From Sharon:
A friend asked me to read this little booklet by John Piper so we could discuss it. The booklet contains 11 short chapters with headings.
Note that “cancer” is a term John Piper uses as a placeholder, expecting us to fill in the blank with whatever trial we may be facing.
Here are my thoughts, based on John Piper’s own headings.
“We waste our cancer if we do not believe it is designed for us by God.”
If I truly believe my cancer is designed for me by God, then I also believe that my cancer is the will of God, because God would not design something contrary to his own will.
If I believe that it is God’s will for me to have cancer, then pursuing treatment––would be an attempt to thwart God’s will for my life. Prayers for healing would be asking God to contradict His own will on my behalf.
Since seeking treatment and praying for healing would both be out of alignment with the will of God, I would have no choice but to accept the cancer and the progression of the illness. The obvious ultimate outcome would be suffering followed by death.
Scripture offers examples of God disciplining his children or punishing the wicked, but when looking at the Bible as a whole, we can conclude that God is pro-life. Being pro-life may look like not accepting the death sentence of cancer.
Instead, it might look like studying to understand all the treatment options available to me, removing or reducing exposure to carcinogens, supporting my immune system, making choices to reduce stress, creating an environment conducive to healing, pursuing treatment, etc.
These are things that would make no sense to do if I truly believed that my cancer was designed for me by God.
God allows me to participate in trying not to die. As a child of God, I have the privilege of caring for the body he has given me. It’s a daily battle in a fallen world where disease exists and things cause cancer, but God has made it possible to pursue health and wellness.
Maybe my cancer will prompt me to adopt healthier habits. Maybe my cancer will force me to get an education on cancer treatment options. Maybe I will be one of many people who fight cancer and win, and I will fight! If God so leads, I will fight with everything in me because my God is in the business of healing, not designing illness or suffering or death.
I am a mortal. My days are numbered. I don’t know when or by what means I will die. I trust that when my time has come, God will let me know that it’s time to rest and surrender to my ultimate healing. Until then, the fight is on!
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That’s my cancer. What about your cancer?
If I believe your cancer is designed by God for a particular purpose in your life, will I come alongside you to walk with you through your trials? Will I lower my shoulder to share your burdens? Will I labor in prayer for your healing? Will I live in empathy and loving kindness?
I wouldn’t want to come between you and God’s will for your life. I might even pridefully wonder whether God is trying to teach you patience or humility or some other character trait by giving you cancer.
A God who designs cancer specifically for His children probably shouldn’t expect His children to be empathetic to each other. Just saying.
“What God permits, he permits for a reason. And that reason is his design.”
I think it is both confusing and misleading to interchange the concepts that “God designs cancer” and “God permits cancer.” These ideas are not the same, yet they were used in this booklet as synonyms, with no explanation offered as to how these beliefs might lead to different conclusions about God and his activity in our lives.
“We waste our cancer if we believe it is a curse and not a gift.”
What does a gift tell me about the Giver?
In the context of Scripture, there are three types of gifts.
- Gifts given from God to mankind (i.e. salvation, grace, the Holy Spirit, wisdom, healing, etc.)
- Gifts given to God by his people (i.e. offerings, praise, worship, etc.)
- Gifts given from one person to another with the motive of generosity, hospitality or reconciliation.
Jesus had something to say about gifts. In Matthew 7:10-12 He said,
“Who among you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him.
James 1:17 says, “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.”
It seems clear to me that a good Father gives good gifts.
Would I want to have anything to do with a Father who gifts his children things like cancer, chronic pain, infertility, financial struggles, estranged children, etc.? John Piper’s version of God gives the most tasteless, disgusting, hurtful gag gifts I’ve ever heard of.
Clearly cancer is not a good gift from a good God. But does that mean it’s a curse? Is everything really either a gift or a curse? Maybe some things are just cause and effect. Maybe some things are the natural consequences of choices made.
