Objection: Mark 16:18 Speaks Collectively – Only Those Who Actually Have Gifts of Healings Can Heal the Sick by Laying On of Hands

The qualifications for elders in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1, together with the command for elders to minister to the sick in James 5:14-16 together disprove this.  Nowhere in the Bible is it a necessary qualification to be a church elder to flow in gifts of healings.  You must be able to pray the prayer of faith as in the passage in James, but you are not required to have special manifestations of healings in your ministry.  If this were required, Paul would have included that on the list of requirements for elders.

So even those WITHOUT gifts of healings should lay hands on the sick with the expectation that they will recover.

So that’s one way to disprove this objection.  Another is the more brute-force method of finding other verses with the phrase “them that believe” and seeing if ANY of them could refer to a SUBSET of believers as opposed to ALL believers:

John 1:12:
But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:

Romans 3:22:
Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference:

Romans 4:11:
And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised: that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised; that righteousness might be imputed unto them also:

1 Corinthians 1:21:
For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.

1 Corinthians 10:27:
If any of them that believe not bid you to a feast, and ye be disposed to go; whatsoever is set before you, eat, asking no question for conscience sake.
[This is one case where you can argue for a subset, but only because of the use the phrase “ANY OF them that believe” as opposed to just “them that believe.”]

1 Corinthians 14:22:
Wherefore tongues are for a sign, not to them that believe, but to them that believe not: but prophesying serveth not for them that believe not, but for them which believe.

Galatians 3:22:
But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.

2 Thessalonians 1:10:
When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe (because our testimony among you was believed) in that day.

Hebrews 10:39:
But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.

To be fair, we should also consider the phrase those who believe, which only appears once:

1 Timothy 4:10:
For therefore we both labour and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe.

We’re in trouble if He is the Savior of only a subset of those who believe!

It’s clear enough to me that when God talks about people who believe, He means all the believing ones, not just some of the believing ones.  So this objection is invalid.