Why do people pass out at faith healing services?

[Alabaster]

I think people just get all caught up in the emotion and music and excitement and fall out. Sometimes they`ll fall and still be moving and shouting so I don`t think it is always fainting although sometimes you can see someone clearly has fainted. But I do think it has to do with being caught up in the emotions. I think this usually happens when a church builds on emotions. The preaching gets louder and more intense, the music gets more repetitive and intense, the fans are turned on to create a feel of the Holy Spirit moving in the air and people start shouting and inevitably the emotions overcome people. So I would not say it is fake but I would say it is somewhat generated by the environment building on and playing on the emotions. I am not convinced it is all 100% from the Holy Spirit.

Falling out in the Spirit does not equate with fainting. The person is totally conscious and lucid at all times, and neither are they paralyzed or unable to get up.

If a person falls out under the power of emotioon, then it isn't of the Spirit, is it?

It isn't one's place to watch with an eye of judgment.

 

[pjt]

It isn't one's place to watch with an eye of judgment.[/B]

I think we should be wise. In these times there is just too much stuff going on in the name of God that is not necessarily of God. God tells us to watch for these things. The Bible never says we should believe everything we see and hear but we should test the spirits and we should test the fruit and we should watch for apostates and false prophets. There is a definite call for God`s people to use sound judgement.

 

[handy]

I think we should be wise. In these times there is just too much stuff going on in the name of God that is not necessarily of God. God tells us to watch for these things. The Bible never says we should believe everything we see and hear but we should test the spirits and we should test the fruit and we should watch for apostates and false prophets. There is a definite call for God`s people to use sound judgement.

I agree, pjt...

I remember quite clearly one night at a Pentecostal revival folks surrounding me and they seemed quite determined that I either be "slain in the spirit" or speak in tongues. I knew that this was the result they wanted, and I faked tongues just to get them to leave me alone (wasn't a Christian at that moment...that came much later in the night, in spite of not because of the experience.)

Just because folks can have an emotional experience, does not mean that it is the work of God. There is most definitely the call to test spirits and be on the watch for false prophets. And, what better way to test the spirits but to examine them by the light of the Scripture? This is what Igor has asked for: Biblical examples of this phenomenon.

Now, I have seen many who use various texts which speak of people falling on their faces or falling down as support for slain in the Spirit, but when I examine those texts, it does not seem the same. It's never used in context of healing and most of the time, the overwhelming emotion that cause the Biblical person to fall was abject terror, not love. See Matthew 17:6 during the transfiguration when the disciples "fell facedown to the ground, terrified." or Revelation 1:17, where the glorified Christ must tell His beloved disciple "Do not be afraid", or the prophet Daniel in Daniel 8 where he speaks of falling down terrified before Gabriel. If there are any Biblical examples of anyone falling down due to overwhelming love...I'd love to see them.

As well as a Biblical example of someone falling down due to a touch. When Jesus healed He touched many times, and yet not once is there an example of someone falling down because of it.

When there is such a disconnect between an experience and the Scriptures used to justify it, it is not bad or "judgmental" to examine said experience further. These are valid questions to ask.

 

[cleanfreak]

Whether they fall forwards or backwards, it does not matter. The fact is , if they had an encounter with God, there will be a change. I would guess 90% 'fake it'. Am I judging? Nope, just stating a fact. I have seen a lot of folks hit the floor in my day, but hardly anyone who was actually changed because of it. The truth is, emotions take over, or pressure to speak or fall as handy has mentioned comes into play.

This type of thing ruins our witness as evidence in this thread. :o

 

[reba]

Igor

I’m not sure if this is the same as what I am asking about in this thread. In all the faith healing services I have seen, no one has ever fallen on their face. Always on their backs (most times after receiving a good firm shove to the forehead by the faith healer’s palm). To the ancient people of Biblical times, falling on one’s face was a sign of worship

Exactly!

 

[handy]

And there are some people who put on shows that are not real in order to decieve people. but that does not mean that there are not authentic slain in the experiances. My experiaces are authentic, and there are litterally thousands of others who have had authentic experiaces as well.

I do want to say that although many do fake these experiences, I do not discount all, or even most of these experiences as "fake" or not authentic. A person can have a very authentic experience...but this in no way means it is of God.

