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NASB | Acts 5:9 Then Peter said to her, "Why is it that you have agreed together to put the Spirit of the Lord to the test? Behold, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out as well." |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Acts 5:9 Then Peter said to her, "How could you two have agreed together to put the Spirit of the Lord to the test? Look! The feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out also." |
Subject: Ananias and Sapphira paid for their sin |
Bible Note: 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 |