Simon and Salvation: When is belief, not Belief. Acts 8:9-18

 

When is belief not belief? Or, is belief in Christ ever not belief in Christ? That is really at the heart at this whole debate that is termed free grace versus lordship. Some people have said that free grace sounds like a redundancy. Well the infallible inerrant Word of God sounds like a redundancy. We have to keep adding these adjectives for clarity because the tactic of the enemy is always to change the meaning of words. That is why words are so important. Often the battle is on vocabulary: how you form questions. For example, the question: when is belief not belief? That sounds like an affirmation that there is a time when belief could not be belief. It’s not, we know that, but it sort of sounds that way. How we state things, the words we use, tend to shift and shape the debate. The debate is belief in Jesus Christ for salvation the sole and necessary condition for salvation.

 

Non-Christians have trouble with that because basically they want to do it their way. It is an authority issue. God says, ‘I have a plan for salvation and there is only one way.’ Non-Christians think that they’re basically good enough. Isaiah 64:6 says that all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags, and if we can’t do anything to be saved we have to rely exclusively on the work of someone else. And that reliance on someone else is trust, it is believing that they are the one who can save us. When anything is added to that then what we are saying is that the belief in what this other person has done isn’t enough; we have to add to it. So that completely dilutes and destroys the faith.

 

But there are those who will say, well if it is true faith. There are a couple of different issues in faith. One is that there are those who make a distinction between faith and saving faith; that the kind of faith that saves is different from the kind of faith that we have in everyday life. But we wonder where the Bible says that, that when it uses the terms “believe” and “faith” it means something other than what the average person on the street who is hearing the common language of the Koine Greek would hear it differently and say, ‘Oh, the faith they’re talking about isn’t the same kind of faith I talk about day in and day out.’ Where would they get the idea that somehow it is a different kind of faith?

 

There are one or two places in Scripture that they go to, to try to defend this, and one of those is this passage here with the salvation and the belief of Simon.

 

Just as a reminder of where we are, Philip has gone north to Samaria. This is just radical, one of the most radical socially revolutionary things that could take place because of the hatred and animosity and enmity that existed between the Samaritans and the Jews. They had had centuries of hostility toward one another. What Philip has recognised is that Jesus Christ has died for everyone. That means that as Christians there is no basis for any kind of prejudice, or ethnic or cultural bias in giving out the gospel.

 

Demonism can be categorised in two different ways. There is passive demon influence, which is the influence of demonic/satanic thought through the world system of thinking—various philosophies and religions of the world system. That would be more of a passive or indirect demonic influence. Then there would be a more active demonic influence when a person is intentionally and volitionally pursuing activities that he knows involves him in the occult or demonic activity. The term “occult” is a word that at its core meaning refers to something that is hidden, something not seen, and so it comes to apply to a certain kind of knowledge, a hidden or secret knowledge. It was a word that was often associated with Gnosticism. Gnosticism has the same idea: that if you really want health and happiness you just have to latch on to a special formula, a secret doctrine, and then you will be able have that. In its technical application the word “occult” has come to refer to supernatural or magical powers—not magical powers like David Copperfield has but magical powers like Satan has where they are tapping into true supernatural beings.       

 

In Deuteronomy chapter eighteen there is a very strong prohibition to the Jews against being involved in any kind of occult activity. In fact, such involvement was to be punishable by death because it basically would bring a cancer into the Jewish community.

 

Deuteronomy 18:9 ^NASB “When you enter the land which the LORD your God gives you, you shall not learn to imitate the detestable things of those nations.”

 

The Canaanites were practicing all of these things. It was part of their religion. Theirs was a demonic culture and this was why God was authorising the annihilation of the Canaanites, every man, woman and child. They had become a malignant sore on the body of humanity. God had given them 400 years since the time of Abraham to turn to Him and they continued to become more and more perverse, and so now it was time for judgment. In a similar way the native American was debauched and perverse and demonic. It was the same in Mexico with the Aztecs who had human sacrifices.

Deuteronomy 18:10 ^NASB “There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire [live human sacrifice], one who uses divination, one who practices witchcraft, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer.” The Hebrew word for witchcraft here basically has to do with reading signs or doing some kind of divination. [11] “or one who casts a spell, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead. [12] For whoever does these things is detestable to the LORD; and because of these detestable things the LORD your God will drive them out before you. [13] You shall be blameless before the LORD your God. [14] For those nations, which you shall dispossess, listen to those who practice witchcraft and to diviners, but as for you, the LORD your God has not allowed you {to do} so.” The reason they were to be driven out was because they listened to soothsayers and diviners.

There are other passages in the Scriptures that talk about different practices of divination. We have several examples in Daniel with the Magi. The Magi was a Median tribe that specialised in astrology and fortune telling.

 

In Ezekiel 21:21 we are told about the practice of the king of Babylon. ^NASB “For the king of Babylon stands at the parting of the way, at the head of the two ways, to use divination; he shakes the arrows, he consults the household idols, he looks at the liver.” This was common –practice for decision making in the ancient world. The magicians were quite powerful in their own right. Whether or not they were tapping into demonic power we don’t know. The wise men in Egypt definitely were, and they could imitate a certain number of the plagues that Moses brought upon the Egyptians. Tat is seen in passages like Exodus 7:11, 22 where the Egyptians basically copied whatever Moses did. But by the time of the later plagues in Exodus 8:18 and 9:11 they could not duplicate the plague of the vermin or the lice, or the plague of the boils. They could only go so far. Satan’s power is always going to be limited by God.