Maybe some things are the product of natural law and my lack of cooperation with it. If I fall off a ladder, it’s not a gift and it’s not a curse. It’s just my carelessness in the presence of gravity.
Considering everything as either a gift or a curse absolves me from personal responsibility.
“Satan’s and God’s designs in our cancer are not the same.”
This sounds like Satan designed my cancer with a certain end in view (“to destroy our love for Christ”) and God designed my cancer with a different end in view (“to deepen our love for Christ”). Who actually caused/planned/designed/gifted the cancer then? Was it Satan or God?
The initial few chapters said it was God. Now it seems that both God and Satan planned for me to have cancer, but for two very different reasons. Is this a collaborative process?
It’s incredibly confusing and disturbing to think that, although they had somewhat different motives, God and Satan agreed together on the cancer idea.
“We waste our cancer if we spend too much time reading about cancer and not enough time reading about God.”
This is a harmful teaching that John Piper pulled out of thin air. The Bible never indicates that studying a topic deeply in order to learn and understand new information is somehow in competition with our relationship with God. In fact, we often learn beautiful things about God by studying about his created world.
God does not have any minimum requirements for how much we should read about him on a daily basis. This belief is based on a compartmentalized view of God. John Piper seems to believe that reading about topics other than God is an activity God frowns upon. Does this mean that God is pleased only when we read about Him?
“Where there is no counsel, the people fall, but In the multitude of counselors, there is safety.” Proverbs 11:14
In the face of cancer, information can be of life or death importance, and time is of the essence. Decisions must be made. Not all treatment options are equal. Making such decisions without being fully informed seems haphazard and irresponsible.
Is that really what God expects of us? Is there anywhere in the entire Bible where it is even implied that our time spent reading about God must exceed our time spent reading about any other topic?
“Cancer is designed to destroy the appetite for sin.”
I’m not aware of any passage that teaches that Christians have an appetite for sin. The Bible teaches that we are new creations. We have the Spirit of the living God dwelling in our bodies. We are transformed by the renewing of our mind. Our identity is saint, not sinner. If we walk in the Spirit, we will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh.
Our journey out of old sinful patterns of behavior is the result of obedience to the Spirit of God in our lives, not cancer. Saying that cancer can destroy the appetite for sin is a sideways way of expressing the belief that cancer can make us holy.
Sanctification then becomes the by-product of a fallen world. That makes no sense and does not align with the teachings of Scripture.
Hypocrisy and hope
John Piper threw this little booklet together on the eve of his own cancer surgery. If there’s one thing that gets my hackles up, it’s a teacher who does not follow his own teachings. John Piper clearly “wasted” his cancer because if he believed it was a gift that was designed by God, why would he have intentionally had it cut out of his body? That seems like a pretty ungrateful act toward the giver.
Dear fellow abuse survivor, I want you to know that our loving Heavenly Father did not design your abuse. He did not give you the “gift” of an abuser. God loves you, dear one! He delights in you. He sings over you. He takes pleasure in you. He calls you his own. He has a good plan for your life.
If you’ve ever read the booklet “Don’t Waste Your Cancer” or similar twisted teachings, I’d love to hear your thoughts.
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Go here to download your free Guide, How to Enjoy the Bible Again (when you’re ready) After Spiritual Abuse (without feeling guilty or getting triggered out of your mind). You’ll receive access to both print and audio versions of the Guide, with the audio read by me. I’m praying it will be helpful.
The insistence of some Reformed teachers and pastors on squeezing every single event or happening in life into their view of a gloriously sovereign God creates mind-bending, hurtful and harmful conclusions like those Piper claims.
I can’t pretend to understand all of God’s sovereignty. But I know it includes his compassion, his goodness, his tender personal love, AND an allowance for the evil of the sin of others, for the unfortunate brokenness of this mortal world, and for the laws of natural consequences.
What happened to “God is not the author of evil?” When we claim that God designed my cancer and we know that cancer is the opposite of the original creation design, then we are saying that God designed this evil.
I don’t want any part of a God like that.
