The Old Serpent Shouldn’t Of Messed With God

 

There is legend in North Benton, Ohio of a man named Chester Bedell.  Chester Bedell was a hell raiser and self proclaimed atheist.  His neighbors thought he was an infidel.

 

After Chester's wife's family tried to force Presbyterian doctrine on Chester.  He revolted and began a crusade against the church.  Chester studied scriptures, the trips to the Holy Land, and vigorously gather information to use against Christianity.  Chester wrote a book called ‘Twenty-one Battles Fought By Chester Bedell With Relations And Presbyterian Intolerance With His Short Sketch Of His Life’.

 

Chester even went so far as to have a bronze statue of himself made to be placed on his grave.  He was depicted holding his anti Christian creed, trampling a scroll labeled “Superstition”, or stamping on a stack of bibles.  Chester went to his staff in 1908, mutely unrepentant,and seemingly unaware of the flames licking like serpents' tongues at his heels.

 

After Chester's burial began to whisper that he had challenged God his death bed by saying “If there is a god let snakes infest my grave!”

God is not to be mocked.  A rumor spread that if you approached the grave, the ground seemed to writhe and churn with hundreds of snakes like garter snakes, black snakes, and poisonous copperheads.  The believers came from all over the United States to see the snakes  proclaiming the truth of the gospel.  There was no doubt one of two of the pious as they thought of stinging asp tormenting Chester for Eternity.

 

In 1943, a taking down the statue of Chester and hidden away from his family, because they were tired of the old scandal. They still don't like to talk about it.

 

As for the snakes, were they an optical illusion?  A practical joke?  Or a genuine plague of serpents from God? Only God and Chester know.