Davidius
Puritan Board Post-Graduate
This past Sunday our afternoon sermon was on a passage in James 5. Towards the end, the apostle says that elders can visit a sick person, anoint him with oil, and see him healed. He also says that the sick person will be forgiven of his sins through this prayer of faith. For obvious reasons we want to say that a person cannot be forgiven because of others' faith, but what about the paralytic in Mathew 9, Mark 2, and Luke 5? In this story it appears as though Jesus heals the paralytic, and forgives his sins, because of the friends' faith. There are also the stories where individuals who were severely ill or possessed by demons were healed because of their relatives' faith.
How should we take these passages?
How should we take these passages?