Hi Seeweed,
You offer us an article about a pastor of the "Full Gospel Tabernacle In Jesus Name" church in a small town in Kentucky, a church which teaches that handling deadly snakes is a way of testing our faith in God. And, according to the article the pastor died from a snake bite.
Then, you offer us a Ray Steven's video parody of the snake handling churches: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9iJ4ySMuizU
First, let me say that I love the work of Ray Stevens. He is a great entertainer -- and I agree 100% with his take on snake handling in this video.
Now, lets talk about the Mark 16:15-18 Scripture passage regarding drinking poison and handling snakes. God never intended for us to build a theology, or even doctrines, upon one single passage of Scripture -- especially when it is not supported by other Scripture verses, and is even contradicted in other parts of Scripture.
In other words, if, as folks in these Kentucky churches do, someone tells you to pick up deadly snakes to prove your faith in God, and the Bible tells us not to test God -- I say, "Go with God's Word! There you cannot go wrong!"
After His baptism Jesus went into the wilderness for 40 days to fast and pray. That is when Satan tried to tempt Him. At every temptation, Jesus told Satan, "It is written, . . ." In other words, Christ always pointed Satan, even Satan, back to Scripture, the Scripture which has become our Bible.
1. Matthew 4:7, "Jesus said to him (Satan), 'On the other hand, it is written, "You shall not put the Lord your God to the test."'"
In this Scripture verse, Christ is referring Satan back to Deuteronomy 6:16, "You shall not put the LORD your God to the test, as you tested Him at Massah."
In that incident, Satan himself even referred back to Scripture when trying to tempt Jesus. In Matthew 4:5-6 we read, "Then the devil took Him into the holy city and had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, 'If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. For it is written: "He shall give His angels charge over you," and, "In their hands they shall bear you up, Lest you dash your foot against a stone."'"
How often do we see atheists quoting Scripture -- in an attempt to disprove our Christian faith? Very often, unfortunately, the atheists and other non-believers know Scripture better than the Christian believer whom they are contesting. It always amazes me that, even though those non-believers know Scripture well enough to quote it -- they cannot see the Light within those Scripture passages.
And, I love the way James lays the problem of sin right back into our laps -- as he shows that God will not tempt man by sin.
James 1:12-14, "Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial; for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him. (13) Let no one say when he is tempted, 'I am being tempted by God;' for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone. (14) But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust."
Our own lust and desires for worldly things can, and does tempt and test us -- but, that comes from within us because of our inherent sin nature. God does not send Victoria's Secret commercials and television specials to tempt us; we watch those on our own, driven by our own lust. They are not from God.
Looking specifically at the Scripture passage found in Mark 16:15-18, Jesus first repeats His Great Commission command which we find in Matthew 28:19-20, Acts 1:8, and here in Mark 16, "Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to all creation." Those are His marching orders for all Christian believers.
One of the most effective Christian leaders of our present day has been Pastor Chuck Smith. He reminds me of that great Bible teacher and pastor, J. Vernon McGee -- in that they both had great knowledge of God's Word and they both explained it in very down to earth, folksy language. They spoke so that even we less gifted folks could understand. This was Pastor Chuck's take on the Snake Handling Theology squeezed out of the Mark 16 passage:
Pastor Chuck Smith: C2000 Series on Mark 15-16 (C2000 Series)
http://www.blbclassic.org/comm...fo=25&topic=Mark
"These signs will accompany those who have believed: in My name they will cast out demons, they will speak with new tongues; they will pick up serpents, and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover." (Mark 16:17-18).
Now, these signs are given in context of going into all the world and preaching the Gospel to every creature. As they're preaching the Gospel to every creature -- yes, they will be speaking in new tongues, new languages. I think of the tremendous translation work of the Wycliffe Society today, casting out devils.
That's a task that the missionaries find quite common. It isn't as common here in the United States because of the powerful Christian influence. But you get into some of the foreign lands, and demonology becomes a very heavy issue.
Taking up serpents (MarK 16:18):
You remember when they were building a fire on the island (Malta) after the shipwreck, and a poisonous asp fastened on Paul? And the natives said, "Wow! He must really be a wicked man. Because even though he escaped the judgment of the storm and the shipwreck, yet the gods aren't going to let him live." And they waited for Paul to roll over in convulsions and die.
And after awhile Paul just shook the thing off into the fire. And after awhile when nothing happened to Paul and he didn't go into convulsions and die, they said, "He must be a god." And they were ready to worship him as a god.
There are those cults today who foolishly gather rattle snakes and they get into some kind of a spiritual frenzy, speaking in tongues and all, and then they take the rattlesnakes and they begin to pass them around the circle. Down in the hills of Kentucky, there are quite a few of these snake handlers. And actually, they are not all in Kentucky; there were some people over in Long Beach who were involved in this cult. So it's close to home.
Another radical pastor took poison around and had each one of his board members drink the poison to prove their faith, whether or not they had enough faith to serve on the board of the church. Some of the board members did not have enough faith, and the pastor was charged with second-degree murder.
When Satan took Jesus to the pinnacle of the temple, he said unto Him, "Jump! For it is written, 'He will give His angels charge over you to keep you in all your ways, lest at any time you dash your foot against the stone.'" And Jesus said, "It is written again, 'Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.'"
The Lord never intended anybody to deliberately put themselves into jeopardy to prove anything. He doesn't expect you to go out and take up rattlesnakes to prove that you have faith, or to drink poison to prove that you have faith. "Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God." You are not to do any foolish rash act to make a proof of your faith.
In conclusion, I have to agree with Pastor Chuck that God does not expect us to jump off a tall building just to prove that He can catch us. Foolishness is foolishness, regardless of who is committing it.
God bless, have a wonderful, blessed day,
Bill