Must An Elder Have A Plurality of Children?
One of the qualifications that a Christian man must hold to in order to be appointed to the eldership is that he must "blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children not accused of dissipation or insubordination" (Titus 1:6) and "one who rules his own house well, having his children in submission with all reverence 5 (for if a man does not know how to rule his own house, ho w will he take care of the church of God?)" (1 Timothy 3:4,5).
We commonly use the plural to include the singular. The Bible uses the terms "child" and "children" interchangeably (Matthew 18:2-5; Genesis 21:7), as do we in our own vernacular.
For example, parents who sign their children (whether they have one child or several children) up for school are told: "Be sure to register your children on next Tuesday for classes." What about the parents who have only one child? Does that include them? Of course, it does.
Another example is if my wif e and I had only one child, and you ask us, "Do you have any children?", will we say, "No, we don't have any children...but we do have a child?" Obviously not.
This qualification does not prohibit a Christian man who has only one child.
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