My God grieves with me over the very hard things in my life. Am I growing through them? Yes. And this growth is evidence of the persistent and strong and loving grace of God in my life. And God brings growth through trials, but that may or may not mean he brought the trial.
Yes, so true. John Piper does believe that God is the author of evil, or as he might put it, what we perceive as evil or harm. It does make for a god that looks very much like an abuser.
I really appreciate your comment. If our understanding of the sovereignty of God does not align with his goodness, then it must be examined further. God is a good Father. He is love. Our beliefs about God must agree with who we know him to be.
This idea that “God sends us trials and brokenness but it’s all supposed to be worth it” almost cost me my relationship with God. I could no longer justify the suffering experienced by people with the idea that it would be worth it because of the growth that it would bring. I finally reached a point when I could say “if God CAUSED this suffering, then he’s really not good and I don’t want to have a relationship with him anymore”. However, if God mourns this suffering WITH me, and brings good despite the evil, well then, that’s another matter entirely. Thankfully, my theology of suffering grew to understand a good God and yes, I did learn and grow through said suffering. However, could I go back and change it, I would. It was not “worth it”. God has just used it and carried me through it.
I get it. Understanding that we live in a world that is simply broken and needs repair can help so much with that perspective. We all go through trials, and we don’t have to try to figure out if what we’ve learned was “worth” the trial. We just look to the Lord to carry us through them.
Why do some people treat Satan like he’s an evil God and not a finite creature that doesn’t have the power to mess with billions of humans at the same time?
Good question!
Thank you so much! I was diagnosed with cancer while holding my five week old newborn. A woman from church brought me this booklet. I read it and it definitely caused somewhat of a trauma response. Since then I have pursued healing naturally. I had two surgeries and walked away from drs who were pushing other things. It’s been 6 years of wrestling to reconcile what this book said and other Christian’s have attacked me with “things like your carrots won’t save you” and “eat a Twinkie for Jesus” which is a joke but used to say that we all have an expiration date and I’m “wasting” my life trying to heal.
I couldn’t reconcile how other Christian’s have healed and non believers using foods, prayer, biblical counsling, and exercise oh and most importantly scripture but somehow I’m a wicked sinner for juicing and other things. I’ve been told that I’m “in the flesh” for not eating cheeseburgers or doing everything the dr said.
A fellow cancer survivor who got treatments accused me of terrible things and told me my carrots and vitamins won’t heal me and that I wasn’t trusting God and in idolatry but I could t reconcile why she was not in idolatry for blindly trusting the drs is that not the same thing?
I hated this book. I felt like God hated me for researching and making a decision. I looked around and thought why am I so much more deserving of this lesson than others. Why does God delight in giving me so many terrible gifts (molestation,rape,abuse,cancer) why am I such a terrible child that I need punishing. What lesson did I need to learn that I just apparently am not getting that God gives me crap after crap while other are blessed with ease. I was like is it because I read in cancer more than my Bible tht He withholds peace and healing and good things. I was even told I need to burn all of my books on healing even the Christian survivors and just live my life.
Lots of abuse comes from this mindset and I cried when I read your article, I couldnt reconcile why God would heal some if it’s Gods will that I die. Thank you for saying the words my abused soul needed.
Oh and yet I’m supposed to be thankful for cancer. My prayers and mind have been so twisted and the everyone’s like your problem is you don’t trust God and your problem is surrender!?!? So just roll over and die, then why does God heal some? Because they got the message that they need to trust him? I never trusted my parents more after my punishment. I feared and hid who I was from them. I have been trying to figure out my lesson so I don’t get punished more by this “loving god”.
Anyways, ok now I’m gonna read it again because I read it guarded the first time expecting to read hurtful things again.
I’m so sorry these things happened to you and people were so insensitive and hurtful in your time of need. It just boggles my mind. God bless you.
Candace, I love that you are open to a new interpretation of what “cancer” (and molestation, rape, and abuse) means! It’s so unfortunate that you’ve spent years struggling with the idea that God intended to give you the “gift of cancer” for some holy reason only He knows. I’m so glad your eyes are opening to another way of seeing. Blessings to you!
