Results 1 - 5 of 5
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Results from: Answered Bible Questions, Answers, Unanswered Bible Questions, Notes Ordered by Verse | ||||||
Results | Verse | Author | ID# | |||
1 | Ananias and Sapphira paid for their sin | Acts 5:9 | Val | 213058 | ||
Dear Keliy, first off it doesn't address the salvation of Ananias and Sapphria. Since they are in the early church I presume they are christians. Concerning their sin Peter in some way by the spirit was shown Ananias and Sapphria's deceptiveness and pronounced their judgment. The question raised is were they covered by the blood and another question raised is if they were then they would not have been judged. First off as to salvation, if they were saved, they were covered by the blood. The second question is the one I believe where I have a different conclusion that the one your questioner arrived at. For whatever reason God took Ananias and Sapphria on home. A word study done on the word "discipline" would be helpful. In my studies I have learned that when a believer falls into sin the Lord will discipline His child just as a parent disciplines his children. Since we all still sin the Lord's discipline is at work all the time. If a person is not disciplined by the Lord, he is not His child. Sometimes if a wayward child does not accept the discipline and change their ways the Lord has the option of taking them on home if He choses. So in the end, sin is very serious both for the believer and the unbeliever. The book of James describes sin and the end result being death. For Anainas and Sappharia this death occured immediately. Sincerely, Val |
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2 | Ananias and Sapphira paid for their sin | Acts 5:9 | keliy | 213059 | ||
Hi Val, thank you for your response. I have looked for the answer for some time now, then I felt the Forum could be of help. My Big Book of Bible Difficulties (Geisler, Howe; Baker Books) does not even touch this verse.) Annanias and Sapphira were actually wrong on many different levels. One, they were trying to exalt themselves as far as their standing among church members. Yet, the path to greatness is always that of humility. "He that exalteth himself shall be abased. He that humbles himself shall be exalted"(Luke 14:11). While you say since they were in the church, you presume them to be Christians, I might ask you if all who attend church are Christians? I have co-workers who say they are Christians because they go to church every Sunday, and my response was "does going to a garage make you an automobile? (I knew them personally, and that they did not discipline themselves for the other six and one half days every week) I was not judgemental, just trying to shed some light in the darkness. This brings us to the parable of the wheat and the tares which I show partially here: "The slaves of the landowner came and said to him, 'Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?' "And he said to them, 'An enemy has done this!' The slaves said to him, 'Do you want us, then, to go and gather them up?' "But he said, 'No; for while you are gathering up the tares, you may uproot the wheat with them. (Mat 13:27-29) The salvation of the pair is not mentioned in the Bible, so we should not fill in the blanks on our own. Their sins are numerous, but I will begin with pride, and greed. Yet, the sin for which they gave their lives was not the sin of holding back, because God did not require, or even ask them to give everything. The sin that likely caused their death was the sin of hypocrisy--they pretended to give all to God while they were holding back from God. Christ was building His church through His Holy Spirit and it was expanding very fast. Our Lord's exposed wisdom likely deemed that the hypocrites could not remain. He showed us that He was sovereign, and the church was quickly purged from their hypocrisy. As Jesus said, "Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees which is hypocrisy." And Paul told the Corinthian church years later to "purge out the leaven therefore." I basically was looking for an apologetic answer to the brother who was belittling the wisdom of the Bible, which says all are made righteous in the eyes of God through the Blood of Christ. As Jesus said, we must forgive not seven times, but seventy times seven, there must be a reason why the Holy Spirit felt it necessary to include this story that seems to conflict with what we have been taught in other verses, such as Acts 5:31 "He is the one whom God exalted to His right hand as a Prince and a Savior, to grant repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins. All of this Val, and there is no answer to the question, and I expect I might not find the answer in this life. Lord Bless, keliy |
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3 | Ananias and Sapphira paid for their sin | Acts 5:9 | Val | 213060 | ||
