Listed below in bold are John Piper’s suggestions followed by my responses.

1. “You will waste your cancer if you do not believe it is designed for you by God.” The definition of Brother Piper’s “designed for you by God” is God’s permissive will and, he continues, “Since He is ‘infinitely wise, it is right to call this purpose a design.’” If believers were to really accept such a premise, why would they seek to have that which was designed for them by God chemically or surgically removed? If God has a disease “designed for you” what would make you think it’s alright to circumvent His will by going to a doctor to get rid of what He has given? Again, isn’t that tantamount to circumventing the will of God and would not the one stricken with cancer be wasting that which God had designed for him/her? How would one know when the design of God had fulfilled its purpose so as to not have it removed too soon?

Piper made reference to three verses in Job which, for this short work, would require more than a brief comment or two about his otiose use of those Scriptures, but speaking of Job: (a) he is not found seeking a medical remedy and, (b) we are invited to consider Job’s patient endurance and to see “the outcome of the Lord's dealings, that the Lord is full of compassion and is merciful” (James 5:11). P.S. Job lived.

2. “You will waste your cancer if you believe it is a curse and not a gift.”

It would have been more helpful had we been directed to Scripture where God calls cancer, or any wasting disease, a “gift.” It doesn’t exist, of course. God’s word calls sickness and disease a lot of things, but never once is it referred to as a gift. Job called what he was going through “grief” and “calamity” (Job 6:2).

The fact of the matter is God does call boils, tumors and diseases curses (Deut. 28:27) and, prior to the Law, they were called plagues (Ex. 9:9-14). In that case the purpose was “so that you may know that there is none like me in all the earth.” I would say cancer is a plague in America and elsewhere in the world. God labels “extraordinary plagues,” “severe and lasting plagues” along with “miserable and chronic sicknesses” and “diseases” (Deut. 28:59-60) as curses. Indeed, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law” (Gal. 3:13) however we cannot divorce sin and sickness completely as there is an inescapable connection between the two to one degree or another starting in the garden of Eden. Our bodies have been purchased but not yet regenerated.

 In addition, Jesus said of the woman who had a “sickness caused by a spirit,” for long time that she was “a daughter of Abraham as she is, whom Satan has bound for eighteen long years” (Luke 13:16). There are other such examples in Scripture. Be assured God nowhere calls cancer a gift!

3. “You will waste your cancer if you seek comfort from your odds rather than from God.”

Under this heading Piper says “The world gets comfort from their odds. Not Christians.” That sounds more like a phrase out of an old Hollywood movie, “What are my chances Doc, give it to me straight.” What I see is that where ever there are physicians, medical facilities and medical treatments the world flocks to them (if they have the money) in hope, not “odds.” How does what John Piper did when he had prostate cancer differ from the world? John Piper prayed. John Piper turned to God and the medical community. Saved and unsaved people tend to pray and, in countries where it’s available, they seek medical help when faced with a possible terminal disease.

This dear pastor quoted Psalm 20 where David said “. . . we trust in the name of the Lord our God.” That’s what David did when he was facing Goliath alone. He said, “I come to you in the name of the LORD of hosts.” (1Sam. 17:45) There is healing in that Name. Peter said “I do not possess silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you: In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene-walk!" (Acts 3:6)

The problem may well be too many people and pastors in America have the silver and gold and health insurance and medical treatments and hospitals and doctors and nurses and drug stores and medicines available, but do not have what Peter and John had. Rather than face our want of faith, the line of least resistance is to relegate miracles to the status of “maybe sometimes” and “signs of an apostle” and since I’m not an apostle . . . well, you get the picture.

So where is God in such situations? Relegated to a medical assistant. Many a prayer has been offered, “Dear God, guide the hands of the surgeon, amen.” The church speaks of God as the Great Physician-how real is that to us? God can direct the hands of the surgeon, but can’t heal us through faith in Him? We dare presume God is willing to direct the hands of a surgeon, but is unwilling to heal us in answer to prayer?

4. “You will waste your cancer if you refuse to think about death.”

Aside from Piper’s terminology about wasting your cancer (terminology which I reject throughout) I agree believers should not have an ostrich mentality when it comes to death. Pray tell though, where did the idea come from that one has to get sick to die? If the Lord wants you home, He doesn’t have to make you sick to death!

5. “You will waste your cancer if you think that ‘beating’ cancer means staying alive rather than cherishing Christ.”

Again, I agree with Brother Piper, but would hasten to add that one does not need to make that choice. A believer can continue to cherish Christ and still be intent on “’beating’ cancer” (to use his words).

6. “You will waste your cancer if you spend too much time reading about cancer and not enough time reading about God.”

I totally agree. It is much better to spend qualitative and quantitative time with God and in His word.

7. “You will waste your cancer if you let it drive you into solitude instead of deepen your relationships with manifest affection.”

Regardless of what a believer is going through he or she should never be driven into solitude. Believers should always maintain a close relationship with believers, especially in their church. Church is the body of Christ and locally it is a congregation of Christians who should preserve and enjoy koinonia, fellowship, one with another. Amputation, or retreating into solitude, is not a viable option for any member of the body of Christ whether because of hurt, illness, suffering or anything else.

8. “You will waste your cancer if you grieve as those who have no hope.”

In this section Piper quotes 1 Thessalonians 4:13: “But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope.” Paul actually wrote this to believers to encourage them about their loved ones who were saved but had already died. He encouraged them and reasoned with them saying “For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus” (1Thess. 4:14).

