Snake Handling Churches

[Pastor Matt]

Has anyone come across snake handling churches in their lifetime? This is not common in the New England, but maybe some of you in the hills may have come across this.

Older video here, but I still found it interesting.

 

[Razor]

The quote Mark 16:18 they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”

The honest ones will tell you if the Lord is not telling you to handle a snake, don't do it. Same with poison. 

There are scholars who say the last verses of Mark were on in the original texts, but added later. Each person has to decided what they believe. 

https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/was-mark-16-9-20-originally-mark-gospel/

 

 

Edited January 17, 2022 by Razor

[TheGloryLand]

55 minutes ago, PastorMatt said:

Has anyone come across snake handling churches in their lifetime? This is not common in the New England, but maybe some of you in the hills may have come across this.

Older video here, but I still found it interesting.

 

I have never run into a service like this, with snakes. Most likely there are no women there, most of them can’t even see a mouse running around.

[Razor]

6 minutes ago, E Morales said:

I have never run into a service like this, with snakes. Most likely there are no women there, most of them can’t even see a mouse running around.

Oh, there are women at the services...never doubt that. 

[Pastor Matt]

59 minutes ago, Razor said:

The quote Mark 16:18 they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”

The honest ones will tell you if the Lord is not telling you to handle a snake, don't do it. Same with poison. 

There are scholars who say the last verses of Mark were on in the original texts, but added later. Each person has to decided what they believe. 

https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/was-mark-16-9-20-originally-mark-gospel/

I really appreciate the info and I agree, but you didn't answer the question. lol

[BrotherTony]

I have been in a couple of snake-handling churches and several church services...mainly for observation. There were MANY women there, and believe it or not, many of the women were handling the serpents. I believe that this kind of thing is a gross misinterpretation of scripture, but, they believe it is correct. It's not affecting my salvation, nor is theirs dependent upon it, so for me it's a secondary, or even tertiary issue. I guess it's "to each their own."  One was in GA, one was in Tennessee, and several were in VA, WV, and NC. 

 

[Rebecca]

I have been to many backwoods, rural, old fashioned country churches, but have never attended a snake handling one. If I had, I would have walked out of the service. Not because I fear the snakes, but because of the stupidity of it. I have gladly stood near wildlife handlers who were holding (non-venomous) snakes and give educational talks about them, and had no fear. Not anywhere close to the stupidity of most snake handling churches who practically invite the venomous snakes to bite them. Even expert snake handlers who use extreme caution handling snakes have been bitten, so it's just a matter of time before the non-expert, careless snake handlers in a church accidentally drops a snake and it strikes at the nearest person, or allows it to bite an innocent bystander because they put the snake in compromising situations where it feels the need to defend itself. 

[BrotherTony]

1 minute ago, Rebecca said:

I have been to many backwoods, rural, old fashioned country churches, but have never attended a snake handling one. If I had, I would have walked out of the service. Not because I fear the snakes, but because of the stupidity of it. I have gladly stood near wildlife handlers who were holding (non-venomous) snakes and give educational talks about them, and had no fear. Not anywhere close to the stupidity of most snake handling churches who practically invite the venomous snakes to bite them. Even expert snake handlers who use extreme caution handling snakes have been bitten, so it's just a matter of time before the non-expert, careless snake handlers in a church accidentally drops a snake and it strikes at the nearest person, or allows it to bite an innocent bystander because they put the snake in compromising situations where it feels the need to defend itself. 

Personally, if I hadn't been there for observation purposes alone for writing a paper on it, I wouldn't have stayed at all...in fact, I wouldn't have gone...but it's best for writers to have firsthand knowledge on what they're writing about. So, I went to several just to see how they differed and where they agreed, and mostly to see if they could back up their beliefs with scripture.

[Razor]

17 minutes ago, PastorMatt said:

I really appreciate the info and I agree, but you didn't answer the question. lol

I heard about them but never was at a service where snakes were handled. 

[SureWord]

3 hours ago, PastorMatt said:

I really appreciate the info and I agree, but you didn't answer the question. lol

You agree those verse were added later?

[Pastor Matt]

21 minutes ago, SureWord said:

You agree those verse were added later?

My apologies for not being clear. The part I should have said I was agreeing to was "The honest ones will tell you if the Lord is not telling you to handle a snake, don't do it. Same with poison."

Sorry for the confusion. 

[Disciple.Luke]

On 1/17/2022 at 8:41 AM, PastorMatt said:

Has anyone come across snake handling churches in their lifetime? This is not common in the New England, but maybe some of you in the hills may have come across this.

Older video here, but I still found it interesting.

 

I've never been to a snake handling church but have spent a lot of time watching YouTube videos and some reading about them. I noticed that nearly all of them fall into the Oneness Pentecostal theological group, so it doesn't surprise me that one erroneous doctrine can give way to insane practices like this. I understand where they justify snake handling and drinking poison from Mark 16 but I've always wondered what verse they use to support those bottle fire torches believing God has promised to protect them from it? 

[Mark C]

Deuteronomy 6 is quoted by Jesus in Matthew 4. The KGV renders the word 'tempt', which I love:

"Thou shalt not tempt the Lord your God"

This word "tempt" probably relates better to the word "test" in todays English, but I love the word tempt here as it shows that being tempted is not a sin in itself (for if God is capable of being tempted then it cannot be a sin).

I do wonder whether handling snakes in such a way crosses the boundary into tempting and testing God?

Edited January 20, 2022 by Mark C
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[Yeshuafan]

On 1/17/2022 at 9:33 AM, Razor said:

The quote Mark 16:18 they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”

The honest ones will tell you if the Lord is not telling you to handle a snake, don't do it. Same with poison. 

There are scholars who say the last verses of Mark were on in the original texts, but added later. Each person has to decided what they believe. 

https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/was-mark-16-9-20-originally-mark-gospel/

 

I have yet to see one take up poison though!

[HappyChristian]

So, a little background...

My dad's father was a pentecostal preacher/pastor. The belief system that accompanies that is still very strong in that side of my family. My grandpa had a lot of doctrinal ideas that were questionable at best, due to his affiliations. (interesting to note, though, that as he got older he spent more time reading the Bible and began sounding more like a Baptist lol)

One thing the churches he pastored and attended (because one thing pentecostals do is attend church consistently) never practiced was snake handling/poison drinking. He did preach it, though.

Until one day he was visiting a church in KY (he lived in WV). They had both of those going on. To hear him tell the story was humorous, but at the bottom of it was that he saw it for the foolishness it is. He quit preaching that lack of faith was the reason folks didn't practice that.

To answer the question - no, I've never been to a snake-handling service. And I won't go. The charismatic services I HAVE gone to are quite enough for a lifetime, thank you very much.