# Acts 5 - Ananias and Sapphira - summary execution?



## Eoghan (Jan 27, 2010)

How do we understand this part of the early church history. If it were to happen today Ananias would be exhumed and a medical examiner would have to determine the cause of death!


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## Jack K (Jan 27, 2010)

If it happened today, it would be shocking and sensational. It would create some fear and result in many news reports. All this would be similar to the actual reaction in Jerusalem reported in Acts:

"And great fear came upon the whole church and upon all who heard of these things. Now many signs and wonders were regularly done among the people by the hands of the apostles. And they were all together in Solomon's Portico. None of the rest dared join them, but the people held them in high esteem." (Acts 5:11-13)

The deaths of Ananias and Sapphira were part of the signs and wonders God used to establish his church early on. They were particularly potents signs, testifying both to God's power and the fact that his Spirit may not be trifled with. They brought sober esteem for God, his church and his apostles.

Of course, we may not forget that each of us deserves the same fate. I feel pretty safe in saying we have all, at some point, pretended to be better than we are for the sake of our reputation in the church. We deserve to die for such grievous, destructive-to-the-body lies. Why then don't we all die on the spot?

Well, there is one of us—just one—who is not guilty. But he did die. He died a cursed death on the cross in our place, both to save us from punishment and to make us a people with new hearts. The particular signs and wonders that befell Ananias and Sapphira are not normative for our churches today. But both the warning, and the Good News they testify to, are enduring lessons.


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## VaughanRSmith (Jan 27, 2010)

It would be interesting to see if there are continuationists who believe that this particular spiritual manifestation continues today...


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## Mathetes (Jan 28, 2010)

Exagorazo said:


> It would be interesting to see if there are continuationists who believe that this particular spiritual manifestation continues today...


 
Well, if it really did happen, I imagine they'd be justified in their belief


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## asc (Jan 28, 2010)

Perhaps you meant, why don't continuationist emphasize this manifestation of the Spirit today?
Or how about the account of Paul cursing the false-prophet Bar-Jesus with blindness in Acts 13?


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## Peairtach (Jan 28, 2010)

What about the Corinthian believers who abused the Lord's Supper :



> For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. (I Cor 11:29-30, KJV)





> For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. (I Cor 11:29-30, ESV)



Does anyone doubt that God does or could exercise such chastisement today, although we believe that certain _gifts_ have ceased?

I suppose an unusual or inexplicable or sudden illness or death could be a sign, wonder and miracle that may have ceased with the Apostolic period? 

None of us wishes to tempt God re such signs, wonders and miracles.

Certainly there is chastisement, the Q is whether or not we should expect/look for _supernatural _chastisement.


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## Rich Koster (Jan 28, 2010)

Exagorazo said:


> It would be interesting to see if there are continuationists who believe that this particular spiritual manifestation continues today...



Full continuationists would have trouble finding a name for the act because slain in the spirit is already taken


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## Peairtach (Jan 28, 2010)

A survey of the expressions "cutting off" or "cut off" in the Old Testament finds that they are often used for Old Covenant excommunication.

Often "cutting off" involved a threat to the health or fecundity or life of the offender by God, especially if the evil action was secret - unknown to the community, known only to the LORD - or was not acted upon by the community.

E.g.


> The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, "Say to the people of Israel, Any one of the people of Israel or of the strangers who sojourn in Israel who gives any of his children to Molech shall surely be put to death. The people of the land shall stone him with stones. I myself will set my face against that man and will cut him off from among his people, because he has given one of his children to Molech, to make my sanctuary unclean and to profane my holy name. And if the people of the land do at all close their eyes to that man when he gives one of his children to Molech, and do not put him to death, then I will set my face against that man and against his clan and will cut them off from among their people, him and all who follow him in whoring after Molech."
> 
> "If a person turns to mediums and wizards, whoring after them, I will set my face against that person and will cut him off from among his people." (Lev 20:1-6, ESV)



On other occasions excommunication was by presumably temporary (sometimes partial) shunning and/or exile, or by execution in the most severe cases of gross, wilful and flagrant breach of the Ten Commandments, for which there was no ritual sacrifice.

Those who had genuine faith in God as their Saviour went straight to Heaven, of course, however they died, whether by stoning or by God's judgment or whatever.


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