Yeah, I'm gonna go here, but I hope people will understand I'm not trying to flame with this, but here is something important to consider: Many who watch Voodoo practicitioners will sometimes see something that is almost identical to the Pentecostal "slain in the spirit" experience. I don't discount for a moment that these experiences within the Voodoo community are authentic...just that they are not of God.

I'm not trying to equate Pentecostalism with Voodoo, although I know that there are some who do. I've too many close Christian friends who are Pentecostal, people in whose lives I see the fruit of the Spirit, to believe that they are caught up in the occult.

I'm just saying that there is a big disconnect between "slain in the spirit" and anything we get from the Scriptures...and that this is something to question. Just because an experience is authentic, doesn't mean it is of God.

To me, it is a lot like sitting in a "contemporary" church service that has a heavy emphasis on rock music worship. The music is whipped up, and very controlled in order to elict emotions that many consider is "the Spirit moving among us!!!" However, go to any Dead-head concert in tribute to Jerry Garcia...and you'll find the same feeling, the same emotion. It doesn't have anything to do with the Spirit of God, it's just that music is very emotional and does create even physical experiences...

This was brought home to me once when I went to an Neil Diamond concert one Saturday evening and watched as people began to stand, sway and wave their hands, to his secular songs...then in church the very next morning, the congregation did the same exact thing when listening to the worship music. Not saying it's wrong per se...just that it isn't necessarily the Spirit who is causing these reactions.

I guess it was because of that first experience at the Pentecostal revival, the one where I knew for a fact that people were trying to elicit some kind of experience in me, so I faked one and made everyone start praising God, that I'm extremely cautious against this kind of thing...especially since so many faith healers are so apt to be con artists or at least have something happen that compromises the Gospel...like Brant Baker dying of AIDS and now being the poster child of the "Gay Christian" movement.


So, yes, it's quite good to examine all of these things by the light of Scripture.

 

[Hitch]

What a long strange trip its been

 

[WIP]

I hope this doesn't come across as cynical. I have never attended a faith healing event in person so bear with me. Based on what I've seen on the tube, it all seems a bit too dramatic as if it was a production rather than a real event. Maybe my source of reference isn't the best since I've never witnessed these types of events in person. Enlighten me.

 

[cleanfreak]

I hope this doesn't come across as cynical. I have never attended a faith healing event in person so bear with me. Based on what I've seen on the tube, it all seems a bit too dramatic as if it was a production rather than a real event. Maybe my source of reference isn't the best since I've never witnessed these types of events in person. Enlighten me.

Exactly!
One does not need a 'healing evangelist' to experience the power of God which sometimes includes 'falling out'. There are many ways God chooses to touch us. Like I said, most (90%) or so are 'staged' or if not staged by the evangelist, then faked by the person themselves. I will assume this is true for the ones you see on the tube as well.

The question should be, does it line up with 1 Corinthians 14:40?

......and most importantly, was the person changed?..... or was it an everyday routine thing that happened again and the person goes about the same way they did before they hit the floor?

 

[Lehigh3]

I have experienced what you are calling "slain in the spirit" but I never heard it called that.
I attended a non-denom. church for 2 yrs. & the staff definitely had the anointing.

The Sunday service would go over 1.5 hrs. bc at the end there was usually prayer for a particular problem that the elders & deacons (?) would lay hands upon those for this altar call. We'd stand & they prayed over you to get rid of a particular problem. I didn't always have that week's particular problem- maybe one week out of 4 of them!
Anyway, there is no doubt some have the anointing (whose laying the hands on you) And down I went. But I did hit my head once- bc no one caught me!!! So I fought the force some after that so I'd not be such jelly!
Anyhoo, my daughter was convinced of the anointing & took another altar call to accept Jesus as Lord!
My aunt (rest in peace prematurely) was addicted to "being slain" in the spirit- as you call it. She insisted we stay almost every time (she must have had more problems than many, i guessed) So we observed it a lot too.
I had the pastor of the church baptize me with the Holy Spirit. It is a dry baptism. I had to have some of that "anointing" rub off, as he had every gift of the Spirit imaginable!

