In Acts 8, Was Simon Born Again, and if so, Why Was He so Confused?

Summary

Grace in Focus Podcast Episode Summary

Episode Title: In Acts 8, Was Simon Born Again, and if so, Why Was He so Confused?
Date: June 5, 2025
Hosts: Ken Yates and Katharine Wright

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Episode Overview

This episode tackles the controversial figure of Simon the Sorcerer from Acts 8, debating whether Simon was truly "born again" and, if so, the reasons behind his confusion and subsequent rebuke by Peter. Hosts Ken Yates and Katharine Wright engage with a listener question to challenge the widespread assumption that Simon was an unbeliever, examining what the biblical text actually says about his belief, conversion, and repentance.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Simon’s Faith and Conversion (01:12–02:21)

• Background: Simon lived in Samaria and was deeply impressed by Philip’s ministry.
• Both Samaritans and Simon explicitly "believed" and Simon was baptized.
  • “It says that he believed and that’s what saved him. He believed. But he was also willing to publicly announce that faith and follow Philip.” (Ken, 01:38)
• Emphasis: In the first-century context, baptism was a significant public declaration of faith, though it didn’t confer salvation.

2. The Problem: Simon’s Desire for Power (02:21–04:33)

• Simon’s subsequent request for apostolic powers is seen by many as evidence of insincerity or unbelief.
• Hosts’ Perspective: Desiring spiritual power (or prominence) is a common temptation—even among believers, especially new converts.
• “No true Christian would ever want a bigger church than other people… That’s just not possible.” (Ken, with irony, 03:27)

3. Common Interpretations (04:33–05:52)

• Prevailing View: Most commentaries claim Simon was never a true believer due to his desire for power and supposed insincerity in baptism and faith.
  • “Everybody wants to throw Simon in hell … Simon has got to go.” (Ken, 05:04)
• Hosts’ Challenge: The text itself calls him a believer; interpretations injecting ulterior motives lack explicit textual support.

4. The Question of Repentance (05:54–07:48)

• Listener “Max” asks about Simon’s repentance after Peter’s rebuke.
• Peter instructs Simon: “Repent therefore of this your wickedness” (Acts 8:22).
  • Highlight: Peter calls for repentance of a specific sin, not for initial belief.
  • “If Simon was an unbeliever, Peter would say, 'you need to believe.' But he goes, 'you need to turn from your sin, this sin, this wickedness…'” (Ken, 07:13)

5. The Nature of Simon’s Response (07:48–09:37)

• Simon responds humbly, asking Peter to intercede on his behalf.
• Contrary to critics, the hosts argue Simon’s request for prayer shows humility, not insincerity.
• Irony Noted: Many criticize Simon for asking for prayer, but seeking intercession from church leaders/pastors is common among believers.
  • “If anything, it shows humility.” (Katharine, 11:10)
  • “Would you guys pray for me? … You guys walked with the Lord for all those years. You know better than I do…” (Ken, 11:44)

6. Concluding Thoughts on Simon’s Salvation (12:00–12:55)

• Reiterating the biblical text: Simon believed (verse 13), asked for prayer, and was admonished like any young believer struggling with pride.
• Key Point: Condemning Simon overlooks the plain statement of his belief and misreads the nature of his sin as evidence of unbelief.
  • “He believed according to verse 13 … you’re implying all these evil motives that are just not stated.” (Katharine, 12:01)
  • “Simon’s going to be in the Kingdom of God. He’ll be there.” (Ken, 12:18)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On popular perceptions of Simon:
  • “It’s just my experience is everybody wants to throw Simon in hell.” (Ken, 05:04)
• On what the text actually says:
  • “He believed. According to verse 13, he’s asking for Peter to pray for him. That’s what the text says.” (Katharine, 12:01)
• On requesting prayer as a sign of humility:
  • “Have you ever asked people to pray for you? Have you ever been struggling with something... and ask people to pray for you?” (Ken, 10:48)
  • “If anything, it shows humility.” (Katharine, 11:10)
• On Simon's standing before God:
  • “One thing is for sure. Simon’s going to be in the Kingdom of God. He’ll be there.” (Ken, 12:18)

