What’s Happened To the Gospel?

Today all someone has to do is “confess Jesus is the Lord,” or “accept the Lord as their personal savior,” or just “repeat the sinners prayer;” and wha-lah, their born again; nice, neat, and nifty. Friend, are you aware of just how un-scriptural and erroneous these newfangled Christian methodologies are? Well let’s look at the real Gospel, the one in the Bible, that is. Acts ch. 8: Philip preached Jesus to the Samaritans, and they believed his preaching. As a result of their belief in Jesus, they experienced miracle healing from incurable physical infirmities. They had devils manifestly cast out of them by the power of God. They were delivered from real sorcery that had held them in bondage for some time. And they had great joy as a result of these things. Who wouldn’t? Now all of these things were wrought by the power of God’s holy Spirit through their faith in Jesus, and yet the scripture clearly states that the apostles and elders in Jerusalem, as well as Philip, knew that these people had not yet received the Spirit of God. So Peter and John went to Samaria to pray for them to receive the Spirit (Acts 8:5-15). Now what I want to know is, who in the world had the right to declare that these Samaritans had not received the holy Ghost, and how in the world did everyone know they had not received it? I mean, look at all that they had experienced by faith and the power of God. It was a whole lot more than most anyone experiences today upon “getting saved” through one of the above mentioned Christian doctrines of the new birth. But the fact of the matter is, the apostles and elders and everyone else who knew anything, did know that they had not received the Spirit. So how did they know this? To answer this question, let’s look at a sorcerer named Simon who was in the mix when Philip went to Samaria. He had bewitched the Samaritans with sorcery for some time, and when he saw the powerful signs of the holy Ghost wrought through Philip, the scripture says that he marveled at the miracles. But he did not offer Philip money in exchange for being endowed with the power to cast out devils, deliver from sorcery, or bring miraculous visible healing to people with evident afflictions like palsy.

As the account of this event continues, we see that Peter and John laid hands on the Samaritans, and when Simon SAW what happened to the Samaritans upon receiving the holy Ghost, he marveled so greatly as to offer Peter money in exchange for the gift of laying on of hands to impart the holy Ghost (Acts 8:18,19). So something happened to these people upon the laying on of the apostle’s hands, that was more intriguing to this man who was obsessed with the supernatural, than any of the other signs that he had witnessed by Philip. It’s quite obvious that these people spoke in other tongues and that they were visibly moved by the power of God, and the sorcerer was overwhelmed by the miraculous nature of this sign. In fact, the reality that the scripture does not say that they spoke in tongues makes it more evident than if it did say it. Why? Because it was an absolutely established truth and fact in the early body of Christ that everyone who received the Spirit spoke in tongues upon that reception, and therefore Luke felt no particular need to add that detail in this account of the Samaritans being born again. That is the only way that Philip and the apostles knew that the Samaritans had not received the Spirit before this. And the scripture is clear that this is also how Peter and those with him at the house of Cornelius the Centurion knew that the people there DID receive the Spirit (Acts 10:44-46). The significance is that “if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his” (Rom. 8:9). Also that the scripture says we are washed, sanctified, justified, renewed, and regenerated by the holy Ghost (I Cor. 6:11; Rom. 15:16; Tit. 3:5). So in light of these sobering scriptures, and what they obviously mean, and considering the account of the Samaritans; do you think that God has changed the operation of his Gospel and new birth experience that Jesus died for? If he hasn’t, then which Gospel will you hold to? The Gospel of Christ, or the Gospel of Christianity? I’m sticking with God, and with the record of his Gospel shown forth by the Bible. You should too. Amen.