God kills a couple for lying to Peter
Acts 5:1-11 Now a man named Ananias, together with his wife Sapphira, also sold a piece of property. With his wife's full knowledge he kept back part of the money for himself, but brought the rest and put it at the apostles' feet.
Then Peter said, "Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land? Didn't it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn't the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied to men but to God."
When Ananias heard this, he fell down and died. And great fear seized all who heard what had happened. Then the young men came forward, wrapped up his body, and carried him out and buried him.
About three hours later his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. Peter asked her, "Tell me, is this the price you and Ananias got for the land?"
"Yes," she said, "that is the price."
Peter said to her, "How could you agree to test the Spirit of the Lord? Look! The feet of the men who buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out also."
At that moment she fell down at his feet and died. Then the young men came in and, finding her dead, carried her out and buried her beside her husband. Great fear seized the whole church and all who heard about these events.
PERSONAL COMMENTARY
So far, most of the killings attributed to God have all been from the Old Testament under the Old Covenant. This is the first one listed in the New Covenant era.
13 comments:
I suppose that God needed that money more than they did?
Let this be a lesson. If you dont tithe, you should fall down dead.
Aaron,
Nice sites.
I believe that is the purpose of the scripture.
Pay up or else you'll be tied to a sandbag in the bottom of a lake.
Why don't you quit spending all this time on this stupid site of yours and go out and use the time to help the poor and needy?
This story of Ananias and Sapphira is about tithing? Really? Where? Is it not a story about people lying about how much something was sold for in order to keep a profit for themselves?
As for tithing in general, it's not a commandment which means it's not an issue.
This is why people/Christians get upset about sites such as this. Sure there are verses posted, but the "educated" anti-Bible comments that accompany these verses reflect serious misunderstandings of the subject (see above). The objective seems more to poke fun then to intellectually debate.
Jason,
I checked out your sites. Please feel free to enlighten us with the proper interpretation or explanations for these scriptures.
The intent of this blog is to post scriptures that we ignore and discuss them.
You said this wasn't about the money but about lying. Do you feel that this justifies killing them? There are many of us that lie on a continual basis. Why aren't we killed? One of the reasons we give for all the killings in the O.T. is that it was under the old covenant and Jesus hadn't paid the price for sin as yet... so we all deserved death.
Why was this killing justified now in the New Covenant?
This story, like many others where God kills people, is often argued from the basis of "fairness". It's an impossible position to be in because we're not God, we don't have His mind and understanding. However, this instance in Acts 5 is a bit different. It's not difficult to see why Ananias and Sapphira were killed and best of all, you don't even need me to gve you a 'proper' interpretation of these verses, it's there for everyone to see.
The situation in Acts 5 is about lying to the Holy Spirit (vs 3-4), more then just a lie said to anyone else. Blaspheming the Holy Spirit is considered an "unforgiveable sin" so by lying to the same gives us the impression that the punishment, in this case, fit the crime.
I'm not entirely sure the killings in the OT had anything to do with Christ. Man is man and man has always been sinful, right from the get-go up until now. Because we sin, a Christian would argue that we've always deserved death, before, during and after Christ. But maybe that's an unfair digression :)
Jason,
Please read this blog and comments and see if you agree with doc.
Paul
Paul,
Other then being a bit long-winded and perhaps making things a bit more complicated then they need to be, there are some valid points (although I don't agree with the freeing of the souls bit). There are actually solid valid points on both sides of the argument so all in all, it looks like a good discussion.
Your thoughts on Acts 5?
Jason,
I just do not see how lying to the Apostle Peter about this issue is equivalent to "blaspheming the Holy Spirit". They lied to the church and its leadership at the time on money they were giving to the church.
I've seen this scripture used by church leaders to elevate their status and imply that if people show any lack of respect for them, it's disrespecting God or the Holy Spirit.
How do you determine what is an act against God or an act against the church or its leaders? What justifies when God kills vs. when he shows mercy and offers forgiveness?
To me, this single event calls into question a lot of our New Covenant teachings.
Peter says they lied to the Holy Spirit, not to him or the church (verse 3, 9). Any wrong doing against the Holy Spirit isn't going to result in a happy ending and it certainly didn't in Acts 5.
Isa 29:15 "Woe unto them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the LORD, and their works are in the dark, and they say, Who seeth us? and who knoweth us?"
Prov 20:25 "It is a snare for a man to devote rashly something as holy, And afterward to reconsider his vows."
As for determining what are acts against God and what are acts against church leaders, I'm not entirely sure what you're looking for and what the relevance of the question is...? And I'm also a little confused about your justification question... God doesn't need to justify His actions to anyone, least of all His own creation.
Is this conversation over? What, no closure?
You really dont think Gods actions should be justified? You really can worship a god who can do whatever he wants and you can just write it off as "Gods will" or we can never know Gods intentions.
How are you so sure the devil didnt write the bible... maybe god is more evil than good... thats what it seems like to me anyways.
Jason,
you said: "God doesn't need to justify His actions to anyone, least of all His own creation."
you just closed all rooms for discussion. this blog nurtures questions on the basis that we don't know anything to be 100% true, whereas you just nailed a statement that you claim is the ultimate truth! And we can't ask you how you know this because you'd regurgitate the same "We cannot question God" lines.
if we cannot question God's actions, then cannot question the bible. if we cannot question the bible, then we blindly follow its teachings even though, as this blog shows, some teachings go against our moral consciousness.
you see.. we cannot talk logic because the basis of your logic stems that God is right, God cannot be questioned VS. God MAY NOT be right therefore God can be questioned.
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