Dear Keliy, since God is the only one who sees the heart, He is the only one who knows the true condition of the soul. He is a different judge that you or I for we would fall far short. That is why when a person tells you they are saved that is what we go on. We might judge their life and say they are not by their lifestyle but again it is God who is the judge not us so we are to respect their confession. They might look at us and say we are not good enough. How hurting that would be. We must admit that different people are at different places in their walk with the Lord. I don't know what you mean by apologetic answer? I do know the details I gave you about doing a word study on discipline or chastening would help. I don't know what your post about forgiveness means? As I said the verses are about sin not salvation. And I do know that just because you fall into sin and die, it does not mean you are not saved, it just means you die out of fellowship with the Lord. I believe we are saved by grace alone in the One who gave His life for me, Yeshua, Jesus, and by the way wasn't Rick Warren's prayer honoring Him superb. Anywho thanks for the discussion. Good day, Val | ||||||
4 | Ananias and Sapphira paid for their sin | Acts 5:9 | keliy | 213061 | ||
Hi Val, It is always a pleasure to discuss topics with you. This is the definition from Webster's, explaining what I meant about apologetics. 1 : systematic argumentative discourse in defense (as of a doctrine) 2 : a branch of theology devoted to the defense of the divine origin and authority of Christianity On the judging note, I said in my post that I was not being judgemental. - I did know these workers on a personal level for a long time, and when the conversation continued, I told him that going to church for an hour a week is not what gets you to heaven, if you are not going to give it another thought for the rest of the week. And, his response was, No. That is not the way it works. So, he is standing upon a works based doctrine, thinking that church attendance will gain him admission into heaven. And, if you saw the pictures posted above his desk, and the material in the drawers, you would agree. What I meant by the forgiveness reference was to get back to the original question. Why were Annanias and Sapphira not forgiven their sin? Was not the Blood of Christ sufficient to save them? Is that how our Father chastens the children He loves? By stopping their heart on the spot, the very instant of an infraction? I am not pretending to know the spiritual level of Annanias and Sapphira, so I suppose it is another possibility that the Lord cut them down to prevent them from committing the unpardonable sin. But, again. We will know the answer to this biblical difficulty when the perfect comes and all that is imperfect disappears. Thank you, Val. May God Bless you and yours. keliy |
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5 | Ananias and Sapphira paid for their sin | Acts 5:9 | Val | 213064 | ||
Dear Keliy, To remain on the point whether Annanias and Sapphira were saved is not the question. The topic is sin. What happens when a person sins? For the Christian the Lord disciplines his children, agreed? The Lord deals with each individual differently and as He choses. He is just and righteous and holy and perfect. He is the giver of life, our very next breath He gives. He is the Creator and can and does take away that breath anytime He pleases and He does not answer to anyone. Salvation is believing in Jesus and his finished work on the cross. His sacrifice made possible for the penalty of sin to be paid for. That is salvation, surrendering our lives and our sins to Him. What happens when a persons sins after salvation? The answer is they must confess and repent of that sin. If they do not; our Saviour will chasten them just as a loving parent chastens His child. If the person does not accept the chastening and continues in sin is he lost? No he is still a child of the King. He is still going to heaven when he dies. But the sin that he is involved in will bring forth death, for example, death of a relationship such as in a marriage if adultery is committed, physical death if the sin is against the physical body. When that person dies he still goes to heaven but he is out of fellowship. That means he hasn’t dealt with his sin. That is why Paul urges Christians to a holy life so that when our Saviour comes we will not be ashamed. On the topic of sin; there are consequences to sin. Various consequences according to the individual’s life. Sometimes if an individual Christian is causing disgrace to God’s plan then God may take that Christian on home. He goes to heaven, out of fellowship. I urge you to do a word study on “chastening”, discipline, love. Those whom the Lord loves He disciplines and if one is without discipline he is not one of His. Many believe the reason the Lord took Ananias and Sapphira on home or wherever they went is because the church was in its early stages and it was pure. A pure church and what they did was unacceptable and would not be tolerated at that time as it specifically was related to the beginning of the church. As time marched on and the apostles died out the church was not as pure and we can see that in history, yes? This time in Acts was a special time. A time of miracles. Maybe this was one of the gifts of the apostles to be able to recognize deception. Acts tells the beginning of the church. A pure church. It is a picture of what the body of Christ should be today. Oh that we would long to be pure and holy, without deceit, wanting the approval and praise of the One who is the head of the body rather than of men. All praise to Christ the King and God the Father. Amen. Grace to you my friend - Val | ||||||