Kentucky preacher Jamie Coots believed that God had given him divine protection from snakebites. He made it a big part of his act. He would stand in front of his congregation with snakes in his hands, telling them that the Bible commands all Christians to “take up serpents.”
The snakes didn’t exactly leave him alone. He got bit nine times, but each time, he survived because of what he believed was God’s divine intervention. He was so sure God was protecting him that when a woman in the congregation got bit, he insisted that nobody take her to the hospital, which didn’t exactly pan out because she died on the church floor.
Coots, though, chalked that up to her lack of faith—until he got his tenth and final snakebite in 2014.
He was again so confident that God would heal him that his congregation chased away the ambulance that came to help him. But this time, God didn’t come through. Within an hour Coots was dead.