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Key Segment Timestamps

• Simon’s faith and baptism: 01:21–02:21
• Desire for power—not evidence of unbelief: 02:21–04:44
• Debunking the “Simon is lost” consensus: 04:44–05:52
• Peter’s command and its implications: 06:52–07:48
• Why asking for prayer shows humility: 10:48–11:41
• Final recap: Let the text speak: 12:00–12:55

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Summary Conclusion

Ken Yates and Katharine Wright advocate for an interpretation of Acts 8 that respects the text’s statement that Simon “believed.” While acknowledging Simon’s pride and errors as a young convert, they challenge traditions that paint him as an unbeliever and underscore the grace that covers new believers’ stumbles. Simon is held up as an example of a genuine but flawed believer, deserving neither condemnation nor suspicion but, rather, honest recognition of the complexities in every believer’s spiritual journey.

Transcript

[Ken Yates]

The following is a listener supported ministry from the Grace Evangelical society.

[Announcer]

In Acts 8 we meet an interesting person, Simon the Sorcerer. Many wonder, was Simon born again? And if so, why was he so confused? Why was he told to repent? Let's think about this today here on Grace in Focus. And we welcome you friend. This is a ministry of the Grace Evangelical Society located in North Texas. Our website is faithalone.org you can learn a lot about us there. And we also have a YouTube channel, YouTube Grace Evangelical Society where we release short videos two to three times a week, very similar to this program in content. So find us there, subscribe and like our videos. We would appreciate it. But most of all, you will benefit from these videos. It's YouTube grace evangelicalsociety. And again, our website is faithalone. Now with today's question and answer discussion, here are Katharine Wright and Ken Yates.

[Katharine Wright]

And today we have a question from max about Acts 8 and Simon the Sorcerer. So I think you have the question for us, Ken.

[Ken Yates]

Yeah, and I love this question too, because Simon is to me one of the most interesting characters in the New Testament.

[Katharine Wright]

I just feel bad for him.

[Ken Yates]

As probably most of you know, Simon the Sorcerer is living in Samaria. Philip comes and preaches about Christ there and it says that the Samaritans believed. And it says Simon believed.

[Katharine Wright]

Verse 13.

[Ken Yates]

Yeah, verse 13. So Simon believed and then Simon was baptized. Now baptism doesn't save anybody, but in the first century that was a big deal. He was making a public profession of his faith and. And it says that he believed and that's what saved him. He believed. But he was also willing to publicly announce that faith and follow Philip. That's right. And he's following Philip around and he's very impressed. Well, with the apostles who's able to lay their hands on people and they're speaking in tongues and he wants the ability to do that. So he wants to have this power at work in him. Okay, great. Obviously that's a fleshly desire, but he does it.

[Katharine Wright]

But he's a baby Christian.

[Ken Yates]

He's a brand new Christian. He's a brand new Christian and Peter rebukes him. Here's the deal with Simon. Pretty much everybody, if you pick up a commentary on the book of Acts or if you hear a sermon on Acts 8, it's almost unanimous that Simon's going to burn in hell forever. People will say, well, I know that Luke says he believed, but he didn't really believe. I know he got baptized to proclaim that faith publicly, but he wasn't Sincere in it, he had some other motive for wanting to be baptized. We don't know what that motive was, but I guess going along with the crowd or whatever, you know, so. Okay, then they say, yeah, but he was. He was arrogant. He wanted to be able to have all this power. And. No, no true Christian would be arrogant. Right. I mean, that's not possible. Particularly, as you said, particular. Particularly a young.

[Katharine Wright]

No true Christian would want to have this power of the spirit.

[Ken Yates]

That's right.

[Katharine Wright]

You know, that's. That's such a. Yeah.

[Ken Yates]

For example, no true Christian would ever want a bigger church than other people have or.

[Katharine Wright]

No, no true Christian would want to be able to prophesy right or heal or.

[Ken Yates]

Right. Or be a great preacher or anything like that. That's just not possible.

