Journal: Grace Journal
Volume: GJ 01:2 (Fall 1960)
Article: “Divine Healing” according to James 5
Author: E. William Male

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GJ 1:2 (Fall 60) p. 23

“Divine Healing” according to James 5

E. William Male

Instructor in Christian Education
Grace Theological Seminary

“C. T. Studd, alone in the heart of Africa except for one young co-worker only twenty years of age, seemed at the point of death. In the darkest hour he recalled this promise. He writes: ‘There was but one ‘elder’ and he was in his twentieth year; no matter, ‘One day is as a thousand years.’ But where was the oil? Neither salad, olive or even linseed oil did we possess! What’s the matter with lamp oil? What, kerosene? Why not? It is oil, and that is all the Book says, and we cannot afford to be narrow-minded. The ‘elder’ brought in the lamp oil, dipped his finger, anointed my forehead, and then knelt and prayed. How God did it I don’t know, nor do I care; but this I knew next morning, that whereas I was sick, nigh unto death, now I was healed. We can trust Him too little, but we cannot trust God too much.”

Norman P. Grubb1

For the true believer there is no question either that our Lord healed the sick in the days when He walked upon this earth, or that He will heal in the millennial age as promised in the Word (Isa 35:5, 6; Mal 4:2, etc.). The question that presents itself to our thinking in these days is whether He heals the sick today, and if so, just what conditions and limitations, if any, are involved.

That our Lord possesses the power to miraculously heal the sick no true believer can seriously doubt. That He wills to do so in our present age is not so universally accepted. Nor is there agreement even among those who believe that God still works such miracles as bodily healing. Tracts, booklets, and books on the subject are legion, revealing many widely divergent views.

That there is so much interest in the subject of “divine healing” is certainly understandable. Is there anything more universal to mankind than sickness and suffering? And if, after all, there is an answer to physical pain and misery, why should we not benefit from it?

The problem that Christendom faces today, however, is that much which is presented to a gullible public in the name of “divine healing” is Scripturally unsound and experientially worse than worthless. Hopes for healing are replaced with feelings of utter despair, and the only ones who seem to gain from these “healing campaigns” are the self-appointed prophets (perhaps better termed “profiteers”).

As a dear brother has said, “People are flocking by the thousands and tens of thousand...

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