Posted on 05/30/2012 6:26:18 PM PDT by Morgana
Mack Wolford, a flamboyant Pentecostal pastor from West Virginia whose serpent-handling talents were profiled last November in The Washington Post Magazine , hoped the outdoor service he had planned for Sunday at an isolated state park would be a “homecoming like the old days,” full of folks speaking in tongues, handling snakes and having a “great time.” But it was not the sort of homecoming he foresaw.
Instead, Wolford, who turned 44 the previous day, was bitten by a rattlesnake he owned for years. He died late Sunday.
Mark Randall “Mack” Wolford was known all over Appalachia as a daring man of conviction. He believed that the Bible mandates that Christians handle serpents to test their faith in God — and that, if they are bitten, they trust in God alone to heal them.
He and other adherents cited Mark 16:17-18 as the reason for their practice: “And these signs will follow those who believe: in My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.”
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
In one of Dolly Parton’s books, she tells the story of when her daddy used to take her and some of her brothers and sisters to sing at the mountain churches. - Once, he took them to a new one back in the holler. They were up front singing and the preacher brought out the snakes. Dolly’s father bellowed from the back of the church, “Get those damned snakes away from my kids!!” - and he ran up front, scooped his kids up, hauled them to the car and got them out of there fast.
“I think I’ll interpret the Bible myself. After all, what could go wrong?”
Then why bother to read it at all? The original New Testament manuscripts were written in everyday forms of the Greek and Aramaic languages that could be understood by the common man. There are English translations that are quite easy to understand. The Gospel was not meant to be doled out and interpreted by a “gatekeeper”.
Don’t tell me, tell Mack Wolford.
The truth is that for First Century Jews and Christians literacy in Greek was rare and in Aramaic even rarer as it was not a literary language. Literacy among women was unheard of.
"...I have also taken a great deal of pains to obtain the learning of the Greeks, and understand the elements of the Greek language, although I have so long accustomed myself to speak our own tongue, that I cannot pronounce Greek with sufficient exactness; for our nation does not encourage those that learn the languages of many nations...." Titus Flavius Josephus — Antiquities of the Jews 20,11.2
“writing [in first-century A.D. Palestine] was in the hands of an élite of trained specialists, and reading required an advanced education available only to a few.” - W.H. Kelber
Snakes are a bitch - always ................................................................................................................... FRegards
Habitual low-dose use of arsenic can lead to a tolerance for a higher dose - and in the past people used arsenic cosmetically, to make the skin pale and translucent.
I think Agatha Christie used arsenic tolerance in one of her mysteries.
That is precisely what happened to my wife in Statesville TN at a Missionary Baptist Church revival back in the early 70s when she was a kid. Her daddy was very stern and a deacon at a church in Murfreesboro where they lived but he was from the “hills and hollows” and was a 3 war combat vet including 2 tours in Indochina.
Same thing...preacher brought out the boxes of snakes.
Carl (RIP) stood up and challenged the preacher hard in front of everyone .
Told him that tempting God was vanity and foolish and the work of Satan.
They left....never went back...it was the church he grew up in..
I never did understand the reason behind snake handling.
Like your wife’s daddy, it seems like temptation, to me.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.