Misused Verse #7

Yes, finally, the last one!

     I have been looking forward to this for a very long time, the final verse in the misused verse series. After this, I want to get into the requirements and purposes of the pastoral office. But first, the verse. It happens to be none other than Mark 16:17-18, which reads from the ESV as: "And these signs shall accompany those that believe: in my name they shall cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; (18) they will pick up serpents with their hands; and if they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover." This verse is often used by the Christians in snake handling denominations to justify their acts of snake handling and poison drinking. They believe that these acts evidence their faith in Jesus Christ, but I believe that while these acts could accompany Christians (and they did: Acts 2:1; 3:2; 5:15-16; 8:7; 19:12; 28:3; 28:8 and many many many more). While I do believe that healings and other miracles will accompany those who have a true faith in Jesus Christ, I do not believe that this verse condones the practices of the Snake handling churches, and I have numerous reasons.
     First and foremost the immediate context of the verse. This verse is in an extended ending of the gospel according to Mark, which does not appear in the two oldest texts. Think of it as an extended edition of a movie, that was added on by people who had no part in the production of the original*. The verses given in this text should be read with caution, and, according to the Wycliffe Bible Commentary, "could not reasonably be used as a basis for the deliberate and presumptuous handling of serpents and drinking of poison which are practiced by certain extreme religious sects." Also, I would highly advise not using any of the verses found in this extended version as a basis for any other doctrine, unless it is supported by other passages in the New Testament that are not as ambiguous, which leads me to my second point.
     The idea of handling serpents as a show of faith is not found in any other verse in the Bible. Hear me through: there is mention of power to "tread on serpents" as well as "scorpions," given in Luke 10:19, however, one must realize that this was said by Jesus Christ specifically to the seventy-two disciples that had been appointed by our Lord Jesus to go into the towns that he was about to enter as "lambs in the midst of wolves" (try picturing that!) and proclaim the nearness of the kingdom of God, as well as heal the sick in any of the towns that received them favorably. These verses, because they are directed specifically at the seventy-two, cannot in good conscience, be applied to all Christians today. The idea of being able to drink poison is also not found anywhere else in the New Testament. Sorry, but it isn't...
     The word translated "serpent" in this passage (ὄφις), can also be translated figuratively as an "artful malicious person." And in the passage from Luke, the Greek word translated as "Scorpion" is what Strong's dictionary describes as "an obsolete word, (perhaps strengthened from the base of σκοπός and meaning to pierce)." Due to the fact that I have not yet learned Greek (it's on the agenda, but haven't gotten that far yet) I will trust the scholars in their translation of the word scorpion, but I will speculate about the word serpent. Throughout the Bible, the serpent is the symbol of craftiness an cunning, and perhaps once again our Lord is speaking in a parable and alluding to Christian's ability to put down heretics and others who use divisive methods and attempt to divide the church. Another possible explanation is that Christ was alluding to the apostle Paul being bitten by a serpent on the island of Malta (see Acts 28:1-5).
     Finally, the Bible ultimately commands us not to put God to the test (see Deuteronomy 6:16; Matt 4:7, 22:8; Luke 4:12; 1 Cor 10:9 [very appropriate]), and every time they pick up a serpent they are putting God's mercy and protection to the test.
     If you have any comments, please post them, I would love to get more opinions on this very confusing verse. I hope you found this post thought-provoking, informative, and interesting to read. I look forward to writing on less troubling matters.

Until next we write, I hope that Christ will keep you and protect you.

Your brother in Christ,

Joe

"Experience: that most brutal of teachers. But you learn, my God do you learn."
C. S. Lewis

The experience of watching numerous people die handling snakes, should logically lead a person to conclude it is an unethical and false practice, however, that seems to not be the case for those who live in snake handling communities...

*::NOTICE!:: This is kind of like a retraction, in that it is an edition of the actual post for better clarity and understanding, in an effort to prevent misunderstanding. When I refer to the passage in Mark as being like and extended version of a movie, I am not saying it was for sure written by humans, I'm saying that we don't know (we being myself and every other Biblical scholar to my knowledge) whether it was written by humans apart from or in the inspiration of God. Therefore, it should be read with caution... Carry on.

Misused Verse # 6

Hello All! I hope this blog post finds you safe and well.