What you went through and what you’re going through is awful. Horrific. I am so sorry.
Our pain is made worse when people berate us for our carefully made decisions.
Jesus is with you and within you.
Candace, my heart is breaking over what you have suffered at the hands of your Christian “brothers” and “sisters.” As I noted in the article, these twisted beliefs lead Christians toward being judgmental and cruel rather than empathetic and kind. God strengthened you to not just fight your cancer, but to do it alone and in spite of so many obstacles. I pray that his healing of body, mind and spirit continues in your life. Thank you for sharing your experience so vulnerably. Your courage has blessed me.
Candace, I am so sorry to hear this happened to you. Thank you for sharing your experience.
Hi Sharon – that is a wonderful answer to John Piper, and absolutely correct. I am recovering from Ovarian cancer. I spent a lot of last year in 18 weeks of chemo, radical hysterectomy, uncomfortable cold caps to preserve as much of my hair as possible (I did manage to end the course with rather a creditable amount of hair, although a lot did end up on the bathroom floor). There was no way that I was going to just sit back and say “c’est la vie” and wait to die. I’ve still got too much to do! My husband and I have just moved in our retirement, and have spent several years searching for a church that we fit into. God’s part in all this was for me to trust him, use all the medical facilities that were available to me, and believe that the skills of oncologists, surgeons, oncology nursing staff are all gifted from God, for our use. I believe that the best parts of my life are still to come – after all, I’m only 77.
Lorraine, thank you for sharing your experience. I’m grateful with you that medicine, skilled doctors and care givers are often what God uses to bring about healing. May you continue to enjoy all that God has for you in your life because, as you said, you still have much to do!
And- I have definitely felt like I am working against God by pursuing healing. Thank you again!
That was the most enlightening post! Seeing the deception that so many pastors project onto people makes me sick! Father, expose these lies and the people who tell them. Wonder if anyone actually said to Piper, ” Isn’t this cancer such a gift?!”
Kathy, thank you for commenting. It is concerning how many of us were failed by our churches, and church leaders when we were most in need of truth and love.
Thank you, Rebecca, for exposing this very warped teaching of John Piper.
He has other very controversial beliefs such as, in a 2011 blog post, Piper wrote about a hypothetical situation of spousal abuse, stating that if a wife’s life was not in danger, “she endures verbal abuse for a season, she endures perhaps being smacked one night” and should not flee her home.
He has also taught that women should not only submit to their husbands but to all men.
Piper’s central theological concept of “Christian Hedonism”—the belief that “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him”—has been called a “theologically myopic.”
Mark Driscoll spoke at the Desiring God National Conferences in 2006, 2008, and 2009. Driscoll, who was later accused of abusive and unbiblical behavior, was considered a “protégé” of Piper’s.
Piper’s Christian hedonism, as expressed in the book “The Pleasures of God,” is what drew me to his work in the first place. I thought it was a wonderful book when I read it back in about 1994. I wonder what I would think of it now.
I’ve spoken with Piper personally about abuse and have personally experienced his lack of interest in getting educated about it.
Yes, I observed that Driscoll was catapulted to fame through the John Piper platform. What an absolute mess that’s been.
Thank you for your thoughts.
This is such a universal and hard issue. I think it all boils down to, “Why would a loving and all-powerful being cause or allow horrible suffering?”
We don’t know. Why can’t that just be the answer?
Many Christians try to rationalize or explain everything.
No one knows!
Embrace the mystery. Love God. Love your neighbors. Love your enemies. And for goodness’ sake, love yourself.
(I’m preaching to myself lol)
Yes! I believe you are right…
“We don’t know. Why can’t that just be the answer?
Many Christians try to rationalize or explain everything.
No one knows!”
As I read this, I thought back over many trials in my life….
Suffering comes from different sources: the sin of others; our own sin; being part of a fallen would… on and on.
