Bible Questions with Michael Pearl
Episode 021: Must all a man's children be faithful, baptized, and saved for him to become a Deacon or Elder?

Episode Transcription:

Michael Pearl:  All right. Mike Pearl here, again, to answer your Bible questions and Jared sitting behind the camera. I've not seen nor heard these questions yet, but we're going to get them now and see if we can give you a Bible answer. What you got, Jared?

Dawn:  Hi, my name is Dawn, and I'm calling from California and my question is about the qualifications of Deacons and Elders. We're being told that in Titus I, where it says that, "children are to be faithful," it means that children must be baptized, saved believers. My husband and I have seven children, and I'm wondering if that means we have to wait until all of our children are baptized. That means that my husband wouldn't qualify to be an Elder until he was over 60 years old. I'd just like to know what your response is to that. Thank you for doing this, and thank you for your Ministry. Have a good day.

Michael:  All right, now in the Book of Timothy, he gives a much more detailed account of what is required of an Elder. I don't know what kind of funny group you're in, that says your children have to all be saved, and have to be grown, for you to be an Elder. Timothy is pretty clear in his detailed account. Paul writes to Timothy, who is a young man, and gives him a list of qualifications for Elders, and [chuckles] there's nothing about all the kids being saved. In fact, one of the qualifications is that he must rule his own house well ‑ that his children must be in subjection.

In Chapter three of Timothy I, "If the man desireth the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work. The bishop, then, must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behavior, given to hospitality, apt to teach, not given to wine or striking, and not greedy or filthy lucre, but patient, and not a brawler nor covetous ‑ one that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity."

So, according to that, the Elder should have his children in subjection, nothing about them being grown and being saved. "For if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God? Not a novice, thus, being lifted up with pride..." So forth, and so forth, and so he goes on down and he gives a more detailed description, he said also, "Let the Deacons be the husband of one wife, ruling their children and their own house well..."

A man rules his children only when they're children at home. He doesn't rule them when they're grown, and so the idea that they have to be grown is not Scriptural, or not Biblical, in any way.

Announcer:  If you would like to ask a Bible question, email us at [email protected] or call at 931‑805‑4820.