PHILIP AND THE REVIVAL IN SAMARIA
By Geoffrey Thomas
Banner of Truth. 120 pages. £6.00
ISBN 085151 899 0
This book resonates with the eloquence of a true preacher. The qualities of real preaching such as vividness, stimulus, exhortation and application are here; and all based on painstaking teaching and doctrine.
In four chapters the author explains the relevant passages in Acts 6 & 8, concerning Philip the Evangelist and his part in the awakening in Samaria; and in addition, his surprising removal from the scene to take the gospel to the Ethiopian eunuch.
What Philip achieved in Samaria was by an empowerment of the Spirit. We call it a ‘revival’, not because in essence it is any different from any other true work of God, but by reason of the degree of power and the extent of the work.
The book contains a strange irony. The author is quite happy with supernatural events within The Acts, but shies away from any acceptance of subsequent miracles. He writes, ‘things like these do not happen today, and have not happened since the closing of the New Testament’ (p.58). This position, held by many Reformed men today, reminds us of the old liberal argument against biblical miracles: that there can be no miracles because miracles do not happen! But they do, and there are many instances in the history of the Christian Church.
The author faces another problem in attempting to explain how the Samaritan believers had not yet experienced the Holy Spirit ‘falling on any of them’ (Acts 8.16). He is unwilling to accept the obvious inference that, although they were indwelt by the Holy Spirit who had regenerated them, they were in need of a subsequent empowerment or baptism of the Spirit to fit them to bear effective testimony to Jesus Christ. Instead the author contrives a tortuous explanation to avoid such a conclusion.
Despite these reservations, the book is stimulating and well-written.
