In June 2020, Tim Keller, a controversial theologian and the founding pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City, announced in a letter to his church that he had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. In the letter, he wrote, “I have terrific human doctors, but I have even better divine ones. I am constantly reminding myself of the latter.”

Keller underwent chemotherapy treatment for the cancer and in August 2020 he announced that he was feeling better and that the treatment was going well. He also expressed gratitude for the support he had received from his family, friends, and church community.

Unfortunately, Keller recently announced in a post on Instagram that his cancer is returning and it is returning in some “inconvenient places” and he will need to undergo further treatment.

“Dear Praying Friends,” he wrote, “I will shortly be returning to the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, MD in order to spend April doing a variation of the immunotherapy that I received last June. It was successful in eradicating 99% of the tumors. However, new tumors have developed. They are unfortunately in some fairly inconvenient places, so the doctors encouraged us to go through the treatment again, this time targeting a different genetic marker of the cancer.”

“It was fairly brutal last June, so we approach this with an awareness of how much prayer we need. Please pray for our trust and dependence on God, for his providential oversight of the medical preparations now in process, and for our desire to glorify God in whatever comes our way. Thank You.”

While we certainly have our serious disagreements with Tim Keller and his theology, we should pray that God will use this to His glory and bring clarity and repentance to Keller. We also pray that God will bring healing and that Tim Keller, a husband and a father, will be able to continue to provide for his family.