Simon the Sorcerer

[Rollo Tamasi]

Yes
But what if he didn't repent and ask for forgiveness?

If a person is unwilling to repent and ask forgiveness, then I don't see how the Holy Spirit can be dwelling within them.

 

[Malachi]

He believed, right?

There is believing and then there is believing. An outward profession may not necessarily reflect an inward reality. By their fruits ye shall know them, and Simon showed by his fruits that he simply made an outward profession. There was no genuine repentance, which goes with genuine saving faith.

He was baptized, right?

Correct. Which shows that the baptizer does not know what is within the soul. He can only go with the outward profession, and proceed with baptism on that basis.

 

[Malachi]

I am not sure of your source for that. Please elaborate. Thank you.

Simon Magus, (Latin), English Simon the Magician, or The Sorcerer (flourished 1st century ad), practitioner of magical arts who probably came from Gitta, a village in biblical Samaria. Simon, according to the New Testament account in Acts of the Apostles 8:9–24, after becoming a Christian, offered to purchase from the Apostles Peter and John the supernatural power of transmitting the Holy Spirit, thus giving rise to the term simony as the buying or selling of sacred things or ecclesiastical office. Later references in certain early Christian writings identify him as the founder of post-Christian Gnosticism, a dualist religious sect advocating salvation through secret knowledge, and as the archetypal heretic of the Christian Church.

Having been revered by the people of northern Palestine as possessing vast preternatural powers, Simon Magus manifested his own admiration for the power of Christian evangelization when, in the New Testament story, he requested Baptism from Philip the Deacon. The biblical account concludes with Simon’s repentance and apparent reconciliation with Christianity after his condemnation by St. Peter (which is incorrect). The 2nd-century theologian Justin Martyr relates that Simon visited Rome at the time of the emperor Claudius (41–54) and was there deified by followers fascinated with his miracle working. Archaeological finds reputed to have confirmed Simon’s divinization have not proved genuine.

Other Christian documents of the 3rd century state that Simon Magus, in the role of false Messiah, had further confrontations with St. Peter at Rome. According to legend, on challenging the Apostle before the emperor Nero (54–68), Simon fell to his destruction from atop the Roman Forum in an attempt to demonstrate his occult ability to fly. Still other sources portray him as the individual responsible for the eclectic fusion of Stoicism and Gnosticism, known as “The Great Pronouncement.”

Simon’s quasi-Trinitarian Gnostic teaching, wherein he, with the title “the Great Power of God,” appeared to the Jews as a mediating, suffering “Son of God,” to the Samaritans as “Father,” and to the pagan world as “Holy Spirit,” is contained in the early Christian writings known as the Clementine literature. The mythic form of these documents raises doubts as to whether the biblical Simon Magus and the Simon of later apocryphal sources are the same.

In the 2nd century a Simonian sect arose that viewed Simon Magus as the first God, or Father, and he was someitmes worshipped as the incarnation of the Greek god Zeus. His consort Helen was regarded by his followers as the earthly manifestation of Athena.

In the Simonian creation myth, the first thought (Ennoia) was produced from the Father’s mind in order to create the angels, who in turn created the visible universe. These angels, however, imprisoned the first thought out of jealousy, placing her in a human body so that she could not return to the Father. She was thus doomed to pass from body to body, the most recent being that of Helen. In order to redeem his first thought, the Father descended in human shape as Simon and offered salvation to human beings if they would recognize him as the first God.

The Simonian doctrine of salvation differed from that of the other Gnostic groups, for it promised redemption within the temporal order, whereas other Gnostics could conceive of salvation as attainable only by escaping their earthly prison.

http://www.britannica.com/biography/Simon-Magus

 

[By Grace]

http://www.britannica.com/biography/Simon-Magus

Thank you for that. I will pursue it no further with you.

However, I do take issue with Britannica's statement Later references in certain early Christian writings identify him as the founder of post-Christian Gnosticism, a dualist religious sect advocating salvation through secret knowledge, and as the archetypal heretic of the Christian Church. because there is nothing but anecdotal and ambiguous references cited.

 

[eddif]

Isaiah 8:19
And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God? for the living to the dead?

I presume that Simon as a sorcerer would have been in to magic arts, familiar spirits, false tongues (chirp / mutter with no interpretation and knowledge from the one true God). In his case he would not have the background to know he needed interpretation for his version of gentile tongues. He formerly (probably) had possession / madness to do his arts. Here (with the carnal mind) was an opportunity to buy into something better. He was probably being helped by tough love.

I Corinthians 12:2
Ye know that ye were Gentiles, carried away unto these dumb idols, even as ye were led.

Gentiles understood leading of evil spirits, but they did not know about leading by the Holy Spirit. This same lack of understanding seems still to exist today. True tongues (Day of Pentecost Type) are not a problem, but the chirp / mutter wizard type are an evil problem. The word of knowledge by the Holy Spirit is not a problem, but the familiar spirit knowledge is a definite problem.

This was a time of learning for the church. Tradition has so narrowly defined the problems with tongues that folks are afraid of the true experience. This is an excellent opportunity to go through an upwerd learning curve.

Of course I am from backwoods snake handling territory (kinda). How could a Mississippi redneck know anything about all this? Some knowledge by observation.

eddif

 

[Malachi]

Of course I am from backwoods snake handling territory (kinda). How could a Mississippi redneck know anything about all this? Some knowledge by observation.

Simon was quite a snake in his own way, and Peter handled that snake very skilfully. Today, you will not find anyone walking up to a false teacher and rebuking him the way Peter rebuked Simon.

 

[eddif]

Simon was quite a snake in his own way, and Peter handled that snake very skilfully. Today, you will not find anyone walking up to a false teacher and rebuking him the way Peter rebuked Simon.

Peter had been rebuked by the God kind of tough love. Peter then rebuked with that same kind of tough love.

eddif