In the Book of Acts, St Paul was gathering wood for a fire and a snake bit him. The Inhabitants of the island felt sure that the snake bit him because he must have been guilty of murder (superstitious..the snake was in the woodpile and had been disturbed!). Anyway, Paul shook off the snake and continued building the fire. The Islanders then thought that Paul was “a god” because he didn’t swell up and die.
In the Gospel of Mark, some manuscripts have the line about deadly poison and snakes not harming the Apostles as they went forth to preach.
In my very humble opinion, NEITHER of these Biblical verses justify “Testing God” by handling snakes and deliberately drinking poison. The Bible is not to blame for the foolishness of humans, who in their hubris, “SHOW OFF THEIR FAITH” by testing God.
Meanwhile, in the Middle East, Christians are being slaughtered and Tortured by the thousands. Do any of these snake handlers have enough faith to GO THERE and stand with their brethren against the deadly venom that is Islam?
I like to skin ‘em and wrap the skin around my straw western hat.
Excellent, thank you for posting :-)