Post #2 The Meaning Of Anointing With Oil In James 5:13-16 - How We Know God Is Concerned About Those Who Are Ill In The Church Today

Introduction:

    I begin today's post with James 5:13-16...

James 5:13-16 (NASB) "Is anyone among you suffering? Then he must pray. Is anyone cheerful? He is to sing praises. 14 Is anyone among you sick? Then he must call for the elders of the church and they are to pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; 15 and the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up, and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him. 16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much."

    In our last post here Growing Christian Resources: Post #1 The Meaning Of Anointing With Oil In James 5:13-16 - Prayer Is A Pre-requisite To Anointing With Oil , we began talking about the necessity of prayer and its relationship to physical healing in the scriptures. Today we continue our study of James 5:13-16 by noting the nature of the ailments being described by James.

    Over the years I have talked to pastors and congregants alike who differ on what they think is being addressed here by James. Some tend to think he is only dealing with spiritual sicknesses or sins and thus there is no provision of healing whatsoever in the passage. Others tend to believe that only major illnesses are being addressed by James. Hence, only when a person is extremely sick should they then call for the elders of the church. As always, we must let the scriptures guide us, and so a word study of the terms for "sickness" in James 5:14 will be undertaken.
 

   As the heading below will communicate, James is addressing those in the church who are dealing with physical ailments in James 5:14. May the Lord use these studies to illuminate His people to the truths of His word.

Ministry to those in the church who are physically sick - James 5:14 

Commentary: James 5:14

    "Is anyone sick among you.....".The word that must be immediately understood in this text is the noun translated "sick". The question before the interpreter is: "what manner of weakness or infirmity is being referred to here by James"? In consulting reliable resources that aid in studying words in the original languages (Liddell and Scott Greek Lexicon; Bauer, Ardnt, and Danker Greek Lexicon of the New Testament and other Greek literature), here are the meanings we find:

a. in body, feeble, sickly. 

b. in mind, and the like.

c. in power, weak, feeble.

d. in property, weak, poor. 

e. feeling or status of insignificance

    In another standard reference work (Louw and Nida Lexicon based on Semantic Domains), we see the following range of meanings in the verb ασθενεω (as-thi-neo, "sick, sickness") here in James.

a. body of weakness be sick or weakness of any kind 

b. weakness of any kind. 2 Cor 12:10; 13:3

c. figuratively, religious or moral weakness. Romans 14:2; 1 Cor 8:11

d. be weak economical, be weak in need. Acts 20:35

    Let the reader note that whenever performing any word study, it is important to list all of the possible meanings first, followed by eliminating the options that do not fit the context or that are not listed as cross references in the lexicon. The meaning of a given word is determined by how the author uses it, which is how one goes about determining which lexical (i.e. definition) and semantic (i.e. meaning) applies to the word in the given context. 

    James is addressing those Christians in the church that have physical ailments that could range from the mild to the most severe. Based upon the context of James 5:13-16, the meanings that make sense are those that are physical in nature.

Life practical conclusions:

    Why labor this point? Some people tend to limit James' instructions to those who are experience non-physical ailments. However, the context and word studies clearly indicate that physical illness is the primary target of James' instructions. As the Holy Spirit supervised the writing of this Epistle by James, He clearly expressed God's concern and intention for His church to minister to those who are physically ill.

    When Jesus and the Apostles were proclaiming the Gospel and the revelation of God's Kingdom and New Covenant promises, they had to establish God's additional revelation of Jesus as God-incarnate, His atoning work, and resurrection by miracles. God gave the gifts of working of miracles and healings mainly to the Apostles and their associates to demonstrate that the message about Jesus was life-transforming and true. 

    As that first generation of Apostles and the earliest churches planted by them passed off the scene, God had ordained that any healing that took place would be by His Providence, rather than through specifically gifted individuals. This is why as early as 25 years after Jesus had risen and ascended, the Book of James included these instructions on anointing with oil, since any healing that would occur was to be done by prayer for the sick and anointing as governed by God's will, purpose, and providential effort. 

     What this also points to is that whenever we see institutions such as hospitals, mankind by common grace and general revelation is intuitively recognizing indirectly God's ability and desire to address physical sickness. God's work of healing primarily, if not exclusively, occurs through various ways of providence (prayer, anointing with oil, places like hospitals, people in the medical profession) and far less so through extraordinary providences or miraculously gifted individuals. This is why even if they don't acknowledge such truths, mankind as God's image bearers are not satisfied in letting diseases run their courses unabated.

    James 5:13-16 were given for our instruction and application. The responsibility we have to explain the whole counsel of God, including healing, is both a very pastoral, personal and precise need in the church today. In our next post, we will consider the commands given to both the sick congregant and the church leadership.

Post #4 Principles for Miraculous Healing - Patterns For Divine Healing Today, Further Remarks About Cessationism vs Continuationism In The Miraculous Gifts

 

Introduction:

      In our last message we looked at various principles related to miraculous healing from Jesus’ ministry. We defined a miracle as follows:

A miracle is an infrequently occurring act by God in a spiritually significant setting that confirms His messenger and message.

