The Highway Forums General Discussion Theology Discussion Forum Acts 8:5-17

I have been trying to understand this part of Scripture and am still a little hazy about it.

First we begin with the Saul's persecution of the Christians after Stephen's death.

It says that many Christians in Jerusalem fled this persecution and some went to Samaria including Philip. Philip told the crowds there about Jesus Christ.

The Crowds listened intently to was being teached to them because of the miracles he did. Many evil Spirits were cast out and many who were paralyzed and lame were healed.

But it says that when the Apostles back in Jerusalem heard that the people in Samaria had acepted God's message, they sent down Peter and John. As soon as they arrived, they began praying for these new Christians to receive the Holy Spirit. For as yet He had not come upon any of them. For they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then Peter and John laid their hands upon these believers, and they received the Holy Spirit.

So we see here the Gospel being spread to the Gentiles and we also see Apostolic healing. But there is a little confusion with the men of my bible study group as to what exactly is going on here.

1. I seem to be the only one in my study group who see's that there was a special Apostolic, miracle and healing power.

2. We're not sure what is going on in order for Peter and John to have to 'lay' hands on these new believers for them to receive the Holy Spirit. We have several commentary answers that vary.

I believe it's the case of Philip sharing the Gospel but not baptizing in the name of the Father, the Son 'and' the Holy Ghost. So until these believers where baptized undet this condition that, they had not received the Holy Spirit. But this leaves me with going back to the baptismal argument. When do we receive the Holy Spirit?

Please share your thoughts if you would.

Grace and Peace be with you.

Y.B.I.C,

Dave. <img src="/forum/images/graemlins/coffee2.gif" alt="" />

Dave,

The key to rightly understanding the book of Acts is found by knowing the "intent" and "method" and "history" of that book. In short, the book of Acts is the record of how the infant New Testament church came to be and then its progressive development from infancy to maturity. Racial prejudices had to be overcome by the Jews and the first 10 chapters were given to us to show how God brought the intended universality of salvation and the people of God to reality. Thus there are many things which are temporal and unique which were never intended to be perpetual nor paradigmatic and thus expected to be the "norm" for the mature church through its existence on earth.

I have attached a short section from a book written by Frederick Dale Bruner, A Theology of the Holy Spirit, who goes into more detail concerning this particular portion of Scripture; Acts 8:15-17. I hope you will find it instructive. I formatted it in ".pdf" format so everyone should be able to read it, assuming they have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed. <img src="/forum/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> If someone is unable to open the document, you may PM or e-mail me and request this document in another format. I'll do my best to fulfill those requests.

In His Grace,