[Katharine Wright]

You know, one of the things that Ken and I do is we've done some mission trips to Africa over the last few years. And in Africa, they do have quite a few folks who. They're saying that they are prophets and they're healing and they're, you know, performing all these great deeds. And they. I remember having a conversation about this passage because they all said, yeah, Simon was an unbeliever. Simon was an unbeliever. And I remember just being like, don't you all want this power, too? You know, I see it. You know, we taught it at a school with some young men, and all of them, to some degree, want to be pastors, and many of them claim to be apostles today. Many of them, and prophets and faith healers and having cast out demons and all these things that they claimed that they had the power of the Spirit. And yet they come here and say, well, Simon's not a believer because he wanted to have the power of the Spirit.

[Ken Yates]

Yeah, it makes no sense.

[Katharine Wright]

Yeah. I just. It's such a. At such an odd position, especially among. Among those groups, so. But it is by far the most common view of Simon.

[Ken Yates]

Yeah. And so I. Compared to this, and I just. Kind of a funny thing, you know, he didn't have real faith. We really said he believed. No, he didn't. And he was baptized. No, he wasn't really sincere. You know, he. It's just my experience is everybody wants to throw Simon in hell. Everybody's like, simon has got to go.

[Katharine Wright]

To hell because he wanted to have.

[Ken Yates]

The power of the Spirit, so he's just got to go to hell. It reminds me of that skid in Monty Python in search of the Holy Grail when they have the plague and they bring the guy out. They Bring. They bring this guy out and they want to bury everybody and this guy, but he's alive. And he goes, well, I'm alive. No, you're not. You know, he goes, no, I'm really. I'm really okay. He goes, no, they hit him over the head with a club. This guy's got to die, you know, kind of like everyone else. And that's the way it is with Simon. But Max asked a very particular question about Simon. What about his repentance? Because when he shows his arrogance, when he shows Peter, yeah, I wish I could do this. I'll pay you. I'll give you money if you'll give me this power. I want to be able to do what you guys are doing.

[Katharine Wright]

So wait, what was Max question?

[Ken Yates]

Max question is, what about his repentance? Because when Peter rebukes him and Peter says, simon, your money is going to perish with you. Now, obviously doesn't mean your money's going to go to hell with you. He means God's going to discipline you if you keep this attitude of arrogance. You're a young guy and I know you're growing, but you need to get rid of this stinky thinking. Right, Stinking thinking, whatever it is. Okay.

[Announcer]

Just jumping in here to make you aware of our magazine, Grace in Focus. It is a bimonthly, six issues per year, 48 page magazine, full color. And we want you to subscribe by emailing your name and your snail mail address to gesaithalone.org the subscription is free. It can be accessed electronically or it can be actually physically sent to you. If you live in the lower 48 United States, that's our Grayson Focus magazine. Send your name and snail mail address.

[Ken Yates]

To gesaithalone.org Peter says to him in verse 22, Repent therefore of this your wickedness. What I find interesting there is Peter does not say believe. He says, turn from your sin. Now if Simon was an unbeliever, Peter would say, you need to believe.

[Katharine Wright]

That's right.

[Ken Yates]

But he goes, you need to turn from your sin this sin, this wickedness that you have where you want to be the big man on campus. You want to be able to perform all these miracles. You're proud, you're arrogant, whatever you want to say, you need to turn from that. And then he says, and pray God if perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you. Your heart is not in the right place and you need to be forgiven if you want to have fellowship with God. Right now you're sinning with this attitude. It's not that you're an unbeliever, it's.

[Katharine Wright]

Just that you're sinning and you're not in fellowship.

[Ken Yates]

You're not in fellowship with God, right? You're not walking with him here. You're walking according to the flesh. You want to be an important man. You want people to look up to you. And by the way, there's lots of preachers like that, right? Lots of Christians like this. And so Peter tells him to repent and pray.

[Katharine Wright]

He needs to repent and he needs to pray, he needs to seek the Lord. Like there's a lot of things going on here that, right, are making conditions to receiving eternal life, if that's what we're talking about.

