2025, JULY 28
Snake Handling and Poison
William Branham's account of Roy E. Davis drinking poison to win converts shows how Branham's early Pentecostal ministry was connected to dangerous snake-handling and poison-drinking traditions built around Mark 16, while also revealing Branham's habit of using disclaimers to distance himself from reckless practices even as he praised and legitimized them; by claiming that Davis drank sulfuric acid before thousands, that Branham's group had a notarized statement, and that fifteen hundred people received the Holy Ghost afterward, Branham transformed a hazardous spectacle into a miracle story that reinforced Davis's authority, Branham's association with him, and the extreme supernatural claims surrounding their early revival work.
