If you are handling a snake in a worship service…

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Charles Page | PentecostalTheology.com

               

If you are handling a snake in a worship service and the power of God leaves you and you still handle a snake it will bite you, correct? Signs follow believers and you were not believing but were in the flesh, right? see May 1917 CoG Evangel.

Angel Ruiz [09/09/2015 2:14 PM]
Can you post a picture copy of that

Charles Page [09/09/2015 2:31 PM]
it will take a while, but yes I can.

John Kissinger [09/09/2015 3:13 PM]
Angel Ruiz Charles will have to take an instant picture with his Polaroid and fax it to himself Timothy Carter

Angel Ruiz [09/09/2015 3:22 PM]
Ok

John Kissinger [09/10/2015 12:06 AM]
well his fax is taking longer b/c the telephone operator is gone early for the night #ChurchNight

Timothy Carter [09/10/2015 4:10 AM]
B I heard that when Charles Page was in in school he had to chisel his homework into a granite slab. ?

John Kissinger [09/10/2015 4:15 AM]
Yes, he is chiseling his picture to fax it when he goes to the post office, but on the question it depends if the snake was raised Pentecostal or baptist

Charles Page [09/10/2015 10:36 AM]
I hope you can read this.

Timothy Carter [09/11/2015 12:38 AM]
Charles Page thanks for posting this. The sheriff arrested Brouayer for (being stupid) for assault w/intent to murder, because he preached the signs?

John Kissinger [09/11/2015 2:06 AM]
the focus of the posted article is much different than the topic/question even to the point of misrepresentation what the article is about; but great black and white fax copy after all 🙂

Charles Page [09/11/2015 10:11 AM]
did you read the news item?

Charles Page [09/11/2015 10:16 AM]
what about Walter Barney’s arrest in WVa and subsequent 30 day hard labor conviction. He was arrested for letting his child die w/o medical aid believing the Lord would heal. Evangel Jan 23, 1915

Timothy Carter [09/11/2015 1:52 PM]
PREACHING The SIGNS I am not sure if the writer communicate correctly / clearly. . … OR maybe the writer is simply reporting fact with out elaboration….. As I understand it The man can not be arrested for his public speaking about anything on private property. Was Mr B a licensed minister? If so he had even then the legal rights of publishing the Gospel. Our license provides us with this privilege.

Charles Page [09/11/2015 4:25 PM]
the writer was the editor of the magazine. Bro Barney, a licensed minister was not arrested for public speaking but child negligence leading to death. “Our license provides us with this privilege?”

Bertrum Sage [09/11/2015 5:38 PM]
Sounds like the same old snake of Gen: 3 2-16is alive and well

Charles Page [09/11/2015 7:29 PM]
He is alive and not so well in the bottomless pit – he is bound until our final resurrection at which time he will be cast into the lake of fire for eternity.

Timothy Carter [09/12/2015 12:30 AM]
Charles Page the writer said: The sheriff went to get a warnt and arrested Brouayer for assault w/intent to murder, BECAUSE HE PREACHED THE SIGNS. (early as we all do preach the signs.) I don’t say anything about his children, the writer didn’t say anything about his children. A man who handled the rattlesnake 2 times already got bitten NOT a child. And Brouayer got arrested because of what he preached not because he brought out the rattlesnake – interesting. The sheriff is more afraid of the sermon than of the rattlesnakes.

Timothy Carter [09/12/2015 12:35 AM]
The sermon is much more dangerous in the sheriff’s eyes than is the rattlesnakes. OR he would have been arrested for bringing rattlesnakes not for preaching. Our license grants us the opportunity to preach. Our license don’t grant us to be playing with rattlesnakes.

47 Comments

  • Jon Ray
    Reply September 8, 2016

    Jon Ray

  • Tim Hall
    Reply September 8, 2016

    Tim Hall

    True that also why they usually have loud music when they handle snakes music charms them and they just lay there. I used to live in a area where snake handling was big and also had a uncle who handled them

  • Charles Page
    Reply September 8, 2016

    Charles Page

    The snakes must be scared to death

  • Charles Page
    Reply September 8, 2016

    Charles Page

    Paul was handling a viper w/o loud music and it bit him

    • Tim Hall
      Reply September 8, 2016

      Tim Hall

      Seriously that’s what one of the people involved in it said. Loud music charms them

  • Charles Page
    Reply September 8, 2016

    Charles Page

    This proves that church should use loud sounding instrumentation

  • Jon Ray
    Reply September 8, 2016

    Jon Ray

    and handle snakes only after entire sanctification 🙂

  • Doug Anderson
    Reply July 5, 2017

    Doug Anderson

    This always has amazed me over the years. Why would one tempt our God in this manner or any other. I know if bit the lord will heal ya but Our God can also become angry over this. Awful big chance for a little sign. Tempt not.