    This misused verse was also brought to my attention by Mr. Rosebrough at Pirate Christian Radio. This misused verse can be very dangerous in the hands of the right (perhaps wrong would be better) pastor. The verse in question is Deuteronomy 15:10, which reads like this: "You shall give to him freely, and your heart shall not be grudging when you give to him, because for this the LORD your God shall bless you in all your work and in all that you undertake." First, you should notice that this is in the OLD Testament, and is part of the law, so therefore it does not directly apply to us, because we are no longer under the law, but in Christ. Second, you should notice that this is in verse 10, and therefore something was more than likely left off the front of this verse (context!). So, in order to get a good understanding of this verse, we need to back up to the start of the paragraph, to verse 7: "If among you, one of your brothers should become poor, in any of your towns within your land that the LORD your God has given you, you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother, 8 but you shall open your hand to him and lend him sufficient for his need, whatever it may be. 9 Take care lest there be an unworthy thought in you heart and you say, 'the seventh year, the year of release is near,' and your heart look grudgingly on your poor brother, and you give him nothing, and he cry to the LORD against you and you be guilty of sin" (breaking the law by omission). This verse, in and of its self, is pretty harmless. But in the hands of a skilled Bible twister (wolf in sheep's clothing), it can be used to drastic effect. When I heard this verse, the pastor speaking said something along the lines of this: "If you want to sell your house and give the money, do it. If you want to cash in your 401(k) and give the money, do it. If you want to sell your car and give the money, do it." If your pastor is doing something along those lines with this verse or any other giving verse, one piece of advice: Run! Just run! If you want to try and point this problem out to your pastor, sure, maybe he'll repent, but correcting this heresy could result in a loss of income for the church, so I doubt he (or she [different topic for a different time]) will fix it.
    Most verses that are ripped out of context like this and used this way can be fixed simply by putting it back in context, and that is very good for those of you faced with problems like this, but the effects of not standing up and pointing out these mistakes can be devastating. Pray for the people who are stuck in churches like these, who convince their followers to give everything they have to the church in times as troubling as this. I trust that the LORD is powerful and can help those who are tricked into giving everything to these empty churches, but I believe the best way is for the pastor to repent of his wrong doings, or for the people to find a church where the word of God is rightly handled and preached.

Sincerely,

Joe Anderson

"For a time is coming where people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to truth and wander off into myths." 2 Timothy 4:3-4
My friends, that time is here, and has been here since the beginning of the church, but recently, it has been getting worse. The solution? Drive a stake through its vampric heart.

Apology

I would like to apologize to all my readers who left comments and did not see them published for a very long time. I am extremely new to Blogger, and I thought that I would be notified of comments awaiting moderation (yes, I have started reading comments before I approve them, just to be safe :D ) with an email. Alas, that is not the case. I did not notice the little phrase right below the manage blogs section telling me I had five comments waiting. Now that i know, your comments should be posted quite a bit quicker.

Your Brother in Christ,

Joe Anderson

"And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death." Rev 12:11
"Testimony is just a fancy word for heaven touched earth right where I'm standing and I am different as a result." Kristen Williams

Misused Verse #5

    This verse really, really, really shouldn't have made it into this list, but anything is possible with liberal Bible Twisters, so I shouldn't be surprised. The verse I am referring too is Joshua 10:12-13 "At that time Joshua spoke to the LORD in the day when the LORD gave the Amorites over to the sons of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel,
"Sun, stand still at Gibeon,
and moon, in the Valley of Aijalon."
13 And the sun stood still, and the moon stopped,
until the nation took vengeance on their enemies."
    You may be thinking "What is so dangerous about misusing this verse, and how on Earth could this be misused?" I too, at one point, didn't think twice of this verse, and only thought of it as a very interesting story of how the LORD listened to Joshua's prayer. Unfortunately, some liberal tele-evangelists looked at this verse and applied it to themselves and to all of their audience. Paraphrasing, they said: "the weather world-wide has reached biblical proportions, and we believe that this is a result of our sins. Christians in every country must therefore pray a sun stand still prayer and take authority over the weather." I don't know about you, but I think if I went to Minnesota and tried to take authority over a tornado, I would probably get sucked up and thrown very far. The reason I believe Christians can't take "authority" over the weather is that Paul was shipwrecked three times, and if he prayed a "sun stand still prayer" then I'm guessing it didn't take much effect, or else he probably wouldn't have been shipwrecked. And if Paul couldn't take authority over the weather, I highly doubt I could, or any other Christian for that matter.

   You may be wondering why I even included this misused verse, and what the danger is in misusing that verse in such a way as this. The problem with this misuse of the verse is that it paints our God as totally powerless until we pray a special prayer, being sure to say all the correct words. And when the weather doesn't change the way we want it to (and we're sucked into the physical/metaphoric tornado), people can look at our failure and say: "Hmm, their God didn't help them like they thought he would, so he must either be powerless or non-existent." The result is Christianity being a laughing stock to all of the world (not that I care what the world thinks, but it's hard to be a light to the world when they view us as ridiculous).

