Why did god kill the liar?

[Hikarifuru]

When the man and wife lied about the money before Peter why were they killed and with no chance to repent why didnt Peter try to help them repent or be spared as a christian should?

Would you kill someone who told you a lie or who stole from you?

 

[Sketcher]

God took their lives because he had the right to take their lives. They showed contempt for him and his assembly, so might as well.

 

[Hikarifuru]

So Jesus does still kill people even in the NT?

Do you kill people who dont like you? Why werent they ministered to and prayed for to save their souls?

 

[Faulty]

When the man and wife lied about the money before Peter why were they killed and with no chance to repent why didnt Peter try to help them repent or be spared as a christian should?

Would you kill someone who told you a lie or who stole from you?

It's a reminder of just who it is we are dealing with and what the consequences of our sin really is. The action had nothing to do with their salvation. It didn't effect it one way or another. I can understand the action appearing more final to an atheist due to the assumption that this life is all there is and once it's gone, it's gone, but I dare say that every atheist who had passed realized at least two things a few moments later. First, that they shouldn't have been able to realize anything, and second, there is a time of reckoning to come to account for their sin.

The wages of sin is death. Because of it, we all die physically. These two just happened to do so sooner than expected. God required their lives that day because of their actions, but He would have taken it sooner or later anyway. Because of our sin, I will die, my children will die, you will die, but we will all continue to go on. What matters then is what is important, do we still owe on a legal debt, or has that debt already been satisfied on our behalf. That will be the only question which matters at that point.

 

[Joshua260]

So Jesus does still kill people even in the NT?

Do you kill people who dont like you? Why werent they ministered to and prayed for to save their souls?

Dean, do you think it's possible that God sometimes takes severe action in order to demonstrate how seriously he feels about a certain subject?

Notice the next verse:

Acts 5:11 KJV
And great fear came upon all the church, and upon as many as heard these things.

Apparently, God got his point across.

 

[dcalling]

The bible teaches us not to judge people, love others, that is how people should behave. We with limited knowledge better not judge others.

However when it comes to God, it is very clear that:
1. If you see God you die.
2. Any transgression in front of God you die. The priests of old had to have a rope with them before get into the temple, in case they did something wrong and die of that.
This is because God is pure and can't have any sin in front of him, not even Moses can see God, God had to cover his eyes.

And that is why God send Jesus, so we can get close to him, and he shows us what God meant in OT. When a women who sinned were brought to Jesus, he told her to "Go and sin no more". It is just a way to get to know God and not get burned.

 

[Hikarifuru]

Thanks to everyone for providing their explanation

 

[1watchman]

I see you are back again, Dean. Have you changed your mind about God and His Word?

 

[Hikarifuru]

Nothing has changed. Im not sure when you think i left.

 

[seashale76]

Orthodox Study Bible commentary:
Acts

5:1-5 Ananias and Sapphira are accountable for allowing Satan to fill their hearts with lies, and for breaking the trust and integrity of the Church. Their sin is not only keeping back possessions but deception (v. 4). Lying to the Church is equal to lying to the Holy Spirit (v. 3), the Spirit of truth.

 

[Johnnz]

The Exodus figured strongly in Jewish thinking. You may recall that as they went into the promised land a couple hid stuff they were forbidden to have and were put to death. That event in Acts fits in with the Exodus theme, of a new beginning, a new exodus under King Jesus. Thus, there is that repeat of a significant event at that time. The NT has many such examples illustrative of that theme. Prophetic enactments were is a similar vein where an OT prophet lived out some aspect of what was ahead for rebellious Israel.

John
NZ

 

[Sketcher]

So Jesus does still kill people even in the NT?

Do you kill people who dont like you? Why werent they ministered to and prayed for to save their souls?

God hasn't given me the right to kill my fellowman, with the possible exception of self-defense or the defense of others (say, children in danger). God however, gives all life, and all rights to life. Therefore, he can rightly take it away whenever he chooses.

 

[Cupis]

This is a very frightening though and I think most of choose not to think this, because of how much it frightens us.

Sin = Death, so God has every right to smite every single one of us. That's what makes our salvation that amazing and special, because although God has every right to smite us all he chooses to love us and give us a chance. We often seem surprised when he decides to condemn someone to death, but we forget that by "default" that this is what would be happening anyway.

