Sunday, July 29, 2012

Go figure

While I'm on the subject of Sunday worship, something has troubled me the last few weeks.

It's the news out of the hills of West Virginia that a pentacostal holiness preacher died from a rattlesnake bite.

Seems Pastor Mack Wolford, 44, was handling the snake during a May 27 church service when the creature bit him on the thigh.

Pastor Wolford was a true believer in the Word of God, and he took seriously what Jesus said--as recorded in the Book of Mark in the New Testament:

"They shall take up serpents; and if they drink of any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them."

Wolford, like other snake-handling preachers, asserted that Christians should handle poisonous snakes as a test of their belief in God. Snake handling is thus a testimony of their faith in the Almighty.

Guess the snake had not read the Bible.

Another thing: Pastor Wolford died the same way as his dad did. He definitely knew the risk, but held the serpent anyway. He recalled in an interview with a Washington journalist, for example, that his father lived 10 and one-half hours after being bitten: "And 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."

Horrible way to check out, I'd say.

Handling a rattlesnake as a testimony of your faith?

Sorry but I don't buy it. Seems more like a testimony of your stupidity.

God never meant for us to put our lives in jeopardy.

Stay away from rattlesnakes!



1 comment:

Anonymous said...

my favorite part: "guess the snake hadn't read the Bible."