We had looked at the healing of the leper in Luke 5:12-16. We noted two principles that can aid us when praying about healing or in understanding God’s healing power related to prayer.

1. Pray by the will of God. Luke 5:12-13

2. Patience by the Word of God. Luke 5:14-16

        We learned that it is appropriate to pray according to God’s will for healing. That is, to pray “if it be your will” is not unbelief. Modern faith healing often neglects the Bible’s designations of God’s unrevealed and revealed wills. There are aspects and purposes of God’s will that are unrevealed, for which we cannot know. To pray in faith recognizes that I won’t know everything with certainty, thus it is Biblical to yield oneself to God by praying “if it be your will”. 

    The leper asked Jesus “if your are willing, you can make me clean” in Luke 5:12. Then a second principle, “patience by the Word of God” meant we exercise patience by God’s Word by obeying it and praying according to it. God’s Word is to be our guide. In today’s post we will look at the patterns of Divine healing we find in the world today.

 The patterns of God’s healing today.

     I had mentioned in the last message that I take what is called a “cessationist view” of the miraculous gifts. We find over 250 miracles in the Bible of all sorts, with roughly 90 or so involving healing of different types (spiritual maladies, psychological ailments, and physical diseases). I wanted to at least clarify where I land on this issue before we move on to the text before us in Luke 5:17-26. Below focuses upon miracles of healing.

 

        I hold to a “cessationist” view on the miraculous gifts, meaning that the manifestation of genuine miraculous giftings and offices like Apostles and Prophets ceased at the end of the Apostolic era in the first century. God certainly still heals today, mainly in answer to prayers and the working of His providence. 

    Those who would disagree are called “continuationists”, who believe to one degree or another, the route of miraculous gifting has not ceased, but continues. What do we see in the Bible pertaining to the pattern of miraculous giftings for healing? Were there periods where it stopped and then started again? Or has it always continued alongside the normal route of healing in answer to prayer?

In the Bible, we find large stretches of time where no miracles occurred, interspersed with sudden bursts of them. In the lives of the Patriarchs in Genesis, God would heal the infertility of Sarah, Rachael, and Rebekka (2,000 b.c.-1,800 b.c.), enabling them to bear forth children. Another 400 years would pass until Moses’ ministry in 1440 b.c., where only once do we see him perform a miraculous healing (Exodus 4:6-7). Another 300 year period would pass, with Gideon the Judge complaining in Judges 6:13 that it had been centuries since any miracle transpired in Israel from the days of Moses.

From Gideon’s time in 1150 b.c. or so we wait fifty or so years until God heals Hannah of her infertility for she and her husband to give birth to Samuel in 1 Samuel 2 in roughly 1100 b.c. From that point we pass by another two hundred years before we see the healing of King Jeroboam’s hand (1 Kings 13:4-6) in 930 b.c. Over a century would pass again until the ministries of Elijah and Elisha in 850 b.c. 

A century or so would pass again until the healing of King Hezekiah in 2 Kings 20:5-7 by the prophet Isaiah applying medicine on his wound in 750 b.c. After the prophet Isaiah, another 700 years would pass where no healing miracles through individuals took place. Answers to prayer for healing went forward, yet miraculously gifted individuals would wax and wane depending upon the need for validating God’s revelation and progressive revelation.

     It is with Jesus and the Apostles we find a huge clustering of healings. Jesus performed over 15 healing miracles in the four Gospels of His 35 or so total miracles. Then the Apostles performed roughly ten healing miracles in Acts. We see periods where God worked miracles through gifted individuals in addition to the route of prayer/providence, followed by long stretches where God chose to use the more conventional route of prayer.

     Then as the Apostolic age closed, the pattern of God using miraculously gifted people would wane and cease once again. God is God and if He would ever so choose to heal somebody by manifesting a sudden gift of healing, He could do so. 

     The Biblical pattern we just reviewed suggests miraculous healing occur in our world today through the primary route of providence and prayer, rather than through Apostles, prophets, or those gifted with such miraculous gifts. Other than Paul’s letter of 1 Corinthians in 12-14 and one reference in Galatians 3:5, I find no other reference to miracles or healing gifts in any of his other letters or any of the remaining letters of the New Testament. 

    The Book of Revelation indicates that after the Rapture of the Church, in the final seven year period of history known as “The Tribulation Period”, miraculous healings, and corresponding signs will resume as one final testimony of God’s judgment. 

Closing thoughts

    We’ve observed patterns for God’s healing today. It is not unusual for God to use gifted individuals to heal in spurts of time in history, followed by longer stretches where He heals through normal Providence and answers to prayer. As I noted today and in the last post, the discussion over cessationism and continuationism ought to never cause Christians to separate from one another. It is hoped that in expressing my own understanding on these matters, readers can better understand how I approach the subject of healing. In the next post we will look at another important principle in the subject of miraculous healing: the necessity of God's power in healing, and how it is governed by various purposes He wants to achieve.