I don’t feel the need to know WHY… just that God in in the business of redeeming the bad (where ever it comes from) and working it for good (Rom 8:28). AND He will never leave me…. that’s more than enough to keep me sane and keep me strong! Best, Jane
One of the basic questions of life is “Why do bad things happen?”. I think Piper’s answer is a supposedly Christian repackaging of fatalism. Maybe that works for him, but it does not work for many of us; I do not see how it works for him either, but that is his claim.
How much you want to bet that if old John Piper actually did get diagnosed with any kind of cancer, he would have no problem going to doctors and seeking treatment for himself? If I were a bettin’ gal, I’d bet a whole lot of money on that, lol.
DITTO for everything that others posted!!! ARGH!!! I am incensed at the twisted thinking that goes on in so-called Christianity!!! That’s why Jesus despises man-made doctrines which cancel out the living word of truth. Jesus said in Matthew 15:9 (and Mark 7:13) that people worship God in vain when they teach human precepts as doctrines, which nullifies the authority of God’s word. This means that adhering to man-made traditions or rules can cause people to disregard or make God’s actual commands irrelevant. Fatalism, yes, as Donald posted. And GRIEF!!! God IS GOOD & full of GOODNESS!!! Those who are following Jesus are NOT UNDER any obligation to follow man’s or woman’s leadership! The part where Jesus comes into our troubles & heartaches in this fallen world is to SHOW HIS LOVE, RESCUE US & BRING HEALING & RECOVER US & SO MUCH MORE!!! ENOUGH SAID!.
Another thing that trips people up is when they believe that God permits or allows! Just move out of that thinking & remember that in this fallen world, God gives every human being a gift of free will! So some people choose the dark side & some people choose the good side. He weeps & mourns over those who choose to take the dark side & ruin their lives & attempt to ruin others’ lives by not honoring His free will gift . It is not a permit or allow…that is a vice grip that doesn’t fit into who God is. God who is all authority said Satan could do certain things to Job but spare his life…BUT WE are in the NEW COVENANT! WE are to have a NEW SPIRIT & A NEW HEART. WE HAVE DIFFERNT THINKING AS WE HAVE A LOVING RELATIONSHIP W/ HIM, HEARING HIS VOICE. John 10:27 reads, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me”. This verse, from the New Testament of the Bible, describes a core aspect of the relationship between Jesus and His true followers, referred to as sheep. It emphasizes that His followers are able to recognize and respond to His voice, that He intimately knows them, and that they demonstrate their trust by following Him. So nobody has to follow John Piper, et al!!!
“This is a fallen world, and God gives every human being a gift of free will.” I think about these things a lot–they are all we need to make sense of the things in this world that are not the way He initially intended for them to be. Well put.
We follow others only as they follow Jesus Christ and point us to Him. Ultimately that’s our only desire. Thank you, Donna.
I forgot to add that my “caps were for emphasis only.” I try to do that in my writing but I forgot this time. Sorry about that, but I believe that people also know that caps are used for emphasis.
Thank you, Donna. You’ve made so many good points and yes, it is key to a proper understanding of the Scripture to remember that we are living under the NEW covenant.
Sharon and Rebecca, My heart pounded when I saw the topic of this blog. When my husband had cancer in 2007, we read this book. I didn’t take the “Reformed theology” determinism from it like he did. I took away the idea that we were going through this trial because we live in a fallen world but that we would ask for God’s guidance through it and cooperate with him to make Romans 8:28 true so that what the enemy meant for evil, God could turn to good through our cooperation. I poured myself into study and we went a natural route and he had healing. I had a list of things learned so we “wouldn’t waste our cancer experience.” They included things like, “we learned healthy habits which will bless our family for generations to come,” “we learned that when we pray specific prayers for guidance, God’s promise in James 1 is true and we will receive specific answers” –stuff like that. My husband, since he swallowed the determinism, came away with some really bad ideas and went into depression. He listened to Piper obsesssively and became extremely Calvinist and began to abuse me with a litany of wrong thinking that I could write a book on. Anyway, this article is gold. It needs to go far and wide.
