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What killed snake handler Coots

salzer mtn

salzer mtn

Well-Known Member
Luke2427 said:
His death is tragic. More tragic, however, is the stupidity he promulgated that led to it. A SEMESTER in a good seminary would have kept him alive. The unbridled ignorance filling so many pulpits in America is doing immeasurable harm to the Kingdom of God here.

But what killed him was not the snake that bit him. What killed him was far deadlier. What killed Coots is killing the influence of Christianity in this nation, and, by proxy, killing the nation. The real killer was a deadly, venomous cocktail of ignorance and arrogance. Jamie Coots was a snake handler because he did not know some things that a decent seminary education would have taught him. He did not receive such an education because he believed he did not need one. He thought God spoke to him. Hear it from his own lips:

“You feel that anointing and then the Lord speaks to your heart telling you what to do. It is a feeling of power, but it is a feeling of peace,” he said then. “You’re in your body and you know what you’re doing and you can’t control it. There is such a power coming over you and you are obedient to the Spirit of God and you compelled to do what He tells you and you know it will be all right.”- Jamie Coots

Who needs to know the original languages when the God who gave the Bible interprets it in one’s own head for him? Who needs hermeneutics (science of proper interpretation of texts) when the Holy Ghost gives you powerful emotional experiences, trances, in which he reveals the meaning of texts? Thinking that God does that keeps one from pursuing the education he needs and puffs one up with unfathomable pride. Ignorance and arrogance- these mingle to make the deadly cocktail that killed this Christian and is killing Christianity in this culture.

This kind of arrogance and ignorance is not limited to snake handlers. It is coursing through the veins of every Christian who spurns education, who thinks God speaks to him and he does not need teachers.

This kind of arrogance and ignorance is the truly deadly venom in this culture today.
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A truly born again preacher is a studious person, they hunger after knowledge and read a lot. If a preacher is truly given to his call he can take one book, the bible and by the leadership of the Holy Spirit learn what God will grant him. Knowledge puffeth up and there has been a many a seminary graduate leave with a larger hat size than when they entered.
 
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saturneptune

New Member
convicted1 said:
I heard their deaths were actually a relief to them. I heard that, their fangs rotted and fell out, they squirmed, writhed in pain, turned green, and then died. I'd be ashamed if I was you Sissy. A hoe to the back of head would been more humane than what you did to them. Rumor has it that snakes in Tennessee run the other way when they see you now. :laugh: :flower:
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Kind of like everyone's tooth/teeth in West Virginia, you know home of Mountain Mama, and the series of movies where hillbillies eat poor tourists. By the way convicted, how does one tour West Virginia? Just what is it one is looking at when one gets to a tourist trap in WV?
 
salzer mtn

salzer mtn

Well-Known Member
saturneptune said:
Kind of like everyone's tooth/teeth in West Virginia, you know home of Mountain Mama, and the series of movies where hillbillies eat poor tourists. By the way convicted, how does one tour West Virginia? Just what is it one is looking at when one gets to a tourist trap in WV?
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Mountains and more mountains
 
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Yeshua1

Well-Known Member
Site Supporter
Amy.G said:
No. If one is not already humble, education puffs up. Just ask the apostle Paul.
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MUST have the Holy Spirit before the seminary, as mnay ministers so called have their degree, but don't know the author of the Bible!
 
L

Luke2427

Active Member
righteousdude2 said:
....that your opinion of seminary is over-rated, or stretched a little further than it should be. It doesn't take a seminary class, let alone a semester in seminary, to recognise the childish behavior or that playing around with something as deadly as a snake is something a sound and sane man, woman or child should not be doing!


Total disregard for nature and the powerful recourse of not paying due respect of the creatures that God put upon this earth is what killed that man. Not the lack of a seminary class.

Although, I will say this ... you should be the front man for a seminary, as you may recruit some folks who need to learn what this man didn't know: Snakes with venom, KILL!

Even if you have all the faith in the world, tempting God or fate will one day catch up with you and put you under the ground!

God bless you Luke! This is merely my opinion, and I do respect where you are coming from! :applause:
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If the Bible says to do it it does not matter how childish or dangerous or insane something is- you better obey!

Their problem is not that they did not recognize that is was dangerous. They knew it was dangerous.