[Ken Yates]

Exactly. Imagine if these are the requirements. And so what does Simon do? It says in verse 24 that he repented. Then Simon answered and said, pray to the Lord for me that none of the things which you have spoken may come upon me. This discipline that God's going to do me. Max question is this. Why do people say that Simon's repentance was not genuine? Because again, the vast majority of people look at him, say, well, he wasn't genuine. His faith wasn't genuine. His baptism, you know, his confession of faith wasn't genuine. His actions of his arrogance shows that his life is not genuine. He's just, he's just a dirt bag in every single way. And so people who go down that road, they're going to conclude that when he repents here, when he says to Peter, Peter says repent. And he goes, okay, will you pray to the Lord for me? Then that's not genuine either. He doesn't really mean it.

[Katharine Wright]

I think I've also heard just that it doesn't say that. Some people just say, well, we don't know what happened, right? Peter's rebuke, he's trying to get him to come, you know, to repentance, AKA be saved from hell, which is problematic, but that it's just open ended, we don't know.

[Ken Yates]

Right?

[Katharine Wright]

So that is also another view that you'll hear.

[Ken Yates]

Yeah. And what Mac's point was, why do they think that people look at this and go, well, he wasn't saved. And here is the answer I have been told. And it just drives me crazy, this whole thing. I know, the fingernails on the chalkboard, right? I heard someone say, preach it on this, that his repentance was not genuine because he did not pray. He asked Peter to pray for him, which is just the stupidest thing. Okay, so here's Simon, a young believer, and Peter says, God's going to discipline you. He's going to take your money from you and it's going to get burned up. And God's discipline is going to fall upon your life, too. God may kill you. Just a few chapters earlier, Ananias and Sapphira were killed because of their attitude. And Simon doesn't want that to happen to him. So he says, will you pray for me, Peter? To the Lord, that this wouldn't happen. And, and to say that, well, his repentance is not personal because if he really would have repented, he would have prayed himself.

[Katharine Wright]

They're reading motive into this. Well, yeah, it's just not there.

[Ken Yates]

Crazy. Like all of our listeners, have you ever asked people to pray for you? Have you ever been struggling with something, maybe, maybe a sin, and ask people to pray for you? Or what about if you went to one of your elders or one of your pastors, someone that you looked up to, someone who was mature in the faith and said, would you pray for me? Because I'm struggling with this right now.

[Katharine Wright]

I mean, if anything, it shows humility.

[Ken Yates]

That's exactly what I think. I look at Simon here and I'm thinking, man, Simon comes across really, really good. Instead of Peter saying, you need to pray the Lord. And Simon goes, yeah, I'm pretty cool. I'm going to pray the Lord, which he should have. You know, he should have. But instead he goes, oh, man, if I was living in the first century and I was struggling with a sin and Peter or John or Matthew rebuked me for it, I would have done exactly what Simon did.

[Katharine Wright]

Yeah.

[Ken Yates]

Would you guys pray for me?

[Katharine Wright]

Right.

[Ken Yates]

I'm. I'm afraid that you guys walked with the Lord for all those years. You know better than I do. Will you pray for me? You know, and so it's just that.

[Katharine Wright]

It goes back to people want him to be an unbeliever.

[Ken Yates]

He has to be an unbeliever.

[Katharine Wright]

He has to be an unbeliever. And so therefore, this can't be a genuine comment instead of just allowing the text to say what the text says. He believed According to verse 13, he's asking for Peter to pray for him. That's what the text says. You're implying all these evil motives that are just not stated.

[Ken Yates]

Yeah, it's the thing. The thing is Simon's a believer. He's a young believer. He has a problem with pride and wanting to be the big man on campus. And Peter rebukes him. We don't know what happened. Simon may have turned into a great mature believer, but one thing is for sure. Simon's going to be in the Kingdom of God. He'll be there. Luke says he believed. And yeah, I think these people are awful harsh on Simon the sorcerer. Well, I hope that helped Max. And in the meantime, for all of us, remember, keep grace in focus.

[Announcer]

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[Ken Yates]

The proceeding has been a listener supported ministry from the Grace Evangelical Society.