Jamie Coots, a Middlesboro, Kentucky preacher for the “Full Gospel Tabernacle in Jesus Name” church and co-star of the National Geographic TV show Snake Salvation, died on Saturday night after he was bitten by a rattlesnake that he was handling while leading their denomination in “worship.” He was bitten on the hand during the service but when offered medical care at his home later that evening, he refused the care of the EMS or being taken to the hospital. Less than an hour after refusing medical, Jamie Coots was dead. He is not the first to die in that particular denomination (Melinda Brown 1995) or among those who practice snake handling. He will not be the last if they continue the practice, which I am sure they will.
Why do they do this you ask? Because they have a faulty view of Mark 16:17,18 — “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 hands on the sick, and they will recover.” They do not understand that miracles had a purpose to confirm the word preached (Mark 16:20; Hebrews 2:1-4). Those miracles were not done to test God but to prove that the sermon they preached came from God. Those miracles have ceased with the death of the last apostle and with the temporary nature of the miracles (Acts 8:14-17; 1 Corinthians 13:8-12). Because of their failure to understand the word of God, they have developed a faulty interpretation that cost Jamie Coots his life and will cost many people their souls eternally.
The members of that denomination are not the only people on the face of the earth that pervert religion and The Faith by their own false doctrines. Too many believe God’s ways are foolish and choose their own path. As a result of the foolishness of men, they will reject the wisdom of God laid out for mankind in the Scriptures and will be lost.
1 Corinthians 1:18-25 — “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God…For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe…but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called…Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.”
Errors of all sorts have been added to the worship and practice by a variety of denominations and religions. Everything from exorcism in the Catholic church, baptism of the dead in the Mormon church, nudity in Jainism, refusal of blood transfusion by the Jehovah’s Witnesses, mistreatment of women by Islam, a variety of strange ideas of Dianetics and Scientology, as well as worship of ancestors by Eastern religions have become part of the worship and life of those following the ways of the world. Snake handling is an addition of men never intended by God to be part of the authorized worship.
Christians are not exempt from additions of false practices in worship. Some have perverted the means of entrance into the church rejected the clear teaching of Scripture that we must be baptized for the remission of sins (Acts 2:38). Some have perverted the authorized leadership within the church from qualified men to just about anyone including women (1 Timothy 3:1ff). Some have perverted the Lord’s Supper by taking it on some other time than the first day of the week or by not taking it on a weekly basis (Acts 20:7; 1 Corinthians 11:17ff). These practices are just a few of the departure from the truth of God’s Word but they are just as wrong as snake handling.
When it comes to worship, let us be a people who worship according to the pattern of the New Testament (Colossians 3:17; 1 Peter 4:11). — Denny Wilson
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