There is nothing in the Bible that describes the practice they promote. Sure, there is a claim that people who are filled with the Holy Spirit will not die if bitten by snakes, but no description of it being used as a ritual practice and you could claim it contradicts “do not put the Lord God to the test”.
I have no idea if there is extra-biblical evidence for people doing that in early churches, and whether those churches were considered orthodox or heretical at the time, or perhaps the 1st century equivalent of “we don’t know yet, we’re just trying stuff out to see what works”.
Im going to cite (slightly shorten) Wikipedia. I have no competency to understand the sources and fact check but I though it’s quite interesting.
> In the 2nd century the Ophites reportedly handled snakes during their services, and also worshipped the serpent.
> The Ophites […] were a Christian Gnostic sect.
> Gnosticism […] is a collection of religious ideas and systems that coalesced in the late 1st century AD among Jewish and early Christian sects. These diverse groups emphasized personal spiritual knowledge (gnosis) above the proto-orthodox teachings, traditions, and authority of religious institutions.
Seems very reasonable sects to me but it’s understandable "authorities of religious institutions" didn’t like it.
Indeed extra biblical gospel from Luke and Mark:
> Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.
> And these signs shall follow them that believe: In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues. 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.
IMHO Gospels are comparable with the Bible as a source of history.
Gnosticism is a bit of a catchall - the Ophites were a sect or branch and not by any means the standard - it's difficult to say there is an established "Standard Gnostic Theology" as there really isn't, there are some common deviations from modern Christianity that rendered them more similar thru a modern lens than they may be, tho they are some common Gnostic themes, like self awareness but snake charming isn't one.
That said, snakes have been widely deified thru out history by various cultures and beliefs.
Prior to Christianity the god Tiamet would have been widely known and had been so for hundreds of years. It is common practice for a religion to take the previous god and render them the "bad guy" in their new religion - that could also have been done to the Ophites as the Gnostics were essentially erased by the Church and what little remains the establishment said about them has been rendered sus by what we have found recently of OG Gnostic texts.
You have to realize, by 400 - saying someone handles snakes during their church service was a kin to saying they are a satanic cult.
That said - Gnostics would handle snakes if they wanted or needed to and they would be fine bc that is the faith they preached, a faith of action. Step onto the water - you will not sink of you do and have faith already, no more is needed in the moment, no assistance from Priest or higher power.
Christianity adopted the faith of Paul - the apostle not chosen by Christ, and became people that wait in their beliefs, faithfully waiting for God.
yes agree and .. there are branches of Christianity across the world that did not lose the connection to warfare. There are plenty of people who fight fiercely (in real life) that espouse Christ deeply.. a current Japan martial arts cage fighting champion from Brazil dedicated his whole victory speech to Christ recently, for example.
We are not supposed to do what we kno kno is bad - nothing is set in set in stone anymore, that's the Greatest Commandment actually, God saying you kno well enough to do this on your own without these rules I etched into stone for you, just follow this one rule and you will be fine - as if all of did follow the greatest Commandment we would remake this work out the broken thing it is now and into the Kingdom of Heaven - bc that was very clearly stated to be WITHIN US.
God will only bring his house down after we fix the place up a little bit, WE must save ourselves this time.
It's not wrong to violently beat up a man in a ring for money if that money has agreed to it - I don't think it's ideal per say, so it will come with consequences and over time, if it isn't what God wants us doing, those consequences will become very costly. That's how all of this works - we can do whatever's we want but we will face the consequences and there will always be them, eventually we will learn that even tho we can do anything we want, we shouldn't, we should just follow that Greatest Commandment - that truly is the easiest thing to do.
Tbh if you think about it at all, the whole idea of mortal, unforgivable, hellfire worthy sin - it all falls down when you consider that God made this reality and is there y responsible for all that he allows to occur within it, the exact same way if I make a violent sexual game for kids, its my fault, not the children for playing it.
Thou shall not judge. BC we can't - we don't have any ideas what is worthy of judgement or not and we can't fr our current point of view.
I have no idea if there is extra-biblical evidence for people doing that in early churches, and whether those churches were considered orthodox or heretical at the time, or perhaps the 1st century equivalent of “we don’t know yet, we’re just trying stuff out to see what works”.