The Misinterpreted In The Book Of Acts

The Book of Acts is thought provoking and yet provides historical insight to the Apostles and the beginning of the early church. The book of Acts was written for believers who were empowered by the Holy Spirit, which spread the good news of Jesus. With much oppression and persecution these followers of Jesus prevailed even with being jailed, stoned to death and imprisoned. Magic is a testimony of both the Old and New Testament with Satan’s interference with progress of the church at every turn. In the very beginning the devil was there trying to trick those into a belief of a false Messiah.

However, it is paramount that the discussion of how the Apostles miracles looked to Pagans and even the Jews could be very misinterpreted. It makes
Understanding the differentiation of these two worlds should be expanded on. According to the Book of Acts, “Even Simon himself believed, and after he was baptized, he stayed close to Philip constantly”, and when he saw the signs and great miracles that were occurring, he was amazed”. (Acts 8: 13NIV) This as it turns out was just an outward display so he would be favored and become one of the Apostles. Some critical thought here remains, as one is perceived to have a legitimate power enhanced by Jesus and the other a false one through worship of evil. It can be argued that Simon is looking for the same spiritual awareness that the apostles were gifted with from the Holy
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Simon the Father of Gnosticism is a title bestowed upon him by many Scholars. 12“The language of heresy was developed in order to exclude troublesome philosophies like Simons. “There is a passage that warrants further study, it relates to how Simon was able to continue to minister with Phillip until Peter and Simon have their confrontation. There is little doubt that Simon was very gifted at deceit, hence from this we know that truly he was never converted. The written material on Simon is very sparse and Luke may have had his reasons aforementioned.
There is also a matter of whether Luke is minimizing Simon’s character and his abilities, 13“Luke was himself aware of the true significance of such episodes as those described in chapters 8 and 17 of Acts, but chose to disguise their real importance for other reasons: 14“it was probably in order to suggest the apostolic age was in complete unity within the churches”. This is reasonable considering the church was gathering in strength and in numbers and was beginning to spread to the ends of the earth and this is where Luke kept his focus.
12. Drane, John. W.1975
13. Grant, Robert M. 1953
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