Objection: The “Raising Up” of James 5:15 Is Not Necessarily Physical
“And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up…”
The only way to get any traction here is to purport that “sick” means something other than its obvious meaning. Actually, the Greek word kamno used here of the sick person does refer to weariness or fainting in the only other two New Testament places where it appears:
Hebrews 12:3:
For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.
Revelation 2:3:
And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name’s sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted.
Also, the word sick (Greek astheneo) in James 5:14 (“Is any sick among you?”) is translated sick or something similar just over half the time and weak or something similar just under half the time. (For those keeping score, it’s 19 sick vs. 16 weak.) So at first there seems to be some room for this objection.
One thing should become clear based on the translated word – the person in question is too sick or weak (I’ll let you take your pick for purposes of this discussion) to go where the elders are; the elders have to go to him so that he will be “raised up.” This seems to me to be a clear indication that the person has a physical affliction. Only the person’s body can be anointed with oil; you can’t anoint someone’s soul or someone’s spirit.
The “raising up” must necessarily be the undoing of the sick or weak condition. Since the person’s condition is physical, the “raising up” must be physical as well. Otherwise, the person would still be physically sick or weak, and based on James’ instruction to the elders if there is “any sick” among them, the situation would dictate an immediate additional call to the elders, and so on until the person was NOT physically sick or weak anymore!
The Greek absolutely supports the idea that “raising up” would refer to the person’s body and not to his mood or soulish well-being. The word used there appears over 140 times in the New Testament, and its meaning is physical in 100% of the cases. Not once is any kind of “not necessarily physical” raising up denoted by the Greek word (egeiro) used in James 5:15! Notably, the word is used all over the New Testament to describe Jesus rising from the dead, and you’d better believe that was a physical “raising up” because if you don’t believe that you aren’t saved (Romans 10:9-10)!
Another Greek clue that provides the same answer is the use of the word save in the verse cited (the prayer of faith shall save the sick). This Greek word, sozo, is used to denote both physical and non-physical salvation. While predominately used to describe spiritual salvation, it is the word used where the woman with the issue was made whole (Mark 5:28, Mark 5:34), and where as many as touched Jesus’ garment were made whole (Mark 6:56). It describes the dead girl being made whole in Luke 8:50, and we are on safe ground asserting that the girl could not have had a strictly non-physical “saving” because she would not have risen from the dead in that case! It is the word used in Acts 4:9 to describe the crippled beggar at the Beautiful Gate as being made whole. It is the word used in Acts 14:9 where another crippled man had faith to be healed.
In the context of James 5:15, it’s an easy call which way sozo should be interpreted. The faith of the elders could not save the person from hell. A person must exercise his own faith to be saved from hell. Coupled with the next thought that the person will be raised up, the only way the verse makes sense is when the condition and the cure are both physical.
The objector makes his opinion clear that God could decide to answer the prayer of faith in a non-physical manner, but that negates the whole idea of the prayer of faith, which must be prayed with 100% confidence in God’s will in the matter. If you aren’t sure how God will answer the prayer, you aren’t praying the prayer of faith at all that the elders are commanded to pray here! Faith is the certainty of things you can’t see, not the probability of them, even a high probability of them.
The sad part is that reading objections like this could deprive the elders of their ability to do their biblical job to pray the prayer of faith, as the objector goes on to state the error that God is entitled to make His own call based on His will in an individual case. That idea throws the section in James right out the window! You can’t possibly pray the prayer of faith unless you KNOW God’s will beforehand. If there is any question about His will or the outcome, it isn’t faith.
If the objector were correct, we would have to see a revised passage that goes something like this:
“Is anyone sick among you? Let him call for the elders of the church to anoint him with oil and pray over him, seeking the will of God by direct spiritual revelation for his individual case to see if God wants him to be healed in this life, and only after receiving a direct confirmation (if one comes), praying the prayer of faith that will raise him up.”
The big problem with this is that James’s instructions are to ANY sick, not just specially selected sick people whom God wants to heal. Because Jesus provided healing for all, ANY sick person has the right to call on the elders, who in turn have the right to pray the prayer of faith over ANY sick person, knowing it is Gid’s will to heal any sick person.
The objector also states that if the “raising up” were necessarily physical, no believer should ever die. That part of the objection is handled elsewhere.