That's right. I am not a preacher/pastor, but if I was, I would feel no qualms in passing by those 12 verses, or the Adultera Pericope, or Luke 23:34, or Acts 8:37 etc. Comments would be made, but no exegeting.
Though we sit on different sides, I often appreciate you candor and honesty.
My question, honestly I do not know....is this section of Mark part of the original canon of the NT?
The "sign gifts" are for Israel.
These types of "sign gifts" will return during the Tribulation, when Messianic Jews will be preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom to the ends of the earth
using the gift of instant knowledge of languages, supernatural transport (aka: Phillip), the gift of healings and miracles - as the Jewish Evangelists preach to gentiles.
I'm not a scholar --I just read what Bible scholars write. From my research those 12 verses were an ancient addendum by the hand of someone other than Mark. Those verses say things that are scriptural,(for the most part) but this fifth gospeler is winging it. I believe that Mark 16 either ends with verse 8 --which leaves readers with a downer --or the "real ending" may have been lost somehow.
Those 12 verses are not the only ending. In my Goodspeed translation there is a passage after 8, yet not labeled 9:
"But they reported briefly to Peter and his companions all they had been told. And afterward Jesus himself sent out by them from the east to the west the sacred and incorruptible message of eternal salvation."
There are several other variations as well elsewhere.
Actually, I would like to see Still Learning to chime in on this discussion, based on his post - # 104 of this thread
which at the moment has been his last post.