 

[Shar]

We do need to discern the counterfeit from the genuine, test the spirits. I have had the experience of "resting in the Spirit" where I knew it was the Holy Spirit because prayer was said silently and only when I yielded my spirit to Him, did He enter me, and His strength overpowered me to where I could not stand once I yielded. I was totally aware of everything as I rested and had great peace, knowing God cares for me. This prayer was given for me by the wife of a doctor who has a gift for praying for healing, Dr. Issam Nemeh. A few minutes later he prayed for me, and a thick scar from a surgery "melted" in seconds and the skin was like a baby's, no longer raised above the surface and I do not have pain there since. In my experience, God has not forced anything upon me, though I know He has the power and Sovereignty to do so. He is love and only good comes from what He does. Be aware that counterfeits are out there, but they are mimicking the genuine.

 

[theophilus3213]

Falling out in the Spirit does not equate with fainting. The person is totally conscious and lucid at all times, and neither are they paralyzed or unable to get up.

If a person falls out under the power of emotioon, then it isn't of the Spirit, is it?

It isn't one's place to watch with an eye of judgment.

My experiance with being slain in the spirit is quit different then what you have described. When the preacher laid his hand on me the Holy Spirit came on me in such a powerful way that I BLACKED OUT! When I woke up on the floor a few moments later, every cell of my body was filled with an intense, warm, love! And at these meetings where this happend (thousands were in attendance) several hundred others had the exact same experiance!

This experiance was not caused by my own emotions overpowering me, It was caused by an external force of intense love coming upon me and entering me. The spirits love was so intense that my mind could not handle it and it shut down; thus causing me to go unconsious. This is what a genuine experiance of being 'slain in the Spirit' is.

Now it is possible for God to cause people to lose all their streangth so that they fall, and yet they remain conscience the whole time. God is God and He can do what He wants. But I would have to insist on the person having every cell of their body being filled with the intense love of God before I would say that they had been 'slain in the Spirit.' If every cell of their body was not filled with the intense love of God, and they fell down, then I would say that they fell down for some other reason then the Holy Spirit putting them down. (e.g. they want others to think that they are being 'blessed' by god, or they dont want to feel left out because others have fallen down. etc)

The genuine experience of being 'slain in the Spirit' is the greatest experiance that anyone could ever experiance! Nothing even comes close to it!

 

[handy]

The genuine experience of being 'slain in the Spirit' is the greatest experiance that anyone could ever experiance! Nothing even comes close to it!

So then, if this experience is so great, so magnificent...why didn't Jesus or any of the apostles lay hands on someone in such a way that it was done?

If this is the greatest experience that anyone can ever experience, why is it not recorded in the New Testament?

Again, Samuel, not doubting that you experienced something wonderful...just wondering if it is of God and if it is of God, why are the Scriptures silent on the matter?

I do agree that there is much more about God that isn't in the Scriptures than what is...but nonetheless, the Scriptures are for us, specifically for we Christians, so that we will know what God desires for us. The Scriptures point out God's law, so that we can see His holiness, Christ's death on the cross, our need to be born again, baptism by water, baptism by the Holy Spirit, bearing fruit, manifesting gifts....but "slain in the Spirit", which you say is by far the greatest of all of these...nothing.

 

[pjt]

Handy echoed my thoughts precisely. And it`s not just voodoo that has this effect but also if you see any documentaries on various tribes, their ceremonies have the same effect. They start off relatively calm but as the night falls and the drums get louder and more intense and the dancing and chanting get more intense, the emotions come over the people and sometimes they fall out and have various experiences. Likewise as Handy mentioned in Rock concerts people get emotional highs and some even pass out or fall out with the emotional rush. We saw it all the time with Elvis and the Beatles. I think the blood rushes to the head with the high and the person gets weak kneed. Some pass out and some just fall out. So I think there is a medical/scientific explanation for this phenomenon. Usually you don`t see it happening when people are quietly but very deeply and richly reading the Bible or praying. From my experience, it usually happens with a great build up of emotions. The services are built around this moment in the service and the services are orchestrated to build these emotions to a point of frenzy in some cases. The service starts calm and then the preachings gets more intense, the music gets louder and often repetitive like a chant and then sometimes the pastor will suggest the Holy Spirit has come or been released and people start shouting and the atmosphere becomes contagious.

So I would disagree that it is fake because I think a lot of the people really do feel something, but instead of calling it being slain in the spirit, I think I would call it an emotional or spiritual release because for the most part I think that is what it is. The emotions have been building up and at a climatic moment they are released. There is nothing wrong with emotional releases and sometimes they can be very cathartic or healing especially if one has pent up feelings they can`t get rid of otherwise. However, these emotional releases can also be misleading and distracting to the main purpose of the gospel. People can seek these emotional highs like a drug more than they are seeking God and they can place more spiritual value on these highs than the mundane fruits of the spirit like kindness, gentleness, etc.

