Handling snakes

Me too.

Although I've never owned a gun, so I would have kill it some other way.

The only good snake is a dead snake.

 

Here is my take on serpents and drinking any deadly thing......

(Mar 16:18) They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.

Serpents-- we handle them every day...people who spew out unsound doctrine... a serpent is defined as a snake, figuratively (as a type of sly cunning) an artful malicious person, especially Satan: - serpent.

drink any deadly thing---that is if we listen or read the rotton doctrine these people spew out it won't hurt us....

 

One Should . . .

. . . Not have to PROVE anything, other than their initial public confession of Jesus as their Savior and following Him in public baptism. Anything else, is nothing more than "showing" off! It's like conducting a spitting contest, so to speak.

As for that verse, I've always thought of the serpent as the devil, and that becomes an entirely different directive. We are not to fear the serpent (devil) because Jesus is in us, and we have all power over the devil and his attempts to tempt and trip us up as we make our way down the narrow path to the narrow gate. When I think of a path, I get a picture of all kind of creatures coming across our path, and I'm sure the wiley deciever sill be one slithering by on a regular basis!

Salty, you always come up with some neat issues and topics. The Lord is surely using you to keep us on our spiritual feet. Blessings to you and your family! raying:

Pastor Paul :type:

 

Now that's an interesting take; and there sure are alot of those snakes around.

 

Yes it is wrong as there is no command to handle snakes.

 

That's a Big DITTO!

I totally agree with this, and have preached a similar thought process on that verse!

I vote to close the post based on this exceptional interpretation/take! Nothing else can be said, as our brother said it all! :thumbsup:

 

:laugh:

I live on 5 acres in the desert and encounter snakes quite often in the warmer months. If they are poisonous I kill them with whatever is available nearby because they are too dangerous to have around, if not poisonous I leave them alone.

I’ll never forget when a bunch of guys from the church came out in a pickup truck to help load cabinets. On the way out they saw a snake, stopped to look and were all excited and speculating on whether it was a rattler. I knew it was a bull snake but got out and put on an act as if it was a rattler and then captured it by grabbing it behind the head to all their astonishment, then I brought it back to the truck and pretended I was going to throw it in the back. I will tell you what, none of these guys had much faith in the situation at all, tripping over each other, bailing out of the truck and running into the desert in terror.
:laugh: :laugh:

 

Sister, if there is not anything else that has given me pause today to sit back and say "Wow. What an awesome God I know", regarding truth from His word, this right here did.

You struck the nail with precision and in one shot, nailed it clean and proper.

Well said!

 

Now that right there was FUNNY! :laugh: :thumbs:

 

There is a debate over Mark 16:9-20, and whether it ought to be in the canon.

One on side, scholars say that those verses are not found in the oldest manuscripts, such as the Codex Sinaiticus and Codex Vaticanus.

One the other side, scholars point out that these verses were being quoted by theologians in the second century.

I would hesitate to build a doctrine around a disputed passage.

I don't see these verses as a command to drink poison or handle snakes in order to prove your faith.

 

The rapture vs snake handling

I'm not a believer in either the rapture or snake handling, but when I read this topic the entertaining thought occured to me that there is more support in the bible for snake handling than there is the rapture.

 

It is hard to be disputed when early church fathers of the second century were quoting those passages, long before the so-called Oldest Manuscripts were created

 

I am curious, not arguing ... how do you know the early church fathers were quoting these verses?

When you say early church fathers, do you mean those early Christians in Cappadocia?

 

AMEN!!!! :thumbs:

 

Man goes to a church, but doesn't know its a snake handling church. He is behind the pultpit, in the corner. Out comes the snakes!! He asked them where was the back dooor due to the fact that he was hemmmed in the corner. They told him the have no back door, and then he asks them where did they want one!!

 

TRUE STORY

A dear friend of mine told me this years ago. An old man used to go to any church at least once, just to get an experience of that church. His son took him to a snake handling church, and he set up front. When the part of the service where the handling snakes and drinking the stryuchnine started, they trampled all over his feet!! When they started that, he yelled to his son, "Come and get me, this ain't no place for an one-eyed man!!" They asked him a day or two later if he wanted to go back(some of his friends teasing him, that is), and he said no, that was enough for him.

 

I must live a very sheltered life, as I have never encountered a church that practices snake-handling or poison-drinking.

I certainly don't see the words as a command. Deliberately to put oneself in unnecessary danger would seem to come under the category of putting God to the test.