Dear friends:

In Perry Stone's latest magazine, Voice of Evangelism (March/April 2005), he has a fascinating article titled, "Snakes in the Atheist's Grave."

He describes a man named Charles Bedell, who died in 1908 at the age of 82.

Bedell was convinced that there was no God.  Sometimes he would attend a church in his hometown of North Benton, Ohio and the members said that it threw such coldness over the meeting when he entered that it almost broke up the church service.

In fact, before his death he made the statement, "If there is a God or any truth in the Bible, let my body be inhabited by snakes."

At Mr. Bedell's funeral, a man named Mr. Crew said, "At the funeral, it was necessary to remove a snake from the grave before the casket was lowered.  The sexton informed folk that he had killed four big snakes at one time.  He said he never saw a snake at any other grave.  Shortly after the man's death, another wrote, "Since his burial the family lot has been full of snake holes... the snakes can be seen any day you visit the graveyard.  Last year 20 of us went out on the 30th of October and saw three snakes.  The neighbors say the more they kill, the thicker they seem to be."

It was a strange and disgusting prophecy, indeed, that the atheist Bedell made about himself!

And thank the Lord that for believers, Jesus promised, "I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you" (Luke 10:19, NIV).

Jim