Page 53 - Acts Student Textbook

Peter’s ministry on the Mediterranean coast (9:32-11:18). Healing of Aeneas the paralytic in
Lydda (9:32-35).

Was Dorcas (Tabitha) truly dead? (9:36-43)

Definitely she was! There is overwhelming evidence that Dorcas was truly dead! The people in Joppa
had no doubt about Dorcas’ death. What they might have doubted was whether there was such
thing as coming back to life through the apostolic ministry.

Note that when the disciples in Joppa had heard that Peter was at Lydda, they sent two men to ask
him to come without delay. It does not seem likely that they expected him to do the miracle that he
eventually did, since we have no record of an apostle raising the dead before this. It just seems
natural that Christians want spiritual teachers present to give comfort and consolation in time of
death, especially death of a faithful Christian. This appears to have always been so, and is still true
today. We cannot raise the dead as Peter did here, but we can give comfort (Rom. 12:15; 15:4).

This miracle also led people to believe on the Lord (9:42, 43). That Dorcas was dead was
unquestionable, as already described. Many people saw her body and were present with the body
before Peter arrived. That she truly came back to life is equally clear, for many people saw her alive
again immediately after Peter raised her. The miracle was performed on a local person whom the
people knew.

At this point, Pratte shares his story, “I once attended a debate involving a man named John
Wilson who claimed he was an apostle, was baptized in the Holy Spirit, and had power to do
miracles like the Apostles did. When challenged to raise the dead, he responded, “Where is any
case in the Bible that an apostle raised the dead?” The man not only did not have the power from
the Holy Spirit to do miracles like the Apostles, but he did not even know enough about the
message of the Holy Spirit to be aware of the kind of miracles the Apostles did!” (Pratte, 168).
30

Pratte adds, “Modern faith-healers, if they could ever do such a thing as this, would publicize it
far and wide so as to make a major spectacle of it. But Bible accounts are calm and factual
31
because the purpose is to produce faith, not to make big bucks” (Pratte,168).

Saul’s Conversion on the Road to Damascus
(while we don’t endorse the organization who created this video, it is an accurate presentation
of Saul’s conversion on the road to Damascus)

30 Pratte, (p. 168).
31 Ibid
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