  • Varnel Watson
    Reply July 5, 2017

    Varnel Watson

    Temp not vs They shalt – a major balance needed

    • Doug Anderson
      Reply July 5, 2017

      Doug Anderson

      Totally agree God will set them straight if that is who they listen to.

  • Jeanette Elizondo
    Reply July 5, 2017

    Jeanette Elizondo

    NO WAY !!!!! Thou shall not tempt the Lord thy GOD !!!

  • Deborah Gibby
    Reply July 5, 2017

    Deborah Gibby

    The Bible also says “Do not tempt the Lord thy God”

  • Varnel Watson
    Reply July 5, 2017

    Varnel Watson

    The Bible also says: Mark 16:18 they shalt pick up snakes with their hands; And actually Jesus said that personally 🙂

    • Michael Marquez
      Reply July 6, 2017

      Michael Marquez

      But the text does not say we have church services handling and throwing snakes to one another. In fact we don’t see any examples of churches in Scripture handling snakes.

  • Juan Enrique Rodriguez

    Yes, Jesus said that, as quoted; and Apostle Paul was bitten by a viper in the island of Malta, and nothing happeneds to him because of the Power of the Spirit in him; but Paul did not go into the bushes looking for a snake to play with it. And, why only snakes? The idols worshippers of India handle king cobras. Does that mean the Spirit of God is with them? I have been a Pentecostal preacher since I was 17 years of age, (I’m 73 now), and I don’t handle snakes, nor drink poison or pass a lighted torch over my body. I know that the snake handlers call themselves Pentecostal, and some of them are named Church of God; but all you have to do is look at their eyes, at the “trance” like movements, not different than demon possesion.

  • Diana Kay Miller Sheek

    I believe in that Scripture, BUT, God really has to want me to do this and will give me the power over it, lol.

  • Varnel Watson
    Reply July 5, 2017

    Varnel Watson

    Snake handling in 1915 Church of God revival in Southside, Tennessee http://www.pentecostaltheology.com/snake-handling-in-1915-church-of-god-revival-in-southside-tennessee/

  • John Caudill
    Reply July 5, 2017

    John Caudill

    So where does Steve Irwin place in all this?

    You can learn to handle a snake pretty well, and to the lay person many species of poisonous snakes look similar to non poisonous ones.

    Less risk of being bitten by a snake by just being known for your works. Unless you’re a zookeeper or something.

  • Varnel Watson
    Reply July 5, 2017

    Varnel Watson

    Dont know about that but Wade Phillips reported snake handling by Hensley as prominent in the Church of God http://www.pentecostaltheology.com/wade-phillips-reported-snake-handling-by-hensley-as-prominent-in-the-church-of-god/

  • Rebecca Nelson-Innocent

    My grandparents were snake handlers. They not onky handled snakes, but drank strychnine, handled coals out of old coal stoves and ran fire through thier hair, under the spirit. This type of worship isnt for me, but I dont knock it either.

    A copperhead went to strike at Papaw once and he said to it, I rebuke you in Jesus name…the snake went limp. I dunno….but it just aint for me.

  • Varnel Watson
    Reply July 5, 2017

    Varnel Watson

    Which church did they attend? NewsChannel 9 to investigate snake handling as a religious practice http://www.pentecostaltheology.com/newschannel-9-to-investigate-snake-handling-as-a-religious-practice/

  • Reply July 2, 2020

    Varnel Watson

    which one did you grow in Harry Jones sand mt AL? http://www.pentecostaltheology.com/snake-handling-in-the-bible/

  • Ricky Weeks
    Reply July 2, 2020

    Ricky Weeks

    I’m pentecostal and I don’t handle snakes

    • Kent Wall
      Reply July 2, 2020

      Kent Wall

      I’m afraid of snakes so I would’ve run out of such a service in a heartbeat. As soon as I saw my fist snake I be out the door.

    • Chris Baudean
      Reply July 2, 2020

      Chris Baudean

      Kent Wall wisdom teaches us this.

  • Harry Jones
    Reply July 2, 2020

    Harry Jones

    If you have the anointing to take up a Serpent and then during the time you are handling it you feel the anointing leave you. You should immediately take it back to snake box or hand it off to another believer. It would probably be better to hand it off, if a believer is closer. It shouldn’t bite if a person has the anointing. But if it does it shouldn’t kill you. One of my favorite old time Holiness sisters, Hazel Andrew’s at Prescott got bit and it didn’t kill her but it messed her mind up. I wasn’t there at the time it happened but they told me about it. Handling Serpents is serious. They usually went in for copper heads. But anything poisonous would do. They would only hand it to someone they were sure had the Holy Ghost.

