Justaned wrote:fatherfisher wrote:Maybe part of the reason God reacted the way he did was to make it clear just who the Holy Spirit really is. It may have been that to the disciples, even after Pentecost, the Spirit was still thought of as God's power or influence rather than as God himself? Acts 5 certainly reveals him as a Person who is capable of personal treatment (he can be lied to and tempted) and is, in fact, God.
In the early days of Israel's history, God sometimes really lowered the boom on them when compared to their later history, presumably to set the tone and establish his authority with them early on. Maybe the same kind of thing was happening in the early days of the church. From v.11 it would seem there was a need for a healthy fear of God in the midst of the hey-day of church growth that was taking place.
Would not that same "healthy fear benefit the church today?
How did Ananias lie to the Holy Spirit? He sold the properity kept back some and laid the rest at the Apostles feet. Where did the lie to the Holy Spirit come in? What was he lying about? The amount of money or the fact he would try something like this while claiming to be a Christian? The latter would be more of a lie to the Holy Spirit than the former.
In other words what he punished for impersonating a Christian or holding back money. We know his crime was holding back money.
Why cannot you accept the plain word of God Ed ?.
His sin is lying to the Holy Spirit and as a christian this is death in all its forms.
A non christian is dead anyway so stop trying to convince yourself they were unsaved.
Macca