# Acts 5:1-11 Ananias and Sapphira - isn't their treatment too harsh?



## Eoghan (Mar 2, 2014)

[BIBLE]Acts 5:1-11[/BIBLE]

When we read this passage it stands out "like a sore thumb" - we see it as a harsh judgment that goes too far. Or is it? I am struggling to understand this passage in it's context and in order to do that I am going to have to abandon my preconceived notion that it is simply too harsh and Peter was having a bad day.

To answer that I need to look at the context of the church before the incident and after. I also need to look at the extent of their sin which definitely seems to be premeditated fraud. The judgment that was passed on them - was it really so severe? To be called before the throne of God is a privilege for Christians and when God removes the godly from the land it is seen as a sign of judgment. So is temporal death really so bad? 

Still chewing it over and will probably expand on the themes above. I would be interested in what others think and how they have come to terms with this passage. I did listen to one sermon which pointed out the extent to which lying is a blight on business - leading to lawyers who in multi-page documents try to nail down what could otherwise be a simple handshake. 

[In one scene from Babylon 5 a commercial telepath sits in on a business negotiation. She reports that the company will not meet the deadline specified in the contract but (reading his thoughts) could do so if they paid overtime and took on other workers. In B5 telepaths are routinely used to verify the veracity of what is being said. We forget the extent to which sins such as lying make life much more problematic.]


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## Leslie (Mar 2, 2014)

I'm with you in your puzzlement over this passage. It seems overdone, but this is the word of God. What can we learn about His sense of justice from this?


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## Cymro (Mar 2, 2014)

It seems that to lie against the Holy Ghost is specifically pinpointed as 
a particularly heinous sin. It is not stated as a sin against the Father or
the Son, but emphasised and allocated against the HOLY Spirit. One wonders 
therefore if this is connected to the unpardonable sin. Certainly there was no 
allowance for repentance in this case.
I remember one Divine writing that a formal or lazy prayer is a sin against the 
Holy Ghost, which is a sobering thought.


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## Andres (Mar 2, 2014)

WLC 
Q. 28. What are the punishments of sin in this world?
A. The punishments of sin in this world are either inward, as blindness of mind, a reprobate sense, strong delusions, hardness of heart, horror of conscience, and vile affections;106 or outward, as the curse of God upon the creatures of our sakes,107 and all other evils that befall us in our bodies, names, estates, relations, and employments; *together with death itself.*

Romans 6:21, 23. _What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death.... For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. _

All of our sins are worthy of death. Instead of asking "how could God kill Ananias and Sapphira for their sins?", perhaps the better question is, "how is He so gracious to spare any of us?"


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## Tirian (Mar 2, 2014)

Were they truly believers? Does God kill Christians in this way?


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## Contra_Mundum (Mar 2, 2014)

In formative epochs, targeted severity sends a peculiarly strong message, a memorable lesson.
Creation
Adam and Eve cursed with death, for eating a piece of fruit, Gen.3:17-19.

Old Covenant
Threats against any living creature that so much as touches the mountain, Ex.19:12-13.
Nadab and Abihu slain for offering strange fire on the altar, Lev.10:1-2.
Slain for gathering sticks on the Sabbath, Num.15:32-36.

Entering Canaan
The covetousness of Achan, for which 36 men died in a minor skirmish, and for which crime he and all his were destroyed, Jos.7.

New Covenant
Ananias & Sapphira​
These, and perhaps others, are indicative of the criticality of the moment, especially a beginning.


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## Jack K (Mar 2, 2014)

Signs and wonders. That's what's happening at this point in Acts. The Holy Spirit is witnessing to the truth of Christ and his church, showing all in Jerusalem who care to pay attention that God is at work. This includes showing that he is not to be taken lightly or mocked. Like the healing of the lame beggar in chapter 3 and the healings recorded later in chapter 5, the Ananias and Sapphira incident revealed to "all who heard of these things" (5:11) that they should take the church seriously.

The incident does sound severe, but the fact that it seems unusual to us actually ought to remind us that what we receive from God is not what we deserve. Certainly, I too have mocked God by telling lies and by using churchy behaviors merely to advance my image within the church. I deserve what Ananias and Sapphira got. Don't we all? Yet God is so merciful to us, time after time, that when we read this story we're shocked by it. What amazing, consistent mercy we enjoy! And how good it is that the one Man who never lied before God took for us the penalty we each deserve!


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