Categories: Fuchs' Focus
Mark 16:18 Take the Challenge!
Print
Share
Dear Evangelicals:
I have a message for you all, worldwide, who harbor a burning compulsion to share the gospels with us Jews. A challenge for the arrogant disciples who have unmitigated gall to lecture us about how we need to be “restored”, “completed”, or “redeemed”: How strong is your personal faith? Do you truly believe?
Who brought the knowledge of the One true God to the world? It was the Jewish people. Our forefather Abraham bequeathed that gift upon us, and we in turn carried the knowledge of the One True God, while the entire world was entrenched in paganism.
To be sure, we Jews erred time and again, and stumbled in the face of idolatry and temptation. The Torah certainly does not mask our national sins. Nevertheless, we preserved the Law through the ages through our prophets and righteous leaders who kept the message alive. Even when the pagan fires burned strongest, we still persevered. The Jewish people remained the lone advocates of genuine monotheism.
Who took that gift, the knowledge of the Oneness of God (a unity unlike any other notion of oneness that exists) and made it three? Who corrupted the gift?
YOU did.
And even as you attempted to flee the paganism of your age, you could not help but co-opt so much of it to incorporate into your new faith. In that regard, you fall short of the intrinsically flawed faith but superior (comparative to YOUR faith) version of monotheism as expressed by Islam, who nevertheless have many problems of their own.
And do not blame the Catholic Church or “papist paganism” as your forebears would call it, as you are so often wont to do. Contemporary evangelicals are not reclaiming a truer version of their faith. An evangelical Protestant who denies his theological Catholic roots is a fool. Without the Catholic Church there is no original church. Your faith was born of pagan parents. And yet you have the gall to lecture us.
You cannot even adhere to your own beliefs. Have you tended your own garden, ye evangelicals of little faith? Heal thyself. Read your “holy” works. You have fallen short of your own standards.
Here’s one example: as devout evangelicals trying to share “the word” with the world, have you tested the perplexing claims of Mark 16:18?
- Do you handle vipers in accordance with YOUR gospels?
- Do you gargle and ingest antifreeze, with no ill effects?
- Do you possess magical healing hands?
“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.”( King James Bible Mark, 16:18)
The tiny sect of snake handlers in rural America at least make a pretense at religious integrity by handling rattlesnakes. I suggest you do better. Their efforts are always suspect. The snakes seem so lethargic. Drugged perhaps. Yet there are opportunities to test your faith with serpents more sincerely without the trappings of deception. The world is full of vipers.
I challenge you to test your faith as put forth in Mark 16:18. Pick up venomous snakes! Not snakes that have been drained of venom, or who have been defanged. I’m referring to wild snakes in nature. I encourage you to search the wild places of the U.S., where opportunities to find rattlers, copperheads, cottonmouths, and coral snakes are plentiful. Caution is for sinners. Handle them with disregard for personal safety in the manner of one who truly believes in the veracity of the gospels. Hold them near your face.
I have a personal invitation to missionaries worldwide. Join me in Israel, and I will assist you in this theological test. As someone with a passion for the fauna of Israel, I have good knowledge of where to find venomous snakes.
- Test #1: I will accompany you to different locations in Israel and help you locate indigenous vipers. I’ll flip up rocks, and you will test your faith. Have no fear if they bite you. The gospels maintain that you will be okay.
- Test #2: After a day of being snake-bit, we can continue with the second “venom test” from the very same verse. While I down a cold beer, you can chug down a bucket of bleach, turpentine, or RAID. Again, Mark 16 assures the safety of the true disciple.
- Test #3: Should you get deathly ill out of weakness of personal faith, your fellow brother can heal you by the laying of his hands, as promised in the very same verse.
Theological Question for Evangelicals
If Mark 16:18 claims that believers can heal the sick with their hands, with millions of evangelicals worldwide, why do people continue to die of illness ? From COVID-19, to cancer and AIDS, you have dropped the ball! Are evangelicals so cruel, to deny humanity their healing prowess?
Perhaps your personal faith is not so strong. Diseased people generally do not lecture others on how to maintain general health. Shouldn’t spiritual disease follow the same standard? Perhaps you should work on their own spiritual welfare, before lecturing those of us who follow monotheism.
Point 1: If your personal snake-handling, poison drinking, magic-hands healing skills are weak (or you fear that they might be), your faith is either flawed, or your faith is wrong. The only way to know is to test it. And I suspect that most evangelicals do not like their odds when it comes to testing Mark 16:18.
Point 2: From a Torah perspective your primitive beliefs may be better than those of a jungle dwelling animist (Even Maimonides would concede that) but is still a flawed system of idolatry. Use your reason and draw proper conclusions. At the very least, if you refuse to test the gospels and lack faith to adhere to the standards of your holy books, admit that you lack the authority to lecture anyone (save for an animist) about their souls.
Point 3: Better yet, abandon paganism and proselytizing, and find the True God of Noah and Abraham. From a Torah perspective, only the Noahide is living the life of one committed to The Almighty. Become genuine students of authentic Rabbis equipped to instruct you in the mandated“7 Laws of Noah” all Gentiles are required to follow.
Note: I refer to authentic rabbis and not charlatans and gurus: Do not become students of online, interfaith-obsessed, “yeshiva for the nations” type rabbis. You know the ones set up by religious Jews who profit from teaching you to become more effective missionaries.
Note: A good rule of thumb: If the co-founder of the Yeshiva is an evangelical, you can be certain it is NOT a yeshiva, even by the most liberal standards of the term. Regardless of the name.
Personally, I have no interest in seeing you drop dead of snakebite or from ingesting poison. I am making a point. You are unwilling to handle vipers or wash down a gallon of engine coolant. Your healing powers are weak. You have little faith in your own faith.
If you do not believe, why propagate it? More importantly, why keep it yourself? God does not make mistakes or change His mind. The covenant with the Jewish people is eternal. The notion of an incarnate God is idolatry. We Jews were never replaced, and we have no need to be restored. The problem is you.
Start from the beginning and learn about a man called Noah. A form of repentance, if you will, to find the knowledge of the One True G-d. Therein lies your salvation.
Or remain firm in your beliefs and continue with your brazen provocations against the Jewish people, which by extension is really a war against The Almighty. In that case, face the inevitable flood, in whatever form that may be, for those who refuse to accept Hashem’s sovereignty. The choice is yours.
Evangelicals eschew reason and fortify their primitive beliefs with unmatched arrogance. It’s not an easy thing to overcome. I have little confidence in the ability of the average evangelical to change, though it has been known to happen.
On these occasions we are happily blessed with unique individuals with unmatched abilities to further the knowledge of Hashem. From righteous converts who are now one of us, to genuine Noachides, there are examples. Please G-d we should see many more.
Evangelicals of the world, Mark 16:18 is your personal test, one which evangelicals rarely take themselves. Your failure to undergo this trial smacks of fear and uncertainly. It screams of your doubt and insecurity that you will survive vipers and poison.
To the pious frauds of the world, who wish to lecture to us Jews, I say prove your worth:
Bring forth the snakes. Drink poison if you will. Handle vipers if you must. Heal the sick with your magic hands. Or shut your mouths and perfect your own faith. You have nothing to teach us.
Or even better yet, repent.
Signed,
Donny Fuchs
June 19, 2026 
