The manifestation of the Holy Spirit, as manifested through the spiritual gifts, was the only deal-clincher that Jesus and the Apostles needed to first convince and then convert someone to the Christian path. It is unfortunate that most all of modern Christianity has lost or forgotten how to produce and manifest these supernatural manifestations of healings, miracles, prophecy, signs, and wonders. The early church came together and was held together by these powerful, spiritual demonstrations; it was part and party to what being a Christian represented, to what a real Christian was and is all about.

Seemingly as a consequence of this loss of power and the ability to demonstrate it, most of Christianity has become a spiritual vacuum, devoid of any resemblance whatsoever to what we see and read about in the New Testament. It may come as a spiritual surprise to many who would wish otherwise, but the Bible states outright that there are certain signs that mark a believer as a true Christian from the non-believer. The book of Mark, which scholars say is the oldest, extant document of the New Testament, clearly and pointedly tells the earnest seeker how he or she can recognize a true follower of Jesus; the following quote is in the words of Jesus:

"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." (Mark 16: 17 through 18)

Of course, some have mistakenly taken this to mean that we should actively seek out to do these things, which is a distorted and mistaken interpretation of this passage. Perhaps this explains why so many, so-called, ecclesiastical scholars and ministers have tried throughout history to discredit or remove these verses as they are found in the last chapter of the book of Mark. Of course, what the verses literally mean is that should one (that is, one who is a true, practicing Christian) come face to face with any extreme situation where their well being and welfare comes into conflict with the physical circumstances at hand, then, as Christians, if they are following the example set by Jesus and the Apostles, have access to a supernatural power that can immediately alter and change these physical events and circumstances, whether they be sickness, poverty, unhappiness,… or even snakes, or any of the other million and one, physical things that can afflict we humans here in this old world of want and woe.

Of course this, too, has presented the historical church, since the time of Jesus and the Apostles, with another set of problems: no one ( at least to the degree that the Apostles did) seems able to do or perform these miraculous feats any more. And I am sure the glaring obviousness of this lack of supernatural validation has added to the church's, and its clergy's, desire to remove or change these verses. I suggest that they have attempted to do this for no other good reason than the inclusion of such texts causes a problem and presents a very obvious embarrassment to the clergy since they themselves cannot exhibit these signs, or perform any miracles and wonders. And yet there the verses are, standing out at us from the end of the book of Mark, taunting and haunting all who would read and know the importance of their meaning.

While it is a fact that many ministers and preachers, as well as some scholars, try to discredit and minimize their portentous importance, the most recent and authoritative Biblical scholarship agrees that these verses were most definitely in the original New Testament text and that the churches attempts at their removal has been an ongoing quest of manipulation and obfuscation for centuries. But to those of you who, like myself, are purest in the search and preservation of the original, ancient Greek texts, be assured, the King James Version includes them and recognizes their absolute authenticity and authority.

This controversy is but one more glaring example of how the church, since the time of the Council of Nice in 325 A.D. , has sought to rob Christianity of its display and practice of the supernatural gifts and power that real spiritual contact with God can and does produce. To put the whole matter quite simply and objectively, because of the manipulation of a few, modern Christianity seems to have lost its supernatural punch.

Christianity is not the only religion that has experienced this spiritual erosion; it has happened to all of the world's great religions: Islam, Hinduism, etc. After their spiritual founders die, most all religions gradually move away from the phenomenal displays of the miraculous events that led to their establishment, leaving only a watered-down, man-made version of what once connected directly to the power and might of God. When worldly, and less than fully spiritual, men take over the stewardship of any religion (and this is nowhere more true than in the history of Christianity), the teachings become distorted, perverted, compromised, watered-down, devolving into what looks more like a political agenda of power and worldly domination, rather than a spiritual path of personal evolvement.

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