 

If somebody was involved with witchcraft the penalty was death. Exodus 22:18 ^NASB “You shall not allow a sorceress to live.”

 

Simon is a sorcerer. Acts 8:9 ^NASB “Now there was a man named Simon, who formerly was practicing magic …” The words “practicing magic” is the verb which is formed on the word  for Magi; it is the word mageuo [mageuw]. It meant basically at that time to just practice magic. Whether he was just practicing in a very sophisticated leisure domain or whether he was involved in some kind of demonic connection we don’t know. Based on the text he is probably just a good trickster. The other word used in Scripture for sorcery that we find in the list of the works of the flesh in Galatians 5 is pharmakeia [farmakeia] referring to the use of certain kinds of drugs to bring about mind control, hallucination, getting in touch with the demonic side.

Then we are told that Simon himself believed. Acts 8:13 ^NASB “Even Simon himself believed; and after being baptized …”  He was baptized, so his belief isn’t any different from anybody else’s belief, and Philip doesn’t see him as being different from anybody else, even though he is a well known sorcerer. “…he continued on with Philip, and as he observed signs and great miracles taking place, he was constantly amazed.”

The purpose for signs and wonders is to give convicting evidence of the truth of the message. The whole Gospel of John is written around signs, and in Acts 2:22 we read ^NASB “Men of Israel, listen to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through Him in your midst, just as you yourselves know—” In other words, there is nothing wrong with pointing out the miracles that Jesus did, or coming to faith on the basis of those miracles. They were part of the signs of an apostle. 2 Corinthians 12:12 ^NASB “The signs of a true apostle were performed among you with all perseverance, by signs and wonders and miracles.” The only ones other than the eleven who performed miracles were Philip and Stephen, and that is because they were apostolic associates, a unique role that applied to those who were those chosen in Acts chapter six.  

When it comes to belief we should pay attention to how the word “belief” is used in Acts. Is there any basis on how the word “belief” is used in Acts for saying that there can be a kind of belief in the gospel that doesn’t get you saved?

After Peter has preached the gospel on the day of Pentecost and 3000 were believed, we are told: Acts 2:44 ^NASB “And all those who had believed were together and had all things in common.” The lordship guy is going to come back and say that was all genuine belief. He wants to read some sort of adverb into the sentence—all who truly believed, all who genuinely believed. The Bible never says truly believed, genuinely believed the gospel; it just talks about those who believed.  

Acts 4:4 ^NASB “But many of those who had heard the message believed; and the number of the men came to be about five thousand …. [32] And the congregation of those who believed were of one heart and soul …” So again and again it is simply believe in the message that Jesus is the Messiah, and there is no qualifying factor.

Acts 5:14 ^NASB “And all the more believers in the Lord, multitudes of men and women, were constantly added to {their number,}.” Being added to the Lord is being added to the body of Christ.

Acts 8:12 ^NASB “But when they believed Philip preaching the good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were being baptized, men and women alike. [13] Even Simon himself believed …” Luke is not distinguishing Simon in any way at all from the rest of those who believed in terms of his belief.

Acts 9:42 ^NASB “It became known all over Joppa, and many believed in the Lord.” That’s all there was to it.

Acts 10:43 dealing with the Gentiles—Cornelius. ^NASB “Of Him all the prophets bear witness that through His name everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins.” Notice he [Peter] doesn’t say those who believe in Him for eternal life. Here he is talking about believing for remission of sins.

Acts 13:12 ^NASB “Then the proconsul believed when he saw what had happened, being amazed at the teaching of the Lord.” Once again, his belief was based on signs but it was not an inadequate belief.

Acts 13:39 ^NASB “and through Him everyone who believes is freed from all things, from which you could not be freed through the Law of Moses.” Everyone who believes; not everyone who believes sincerely, genuinely, or believes with a commitment to the lordship of Christ.

When we look here at what happened with Simon, it says Simon believed and he continued with Philip. After this he is going to fall. So people are going to say, Ah but it wasn’t a genuine faith. Then there is a Simon Magus who shows up 100 years later in church history that is a progenitor of Gnosticism. And all of these Gnostic miracles and teaching is attributed to him. But we don’t know if that is a legend or anything about it. But people will say: How can he be a false teacher like that and be saved. It is easy, because getting saved doesn’t mean you are always going to behave the way you should behave.

When we read here of Simon, “This man is what is called the Great Power of God,” the Aramaic word for the “power” was a word that the Samaritans often used as a substitute for God. It was a circumlocution. Instead of saying the word “God,” they would say “Power.” They would make statements like, “Great is the great Power.” So when we look at that sentence at the end of verse 10 it should be punctuated as, This man is “the Great Power of God.” That term, the Great Power of God, was a term for the one who was the expression of God in the Old Testament. It was used to denote an angel. Remember that in the Old Testament the angel of the Lord is distinct from Yahweh, yet both are fully divine. The angel of the Lord in almost all cases is the pre-incarnate Jesus Christ. So this idea that there is an angelic representation of God and was one they called “the Great Power of God.” And they are assigning that name to Simon. So Simon has a sort of pretension to messianic claims here. But he comes in contact with the real Messiah, Jesus Christ, and trusts in Him.

He is converted, he trusts in Christ, and then when he sees what happened when Peter and John comes and the Holy Spirit baptizes them, he wants to buy that power. That is where we get the term “simony” that developed in the Middle Ages for those who wanted to purchase church offices.