It has been commented by some that partaking of a poisonous substance when commanded by a mortal mouthpiece for God will result in no harm, since the scriptures say:
"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 – 18).
But this hypothesis rests on two crucial suppositions: (1) the mouthpiece is doing only as God has revealed in authoring the command, and (2) the poisonous nature of the danger is unknown to the one who partakes of it.
As for the first point, if the mouthpiece of God is mistaken in the will of the Almighty, there can be no reason to assume that those who proceed on a course not dictated by God will obtain any divine intervention by him. Thus it is the right and responsibility of the hearers of said mouthpiece to obtain from God their own witness that the command is actually from him (see my blog post, "The Word of God, Checked and Balanced"). If it is, then the possibility of whether the poison will harm the partaker or not is beside the point; if it will harm the partaker, then it was God's will. (The faithful attitudes of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego here gain relevance: "our God whom we serve is able to deliver us.... But if not...we will not serve [false] gods" [Dan. 3:17 – 18, emphasis added].)
As for the second point, that the poison must remain unknown to the partaker, it is relevant to note the reason why certain signs—such as the immunity to poisons—are given: to benefit the saints in situations where they otherwise cannot help themselves. The signs follow believers when they are possessed by evil spirits, when they must preach the gospel of Jesus Christ to a people who do not speak their language, when venoms or poisons are passed upon them, or when unknown sicknesses beset them. Yet even in these situations, the gifts of God are given "severally," or as another translation more plainly puts it: "It is the Spirit who...decides which gifts to give to each of us" (1 Cor. 12:11, CEV), meaning that "to some it is given to have faith to be healed; and to others it is given to have faith to heal" (D&C 46:19 – 20, emphasis added).
Thus, where sufficient faith is present, accidentally blundering into the administration of a poison may invoke the sign of not being harmed by it. But knowingly walking into a situation where one partakes of poison is a very different thing, which absolves the Spirit of any right to divinely intercede, the innocence of the saint who partook being removed in the act of knowingly partaking. As the prophet Joseph Smith said, "The gifts of God are all useful in their place, but when they are applied to that which God does not intend, they prove an injury, a snare and a curse instead of a blessing" (STPJS, p. 248).
An illustration from the early history of the church, dated to June 16, 1834, will here be cited to strengthen the point:
"Martin Harris having boasted to the brethren that he could handle snakes with perfect safety, while fooling with a black snake with his bare feet, he received a bite on his left foot. The fact was communicated to me, and I took occasion to reprove him, and exhort the brethren never to trifle with the promises of God. I told them it was presumption for any one to provoke a serpent to bite him, but if a man of God was accidentally bitten by a poisonous serpent, he might have faith, or his brethren might have faith for him, so that the Lord would hear his prayer and he might be healed; but when a man designedly provokes a serpent to bite him, the principle is the same as when a man drinks deadly poison knowing it to be such. In that case no man has any claim on the promises of God to be healed" (DHC 2:95-96, emphasis added).
Even Jesus, when faced with the temptation to do something knowingly dangerous to demonstrate the reliability of divine intervention rebuked the thought of trifling 'with the promises of God':
"The devil took him to the holy city, Jerusalem, to the highest point of the Temple, and said, 'If you are the Son of God, jump off! For the Scriptures say, "He will order his angels to protect you. And they will hold you up with their hands so you won’t even hurt your foot on a stone."'
"Jesus responded, 'The Scriptures...say, "You must not test the Lord your God"'" (Matt 4:5 – 7, NLT).
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