    • Reply July 2, 2020

      Varnel Watson

      sister H died from a snake bite after all Which church did you attend where you picked up the serpent ?

  • Mitchell Effie Catron

    Give them an offering to do it with an inland taipan.

    • Kent Wall
      Reply July 2, 2020

      Kent Wall

      That’s 50 times the poison of the worst King Cobra.

    • Reply July 2, 2020

      Varnel Watson

      what would be your theological justification for doing something like that?

    • Reply July 2, 2020

      Varnel Watson

      Kent Wall Aboriginal Australians living in those regions named the snake Dandarabill but RichardAnna Boyce has no problem handle roast eat and spit them with free grace

    • Mitchell Effie Catron

      Troy Day test their faith….or their ignorance. I believe God can heal a person who is snake bite. I also believe God can heal you if you get hit by a semi…but if you keep walking out in front of the semi purposefully, you’re in trouble. I mean if you’re gonna test God by handling snakes and drinking poison…do it with the deadliest there is.

  • Chris Baudean
    Reply July 2, 2020

    Chris Baudean

    Look, I have enough trouble handling the snakes that preach the word of God from the pulpit then to purposely pick up a physical one.

  • Steve Phifer
    Reply July 2, 2020

    Steve Phifer

    Instead of taking the “snake” passage from Mark’s Gospel as prescriptive, try it this way, as a metaphor: https://stevephifer.com/handling-snakes-with-safety/

    • Reply July 2, 2020

      Varnel Watson

      I almost prophetically foresee you would make a great pew runner in a snake handling church 🙂

    • Steve Phifer
      Reply July 2, 2020

      Steve Phifer

      “Almost” but not quite! I’d run out.

  • Glenn Lovell
    Reply July 2, 2020

    Glenn Lovell

    The snakes I have had to handle have been the two feet variety that were revoked from membership and barred for various reasons from churches for life.

    • Steve Phifer
      Reply July 2, 2020

      Steve Phifer

      Glenn, you got my meaning!

    • Reply July 2, 2020

      Varnel Watson

      them must be some little ppl churches two feet tall You possibly meant two leg 6 footers IS membership even a BIBLICAL doctrine or more of a man made way to control others?

  • Doyle Rogers
    Reply July 2, 2020

    Doyle Rogers

    The snake handler is demonstrating his fleshly pride and voluntarily tempting God. He has in his pride, created a need for God’s protection. God’s protection against a serpent would be in the time of an emergncy when it is needed

  • Doyle Rogers
    Reply July 2, 2020

    Doyle Rogers

    The same scenario transpires when a Preacher leads his congregation to stomp the devil. and attempts TO USE the devil’s own tools against him …………… The preacher in his fleshly pride is challenging the devil. ……..Jude wrote…..Jud 1:8 Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities. …………………(…NOTE)
    Jud 1:9 Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation,……………. but said, The Lord rebuke thee.
    Jud 1:10 But these speak evil of those things which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves.

    • Reply July 3, 2020

      Varnel Watson

      didnt your organization started it?

  • Keith Day
    Reply July 2, 2020

    Keith Day

    handeling snakes

    this is like when the Devil tempted Jesus to throw Himself down from the pinnacle of the temple.

    Matthew 4:5-6 (KJV)
    Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple,
    And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.

    the Devil quoted the scripture

    Psalm 91:10-12 (KJV)
    There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.
    For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.
    They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.

    the Devil was asking Jesus to use this as a means of demonstrating the power of God and to test the power of God. but Jesus quoted back that we are not to put God to the test.

    Matthew 4:7 (KJV)
    Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.

    in the same way the scripture in Mark about taking up serpents was not meant as a way to test or show the power of God but a promise of protection for the believer.

    a good example of this is when Paul put some sticks of a fire and a serpent came out and bit him and when he sould have died no harm came to him

    Acts 28:4-6 (KJV)
    And when the barbarians saw the venomous beast hang on his hand, they said among themselves, No doubt this man is a murderer, whom, though he hath escaped the sea, yet vengeance suffereth not to live.
    And he shook off the beast into the fire, and felt no harm.
    Howbeit they looked when he should have swollen, or fallen down dead suddenly: but after they had looked a great while, and saw no harm come to him, they changed their minds, and said that he was a god.

    • Reply July 3, 2020

      Varnel Watson

      well they take up the devil and deal with it

  • Isara Mo
    Reply July 3, 2020

    Isara Mo

    I tread on snakes..

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