Posted on 02/16/2014 3:53:48 PM PST by traumer
Jamie Coots, who starred in the 'Snake Salvation' reality TV show about Pentecostal preachers, has died after being bitten and refusing treatment
A "snake-handling preacher" who believed that he was following a Biblical command by picking up snakes has died after being bitten.
Jamie Coots, star of an American reality television show Snake Salvation, which profiled Pentecostal snake-handling pastors, died at his home in Kentucky after refusing to go to hospital.
Coots had been bitten nine times before, losing part of his finger in the process.
"It's a victory to God's people that the Lord seen fit to bring me through it," he said the day after a previous bite, in 1998.
Coots was killed by a rattlesnake, dying less than an hour after he ordered doctors away from his home. Followers of his sect frequently refuse mainstream medical care.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
What was this unfortunate believer’s nick on the Religious Forum here? He will be missed!
“It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.”
Jimmy Coots and his foolish snake-handler congregation tempted ‘the Lord thy God’ every time they did this kind of evil.
Just another false preacher.
Actually it's understood this behavior and snake handling did not occur in the Holyness churches until around the late 60’s to 70’s when the Hindu Gurus made a huge push to infiltrate the USA as a revenue source much larger than they could imagine possible in India.
The Beatles and various Flower Children were all into this stuff throughout the 60’s and 70’s and it spread like wildfire. Eventually seen in many of the Charismatic churches when thrashing about, speaking in Tongues, and a host of other “sensational” behaviors became prevalent. Some continue to this day.
This behavior generally is not voluntary ,from within the individual as they are often led to “believe” ...rather they're initial motive is to communicate with a power outside themselves....and is more often times than not a Demonic force masquerading as the Holy Spirit.
That’s a plectrum banjo. Don’t see those much these days.
That's pretty clear. It says those are the signs of those who believe. If it doesn't mean that, what does it mean? Does it mean that they won't drive out demons, won't speak in new tongues, won't pick up snakes and drink deadly poisons, and won't heal the sick by laying on their hands? And by what far-fetched interpretation do you derive that meaning?
Based on what that passage says, persons "destroyed by serpents" do not believe. Persons who do believe, though, can do those things without harm (at least often enough for them to be signs of belief).
You counter with what Paul (not Jesus) said: “1Cor 10:9 nor let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed by serpents”. Sounds to me as if some persons had been trying to do what Jesus plainly said in that passage that believers do, and had died in the process. Jesus doesn’t say that doing so is to “tempt him”. He says it’s what believers do. Apparently Paul wasn’t seeing those results, though, and neither are modern persons (not if the snake is venomous enough, or the poison strong enough).
I think the truth is that — along with sublime passages and good moral principles — the Bible contains some untruths and harmful moral principles (and contradictions, both of fact and principle). Best to look for the good — as, you hope, the Holy Spirit guides you — rather than pretend that it’s all true, and strain to explain away plain statements like the snake-handling one. (I think most nominal believers just ignore such passages. It’s easier than trying to explain them.)
[By the way, I notice that the Bible Gateway online site says, “The earliest manuscripts and some other ancient witnesses do not have verses 9–20 [in Mark 16].”]
For those who sincerely believe that God will give those signs to identify believers, a wiser procedure than taking up snakes first would be to start by speaking in new tongues (real languages that others understand, as is implied in other passages, not just babbling that others pretend to understand). If you can do that, without having studied those languages, then move on to snake handling. Otherwise assume you’re not a believer, and don’t try.
Or to just dull a student's faith. I remember thinking, "I would not want to be associated with any people like that."
My faith was not destroyed at the age of 19, but it took a bit for Our Lord to get me back in my prior condition.
That is how sneaky the devil is.
>>>That’s pretty clear. It says those are the signs of those who believe. If it doesn’t mean that, what does it mean?<<<
I agree with you. No one has seen those kinds of powers since prior to A.D. 70. In fact, no one had seen anyone move a mountain by faith, and that only requires faith as a grain of mustard seed. LOL!
I believe it means those who received those powers were the “elect,” the chosen ones, those who were resurrected during the lifetime of Jesus’ disciples, exactly during the time Jesus said they would be, and they serve him in his holy temple and holy city in heaven.
I started a thread on the elect at:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/3122039/posts
Philip
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