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February 2010
At
this season in the political life of the United States, there is
great controversy raging over a most important issue---that of health
care coverage for Americans. If
the bill as envisioned by the U.S. President becames law, about one
sixth of the U.S. economy as represented by the health care industry
will become nationalized and run by the government. If this should
happen,
the
ramifications
for
America
will extend far beyond the issue of health care alone. The existence
of the United States in the limited-government form as established
by her Founding Fathers in the U.S. Constitution will have vanished
from history. And it might not end there.
So
essential is proper health
care for Americans today that this issue can be used, as we are now
seeing, even to change the very form of government of the United
States of America.
As
disciples of Jesus Christ, we ought to look at the matter of health
care---so vital today---in the light of Scripture. The issue
of proper health care does not
appear
prominently in the New Testament inasmuch as the emphasis is on holy
living and obedience to God in anticipation of the coming age. At
that time there existed neither health care nor insurance coverage
of
the kind
Americans demand today. Yet believers in the early church survived.
Not only that, according to Acts, they served God faithfully and
fruitfully in their
time. In light of eternity, this is what should be most important
to us.
How
did the early believers deal with the matter of sickness? According
to what James wrote in his epistle, they were primarily to trust
in the miraculous healing power of the Lord. Christians in the west
today,
however,
for the most part give only lip service to supernatural healing
by God.
Some
may even believe
that
the age of miracles is over. At the other end of the spectrum, charismatic
believers flock to superstar healing evangelists to be
healed of their
sicknesses.
Because
of unscriptural
practices and manifestations in many charismatic healing ministries,
evangelicals today---understandably---have largely "thrown out the
baby with the bathwater." While they certainly believe that God can
heal miraculously, they will usually trust God to heal them through
doctors and medical science. This places evangelical believers in
the same camp outwardly as the millions upon millions of the lost
who look to doctors and insurance coverage for their medical needs.
Therefore
it is not surprising that the issue of health care---given its paramount
importance to every American---is now being used by progressive ideologues
to challenge the very foundations of
America, among which are personal liberty and freedom from tyranny.
Given
this environment, it is an opportune time for believers to revisit
what Scripture teaches about "health care." What we discover may
surprise us and be God's supernatural intervention for the millions
of His people who are now suffering from sickness. We are certainly
not saying that believers should not seek medical help. Rather we
seek
to correct a severe and unhealthy imbalance in the body of Christ.
What James teaches about ministering to sick believers
When
believers fall ill, some Bible-believing churches will minister
to them
according to James 5:14-16.
James 5:14 Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the
church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the
Lord. 15 And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person
well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven.
16 Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other
so that you may be healed.
Verse 15 assures us that the prayer offered in faith will make the
sick person well and that the Lord will raise him up. The language
of this verse gives us strong hope for healing and recovery from the
infirmity.
Why are so few miraculously healed?
Unfortunately, this hope has not been fulfilled in
the great majority of cases where we minister to infirm believers
according to current
understanding of James 5. Why is God’s clear promise in these
Scriptures more often than not unfulfilled? Christians must in all
honesty examine this question. Could it be because we have misunderstood
or misinterpreted these Scriptures?
In order to optimize our understanding, let us first
ask who the author of this epistle was. According to scholars, James
was either the younger
brother of Jesus, or another man named James who lived much later.
Let’s say that the author was in fact James, the younger brother
of Jesus. Where would James have learned about ministering to the sick?
We could assume, not unreasonably, that James learned about healing
either directly or indirectly from the teaching and ministry of his
older brother Jesus.
If the author was in fact someone names James who lived much later,
we can assume that his epistle was based on inspired understanding
gleaned from earlier teachings, writings, and Scriptures. Whoever was
the author of this epistle, he wrote it to encourage believers to continue
in the teaching handed down by Jesus. In light of this, let us then
address the question of exactly what was handed down by Jesus to his
disciples with regarding to ministry to the infirm.
Exactly what did Jesus teach about ministering to the sick?
Upon close examination we see that Jesus in fact did not teach them
to pray for the sick. Neither did Jesus ever command them to do so.
Rather, he taught them to heal the sick by laying hands over them and
exercising the authority he had given them over diseases and demons.
Mark 16:18 “…they will place their hands
on (or over) sick people, and they will get well.”
Luke 9:1 When Jesus had called the Twelve together, he gave them power
and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases, 2 and he
sent them out to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick.
Jesus himself actually never prayed for the sick since His Father
had given him authority over diseases and demons. Upon studying his
ministry to the infirm, we see that he exercised this authority by
rebuking infirmities and commanding the infirm to be healed. He spoke
over them with authority. He did not pray for the infirm as we do today.
John 14:12 --- Disciples do what Jesus did
And Jesus taught and trained his disciples to do the works that he
did, including preaching the gospel, healing the sick, and making disciples.
He sent his disciples out to preach the gospel and to heal the sick
as he himself did.
We should now interpret James’ teaching about
ministering to the infirm in light of what Jesus taught about the
subject.
James 5:14 Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the
church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the
Lord.
There is a crucial word in verse 14 which has for the
most part escaped the attention of the Church. In that verse we are
not told to pray
for, but rather to pray over the sick believer. The preposition which
follows the verb “pray” in this verse is epi. This word
is almost always found to describe the relative physical position between
two objects. It can be translated also as “on” or “upon”,
as in the phrase to “lay hands on or upon the sick.” This
is the phrase which also appears in the Great Commission passage from
Mark 16 above.
What is praying over the sick?
Is it possible that praying over the sick as James taught was exactly
what Jesus taught, which was laying hands over the sick? It is not
only possible, it is probable. Why should James teach something not
consistent with what Jesus taught?
As Luke 9 teaches us, Jesus also gave a measure of
authority over disease and demons to his disciples. They were to
use or exercise this
authority in the same way that he did. And so when we examine the ministry
of Peter and Paul in Acts, we often see a similar pattern. They also
spoke with authority in Jesus’ name when giving commands to the
infirm to be healed or set free. They spoke with authority over the
infirm. They also laid hands on the infirm on some occasions or made
physical contact with them in some way.
When we understand what Jesus taught his disciples, we will understand
what James taught about ministering to the sick in his epistle.
James 5:15 And the prayer
offered in faith will make the sick person
well; the Lord will raise him up.
Mountain-moving faith
What kind of faith is it that will make the sick person well? Jesus
taught the importance of mountain-moving faith. It was because of lack
of mountain-moving faith that the disciples once failed to cast out
a demon.
Matthew 17:14 When they came to the crowd, a man approached
Jesus and knelt before him. 15 “Lord, have mercy on my son,” he
said. “He has seizures and is suffering greatly. He often falls
into the fire or into the water. 16 I brought him to your disciples,
but they could not heal him.”
17 “O unbelieving and perverse generation,” Jesus replied, “how
long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring
the boy here to me.” 18 Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came
out of the boy, and he was healed from that moment.
19 Then the disciples came to Jesus in private and asked, “Why
couldn’t we drive it out?”
20 He replied, “Because you have so little faith. I tell you
the truth, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you can say
to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing
will be impossible for you.
Clearly, the disciples failed to drive out the demon because when
they commanded the demon to leave, they did not speak to it with mountain-moving
faith. When we learn how to speak and pray over the infirm with mountain-moving
faith, we will see the promise in James 5 fulfilled much more often.
The ministry of healing in Acts
When we examine the disciples’ ministry to the
infirm in Acts, we see a similar pattern. In many of the instances
of miraculous healing
there, the disciples continued to exercise authority over infirmities
by issuing commands. Therefore the authority to heal did not pass away
with the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. The pattern the disciples
employed in the gospels was carried over to the period of Acts. (After
Pentecost, the gift of healing---different from the authority to heal---was
also made available to the Church.)
Not once in the gospels or in Acts do we see a miraculous healing
take place solely as a result of prayer to God alone without any action
involving the ministering disciple. We are not saying that God cannot
answer prayer for healing directly and sovereignly. But we do not see
this taking place in the New Testament. Could it be that the primary
reason we do not see the infirm healed more often is our ignorance
of Scripture in this area?
There is no reason why James should have taught something
different and not consistent with the pattern we see in the gospels
as well as
in Acts. And there is also no good reason why today we should teach
something different from what we see in those books. Only if we believe
in the doctrine of cessationism (or dispensationalism) should we consider
teaching an approach to ministering to the infirm which is not found
in the gospels and Acts. But if we do, who or what determines the “new” approach?
Finally, praying for one another
James
5:15 …If
he has sinned, he will be forgiven. 16 Therefore confess your sins
to each other...
In order to understand better the importance of confessing our sins
to one another, it would be helpful to look at what Jesus taught about
forgiving one another. Confessing sins to one another opens the way
for forgiving one another.
Mark 11:25 And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against
anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you
your sins.
When we confess our trespasses to one another and forgive one another,
God will forgive us, and we can be healed.
James
5:16b and pray for one another, that you may be healed.
After we forgive one another, then we pray for one
another in love. This releases God’s healing power for infirm
believers. Only then can we pray over the infirm believer effectively
with authority
and mountain-moving faith as James instructed in verses 14 and 15.
James 5:14 Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the
church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the
Lord. 15 And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person
well; the Lord will raise him up.
James 5 found in the cursing of the fig tree?
Perhaps James took his teaching about healing from what Jesus taught
Peter when queried about the cursing of the fig tree.
Mark
11:20 In the morning, as they went along, they saw the fig tree
withered from the roots. 21 Peter remembered and said to Jesus, “Rabbi,
look! The fig tree you cursed has withered!” 22 “Have faith
in God,” Jesus answered. 23 “I
tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go,
throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart but
believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. 24
Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe
that you have received it, and it will be yours. 25 And when you
stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him,
so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.
In verse
23 Jesus teaches us mountain-moving faith. With this kind of faith
we speak over infirmities authoritatively
with no doubt in our hearts that they will obey us. This is likely
what James meant by "praying over." Then in
verse 24 Jesus teaches "asking for in prayer." The Greek word for
"ask
for" is aiteo,
which can carry the meaning not only of asking, but also of requiring.
Perhaps this is how James came up with the term "praying over" which
includes speaking over with authority. Finally, in verse 25 Jesus teaches
about forgiving one another, resulting
in
God's forgiveness. Similarly, James teaches the confession of sins
leading to forgiveness from one
another and from God.
It is
possible seeing these parallels to conclude that James took
his teaching on healing directly from Jesus. We know that Jesus taught healing
the sick,
not simply praying for the sick.
Summary
To summarize,
praying over the sick as James taught
means laying hands over them and speaking over them
with authority and mountain-moving faith. When we have correct
understanding of what James taught, we
will see many more infirm believers healed than what we see now in
the Church. James 5:14-16 does not teach the operation of a special
gift of healing which not every believer or elder has. Instead, James
is explaining how any scripturally-qualified elder can minister healing
to infirm believers through the exercise of
authority.
We have
witnessed many infirm believers miraculously healed by applying this
understanding of James' teaching in his epistle.
" God
is Love"
(or
How to have confidence on Judgment Day)
Obedience
is not a dirty word
To
the Church in America: what should we now do?
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