Acts 8:22

Repent therefore of this thy wickedness, and pray the Lord, if perhaps the thought of thy heart shall be forgiven thee. For I see that thou art in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity. And Simon answered and said, Pray ye for me to the Lord, that none of the things which you have spoken come upon me.

Repent ... and pray ... In this instance, the apostle Peter, using the keys of the kingdom of God promised him by the Saviour (Matthew 16:19), opened the way for a backslider to return to God. If Simon had not been a backslider from the faith, but had been an alien hypocrite pretending a faith and submitting to a baptism which were worthless, Peter would never have commanded him to repent and pray, these very commandments standing here as an apostolic confirmation of the fact that Simon was in possession of a covenant relationship with God through Jesus Christ, despite the fact of his sin. The door here opened for Simon's return is the same that must be entered by all Christians who, when overtaken by some sin, seek to return to the Lord.

This thy wickedness ... The sin for which Simon required forgiveness was not that of impure motivation of his baptism, nor of any insufficiency of faith in his conversion, but the specific wrong of thinking to buy the gift of God with money. Therefore, the apostle did not command Simon to repent of his sins (plural), but to repent of the specific sin in evidence, "this thy wickedness." If this had not been the case, Peter's command to Simon would have been different.

Thou art in the gall of bitterness ... bond of iniquity ... This is the sentence which many commentators abuse with reckless abandon, thus:

Simon at this time was an unconverted sinner.[34] He was STILL attached to the bitter "gall-root" of superstition and magic; he was STILL held fast in the bond of iniquity.[35]

He showed that he never had his heart truly humbled.[36] He remained STILL "in the gall of bitterness and the bond of iniquity."[37]

First of all, these opinions cited above violate every known law of exegesis by their attribution of Simon's present condition (expressed in the present tense in English Revised Version) to the whole of the period of his association with the Christians. Secondly, they ignore the fact that Peter's words regarding "the gall of bitterness and bond of iniquity" are not even applicable to Simon's condition at that moment. As a glance at the English Revised Version margin will reveal, what Peter really said was that "Thou WILT BECOME a gall-root of bitterness and a bond of iniquity," thus expressing not a present condition at all, but a danger of future reprobacy. Thus, not even the present tense is in this warning of Peter; and it is absolutely unscholarly and unconscionable to make Peter's warning of a future condition that would result from Simon's sin, if unrepented of, to be the basis of the outrageous claims that Simon had never known the Lord.

We might inquire, why is it that learned men have so frequently betrayed their sacred trust by thus handling deceitfully God's word? Two reasons appear as the logical explanation of this blindness, which is not necessarily the result of dishonesty or insincerity, but which, as to a certain extent is true of all men, derives from their prior acceptance of unscriptural and anti-scriptural doctrines. The warped and irresponsible handling of this passage derives from two prior misconceptions by religious scholars, as follows:

(1) There is the erroneous belief that the way for an alien sinner to be saved is to "repent and pray," whereas the true way is for those who believe to "repent and be baptized." Thus the false theological notion that the plan of salvation for alien sinners is repentance and prayer leads to the erroneous conclusion here that Peter's command of Simon to repent and pray means that Simon was still an alien sinner.

(2) There is the bias of Calvinism to the effect that no true Christian can apostatize from the faith. Since it is so clearly a fact that this Christian, Simon, actually did apostatize, the Calvinists are extended to prove that Simon had never been a Christian. Many who are not Calvinists, of course, have fallen into the error of accepting Calvinistic explanations of this episode.

However, understandable as the reasons for perverting the word of God may be, it is nevertheless a definite perversion to read "thou wilt become" as "thou hast always been." There can be no justification for such a thing.

Pray ye for me to the Lord, etc. .... Some read this as Simon's failure to pray himself; but this is not necessary. One who sincerely prays for forgiveness naturally desires that others also should join in his supplications. Nothing in the text denies that this is what is indicated here.

We conclude the examination of this episode with the words of McGarvey:

Peter does not say to him as an alarmed man of the world, "Repent and be baptized"; but as to a sinning disciple, "Repent and pray God, if perhaps the thought of thine heart shall be forgiven thee."[38]

[34] Albert Barnes, op. cit., p. 142.

[35] F. F. Bruce, op. cit., p. 184.

[36] Thomas Scott, The Henry-Scott Commentary (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1960), p. 461.

[37] E. H. Plumptre, op. cit., p. 49.

[38] J. W. McGarvey, op. cit., p. 148.