I NEED TRUE BELIEVERS IN JESUS

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   Hi Mahdi, 

(Sorry about being slow to conclude this. While you may not be interested, there may be others who are reading it too.) --- So, to continue with Mark 16:

18 They will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them.

I have heard about the group in the south that take this verse literally and dance with rattlesnakes. I saw a short clip on TV once, and I have the taped testimony of a singer who was invited as a guest as part of a program. 

He observed this foolhardy practice and asked someone about it. They said that occasionally someone has been bitten and died, but some are bitten and recover.

--- It appears to be in the realm of �Tempting the Lord,� in supposedly testing their faith, but it is certainly not any Christian practice.

 --- But this is not what Peter was referring to here, as he was talking about the deliverance ministry --- As I said, one of the households of evil spirits are vipers.

Satan/Iblis took on the form of a serpent in the Garden to tempt Eve, and this has been the tactics from then till now.

And he was called by these names in Revelation 20:

1 Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. 

2 He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; 

3 and he cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished.

It says this about Satan/Iblis, who was cast out of the presence of God, in Surah 7:

13 (God) said: "Get thee down from this: it is not for thee to be arrogant here: get out, for thou art of the meanest (of creatures)."

16 He said: "Because thou hast thrown me out of the way, lo! I will lie in wait for them on thy straight way:

17 "Then will I assault them from before them and behind them, from their right and their left: Nor wilt thou find, in most of them, gratitude (for thy mercies)."

Satan was a deceiver and it says in Romans 3:

10 (Concerning judgment on the wicked), --- As it is written:

�There is none righteous, no, not one;

11 There is none who understands;

There is none who seeks after God.

13 With their tongues they have practiced deceit�;

�The poison of asps is under their lips�;

14 �Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.�

--- This is Satan�s work through the ungodly, �They practice deceit and the poison of asps is under their lips.�

A parallel to Mark 16:18, is found in Luke 10:

17 Then the seventy returned with joy, saying, �Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name.�

18 And He said to them, �I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. 

19 Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you. 

20 Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven.�

--- (You see, this identifies the serpents and scorpions of the demonic realm, that they could cast out and 'trample,' or have authority over, --- in the name of Jesus.)  

--- An example of being bitten by a serpent with poisonous venom is seen with the Apostle Paul in Acts 28:

1 Now when they had escaped (the shipwreck), they then found out that the island was called Malta. 

2 And the natives showed us unusual kindness; for they kindled a fire and made us all welcome, because of the rain that was falling and because of the cold. 

3 But when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks and laid them on the fire, a viper came out because of the heat, and fastened on his hand. 

4 So when the natives saw the creature hanging from his hand, they said to one another, �No doubt this man is a murderer, whom, though he has escaped the sea, yet justice does not allow to live.� 

5 But he shook off the creature into the fire and suffered no harm. 

6 However, they were expecting that he would swell up or suddenly fall down dead.

--- If the viper was 'hanging from his hand' it would have been hanging by it's fangs, would it not?

(A little more later)

Placid