Snake-Handling Preachers Open Up About 'Takin' Up Serpents'

Fylgje
reply to post by WarminIndy

 

I come from a loooong line of coal miners and your generalization of them being abusive is assumption. Most of them that I ever knew about were very loving. Maybe a little strict, but not abusive. They worked in the mines to support the family that they loved. Maybe yours, or Grimpachi's family was dysfunctional and was abusive towards each other, but don't assume that it was "normal abuse". That's absurd and idiotic. It would be highly against the culture here. I'm not saying that there weren't some abusive men but you and your friend make it sound as if it were the norm, which again, is idiotic. And I do believe Jesus is a rip-off of Horus. Too many similarities. Besides, like I said, It's all fantasy and should have no place in a civilized world.

edit on 21-10-2013 by Fylgje because: to add to

Wasn't Rome, Greece and Egypt considered very civilized for their times. Oh yes, they were very civilized. What you actually mean is "this current state of civilization we are experiencing now".

reply to post by Grimpachi


I would tend to think that the laying on of hands for the sick and the sick being healed would be more of a show of their faith than taking up snakes. Does anyone know if healings accompany the snake handlings?

WarminIndy
reply to post by palmalBlue2

 

I didn't see the torch, I don't know what you mean. If there is a torch, then it is probably simply symbolic and doesn't mean anything other than just for light.

Usually the people who go out and get the snakes generally release them back in the wild after a few months, but they do feed them. It does depend on the time of the season they are caught. If they are caught during the Dog Days, then they would look like that as they are going through the shedding skin period. But they would keep them alive during the winter because they can't release them in the snow.

Snakes are blind during Dog Days, because of the shedding. As they can only feel vibrations then it makes it easier to catch them because they don't know what direction to go.

Funny and true story, one time when I was young and my parents had sent me to stay with cousins in Kentucky for the summer, we went to church with them (this was not one of the snake handling churches). As the service went on we heard from the outside a man begin to pray rather loudly. He was moaning out loud "Lord Jesus help me". People inside thought he was being convicted by the spirit. So when it was over and we went out, the man was standing there in shock because he had gone out to smoke and a rattler that was blind had crawled onto the porch where he was and he couldn't move, his hand was shaking the remnant of the cigarette butt. The snake was blind and very sensitive to his movement. He was stuck for over an hour waiting for church to be over, so I guess the moral of the story is, if you go to church in Kentucky, don't go out to smoke, snakes just might be waiting for you.

All snakes shed, but not necessarily during dog days. Snakes shed at different times of year, according to how fast they grow. Having had snakes as pets when I was younger, it would seem to me that a bite would be more likely during this time, because their vision is clouded while the skin loosens. Just a thought.

Fylgje
reply to post by WarminIndy

 

I come from a loooong line of coal miners and your generalization of them being abusive is assumption. Most of them that I ever knew about were very loving. Maybe a little strict, but not abusive. They worked in the mines to support the family that they loved. Maybe yours, or Grimpachi's family was dysfunctional and was abusive towards each other, but don't assume that it was "normal abuse". That's absurd and idiotic. It would be highly against the culture here. I'm not saying that there weren't some abusive men but you and your friend make it sound as if it were the norm, which again, is idiotic. And I do believe Jesus is a rip-off of Horus. Too many similarities. Besides, like I said, It's all fantasy and should have no place in a civilized world.

edit on 21-10-2013 by Fylgje because: to add to

I think the assumption comes from all those pictures of children working in the fields or in the coal mines.

www.dailymail.co.uk... .html

"These signs will accompany those who have believed: in My name ... they will pick up serpents...”
- Mark 16:17-18 (shortened)

" But when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks and laid them on the fire, a viper came out [c]because of the heat and fastened itself on his hand. When the [d]natives saw the creature hanging from his hand, they began saying to one another, “Undoubtedly this man is a murderer, and though he has been saved from the sea, justice has not allowed him to live.” However he shook the creature off into the fire and suffered no harm. 6 But they were expecting that he was about to swell up or suddenly fall down dead. But after they had waited a long time and had seen nothing unusual happen to him, they changed their minds and began to say that he was a god.
-Acts 28-3-5

Well, I think that explains that. Jesus never commanded any one to go and pick up serpents, he simply said it will happen. And Paul didn't go looking for a snake, he just happened to get bit while gathering firewood.

I think it's foolish to take a prophecy that already came true as a current commandment from God. The fact that people still get bit with consequence is quite telling.
Interesting that unhealthy snakes is probably the reason there are so few bites, but really sad they treat them that way.

reply to post by Grimpachi


the serpents don't like it when you take them up, even if it doesn't corrupt the handler... the serpents get angry when you do this, so please don't handle snakes directly they have a tendency to strike