So I think those who practice this should exercise caution by reminding those who are around them that this experience is not the main thing to seek in spiritual life. It is a nice emotional release for some, but it is not a good indicator of how Godly a person is or whether a person is a true Christian or not and it is not nearly as important as living a Godly life on a daily basis.

 

[Alabaster]

My experiance with being slain in the spirit is quit different then what you have described. When the preacher laid his hand on me the Holy Spirit came on me in such a powerful way that I BLACKED OUT! When I woke up on the floor a few moments later, every cell of my body was filled with an intense, warm, love! And at these meetings where this happend (thousands were in attendance) several hundred others had the exact same experiance!

This experiance was not caused by my own emotions overpowering me, It was caused by an external force of intense love coming upon me and entering me. The spirits love was so intense that my mind could not handle it and it shut down; thus causing me to go unconsious. This is what a genuine experiance of being 'slain in the Spirit' is.

Now it is possible for God to cause people to lose all their streangth so that they fall, and yet they remain conscience the whole time. God is God and He can do what He wants. But I would have to insist on the person having every cell of their body being filled with the intense love of God before I would say that they had been 'slain in the Spirit.' If every cell of their body was not filled with the intense love of God, and they fell down, then I would say that they fell down for some other reason then the Holy Spirit putting them down. (e.g. they want others to think that they are being 'blessed' by god, or they dont want to feel left out because others have fallen down. etc)

The genuine experience of being 'slain in the Spirit' is the greatest experiance that anyone could ever experiance! Nothing even comes close to it!

I trust your experience is from the Lord and your appreciation of it is your own. I have had it happen to me, but it wasn't an exciting experience as other experiences have been, such as the day I received the gift of tongues, or the wonderful day that the Lord spoke to me audibly! Now that fills me with awe even today, 6 years later!

 

[Danny63]

Igor I am glad you open this topic because it is such a huge delusion on the most part, I just have a hard time with this whole Slain in the Spirit thing, as others have stated, when falling before the Lord it was a personal act of worship and it was making yourself prostrate before God almighty an act of submission to the one in authority. I do not see it as this slain in the spirit others have experienced. I see no where in scripture where this slain in the spirit happens nor do I see when Jesus healed did they fall backwards.

Also another thing that bothers me is (I mentioned this in the thread the OP spoke of) Why do we call them Faith Healers, or why do they call themselves faith Healers? Are they the healer? It seems to me saying one is a Faith Healer is calling them the healer and not God. Why not call them Faith ministers of God's Healing, or something shorter but to that point.
Just curious about that.

I had the pastor of the church baptize me with the Holy Spirit. It is a dry baptism. I had to have some of that "anointing" rub off, as he had every gift of the Spirit imaginable!

I thought not to comment on this but maybe I should.

When you made a decision to trust in Christ, the moment you excepted Him as your Lord and Savior you where baptized in the Holy Spirit. No man has the power to place salvation upon you, nor does he have the power to infuse the Holy Spirit into your body or soul. That is done only by God and when you except His free gift of salvation through the shed blood of His Son Jesus Christ. There is no such thing as another dry baptism you need to get.

 

[theophilus3213]

So then, if this experience is so great, so magnificent...why didn't Jesus or any of the apostles lay hands on someone in such a way that it was done?

If this is the greatest experience that anyone can ever experience, why is it not recorded in the New Testament?

Again, Samuel, not doubting that you experienced something wonderful...just wondering if it is of God and if it is of God, why are the Scriptures silent on the matter?

I do agree that there is much more about God that isn't in the Scriptures than what is...but nonetheless, the Scriptures are for us, specifically for we Christians, so that we will know what God desires for us. The Scriptures point out God's law, so that we can see His holiness, Christ's death on the cross, our need to be born again, baptism by water, baptism by the Holy Spirit, bearing fruit, manifesting gifts....but "slain in the Spirit", which you say is by far the greatest of all of these...nothing.

Ok, The bible does not list every miracle that Jesus and the apostles did.
In fact The apostle John stated that Jesus did so many miracles that it is
impossible to record each one.

