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Acts 8:13 - Simon Believed
Acts 8:13 - Simon Believed
The text is rather straightforward and would seem to be easy to grasp the meaning.
"Philip went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed to them the Christ… But when they believed Philip as he preached good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. Even Simon himself believed, and after being baptized he continued with Philip" (Acts 8:5, 12-13).
So it was with a bit of surprise as I sat in a class on Acts back in the early 70's. It was taught by a 'Dr.' of religion. A young man that was sitting in front of me posed an observation and question that had come up in his study. "I checked the Greek text and the underlying word for 'believed' is the same for the Samaritans in verse 12 as it is for Simon in verse 13. It says they believed and it says Simon believed. Why then did you tell us yesterday that Simon did not believe?"
The 'Dr.' had said that NOT because of the text, but because of his preconceived theology that a believer can never sin so as to be condemned. Hence he repeated his statement in this class: "I know it says that he believed, but you can see from the rest of the story that he did not believe." With that, I got up and left.
'Dr. Luke', who had made careful study of what had actually happened (Luke 1:1-4), wrote the book of Acts. Having made such careful study, and living in the first century where he had access to Peter [who was actually involved in the whole affair], Luke wrote: "Even Simon himself believed, and after being baptized…"
Luke could have said "Simon pretended to believe", but he did not. According to Mark 16, "he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved". Hence we have no reason to believe that Simon did anything different than the other Samaritans. Luke throws in a connecting word – EVEN Simon believed (ESV, NAS, NRV). The King James used the word 'also' here: Simon ALSO believed. What the other Samaritans did, Simon did. They believed. Simon believed.
What made this 'Dr.' of religion in 1970 say that Simon did NOT believe? Because Peter later said to Simon: "May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money! You have neither part nor lot in this matter, for your heart is not right before God. Repent, therefore, of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord that, if possible, the intent of your heart may be forgiven you. For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity" (Acts 8:20-23).
Can a believer be in the bond of iniquity? Can a believer end up in a situation where his 'heart is not right before God'? Can a believer stand in need of 'repentance … of wickedness"? Can a believer stand in danger of perishing?
Well, Simon DID. But without repentance and prayer to God, such would be unforgiven. In order to hold on to the idea that a believer can never sin and be condemned, it was just easier to say the Simon didn't believe. The one big problem with that is that you have to deny the Bible to teach it. I think I will stick with Luke's account.
Hugh DeLong
