Were Ananias And Sapphira Forgiven, And Will They Be In Heaven?

Q: In Acts 5, when Ananias and Sapphira were struck down for lying to God, were they forgiven and will they be in heaven?

A: This is the kind of thing where I could make a case in either direction. You could say, 'Look, they lied to the Holy Spirit. They so displeased God. God struck them down, and in a disciplinary way, He took them from this life. Of course they're not saved. Of course you won't see them in heaven.'

But I could argue from the other perspective as well. There are passages that indicate that God may take the life of someone as a correction so that they would not perish with the world, but rather take their life as a form of disciplinary correction. It's possible that Ananias and Sapphira's lives were ended as a disciplinary correction from God, not disqualifying them from salvation, but definitely disqualifying them from any future usefulness in this life.

If you ask me to pick between the two, I would give a slight likelihood to the idea that their deaths were disciplinary and corrective. I don't know if I talk about that in my commentary on Acts chapter 5; you could look it up. But I would lean towards that, while admitting that it could go either way. Ultimately, we're not good at discerning the salvation of other people. We can have some confidence in our own salvation, but we can't always tell with others.