Objection: The Lord Did Not Say That These Signs Would Follow Those Who Believe ALWAYS, So They Were Just to Get the Church Started

Based on this thin argument, we could reach all kinds of other incorrect conclusions:

“We don’t need to evangelize today because the statement three verses before Mark 16:18 did not tell us to go out into all the world and preach the gospel to everyone ALWAYS.  That was just to kick-start the church.”

“God doesn’t supply all YOUR needs today because He didn’t say that He would supply your needs according to His riches in Christ Jesus ALWAYS.  That must just have been when the church was starting.”

“The Lord will not deliver YOU from every evil work, and preserve YOU unto His heavenly kingdom because He did not add ALWAYS after that statement.”

“You cannot do all things through Christ who strengthens you TODAY because God did not add ALWAYS to the end of that promise.  He favored the Early Church when it came to that.”

In fact, if you really look at everything God says about who you are and what you have, you’ll see that hardly any of those great statements about the New Testament Christian contain the word ALWAYS.  So perhaps the whole bunch of statements was only for the Early Church by the objector’s logic.  If the objector were to counter that those “who you are and what you have” words DO apply to all of us because the Word is profitable for doctrine, you could point out that based on his reasoning, God’s statement that His Word is profitable for doctrine isn’t necessarily true today either because that statement doesn’t have the word ALWAYS in it, either!

At this point, I’d hope the objector would have to admit that ALL Scripture is God-breathed whether a particular verse has the word ALWAYS in it or not.  That would include Mark 16:18.

In fact, the only time you are justified NOT seeing an implicit ALWAYS in Scripture is when Scripture itself indicates that something is not ALWAYS to be.  For example, Jesus told His disciples that the way they would pray would change after His departure.  He had given His disciples the so-called Lord’s Prayer, which does not ask for anything in the name of Jesus, but He said that the day was coming when you would ask the Father for things in His name.  In the Old Covenant, there are references to a New Covenant that would replace the Old Covenant.  So there are times that things are not ALWAYS going to continue as they are, but they are explicitly noted.

Besides, it would not be true if Jesus said that those who believe would lay hands on the sick and see them recover ALWAYS – meaning FOREVER – because they will not do so on the new earth in which righteousness dwells and in which sickness never dwells.  There will be no need for this promise when sickness is not present in anyone’s body!

We know that healing won’t be done away with until the “perfect” has come, at which point we will know everything fully.  That time has NOT come, so that which is in part – the manifestations of the Holy Spirit, including gifts of healings, WILL continue – ALWAYS – until then.

Isn’t it interesting that world evangelism would be OK with the objector despite the fact that ALWAYS isn’t part of that verse, and yet the healing of the sick would not be OK because the word ALWAYS isn’t part of that verse?  Yet both are part of the same Great Commission.  So if “go” is ALWAYS, “these signs shall follow” is also ALWAYS.