words: The guard asked, “What must I do to be saved?” Paul said, “Believe in Jesus. You and your family will be saved.” Paul told everyone in the house about Jesus. In that same hour of the night, the guard and all his family were baptized.
So there was about one hour, in the middle of the night, after an earthquake. In that hour, every person in the house heard about Jesus for the first time, and was baptized.
Lydia
On the Sabbath day we went outside of the city by a riverside, where we supposed there was a place of prayer, and we sat down and spoke to the women who had come together. A certain woman named Lydia … heard us. The Lord opened her heart to listen to the things which were spoken by Paul. When she and her household were baptized, she begged us, saying, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and stay.”
Acts 16:13–15 · World English Bible
In simple words: Paul spoke to some women by a river. Lydia listened, and God opened her heart. Then she and her family were baptized. She asked Paul to stay in her house.
Paul spoke to the women at the river. The Bible does not say that Lydia’s family was there. It does not say how long it was before they were baptized. But the story goes straight from Lydia’s listening to the baptism.
Crispus and Stephanas
For these two families, there was more time, or the Bible does not tell us. In the city of Corinth, Paul taught in the synagogue “every Sabbath” for some weeks (Acts 18:4). Then Crispus believed. For Stephanas, the Bible tells us nothing about the time. This page is honest about this: the argument about one hour is about Philippi.
Where the Bible tells us the time, it is about one hour, at night. That is very little time for every person in a house to do everything that many churches ask today.
Whose faith does the Bible talk about?
Read the stories again. Whose heart and whose faith does the Bible describe?
- Lydia: “The Lord opened her heart.” It does not say that God opened the hearts of her household.
- The guard: he asked, “What must I do?” Paul said, “You will be saved, you and your household.”
- Crispus: “Crispus … believed in the Lord with all his house” (Acts 18:8). One man believed, and his house was with him.
There is one more important verse:
He brought them up into his house, and set food before them, and rejoiced greatly, with all his household, having believed in God.
Acts 16:34 · World English Bible
In simple words: The guard took Paul and Silas into his house and gave them food. He was very happy, with all his family, because he believed in God.
In Greek, the words “he rejoiced” and “having believed” are about one man, the guard. The words “with all his household” can go with “rejoiced” or with “believed”. So Bible translations are different here. But none of them says that each person had his own, separate experience.
The Bible tells us about the faith of the head of the house. Then it says that the household was baptized with him or her. It never tells us about any other person’s own separate conversion.
Families in Bible times
How did people in Bible times think about a family and its religion? Here is a famous verse:
But as for me and my house, we will serve Yahweh.
Joshua 24:15 · World English Bible
In simple words: Joshua said, “My family and I will serve God.”
Joshua spoke for his whole family. In the Greek and Roman world it was the same. About the year 100, a writer called Plutarch told a new wife to worship only “the gods that her husband believes in”. The family followed the religion of the head of the house.
But we must be fair. Sometimes families were divided. Jesus said:
A man’s foes will be those of his own household.
Matthew 10:36 · World English Bible
In simple words: Sometimes people in your own family will be against you because of Jesus.
So families did not always agree. But when a family was divided, the Bible says so. In these four stories, the Bible does not say that anyone stayed out.
In Bible times, people expected a family to follow its head. Sometimes families were divided, and the Bible says so. It does not say this about these four families.
What are the chances?
Think about tossing a coin. The chance of “heads” is one in two. The chance that two coins are both “heads” is one in four. For five coins, it is one in 32.
Now think about five people in a house. Suppose each person, alone, has a one-in-two chance to come to faith in that hour. The chance that all five do it is one in 32. For four houses like that, the chance is about one in a million.
Imagine you ask five friends, “Will you come to dinner tonight?” Each one decides alone. It is quite likely that one or two will say no. But if the five are one family, and the father says, “We will all come,” then they all come together.
This is only a way of thinking. It is not an exact number. People are not coins. But it shows something important. If each person decides alone, it is very unlikely that everyone decides in the same hour. The chances are much higher if the family follows its head. And that is the first way of reading the stories.
If each person decides alone, it is very unlikely that a whole family decides in one hour, and even less likely in four families. It becomes likely only when the family follows its head.
What the other side says
Christians who disagree with this page have good points. Here they are.
- Crispus “believed in the Lord with all his house”.
- Paul spoke the word “to all who were in his house” in the guard’s family.
- Later, Stephanas’s family helped other Christians, so there were adults in it.
- God can change many people at once. On the day of Pentecost, about three thousand people were baptized.
Let us look at Pentecost carefully.
“For the promise is to you, and to your children, and to all who are far off, even as many as the Lord our God will call to himself.” … Then those who gladly received his word were baptized. There were added that day about three thousand souls.
Acts 2:39, 41 · World English Bible
In simple words: Peter said, “God’s promise is for you and for your children.” The people who were glad to hear his message were baptized. About three thousand people joined the church that day.
See two things here. First, the Bible says exactly who was baptized: “those who gladly received his word”. The stories about families never say this. They do not say “the people in her house who believed”. They say “her household”. Second, in the same talk Peter said, “the promise is to you, and to your children.”
“God did it all at once”
Some people say, “God changed the whole family in one hour by a miracle.” That is true: God can do this. But think about what it means.
If God gave faith to everyone in the house at the same moment, then their faith was a gift from God. It did not depend on each person’s own power to understand and decide. And if faith is God’s gift, then the youngest people in the house can receive it too. The Bible says that John the Baptist was “filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb” (Luke 1:15). Jesus said, “Allow the little children to come to me! Don’t forbid them” (Mark 10:14).
At Pentecost, the Bible says who was baptized: those who received the message. The family stories do not say this. And if God gave faith to a whole family at once, then faith was his gift, not each person’s own decision.
What does this show?
This page asks only one question, so we must be careful about what it shows.
It does not show:
- that these families had babies
- that nobody in these families believed
- that God cannot change a whole family in one hour
It does show:
- that the Bible does not say that every person decided alone
- that it is very unlikely that every person decided alone in the same hour, in several families
- that the stories talk about the faith of the head, and the baptism of the whole house
This is my own opinion. I do not see four stories of separate, private decisions with the details missing. I see four stories where God speaks to a person, and the person’s family comes with them. God opened Lydia’s heart, and her family was baptized. The guard was told, “You will be saved, you and your household.” That night, he and all his family were baptized, and the whole family was glad.
You may read it in a different way. This page tries to give you what you need to decide for yourself.
The simpler reading is that each family received baptism together, in faith, following the head of the house.
Check it yourself
- Read Acts 16:11–40. Find every word about time. Find every “she”, “he”, “house” and “household”.
- Read Acts 2:37–41. Who was baptized? How does the Bible describe them?
- Read Acts 16:34 in two or three Bible translations. Who believed?
- Draw a clock for one hour. Write in it every step your church asks before baptism. Could every person in the guard’s house do all of it, one by one, in that hour?
Want more?
The quick version has three short exercises. The full dossier has all the evidence and every source.
Quick version →Full dossier →Bible verses on this page come from the World English Bible, a modern translation that is free for everyone to use. In Old Testament verses it uses the name Yahweh where many Bibles write “the LORD”. The full dossier quotes the same verses from the Authorised (King James) Version.