When Andrew Hamblin came to LaFollette he sough to incorporate snake handling into the worship services of a local church. He believes snake handling is a sign of the Gospel. Last fall, he became pastor at Tabernacle Church of God and introduced the congregation to serpent handling, along with other practices he believes are directed in Scripture. Tabernacle Church of God gathers for worship Friday evenings and Sunday afternoons.
Last Friday, people began to gather inside Tabernacle Church of God’s old, brick structure. As service time approached, some sat in pews, while others grabbed instruments on the dais behind the pulpit and begin to play music. Fans blew in the dimly lit sanctuary as children played.
Pastor Andrew Hamblin arrived with a baby in one hand and a Bible in the other. He would soon lay down both and pick up a copperhead. Hamblin made his way around his flock welcoming them with small talk.
When the service began, the building began to vibrate with the pulse of guitars, an electric piano, tambourines and the stomps and claps of the congregation. Many sang, some stood, a few raised their hands and others jumped. At times people felt the need to come to the front and pray. Others prayed with them. Some danced across the front of the church, shaking tambourines in ecstasy.
At the height of the worship service, Hamblin made his way to the snake box, removing a viper, and paced around the pulpit. He laid a hand on some of those gathered around the pulpit as he passed by. He didn’t bring the vipers into the rows of pews, but kept them near the pulpit.
Hamblin has been pastor at Tabernacle Church of God since November 2011. Until then, Tabernacle Church of God didn’t practice snake handling.
Hamblin believes vipers are dangerous animals that will bite. Snake handling isn’t merely an act of faith, which would be testing God, Hamblin said. But Hamblin believes God moves him or anoints him, to handle them. Only when God anoints people to handle vipers, will He protect them, Hamblin said.
“The only time the serpents are harmless is when the anointing of God moves,” Hamblin said. “The anointing of God protects you.”
“I’m the first to tell you I’m scared of them,” deacon and former pastor Clyde Daugherty said. “But not when the Lord moves.”
Serpents aren’t handled at every service at Tabernacle Church of God, Daugherty said.
Sometimes, no snakes are handled.
“Some services come by where just about everybody handles them,” Hamblin said.
He referred to a service where serpents were handled for about two hours.
Friday night, serpents were handled for less than five minutes. Hamblin handled three copperheads and a rattlesnake.
While members of Tabernacle Church of God practice snake handling, it isn’t the main purpose of their worship services.
“Our main goal is not to see who can handle the most serpents,” Hamblin said. “Handling snakes is not the Gospel, it’s (a sign) of the Gospel. Our main goal is to see lost people saved.”
“My message to the church is being born again,” Daugherty said. Daugherty referred to John 3:3, when Jesus told Nicodemus he must be born again in order to enter the kingdom of God. “Let them know that through the preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ to save a sinner, anybody who’s lost who believes that message when they hear it will be born again into the family of God. That’s the main message of this church.”
Hamblin interprets Mark 16:17-18 to mean Christians receive five signs of the Gospel. These signs are: casting out devils, speaking in tongues, taking up serpents, drinking the deadly thing and laying hands on the sick and seeing them recover. But nobody at Tabernacle Church of God is pressured into handling vipers, Hamblin said. Those under 18 years old don’t handle them, and there are members of the congregation who participate in other signs, such as speaking in tongues, that haven’t handled vipers.
The church also practices some of the other signs.
Some who attend Tabernacle Church of God have drunk strychnine, Hamblin said.
“(I’ve) drunk it, and the Lord ain’t let it hurt me,” Hamblin said.
Hamblin mentioned others who’ve drunk Red Devil Lye,
“We’ve seen God work in miraculous ways,” Hamblin said.
Hamblin also believes in handling fire, which is now practiced at Tabernacle Church of God. Torches are sometimes lit, and members who feel so moved clamp their hands around the flames. If God has anointed them, they won’t be burned, Hamblin said.
In Hebrews 11:34, Scripture refers to people of faith who “quenched the power of fire.”
“We believe that to be literal, Hamblin said. “God can move on people, and they won’t be burned.”
Hamblin grew up in Clarifield where he went to Rock Creek Freewill Baptist Church with his grandfather. He wasn’t introduced to snake handling until he began to attend a church that practiced it in Middlesboro, Ky. A year later, when he was 18, he handled his first snake.
“I went over to the box and got it myself,” Hamblin said.
After he moved to LaFollette, Hamblin began to pray for God to send him to a church. Hamblin wanted God to help him establish the five signs of the Gospel at a church, or give him a building, he said.
“He gave me a building,” Hamblin said.
The building was Tabernacle Church of God.
Daugherty had started Tabernacle Church of God in 1995. But many people had left, and it had closed, Hamblin said. It reopened in November 2011, with Hamblin as pastor. While Hamblin didn’t plan to handle vipers during the opening weekend revival service, he handled two rattlesnakes during the Friday service and 14 cottonmouths during the Sunday service, he said.
Hamblin catches the snakes himself, he said. He keeps them in boxes, which are kept behind the pulpit during services.
Hamblin brought snake handling to Tabernacle Church of God. But the congregation embraced it, and there was little tension over it, Daugherty said.
“It seemed like everyone really enjoyed it,” Daugherty said.
The media has begun to pay attention to the church since Hamblin became pastor, which has brought new members to the church, Daugherty said,
“It’s brought a lot of faces out I’ve never seen before,” he said.
There are usually about 50 people in attendance, Hamblin said.
While Tabernacle Church of God has become known for serpent handling, it’s congregation fellowships with churches that don’t handle serpents.
“We’ll fellowship with anybody that will fellowship with us,” Hamblin said. “We don’t have to have snakes to have a good time. All we need is the spirit of the Lord.”
“We love everybody,” Hamblin said. “We want to welcome people here. We want to fellowship with everyone.”