The bible does not give us a list of miracles and tell us that these are the
miracles that God does and He does no others.

The epistles were written in large part to correct problems in the early church, and give sound doctrine: they do not give us a list of all the miracles that God was
doing through the apostles. Nor even all of the normal activities of the early
church. No one in the early church thought that it was necessary to record the
many miracles that were happening as it was understood that God has no limits
and He can perform any kind of miracle that He wants to whenever He wants to.
So the bible cannot be used to say what kind of miracles God will perform
today.

Let me give you a experience that I had that definitely is the work of God,
But that you will not find any scriptural support for.

Back in 1990, I had joined the army. I went to fort dix in NJ for my basic
training. I called home one day and found out that my 4 year old daughter has slipped on some ice and fell down a flight of stairs and broke her left arm. Snapped
the bone in two! I told my wife to put her on the phone. I asked her if she
believed that Jesus would heal her if I asked Him too. She said "Yeah
daddy, I believe He will." So I said ok, lets pray. As I started praying
for her I felt the glory of God in my heart in a powerful way, and my daughter
felt the same thing and she started giggling with joy! I knew right then that
she had been healed! I called back home again two week later and my wife told
me this story, she said that she had taken my daughter to the doctors office a
week earlier and the doctor x-rayed her bone through her cast. and then went
and looked at the x-rays to see if the bone was still set right and healing ok.
Then he came out and started taking off her cast. and as he did so he said that
he had never seen a bone heal this quickly or this thoroughly. It was just as
if it had never been broken! All praise goes to God for healing her!

Now, there is no place in the bible that says that Jesus or anyone else ever
healed someone by praying for them over a phone! Nor is there any record of
anyone having a broken bone healed instantly the way my daughters was! Does
this mean that this was not the work of God? I don't think so!

I don't know why people want to try to put limits on God. He is far greater
than we can possibly imagine! And He has the ability to do anything He wants
any time He wants!

So to try and say that a miriacle that God has done is not of God because the bible does not record anyone doing such a miracle is just plain wrong and is in fact blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. (The sin of blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is difined for us by Jesus in Math 12:22-32, it is to call the power of God the power of satan. it is to speak against the Holy Spirit work.)

Please stop tying to put God in a box and please stop trying to define what God can or cannot do. He is God and He will do what He will's.

 

[theophilus3213]

Handy echoed my thoughts precisely. And it`s not just
voodoo that has this effect but also if you see any documentaries on various
tribes, their ceremonies have the same effect. They start off relatively calm
but as the night falls and the drums get louder and more intense and the
dancing and chanting get more intense, the emotions come over the people and
sometimes they fall out and have various experiences. Likewise as Handy
mentioned in Rock concerts people get emotional highs and some even pass out or
fall out with the emotional rush. We saw it all the time with Elvis and the
Beatles. I think the blood rushes to the head with the high and the person gets
weak kneed. Some pass out and some just fall out. So I think there is a
medical/scientific explanation for this phenomenon. Usually you don`t see it
happening when people are quietly but very deeply and richly reading the Bible
or praying. From my experience, it usually happens with a great build up of
emotions. The services are built around this moment in the service and the
services are orchestrated to build these emotions to a point of frenzy in some
cases. The service starts calm and then the preachings gets more intense, the
music gets louder and often repetitive like a chant and then sometimes the
pastor will suggest the Holy Spirit has come or been released and people start
shouting and the atmosphere becomes contagious.

So I would disagree that it is fake because I think a lot of the people
really do feel something, but instead of calling it being slain in the spirit,
I think I would call it an emotional or spiritual release because for the most
part I think that is what it is. The emotions have been building up and at a
climatic moment they are released. There is nothing wrong with emotional
releases and sometimes they can be very cathartic or healing especially if one
has pent up feelings they can`t get rid of otherwise. However, these emotional
releases can also be misleading and distracting to the main purpose of the
gospel. People can seek these emotional highs like a drug more than they are
seeking God and they can place more spiritual value on these highs than the
mundane fruits of the spirit like kindness, gentleness, etc.

So I think those who practice this should exercise caution by reminding
those who are around them that this experience is not the main thing to seek in
spiritual life. It is a nice emotional release for some, but it is not a good
indicator of how Godly a person is or whether a person is a true Christian or
not and it is not nearly as important as living a Godly life on a daily
basis.

