Pick Your Poison - Mark 16:17-18

Years ago a guy wrote a letter to, I believe it was, World Magazine. In it he challenged anyone to give him a chapter and verse to prove that Mark 16:17-18 was no longer valid for Christians today. I did not respond  then, but now I am ready to address it with him.

I believe that there are verses in the New Testament that indicate that certain gifts and manifestations of the Spirit are no longer sovereignly being given by Him today (but that is a subject of a different post). The point is that this guy does have a point. If we grant that verses 9-20 of Mark chapter sixteen are authentic (and a lot of conservative scholars do not), and if we don't have absolute, indisputable evidence that this passage is no longer in effect, then perhaps we should accept Mark 16:17-18 and start living it...all of it! Here is my challenge to whoever wrote this letter to the editor many years ago. If you are reading this, you bring the cyanide and I'll round up some particularly venomous snakes, and you and I will party, spiritually-speaking, of course.

Here's the problem with accepting this passage as a description to be followed by believers today. Not many believers want to follow the whole thing. Some want to "speak with new tongues", some desire to heal the sick, and there are a bunch of Christians who are traveling around trying to exorcise demons. But picking up serpents and drinking poison, not so much. There are a few Christians willing to do this, and I have to say, at least they are consistent.

If this passage is for today, the whole thing has to be for today. We can't just pick out the parts we like and discard the rest like fish bones. Either Mark 16:17-18 is what all believers should be doing and these "signs" identify us as believers, or we have to go back to the Word and rethink this entire passage.

We need to ask the Lord if perhaps this is a description of signs for the apostolic age. Hebrews 2:3-4 seems to indicate that these kinds of phenomenon were in the past by the time the writer of Hebrews penned his letter. I believe that the application of Mark 16:17-18 for us today is that God is going to do "signs" through his people that give evidence that we belong to Him and that Christ is the only true way. It could be through these particular signs, but God doesn't have to limit Himself to these signs in every age. But if you are the person who wrote the letter, and you still think Mark 16:17-18 is directly and completely applicable for us today, let me know when we are getting together to pick up the snakes and drink poison. One more thing...you go first!