Maybe there really is a god...either way thankfully this wingnut pastor won't be doing gods work anymore and hopefully his congregation learned a valuable lesson..god saved the innocent and punished an idiot... read on and weep at how people fall for this kind of religious nonsense.. 'Serpent-Handling' West Virginia A "serpent-handling" West Virginia pastor died after his rattlesnake bit him during a church ritual, just as the man had apparently watched a snake kill his father years before. Pentecostal pastor Mark Wolford, 44, hosted an outdoor service at the Panther Wildlife Management Area in West Virginia Sunday, which he touted on his Facebook page prior to the event. "I am looking for a great time this Sunday," Wolford wrote May 22, according to the Washington Post. "It is going to be a homecoming like the old days. Good 'ole raised in the holler or mountain ridge running, Holy Ghost-filled speaking-in-tongues sign believers." Robin Vanover, Wolford's sister, told the Washington Post that 30 minutes into the outdoor service, Wolford passed around a poisonous timber rattlesnake, which eventually bit him. "He laid it on the ground," Vanover said in the interview, "and he sat down next to the snake, and it bit him on the thigh." Vanover said Wolford was then transported to a family member's home in Bluefield about 80 miles away to recover. But as the situation worsened, he was taken to a hospital where he later died. Jim Shires, owner of the Cravens-Shires Funeral Home in Bluefield, told ABC News that Wolford died Monday. Wolford's church, the Apostolic House of the Lord Jesus in Matoaka, will host a viewing Friday and a funeral service Saturday morning. Wolford will be buried at the Hicks Family Plot in Phelps, Ky. Officials at the Panther Wildlife Management Area had been unaware of Sunday's event until they were notified by callers after the service. "We did not know that this event was happening, and if we had known about it or if we had been asked for permission, permission would not have been granted," Hoy Murphy, public information officer for the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources, told ABC News. Hoy said West Virginia state park rules prohibit animals other than dogs and cats on the property. While snake-handling is legal in West Virginia, other Appalachian states, including Kentucky and Tennessee, have banned the practice in public spaces. Snake-handlers point to scripture as evidence that God calls them to engage in such a practice to show their faith in him. Mark 16: 17-18 reads, "And these signs shall follow them that believe: In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues. They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover." Wolford told the Washington Post magazine in 2011 that he is carrying on the tradition of his ancestors by engaging in snake handling. "Anybody can do it that believes it," Wolford said. "Jesus said, 'These signs shall follow them which believe.' This is a sign to show people that God has the power." Wolford said watched his own father die at the age of 39 after a rattlesnake bit him during a similar service. "He lived 101/2 hours," Wolford told the Washington Post Magazine. "When he got bit, he said he wanted to die in the church. Three hours after he was bitten, his kidneys shut down. After a while, your heart stops. I hated to see him go, but he died for what he believed in. "I know it's real; it is the power of God," Wolford told the Washington Post Magazine last year. "If I didn't do it, if I'd never gotten back involved, it'd be the same as denying the power and saying it was not real."
A short video on this odd tradition: [video=youtube;iUdc5h10zTo]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUdc5h10zTo[/video]
Just try to make sure that when you're bitten it's on a body part that you can immediately chop off. It's not pretty if you wait to start chopping! http://www.rattlesnakebite.org/rattlesnakepics.htm http://www.venomousreptiles.org/libraries/Snakebite Photos/0
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark+16:17-18&version=KJV Mark 16:17-18 King James Version (KJV) 17 And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; 18 They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+10:19&version=KJV Luke 10:19 King James Version (KJV) 19 Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you. ...
And when Satan told Jesus to throw himself down the mountain citing the scripture that God said he would not let him fall Jesus rebuked him saying, "Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God". The pastor in question was tempting God and lost.
It's more like Jesus lacked faith. He never did move that mountain that he said other people could do so easily if they had faith.
I would like to see someone try this stunt with some of the venomous snakes from Australia. Survival rate would be close to zero.
Had a biblical writer claimed that he had, though, some number of people today would believe it without question, no matter what geologists might say to the contrary
Jesus said that his followers would be able to do greater miracles than he did if they had faith. He have the example of telling a mountain to jump into the sea and it would do as the person commanded. So here it is 2,000 years and billions of Christians later and not one person has had enough faith to make that happen. Maybe that's a good thing. Can you imagine the chaos if millions of people could do that? Maybe humanity is self-limiting in what people can do.
Well, the ELS Lutheran interpretation of this is that none of us is even that faithful, we're just so imperfect and all.
What for heavens sake have such unbelievable idiocies to do with the christian religion? Less than nothing! What are this idiots doing on what reasons? Tell everyone to stop immediatelly this nonsense ! All animals are well respected in the christian religion. Nonone ahs any right to misreapect or to torture snakes in the name of Christ. Jesus himselve spoke the words: 'I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.' http://youtu.be/_JJx_NkT2N4 Christians are worldwide under very heavy pressure - lots become murdered and are dying on very serios reasons - and this idiots in West-Virginia prefer to die just for fun. God is not allowing to destroy any live - wether it is the life of human beings nor the life of a snake. Respect ius a chrtain virtue. Respect! Everyone who takes part in such snake-handlings should stop to do so forever. Immediatelly. Live in peace with snakes. Help snakes if necessary. Life is worthful. http://youtu.be/jC915J424Gw
I guess my point was that a sucker is born every day..for anyone to believe in this kind of nonsense just goes to show you the stupidity of any religion.. I'd love to see some more idiotic bible quotes..
Sounds like some folks are weak on faith. Paul was bitten by a serpent and it didn't bother him one bit. BTW, he used to kill animals in the arenas to the adoring cheers of the crowd.
Paul sounds like a fun guy..I wonder how many dogs and cats he killed?? if you friggin believe in god you don't go around killing animals for adoring cheers of the crowd..you do it to survive for food.. I bet ya if the serpent crawled up Paul's (*)(*)(*)(*)(*)(*) and bit him it would of made a better impact..
Those people are silly at best because the scripture does not saying they are to go about and deliberately put themselves in harms way and take up snakes. It only means that one might be in a situation in which they by accident pick up something harmful or poisonous, and it won't hurt them ..for example, Paul. Acts 28:4-5 (KJV) 4 And when the barbarians saw the venomous beast hang on his hand, they said among themselves, No doubt this man is a murderer, whom, though he hath escaped the sea, yet vengeance suffereth not to live. 5 And he shook off the beast into the fire, and felt no harm.
When Jesus said this about handling snakes, he was speaking to the Apostles. This was fulfilled when the Apostle Paul in Acts 28 was bitten by a poisonous snake and was unharmed. Context is everything.
