Can Cancer Be a Gift?

Several months ago (maybe even longer than that) a friend of mine lent me a copy of Dr. R.C. Sproul Jr.’s DVD series, Believing God, based on his book of the same title. My friend especially encouraged me to watch the video that goes along with the ninth chapter of the book titled “All things Work Together (Romans 8:28),” in which he deals with pain and suffering and how we as Christians should respond to it and help others in it. Dr. Sproul certainly has gone through some difficult stuff that has led him to think on this…not the least of which was the loss of his wife Denise to breast cancer, an event he opens up about in this video.

I have to confess I only just watched it the other day…and I also have to confess that I wish I hadn’t. Not because of the subject matter, but because of his treatment of it.

My concerns are these:

1. How he teaches people to understand and deal with “bad days.”
2. That he dismisses outright that Romans 8:28 can be a bad Scripture to cite when helping someone who is going through pain and suffering.
3. That he sees cancer as a “gift” that God gave his wife.

I have struggled with writing this post. R.C. Sproul Sr.’s books, tapes, and teaching have played a crucial and foundational role in the formation of my faith, he was a professor of mine in seminary, and I count him a friend. I have had additional struggle due to the fact that as I have been thinking about what to say and how to say it, R.C. Sproul Jr. has come into more hard times, and I do not wish to cause him more.

How we approach and comfort those who are going through difficult times is extremely important. Dr. Sproul (Jr.) and I share the same theological foundation: God is sovereign. God is good. People are not (good or sovereign). God is sovereignly at work in all things for our good and His glory. While we start from the same point and head for the same end, my own experience in dealing with pain and suffering and helping those who are experiencing it has led me in a direction very diverse from that of Dr. Sproul.

All of us, Dr. Sproul says, have bad days; days where things are going wrong, and days when we are afraid of what might go wrong. He offers two sets of questions to ask yourself when you are having a bad day. The first set is this:

1. What is the worst that could possibly happen?
2. Is it really that bad?

I have no problem with these. My concern comes with his second set of questions, questions which he uses to frame the rest of his message:

1. What am I due? [Answer:] Hell.
2. What do I have? Am I experiencing hell now? [Answer:] No. I have better than I deserve, less than what I am owed.
3. What have I been promised? [Answer:] In Christ I have been promised eternal bliss.

So when you are having a bad day or a hard time remember if you are not in hell, you are faring better than you deserve, and that you are promised eternal bliss in heaven. In addition to this, he adds, we need to remember that God is not only sovereign over the good that happens but the bad that happens…bad days are sent by God as much as good days are. We need to remember that.

I find this to be a bland and sterile approach to answer the question “Why is this happening to me?” It is true that all people are sinners and Christians are no exception. If we have a relationship with God, it is by grace through faith and has nothing to do with earning it or deserving it (Ephesians 2:8-9). However, in Christ we are fully accepted (Romans 5:11), adopted (Galatians 4:5), and are seen as righteous (Romans 5:19). There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ (Romans 8:1).

If we constantly look at ourselves after we have come to Christ as we were before and outside of Christ, we are going to have a very hard time becoming who we are in Christ. A more theologically and biblically accurate question would be “What was I owed?” or “What did I deserve?” This acknowledges the reality that we are sinners saved by grace. But it also acknowledges the reality that our identity is now in Christ and cannot be understood rightly apart from Him.

Seeing that all our sin was paid for at the cross and that we now truly owe nothing to God’s justice, how does it follow that it is an expression of good theology to remind ourselves on a bad day, “Well I don’t deserve better anyway and I could be in hell?” It is not a question of “deserve,” because the Christian’s suffering is not punitive. If we think about why we are suffering from the standpoint of sin’s deserving punishment, we are coming at it from the wrong direction.

Sproul even admits as much when he says later on that everything we experience ultimately leads to our sanctification and God’s glory. If that is true—that the reason for suffering is aimed at making us more Christ-like and in doing that also is for God’s glory—then why focus on looking through the lens of deserving hell? That may well be theologically true in one sense, but it is not the key to understanding why Christians suffer bad days.

Dr. Sproul then expresses surprise and concern that some Christians feel citing Romans 8:28 (And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose, NIV), to those who are in the midst of pain and suffering could be trite and shallow. He virtually dismisses the thought saying,

What does that say about us, friends? This is God’s Word. There are no “God’s words” that are not appropriate for use in human contexts. And if we are in the context of human suffering then there is no better word than this word, this promise, that all things, not some things, all things work together for good for those who love the Lord.

I absolutely believe that Romans 8:28 is true. In all things—the good the bad and the ugly—God works for the good of those who love Him. All things means all things. I believe that.

Yet I am one of those people who thinks Romans 8:28 can be a poor passage to quote to a person who is experiencing great suffering. I think Dr. Sproul misses the reasons that pastors such as myself feel the way we do.

It is false to assume that because all Scripture “is appropriate for use in human contexts,” that therefore all parts of it are equally beneficial in a given context. This seems to be a common thought among Christians of the Reformed persuasion: if something is true, it is therefore always loving to say it. I disagree. Just because something is true does not make it the right truth to share at any particular moment.

That leads to my second problem with his argument. While there is no such thing as trite Scripture, there is such a thing as trite use of it. Not only that, but this verse (like any other) can be weaponized by the person speaking it. Is that not what Satan did with Scripture when he tempted Christ in the wilderness (Luke 4:1-13)? The right truth given from the wrong motivation or for the wrong reason can be extremely hurtful.

