The jailer feared God, s. 29.
I have explained these Scriptures to you, in their context, and you do not believe me. There is no reason to conclude he feared God. Look at the verse:
Acts 16:29 Then he called for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas,
--Where does it say he feared God? It doesn't.
He feared for his life!
What just happened previous to this. Context is important:
Acts 16:27 And the keeper of the prison awaking out of his sleep, and seeing the prison doors open,
he drew out his sword, and would have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had been fled.
He sought God, and humbled himself, asking what he could do to be saved, s. 30. That is turning to God with his whole heart and soul, it is also acknowledgment that he knew he needed to be saved, s. 30, which is confession, he is also calling on the name of the Lord. The jailor did many things. I enjoy learning about these things, it is about the deeper things of God. [/quote]
This is pure speculation and eisigeses. What does the verse say:
Acts 16:30 And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?
He called on Paul and Silas not on the name of the Lord.
There is nothing in this verse about turning to the Lord, nothing!
He brought them out because Paul told him not to kill himself, and that no one had escaped. Paul knew what was happening. There was something of a supernatural nature going on, and he knew that Paul would know. No doubt by now he was convicted by the Holy Spirit. But there is no confession, no acknowledgement of anything. You are adding to the Word of God.
In verse 31 is where Paul shares the gospel, and the jailor gets saved.
Something else you are not considering is that before the jailor was saved, the word of the Lord was spoken to them, s. 32. You have to be in denial to assume nothing was said or felt by the jailor and his whole household while the word of God was spoke to them.
You conveniently skip over verse 31
"Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved."
Why, when the jailor was about to kill himself, and then asked Paul about salvation, would he not have been saved right there and then?? There was no reason. If he had not been saved, an unsaved man would have no reason to take Paul and Silas to his home putting his life and family in so much danger.
Acts 16:32 And they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house.
33 And he took them the same hour of the night, and washed
their stripes; and was baptized, he and all his, straightway.
--Now he was able to preach the gospel to the rest of the household.
Now the jailor was able to tend to the injuries sustained by Paul by being in jail. Only a saved man would do that.
--Now they were in a place where these saved individuals of this household were able also to obey the Lord in baptism.
You are wrong about every believer having to go to teach everyone.
If I am wrong here, when Paul gives this command to his disciples then I must logically conclude that every command ever given to the disciples throughout the entire gospels is not applicable to us today: The Lord's Prayer (Lord teach us to pray). The Beattitudes, John 14:21,23,15, and all the rest of the verses on obedience, the coming of the Holy Spirit, the prophecy of his own death and resurrection, etc. Everything that he said to his disciples relates only to his disciples. You might as well tear Matthew, Mark, Luke and John out of your Bible and throw those books in the garbage because they don't apply to us. Right?
What foolish thinking.
The Great Commission is given in every gospel.
--Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.
It is also given in Acts 1:8.
It is exemplified in Acts 8:4 where they all went every preaching the Word.
In the OT, God called out a nation unto himself, the nation of Israel.
In the NT God is still calling a nation unto himself:
1 Peter 2:9 But ye
are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood,
an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:
--They are to go and show the praises of him who has called us out of darkness into marvellous light. But where are we to go? Into the farthest reaches of the world.
Romans 10:18 But I ask: Did they not hear? Of course they did: "Their voice has gone out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world."
You do err not knowing the Scriptures.
You do err always taking Scriptures out of context.
In verses 13 to 15 the Great Commission is given again, something you should take great heed to.
In verse 17 is that great verse on faith--it comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.
And then Paul turns his attention to Israel for an example and a defense of his argument for the Great Commission just stated.
In verse 18: Did they (the Jews) not all hear? Yes they did. All the Jews heard the Word. The argument is that if all the Jews heard the Word then it is possible for all the Word to hear the Good News. For nothing is impossible with God. God will be with them as he was with the Jews.
Psalm 19:4 Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world. In the heavens he has pitched a tent for the sun,
Really? Psalm 19:1-4 talk of creation. When did God write the gospel: the death burial and resurrection of Christ in the stars?
Romans 1:8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is being reported all over the world.
The command Jesus gave was to his who did preach the gospel.
This defeats your argument. Not one of the apostles ever came to Rome until Paul was taken there as a prisoner. He writes the letter never having been to Rome. We believe that perhaps Aquilla and Priscilla started the church, but it wasn't started by an apostle. And yet their faith is being reported all over the world. They realized the importance of the Great Commission without any apostle.
Colossians 1:6 that has come to you. All over the world this gospel is bearing fruit and growing, just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and understood God's grace in all its truth.
Again, it is the believers of the church that realize the importance of the gospel.
Colossians 1:23 if you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.
The Colossians recognize the importance of the Great Commission.
And after all of that you do not recognize its importance, and don't believe you are obligated to obey, but rather sit in disobedience. This is truly unbelievable!!