Brother Piper ends this thought saying, “Don’t waste your cancer grieving as those who don’t have this hope.” God’s children do have the hope of the resurrection without doubt, but it should be remembered that Paul called death an “enemy” (1Cor. 15:26). Sometimes it harder to watch a loved one die than to face death ourselves. We should not grieve as lost people, but the hope beyond does not necessarily retard the pain of the process.

With that said, of course believers should not grieve as the world grieves when it comes to death. Yet when death is being contemplated because of disease we know healing is available! We pray for the persecuted church, those going through trials and tribulation because of their faith and love for our Savior but we have no confident hope they will escape physical death. Scripture is filled with examples and the eleventh chapter of Hebrews could not be clearer that some saints are delivered by faith and others suffer harm even martyrdom by faith-to the glory of God.

Healing is different. We have no examples in Scripture of how to die in faith with a slow, painful horrible disease. Persecution is one thing, sickness is another. None of the prophets, apostles or Jesus left an example on how to die with cancer or how to accept such things as a gift of God. Granted we’ve seen or read of many wonderful saints dying valiantly in sickness and remaining faithful to our Lord, but we don’t find it in Scripture. Is it any wonder when so much of the church, yes precious men and women of God who in just about every other sense takes God at His word but not when it comes to God’s willingness to heal. What in God’s word ever gave the church the idea that it is God’s plan that sickness accomplish the death of His saints? We don’t have to get sick to die.

Hope? Absolutely. Jesus, the apostles and the word of God give us plenty of hope. Let us not grieve when we’re told we have a debilitating or terminal condition as those who have no hope.

9. “You will waste your cancer if you treat sin as casually as before.”

There is an uneasy hint of assumption in this statement. Are there not precious believers who never treat sin “casually?” I’ve heard my wife’s prayers at family altar time that she would rather die than sin against God or bring Him shame. Surely there are many careful believers who are walking on the highway of holiness who do not treat sin casually. I would say you’re wasting today and the blessed opportunities of serving our Lord in purity-cancer or no cancer-if you treat sin as casually as you did yesterday, if indeed, you were treating it casually yesterday.

John Piper writes that “Cancer is designed to destroy the appetite for sin.” After a short list of sins he continues, “all these are the adversaries that cancer is meant to attack.” Dear ones, God’s word says no such thing. Our Lord said the Paraclete, the spirit of God, was being sent into the world to “convict of sin” (John 16:7-8) and in the new birth we obtain a new nature. It’s the kindness of God leads to repentance (Romans 2:4). Paul urged the brethren by the “mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship” and to be “transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.” Paul wrote that it is “the love of Christ that controls us” (2Cor. 5:14). Numbers of other things were said by our Lord, but never that disease was “designed to destroy the appetite for sin.” If it was, be assured disease would be far more prevalent, even rampant, in the church today. Loving God and drawing near to Him will “destroy the appetite for sin.”

It is the cross of our Savior that was designed by God to destroy our appetite for sin dear reader. In the words of Isaac Newton we hear the truth resounded:

When I survey the wondrous cross
On which the Prince of glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss,
And pour contempt on all my pride.

 Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast,
Save in the death of Christ my God!
All the vain things that charm me most,
I sacrifice them to His blood.

Brother Piper finishes by quoting Luke 9:25, "For what is a man profited if he gains the whole world, and loses or forfeits himself?” This quote is grossly out of context. Our Lord did not have cancer or disease in mind when He said these things. Please read the context for yourself: Luke 9:21-27.

10. “You will waste your cancer if you fail to use it as a means of witness to the truth and glory of Christ.”

In this last section Brother Piper correctly says “Christians are never anywhere by divine accident. There are reasons for why we wind up where we do.” Well said. But then he continues by quoting a passage regarding persecution of the righteous (Luke 21:12-13) and adds “So it is with cancer.” Piper said that, not God.

Brother Piper says cancer is “an opportunity to show that he is worth more than life.” Perish the thought we would ever proclaim or live anything but the truth that our God is worth infinitely more than anything or anybody. But how about using cancer as an opportunity to show the power, compassion and mercy of our healing God? Why not take cancer in someone whom you love as an opportunity to deny yourself and stand in the gap for them as an unceasing intercessor until the cancer is gone? Why not take cancer as an opportunity to show the power of fervent, prevailing prayer rather than touting the “power of cancer” (as Piper calls it)?

Can cancer be an “opportunity to bear witness” as Brother Piper suggests? Yes. It can be an opportunity to remain faithful in love for God and others, it can be an opportunity to remain righteous in word, manner of life and suffering. It should be a time you continue to witness of God’s truth and glory. It can be an opportunity to say only what God gives us to say and believe Him rather than doctors or what doubters may say. Search the Scriptures daily and you will find that people glorified God time after time when they or someone was healed from an infirmity, sickness or disease. May cancer be used as a witness that God is true, that He is the Healer of our bodies and Savior of our souls.

A final note. I am thankful for doctors and modern medicine. It is an honorable profession, but much of the world has neither the money nor the access to what so many have in the United States and that is grievous to me. Do we need doctors and modern medicine? Yes, and we will continue to need and rely upon the medical community so long as there are unbelievers, weak believers and doubters in the world. But do Christians need doctors and modern medicine? Yes, for the same reasons and will continue to until we are convinced that God means what He says. Brother Piper writes in his introduction that he believes in “God’s power to heal by miracles and by medicine.” It’s never been a question about God’s ability, the question is His willingness to heal “by miracle”.

May His Name be praised forever.

Michael E. Dixon

18 October, 2007