What does the Bible say about snake handling? Is it a Biblical practice?
The practice of snake handling can be traced back to a man named George Hensley and the Appalachian region of the U.S. around 1910. Fortunately, the amount of people who claimed to be snake handling Christians then, and today, are small in number.
There is a belief among a number of these groups that the ability to handle poisonous snakes without being bitten is a way for individuals to prove they are really filled with the Holy Spirit. If one is bitten while handling a venomous snake, then that person really didn’t have the Holy Spirit according to them. It is believed by others that if a person is bitten and dies that it was simply their time to go.
Snake Handler’s Scriptures
Three areas of Scripture are used by those who practice snake handling to support their ideas.
(Mark 16:17-18) And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.
(Luke 10:19) I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you.
(Acts 28:3-5) As Paul gathered an armful of sticks and was laying them on the fire, a poisonous snake, driven out by the heat, bit him on the hand. The people of the island saw it hanging from his hand and said to each other, “A murderer, no doubt! Though he escaped the sea, justice will not permit him to live. ” But Paul shook off the snake into the fire and was unharmed.
When these Scriptures are viewed as a promise of protection from God if one happens to come across a poisonous snake as Paul did, then they make sense. On the other hand, when they are made out to be a command from God’s Word as a way to test one’s faith, we see just how far some people can twist the Scriptures to fit their own ideas.
As Jesus himself said in (Mathew 4:7), “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.”
Unnecessary Deaths
Numerous sources have placed the number of documented deaths resulting from these snake handling practices to be around 100. This includes Mr. George Hensley himself, who died from a snakebite he received during a service in Florida in 1955. Remember, these are only the documented deaths. These people would have been wise as serpents, as it says in (Mathew 10:16), to have considered another Scripture in the Bible about snakes.
(1 Corinthians 10:9) We should not test Christ, as some of them did, and were killed by snakes.
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