Featured Anointing With Oil

There are two meanings that I have heard of with regards to anointing with oil.

1. It is representative of the HG

2. It was actually medicine and the elders would be called because doctors were not readily available so they would combine the prayer of the church and taking medicine.


I agree that it is unnecessary to use oil for the purpose of representing the HG since we are now indwelt. In the OT the HG acted in an external way and during the church age He acts in an internal way. Anointing with oil serves no purpose today. If we are sick take our medicine and pray.

 

My brother uses the same obedience clause to beat his kids with wooden rods.....hmmmmm.

 

I've never understood this. You practice it. It's in the Bible as a prescription for how to aid someone in medical need. If you affirm an inerrant Bible, you practice it.

The Apostles had no special power that isn't given to the rest of followers of Christ.

We anoint those who are sick with oil and have the pastors in our church pray for them. We actually held one of these ceremonies last week. Our goal isn't to understand how something functions but to be, first, obedient to its instruction.

 

The question is how do you practice it? There are only two examples in the Bible in which oil is used for the sick, and one of them is just as unspecific as the James passage. It is in the Gospel of Mark.

Mark 6, NASB
13 And they were casting out many demons and were anointing with oil many sick people and healing them.​

That doesn't tell us much, other than the fact it denies your next statement.

Obviously if you read the Mark passage carefully, your statement is untrue. They were casting out many demons. They were anointing with oil many sick people. They were healing them. Not praying for God to cast out demons, or heal people. They themselves were doing it. If anyone today claims "they" cast out demons or heal people, "they" are abject liars. This was a miraculous power given to Jesus' disciples when He sent them out twice during His ministry. It does not exist today.

So we must go to the other passage regarding the anointing with oil, which has much more detail.

Luke 10
33 "But a Samaritan, who was on a journey, came upon him; and when he saw him, he felt compassion,
34 and came to him and bandaged up his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them; and he put him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn and took care of him. [Emphasis added]​

Oil, mixed with wine, is medicine. Anointing is not just smearing oil on the forehead, laying hands on them, and praying for healing (which, in charismatic circles, is too often pronounced over the sick person with no evidence to support the declaration). It is medicinal, at least in the Bible.

Oil can also be a sign of power, protection and blessing, which certainly fits with the need of a sick or injured person. To the extent that oil is symbolic of what we seek for that person in prayer and intervention with God, such a ceremony is valid, and is probably what James is speaking of in his epistle.

Given that, I would hope and pray you know what the instruction is to which you are being obedient.

 

I would imagine they use Proverbs 23:13, “Do not withhold discipline from a child; if you punish him with the rod, he will not die.”

 

It is a good salad dressing too!:smilewinkgrin:

 

Curious, what kind of oil is used nowadays?

Olive oil? Vegetable oil? Seriously, I don't know.

 

Canola.....its cholesterol free.:smilewinkgrin:

 

A historical narrative is a bit different than an epistle.

The Gospel accounts are recording actions done, but not necessarily providing impetus for having them done. James, however, prescribes the practice.

That's surprising since a couple of years ago whilst in Africa, a group of ministers participated in an exorcism. We prayed and fasted for someone and our friend, a local missionary who I've know for about 15 years, cast out the demon.

It was an amazing display of God's grace and power.

The Apostles weren't granted special powers beyond what all other believers have been given. Scripture seems clear on this.

You seem to be confusing biblical genres. Historical narrative doesn't equal epistolary instruction in terms of prescriptive value.

I'm not saying that the oil is, in and of itself an agent of God's grace. (Which would be difficult to surmise from my one or two sentences) I am saying the biblical prescription mandates that we use oil (which is a fairly general term but likely means olive oil of some kind) for this ceremony. So we use olive oil for this ceremony.