 

[Hikarifuru]

Thanks for providing your points of view everyone.

 

[South Bound]

When the man and wife lied about the money before Peter why were they killed and with no chance to repent

Who says they had no chance to repent? They had an entire lifetime to repent.

I tend to believe that God's judgment on them was an act of mercy on His part, stopping them before they committed a greater sin and put themselves in greater jeopardy.

There is also the belief among some Christian theologians that God killed them in order to protect the integrity of the Church.

I believe both (or, at least elements of both) are true.

why didnt Peter try to help them repent or be spared as a christian should?

Peter couldn't help them repent. Only the Holy Spirit could give them the ability to repent.

Would you kill someone who told you a lie or who stole from you?

I'm not God, so your question is irrelevant.

 

[Hikarifuru]

Ok thanks for providing your opinion

 

[Pastor Don]

Here is another point of view DeanW...

We sometimes look at the world and believe we are kings in it; top of the food chain. The fact that we are created in His image has given us incredible advantages over all other creatures on the planet. One of them is our ability to reason. At times, this ability has taken us far away from our relationship with God. In fact, it we may at times reason ourselves right out of a relationship with the Lord based on the thoughts that all we need is our own intellect or the logic and intellect of others like us. This is how the game is lost for many.

God is generous in His love beyond anything we can conceptualize. If He were not, we would not survive our stupidity and arrogance towards Him. His sending of Jesus Christ to help teach us and then solidify a relationship with Him through His sacrifice was another example of this amazing love.

Ananias (Hebrew, "the Lord is gracious") and Sapphira (Aramaic, "beautiful") were guilty of embezzlement. They sold property in the name of the church and then skimmed some of the money for themselves. Two things to think about here. God does not change from the OT to the NT. Though He loves us, we should be in awe of Him and there should be an enormous amount of respect given to Him in all aspects of our lives. He breathed life into us and He can take that life from us as was the case here with these two. My humble opinion is that not only did these two lie and cheat the church of the money they were stealing, but they broke the simplest law of hospitality by taking money that was going to feed the poor, take care of the ministry, widows and orphans. You can find in Deut. a whole lot of thoughts from God on His take on how to treat the poor, the immigrant, the widow and the fatherless and yet here we have two people stealing literally from their mouths. That would be a sin that would bring God's wrath forward and after all that Jesus taught, it would hard not to be angry at two folks that were deliberately robbing from their own people.

I hope this helps you a bit...

Peace,

Don

 

[TheOtherHockeyMom]

This is a very frightening though and I think most of choose not to think this, because of how much it frightens us.

Sin = Death, so God has every right to smite every single one of us. That's what makes our salvation that amazing and special, because although God has every right to smite us all he chooses to love us and give us a chance. We often seem surprised when he decides to condemn someone to death, but we forget that by "default" that this is what would be happening anyway.

But God created us with an inability to live sinless lives. So it seems we all deserve death because our creator designed us that way, but we should praise His mercy when he doesn't choose to take our lives on any given day.

It's like saying to an ant "You deserve death because I don't like how you must live....crawling around, eating the picnic scraps, but I'm not going to squish you today because I'm in a nice mood".

There's got to be some way to reconcile a loving God with the idea that He created us destined for death and eternal suffering unless He chooses to intervene through Jesus or the Holy Spirit, perhaps by bestowing the gift of faith. I don't see it yet, though, how to reconcile the two.

 

[FreeinChrist]

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[Hikarifuru]

But God created us with an inability to live sinless lives. So it seems we all deserve death because our creator designed us that way, but we should praise His mercy when he doesn't choose to take our lives on any given day.

It's like saying to an ant "You deserve death because I don't like how you must live....crawling around, eating the picnic scraps, but I'm not going to squish you today because I'm in a nice mood".

There's got to be some way to reconcile a loving God with the idea that He created us destined for death and eternal suffering unless He chooses to intervene through Jesus or the Holy Spirit, perhaps by bestowing the gift of faith. I don't see it yet, though, how to reconcile the two.

Thanks for your honesty. I remember trying to accomplish this too and eventually it served to begin the end of my faith. I couldnt witness to my friends because i didnt believe they deserved to die if they merely disagreed. Within 6 months i reverted to atheism again and even if jesus was real id never serve someone like that.