I'm Afraid Mark 16:18 is Misapplied by Quack Preachers
Mark 16:9-20 is often subject to scrutiny (as I've read) and why the modern versions still put the verses is still questionable. I was thinking about the 17 verses not found in the modern versions (though often found in footnotes) and this passage. Mark 16:18 is put into question because of what would be considered absurd to do for today's Christian:
18 They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.
The verse has been misapplied by crazy snake-handling Charismatic preachers. Yes, the Charismatic movement is full of crazy stuff such as a pastor making people do really hazardous stuff which I wouldn't elaborate on. Just reading reports of a pastor making people eat grass, drink dangerous waters, or fart on them to heal them makes me think that misapplication of the Bible happens. It's not because they don't read their Bible. It's also because they fail to take the verses into context.
Vernon McGee writes the following regarding the matter of verse 18 in its context:
If you want to accept any of these sign gifts, then you must take them all, brother. I'll be glad to prepare a formaldehyde cocktail if you think you can drink it. What am I trying to say? These signs have followed the preaching the Gospel. But they are not signs to continue the preaching of the gospel. They disappeared even in the early church, but they do manifest themselves in some primitive mission frontiers even today. But if someone maintains that they are injuctions for today, then one must accept them all, even the drinking of a deadly poison. Even before the end of the first century, the sign gifts were no longer the credentials of the apostles. The test was correct doctrine (see 2 John 10). It is the Word of God that is the greatest sign in this hour.
The verse in context is for the apostles but not for the average Christian. Acts 28:3-6 presents us with the event when the apostle Paul encountered a venomous beast. Obviously, this is a sign and wonder not meant for today's Church:
3 And when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks, and laid them on the fire, there came a viper out of the heat, and fastened on his hand. 4 And when the barbarians saw the venomous beast hang on his hand, they said among themselves, No doubt this man is a murderer, whom, though he hath escaped the sea, yet vengeance suffereth not to live. 5 And he shook off the beast into the fire, and felt no harm. 6 Howbeit they looked when he should have swollen, or fallen down dead suddenly: but after they had looked a great while, and saw no harm come to him, they changed their minds, and said that he was a god.
Unfortunately, the Charismatic Movement makes the serious error of believing that the apostolic signs and wonders still continue. Some of the pastors even call themselves "apostles" when the age of the apostles is over. All the prophets and apostles of God are now in Heaven as their era ended. Yet, you still have some looney preachers who still take the verse out of its context at their own risk.
See also: