Should We Anoint the Sick? Is The Instruction In The Book of James For The Church?

Phil. 2:25  Yet I supposed it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother, and companion in labour, and fellowsoldier, but your messenger, and he that ministered to my wants.
Phil. 2:26  For he longed after you all, and was full of heaviness, because that ye had heard that he had been sick.
Phil. 2:27  For indeed he was sick nigh unto death: but God had mercy on him; and not on him only, but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow.

Paul could not lay hands on him and make him whole, which he did time and again BEFORE Acts 28.

Timothy, who had the ministry, also could not heal after Acts 28; in fact, he could not even heal himself:

1Ti 5:23  Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach's sake and thine often infirmities.

Our Lord Jesus Christ said:

Mar 16:17  And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues;
Mar 16:18  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.

This was true for the stewardship of God prior to Acts 28:28, but since Acts 28:28, we do not see believers doing these things as was common to EVERY believer in the time before Acts 28:28.  The Lord Who cannot lie said, "They shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover" this is how we were to know a believer and was true before the end of the dispensation at Acts 28:28. The Lord also said:

Mat 24:34  Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.

Mar 13:30  Verily I say unto you, that this generation shall not pass, till all these things be done.

Luk 21:32  Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass away, till all be fulfilled.

But THAT GENERATION did pass away; can the Lord be wrong? Can He make a mistake? The Greek words used in "this generation" mean that VERY generation, not some spiritualized generation of all believers or unbelievers, as many have surmised, so what is the answer? The conditions were NOT met; they did not BELIEVE even after:

1 Cor. 1:22  For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom:

And they were given many signs until Acts 28, and then we find no more in Scripture to prove men's ministries. God is, of course, still able, but the evidence of The Spirit or the manifestation by men has ceased; once again, look toward Paul after Acts 28.

But wait, something even greater has been given, for Israel truly had many earthly blessings poured out upon them to help them to nationally repent and believe, but alas, they refused, and because of that, Salvation was taken from them and sent to the Gentiles and The Dispensation of The Mystery was revealed where those who choose to believe may not manifest the spirit as in Corinthians but are:

Eph 1:3  Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:

This is far beyond what Israel had any hope of receiving and was not known nor available until after Acts 28.

God does still heal, but not as a sign-gift. The difference is that during the time of the Book of Acts, God was calling Israel to repentance by these signs done by the hands of men to confirm the Truth they spoke. After Acts 28:28, these sign gifts cease, although the Father cares for the needs of his people on an individual basis and NEVER to confirm a given ministry. Ministries that produce "signs and wonders" do so without the help of God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ, or the testimony of Scripture is false. 

Confirmation

CONFIRMATION. Found in the New Testament, namely, the confirming character and purpose of miraculous gifts. The Greek word so translated is bebaio. Confirmation in the New Testament may be the sense of support received episterizo (Acts 14:22; Acts 15:32, Acts 15:41, Acts 18:23). It may be the confirmation that is received when validity or authority is established kuroo (Gal. 3:15). It may be the confirmation that results from the interposition of some unquestionable assurance, mesiteuo as in Hebrews 6:17. None of these aspects is in mind at the moment. Bebaio indicates that confirmation which is established by proof.

Confirm - Bebaio

Mark 16:20  Confirming the word with signs following.
Rom. 15:8  To confirm the promises made unto the fathers.
1 Cor. 1:6  The testimony of Christ was confirmed in you.
1 Cor. 1:8  Who shall also confirm you unto the end.
2 Cor. 1:21  He which stablisheth us with you.
Col. 2:7  Stablished in the faith.
Heb. 2:3  Was confirmed unto us by them.
Heb. 13:9   The heart be established with grace.

The passages that concern us in the present inquiry are Mark 16:20, 1 Corinthians 1:6, and Hebrews 2:3.

Mark 16.
The signs following Mark 16:20 are most evidently the signs that shall follow them that believe in Mark 16:17. They are:

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 upon the sick, and they shall recover (Mark 16:17-18).

After these promises had been made, the Lord ascended and sat on the right hand of God:

Mark 16:20 And they went forth, and preached every where, The Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following.

The church at Corinth had a superabundance of spiritual and miraculous gifts, so much so that some regulation was necessary to avoid confusion (1 Cor. 14:26-33). In the opening address to this church, Paul refers to the confirming character of these gifts:

In every thing ye are enriched by Him, in all utterance, and in all knowledge; even as the testimony of Christ was CONFIRMED in you: so that ye come behind in no gift (1 Cor. 1:5-7).

Here again, we perceive that the Lord was confirming the Word with signs following.

Hebrews 2:3-4. How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard Him; God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to His own will.

These confirmatory gifts are spoken of in Hebrews 6:5 as the powers of the age to come, the ignoring of which made it impossible to renew such unto repentance. These gifts promised in Mark 16 extend to the last chapter of Acts, where Paul is bitten by a viper, unharmed, and miraculously cures a case of dysentery (Acts 28:3-8). These miracles of Mark 16 keep pace with the hope of Israel (Acts 28:20), but when the condition foretold in Isaiah 6:9-10 is entered, Israel is dismissed, and the salvation of God sent unto the Gentiles, miraculous signs cease. Instead, we read such passages as Philippians 2:25-28, 2 Timothy 4:20, and 1 Timothy 5:23 with understanding.

The people of sign and wonder are no longer on the scene, and it had been established on two occasions that miracles wrought before Gentiles as such, without the explanatory presence of Israel, only made them more idolatrous, saying the gods are come down to us in the likeness of men (Acts 14:11), or they said he was a god (Acts 28:6). These signs DID follow, but these signs DO NOT follow them that believe today. The answer is that the dispensation has changed, and with it, the characteristic evidence of a past calling. As the present dispensation nears its end, and as the earlier Churchs position temporarily set aside is resumed, we may expect to see a return of genuine miraculous gifts, but this will make the anti-Christian travesty of 2 Thessalonians 2:9 the more dangerous, for the signs that will be wrought in support of the Man of Sin would deceive if it were possible, the very elect (Matt. 24:24) The only confirmation mentioned in the Prison Epistles is that of Colossians 2:7, rooted and built up in Him, and STABLISHED (bebaio) in the faith, as ye have been taught. All else, so far as we are concerned, is beside the mark and leads into by-paths fraught with danger.