    If there are any verses that apply to Christians and suggests that we can take authority over the weather, please let me know, so I can alert the guy who alerted me to this misuse, and so I could put forward a retraction. Or so we can debate possible interpretations to the verses and try and find out if this is possible (because if it is, we could get careers praying before football or rugby games so it doesn't rain... jk)

Hope this post was informative and thought-provoking. Let me know what you think.

Sincerely,

Joe Anderson

All Authority in Heaven and on Earth was given to JESUS the CHRIST, not Joe Shmoe the common Christian

It's the End of the World as we Know It

That's great, it starts with an earthquake, birds and snakes, an aeroplane -
Lenny Bruce is not afraid. Eye of a hurricane, listen to yourself churn -
world serves its own needs, regardless of your own needs. Feed it up a knock,
speed, grunt no, strength no. Ladder structure clatter with fear of height,
down height. Wire in a fire, represent the seven games in a government for
hire and a combat site. Left her, wasn't coming in a hurry with the furies
breathing down your neck. Team by team reporters baffled, trump, tethered
crop. Look at that low plane! Fine then. Uh oh, overflow, population,
common group, but it'll do. Save yourself, serve yourself. World serves its
own needs, listen to your heart bleed. Tell me with the rapture and the
reverent in the right - right. You vitriolic, patriotic, slam, fight, bright
light, feeling pretty psyched.

It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine.

Those are the lyrics to a very interesting song... But the fact of the matter is, TODAY IS THE END OF THE WORLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! At least, according to Harold Camping ::Cough:: HERETIC ::Cough::

Unless I am in extreme denial (ha!) and my brain is refusing to register what my eyes are telling me (Ha!) and so I am not seeing/feeling (my body is in denial too) the giant earthquake and the earth's crust breaking apart and sinking into it's own core of molten rock (HA!!!), then the world is not ending.

According to the LORD Jesus Christ, NO MAN may know the day or the hour of the second coming of Christ (or the end of the world) (not even Christ himself), see Matt. 24:36.

Well, see you tomorrow!

Sincerely, Joe Anderson

"And many false prophets shall arise and lead many people away." Matt. 24:11 See that no one leads YOU astray.

Misused Verse #4

     This verse is misused/misquoted so often it's not even funny. Just like the last verse, the misuse of this verse isn't extremely dangerous, but when overused it posts an obstacle to our understanding of prayer and the presence of God. The verse that i am referring to is Matthew 18:20. If you have your Bible, open it and take a look, if not, here is the verse: "Wherever two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them." My friends from New Zealand, my church (the one in Oregon AND the one in Hawai'i), and myself, have all misused this verse at some point in our lifetimes. You may be wondering how this verse could be misused, it is a wonderful picture of how the LORD is present in all of our church gatherings. No, it is not. Remember the first rule of Biblical interpretation?
     ::cough:: context ::cough:: You guessed it, context!
     Starting at verse 15: "If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. 16 But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses.17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. 18 Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.19Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven."
     As you can see here, this chapter of Matthew is not about prayer, but about church discipline. If the misused version of this verse WERE true, we would have to hunt down one or two people just to feel the presence of God during our prayers. We know this is not true (I used to feel more of the presence of God while riding the lawn mower and singing worship songs at the top of my lungs than most any other time). On top of our own personal experiences, there are several verses that tell us the same thing. See: Matthew 28:20.
     In essence, God is with us ALWAYS, even when there are less than two or three.
     If this verse is misused, it could provide ammunition for those who argue against the unanimity of the gospel, and it could have drastic affects against young Christians who do not quite know how to defend themselves against the lies of the Enemy. If it takes two or three to summon the presence of the LORD, then why would Christ say he is with us ALWAYS?

Sincerely,

Joe Anderson
"Jesus isn't cool. He's God. Cool changes, God doesn't" ~ Kristen Williams

A Brief Respite

I am taking a brief break from critiquing misused verses, just for this post that I felt I had to share with you. I just got back home from Approaching Thunder at Victorious Faith Church. I felt the Lord as I never had before! And I just thought I should share one quote from the conference with y'all.

"If you think Christianity is boring, you're doing it wrong!" Kristen Williams.

If Christianity is boring to you, you're probably treating it like a religion, not a relationship.

Christianity is not the most popular religion in the world, it is the only true relationship that exists. Unfortunately, too many people treat it as a religion, and churches are empty places where people go and wish they were at home watching football. Well, not everyone, and not all the churches.

We NEED a revival.

Sincerely, Joe Anderson

"Too many people got to church."