Oh Lydia, I’m so very sorry. It does sound like you learned some good lessons from dealing with the problems of a fallen world. And as you learned, that’s so different from the determinism of the Calvinists.
Thank you for sharing this insightful response. I am so glad I didn’t see this booklet from Piper when I was diagnosed with cancer in April, and this on the heels of fleeing an abusive marriage. Having been raised in the reformed Presbyterian church, I have struggled with many of these teachings. It has been a joy to have them untwisted for me over the past year. Thank you for your love and care for the abused and downtrodden.
God bless you, Jennifer.
And thank you Jennifer for sharing Rebecca’s Untwisting Scriptures with all your friends that have needed to hear these things for so many years. Excellent article. Breath to weary lungs, life to a heart weighed down from years of bad teaching.
This is a great article. Yes, I remember that mentality. That God somehow gave me the circumstances that I came from to teach me a lesson. Gets you all twisted up in knots about free will versus divine sovereignty and why God allows some people to suffer more than others. This kind of thinking only lasts for so long before it wears you out.
Absolutely.
This is a great article Sharon! I have often wrestled with God’s sovereignty and the trials/tragedies/diseases that happen in this life. This has given me much to think about. Thanks for sharing!
Thank you, Jamey!
The replies to my comment were very sweet and loving thank you all. I have one more thing to say. I have been chewing on the part where you state God is pro life. This booklet definitely changed God from the God who saved me from addiction to meth and rescued me and gave me love and hope and filled emptiness to an abusive God. I saw Him as I saw my parents. But chewing on the pro life statement jolted me. As I said I’ve been chewing on it and it has brought me a sense of relief. I am no longer fighting against Him to save my life. As someone who had an abortion which is what caused the greater addiction to meth (trying to stay out of His reach) I understood God was pro life. But always felt He was pissed at me for having an abortion and because of that I used meth. He saved me from meth but thought that the cancer was somehow His punishing me for that. I fekt like a child that figured out the secret word to the club and God had to let me in but He wasn’t happy about it. Then receiving the “gift of cancer” as punishment. I read a few books and came to understand God can’t punish me because He poured out His wrath on Christ at the cross. But readin God is pro life resonated so much with me. WAIT!?! He is pro MY life too. Just want to thank you again! I am currently attending a Calvinist church and have been wrestling with sovereignty and free will. And have been wondering when God became abusive. I would love to hear your thoughts on Calvinist church teaching if you have a post or link. Thanks!
Though all my writings are non-Calvinistic, as far as I can remember the only directly anti-Calvinistic article I have is this one: https://heresthejoy.com/2024/07/that-esau-have-i-hated-scripture.
But I want to point out the link I have in that article, to the youtube channel of Leighton Flowers, Soteriology 101. It is very specifically created to refute Calvinism and present the plan of God that Dr. Flowers calls Provisionism. I believe you’ll really enjoy it as you search there for specific Scriptures to see how he presents them vs. how Calvinists present them.
Blessings to you as you continue to learn the goodness of God.
I am appalled by Piper’s statements. Thank you Rebecca for calling him out on this. This teaching on Christian determinism is an assault on the very character of God. I love how Greg Boyd says, “The world looks like a war zone … because it IS one!” in his book “God at War”. God’s Sovereignty does not mean He is the instigator of everything that happens. It means God is big enough to deal with evil, to put an end to evil and the wake it leaves behind!! God’s mission in this world is to rescue us from the domain of darkness, to heal and restore all that this world does to our soul. And very often, He also heals what this world does to our bodies. God is OPPOSED to all forms of evil and is in the process of OVERCOMING evil. And it would appear that John Piper is on the wrong side of this war, because his teachings cause such deep soul injuries.
Thank you, David. Excellent thoughts. I do want to point out that this article was written by Sharon Odio, my guest writer, not by me.