What you have described here has absolutely nothing to do with what happens
when someone is slain in the spirit! The experience of being slain in the
spirit is much different than what you have described! I know because I have experienced
the phenomena of being slain in the Spirit on many occasions. Please read what
I have posted previously in this thread, as I have described in detail what
happens when a Christian gets 'slain' by the Holy Spirit!
It is quit obvious that you have never been slain in the Spirit. if you had
you would know that what you have written has absolutely nothing to do with
this phenomena!

The experience of being slain in the Spirit occurs when the Love of God comes
upon you, and enters you with such intensity that you black out. and when you
wake up every cell of your body is filled with the intense love of God! Nothing
that the voodoo people, rock concert people, etc, do even comes close to this!
There is nothing that can compare to this experience because this is not a
natural phenomena; it is a supernatural experience! It is a very intense encounter
with the God of the universe!

 

[theophilus3213]

I trust your experience is from the Lord and your appreciation of it is your own. I have had it happen to me, but it wasn't an exciting experience as other experiences have been, such as the day I received the gift of tongues, or the wonderful day that the Lord spoke to me audibly! Now that fills me with awe even today, 6 years later!

when I got baptized in the Holy Spirit back in 1973, It was a very powerful experiance that made me a new person. The love of God just rolled through my body like a wave! I spoke in toungues for 2 weeks straight. But being slain in the spirit was a greater experiance! The love that I felt was just a little more intense. It was intense the day I was baptised in the Holy Spirit and started speaking in tongues: but the inensity of God's love at that moment was not so strong as to cause me to black out; like it was when I was slain in the Spirit.

 

[Sparkey]

So then, if this experience is so great, so magnificent...why didn't Jesus or any of the apostles lay hands on someone in such a way that it was done?

If this is the greatest experience that anyone can ever experience, why is it not recorded in the New Testament?

Again, Samuel, not doubting that you experienced something wonderful...just wondering if it is of God and if it is of God, why are the Scriptures silent on the matter?

I do agree that there is much more about God that isn't in the Scriptures than what is...but nonetheless, the Scriptures are for us, specifically for we Christians, so that we will know what God desires for us. The Scriptures point out God's law, so that we can see His holiness, Christ's death on the cross, our need to be born again, baptism by water, baptism by the Holy Spirit, bearing fruit, manifesting gifts....but "slain in the Spirit", which you say is by far the greatest of all of these...nothing.

If you are saying that the term "slain in the Spirit" isn't found in Scripture, then you're correct, of course. There was something though and to pretend that "Scriptures are silent on the matter," does nothing to refute what we can plainly see in the Book of Acts.

Here, let me fetch it for you - but before I do, yeah - there isn't an 1st hand account of what it felt like to be baptized in the Holy Spirit. Just like there wasn't a first hand account of how the how people felt directly told when they heard Jesus preach or when they witnessed the miracles performed -- we just know that it was "glorious".

Here then - note that Simon the sorcerer noticed "something" definitive happened and offered money to buy the "gift" - he was rebuked sternly, of course, but he wasn't offering to buy something that had unnoticable consequence. Of course this passage does not go along with many "official" versions of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit so I don't hope to convince anybody - but certainly the bible is not "silent".

"(For as yet he was fallen upon none of them: only they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.) Then laid they [their] hands on them, and they received the Holy Ghost.

:shocked! And when Simon saw that through laying on of the apostles' hands the Holy Ghost was given, he offered them money, Saying, Give me also this power, that on whomsoever I lay hands, he may receive the Holy Ghost.

But Peter said unto him, Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money. Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter: for thy heart is not right in the sight of God. Repent therefore of this thy wickedness, and pray God, if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee. For I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness, and [in] the bond of iniquity.

Then answered Simon, and said, Pray ye to the Lord for me, that none of these things which ye have spoken come upon me." - Acts 8:16-24 KJV

Simon didn't argue with Peter but instead asked that he pray to the Lord for him so that he be spared what had been pronounced by the man of God.


DISCLAIMER: I'm not saying that what is seen on evangelical television is the same thing that Simon the sorcerer saw -- only that it was significant enough to prompt him to offer to buy the "gift" so that men could be filled with the Holy Spirit when he laid his hands on them (like he saw the Apostles do). He wanted that power and there was no question that they had something that could not be faked. Else, why offer to buy?