Their problem was that they thought that the Bible taught they should do it. That's why some education in hermeneutics (the science of properly interpreting texts) would have saved Coots life.

But you are oversimplifying the problem by saying it is that they didn't have better sense than to play with snakes. They knew it was dangerous. That was not the problem. The problem was that they thought the Bible taught that they should do it in spite of the danger.

God bless, RD!:thumbsup:
 
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Luke2427

Active Member
Yeshua1 said:
Think he died due to misunderstand/bad interpretation of the passage at end if the Gospel of mark!

And he didi not need seminary, just someone to show him valid rules on how to study and apply the Bible!
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Which you learn in seminary.

I have yet to see a church teach a hermeneutics course.
 
L

Luke2427

Active Member
webdog said:
I'm not getting what you are saying. There are many grade school educated, satanists and occultists that would not pick up a poisonous snake. What the pastor did was tempt God while not using the common sense He gave him. It had nothing to do with seminary, languages, etc.

Using your logic, based on your determinism you have gained from seminary, languages, etc., it would reason one could walk across the freeway blindfolded and leave the results of it up to God as everything has been determined beforehand.
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The bible says, "These signs shall follow them that believe... they shall take up deadly serpents..."

Now you know that that passage probably wasn't in the original.

You know that, even if it was, you don't establish doctrine on one obscure passage.

But the reason you know that is because somebody educated in seminary told you. OR somebody told you that was told by someone seminary educated...
 
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Luke2427

Active Member
saturneptune said:
I told this story sometime back, but a couple of years ago, on a mission trip to Eastern Kentucky, I walked up to one door the was unique to say the least. This guy answers the door, and asks me to wait a minute. He came back with a box that contained a rattlesnake. Anyway, he says "lets see how strong your faith is, stick your hand in this box." My reply......"good day sir, and have a nice life."

To me, this has nothing to do with education. It has to do with a basic understanding of Scripture and common sense. To be honest, I do not know why anyone who would consider handling a snake or participating in a service that handled snakes who be allowed to walk around in society.
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The Scripture say, "These signs shall follow them that believe.... they shall take up deadly serpents."

A BASIC understanding would lead you to practice snake handling. The whole PROBLEM with Coots is that all he HAD was a basic understanding.

What he NEEDED was some deeper understanding.
 
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convicted1

Guest
Luke2427 said:
The Scripture say, "These signs shall follow them that believe.... they shall take up deadly serpents."

A BASIC understanding would lead you to practice snake handling. The whole PROBLEM with Coots is that all he HAD was a basic understanding.

What he NEEDED was some deeper understanding.
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:thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:
 
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saturneptune

New Member
Luke2427 said:
The Scripture say, "These signs shall follow them that believe.... they shall take up deadly serpents."

A BASIC understanding would lead you to practice snake handling. The whole PROBLEM with Coots is that all he HAD was a basic understanding.

What he NEEDED was some deeper understanding.
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Cannot disagree. So what would you have thought of me if I had stuck my hand in that box?
 
A

Aaron

Member
Site Supporter
Luke2427 said:
His death is tragic.
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I don't think it tragic. I think it ironic and a bit humorous.

A SEMESTER in a good seminary . . .
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Good is the operative term. Heck, for that matter, reading a good sermon from a non-seminary-educated C. H. Spurgeon might have done the trick. And I've sat under some powerful, devout and spiritual preaching from men who've never been to seminary.

His snake-handling wasn't an education issue, though. It was a spiritual issue, kind of like the day-equals-epoch in Genesis 1.
 
Earth Wind and Fire

Earth Wind and Fire

Well-Known Member
Site Supporter
saturneptune said:
This guy answers the door, and asks me to wait a minute. He came back with a box that contained a rattlesnake. Anyway, he says "lets see how strong your faith is, stick your hand in this box." My reply......"good day sir, and have a nice life."
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Well that was done for effect......S/N, I would of said, "YOU FIRST" to see what he woulda done. LOL

To me, this has nothing to do with education. It has to do with a basic understanding of Scripture and common sense. To be honest, I do not know why anyone who would consider handling a snake or participating in a service that handled snakes who be allowed to walk around in society.
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Lotsa people walking the earth that you gotta wonder about. Any Idiot knows not to tempt ...... ahhhh well.
 
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