I have a daughter who has struggled with suicidal ideation and cutting and has been hospitalized for it six times in the last year and a half. In fact she is currently in her sixth hospitalization as I write. My experience has been when I share the pain that I am in because of it with people who then share that verse with me, the message being implied is often, “You should know better than to be struggling with this,” or “If you understood God’s sovereignty better, you would not be having such a hard time with this.” Such an answer does not validate my pain, but makes me feel guilty for having it since it is for my good. What I have been learning is that often times this verse is often meant not to bring God’s grace to the hurting, but is used as a shield to keep people from getting too close to us, or to keep us from getting too close to people.

And thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, it really doesn’t answer the questions that the person is more than likely actually asking: “Does God still love me? Does God not care for me? Where is He in this?” They are looking for love, compassion, and encouragement. What people need in these times is to be reminded that God loves them, cares for them, and is with them in their pain. I have been learning that Scriptures like the ones below are far more helpful:

• Psalms 9:9 (NIV), The LORD is a refuge for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble. Those who know your name trust in you, for you, LORD, have never forsaken those who seek you.
• Psalms 34:18 (NIV), The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.
• Psalms 46:1-3 (NIV), God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.
• Psalms 91:14-16 (NIV), “Because he loves me,” says the LORD, “I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name. He will call on me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him. With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation.”

These verses address the reality of evil and suffering. They acknowledge the pain of it. The need of rescue and relief. They point to God and to Jesus as the One who can and will do that; that He is with us in suffering, and that we will not be lost to it.

I’m not saying it is never appropriate to bring up that or other passages like it. There certainly are times when it is. But we need to prayerfully seek the Spirit’s guidance before we open our mouths. I have been learning that it is often more helpful and a much more powerful thing to incarnate God’s love and grace and presence to a person who is suffering than it is to explain it or to quote passages that do like Romans 8:28. They are not looking for academic answers to those questions, they are looking for incarnational answers.

Dr. Sproul then goes on to say that everything we experience—including suffering—ultimately leads to two things: first our sanctification. Second God’s glory. Again, I agree with that assertion.

God does not merely allow suffering, Dr. Sproul continues, He lovingly plans and choses it for each of us for our own sanctification. Using his late wife as an example he shares that it is his belief that God gave his wife Denise the “gift” of breast cancer as part of His sovereign plan to work for her sanctification. The following quote is long, but I wanted to get the full context of it. It is a recollection of conversations he had with Denise to help her (and himself I am sure) through her suffering with cancer.

God did not peer down the corridor of time and see cancer coming towards you [Denise] and say, “Well I guess I will let that happen”…God didn’t permit this to happen. God also didn’t say, “I am unhappy with my daughter, and I see cancer coming and I’m going to let her suffer through that”…Here is what God did. He said to Himself, “I love Denise. She’s my daughter. And my desire for her is to give her a gift.” When you are God and you want to give a gift you don’t have to go shopping because you already own everything. You see, God went into His “Everything Closet” where He keeps “everything,” to pick out a gift specifically for you. And He looked at all the stuff that He had and He said, “This will be perfect for her.” And picked out cancer for you. And why would he do that? Because he is heaven-bent on making you more like Jesus. That is the good he has promised you, and that’s the good he is giving you in and through this.

This is disturbing to me. It is disturbing for three reasons:

First, there is no place in the bible where disease is seen as a blessing. Not one. Disease is universally seen in Scripture as a judgment, as something that separates you from God, as an evil. It is therefore fascinating to me that Dr. Sproul asserts that the way to look at his wife’s cancer was that it was a gift lovingly given from God.

Second, because it seems to cheapen the reality that cancer is a natural evil, as well as the suffering and pain it brings.

Third, it is a very different thing to use this line of thinking with moral evil, a subject that interestingly never comes up in any of Dr. Sproul’s examples and illustrations. If we exchange natural evil (i.e. cancer) with moral evil can we say the same thing? Can we say: that for the sake of our sanctification God goes to His “Everything Closet” where He keeps everything and says, “I love Denise. She’s my daughter. And my desire for her is to give her a gift…This will be perfect for her.” And picked out

• rape,
• having her spouse murdered,
• or experience emotional or physical abuse.

I don’t think we could say that without the clear implication that God is in some real sense Himself morally culpable for it. If you can’t do it for moral evil, I question whether it can or should be said of natural evil.

I am in total agreement that God was glorified and Denise was brought to a deeper love of her Savior because of her cancer. But I contend that the gift was not cancer but God’s gracious giving Himself to her in such a way that even terminal cancer ended up serving Him by creating and clearing clearer and wider pathways into her soul so that she knew and appreciated how deeply her Father loved her. What looked to bring death was turned on its head and brought life instead.

Nothing shows that God is sovereign over evil like the murder of Jesus Christ. Nothing more evil has ever been committed on this earth, and yet nothing more good has ever been accomplished as was done through that substitutionary atonement. There is great comfort in knowing that God is sovereign even over evil, but we should not think we know more than we do. James 1:17 says every good and perfect gift is from above [i.e. from God]. It is to my mind a very dangerous thing to ascribe the word “gift” to evil.

I assert that this kind of thinking ends of doing the reverse of what it intends and actually distances oneself from struggling with the reality of the problem of evil…a problem that is made more perplexing—not less—because God is sovereign.

The book of Job is as close as we get to being behind the scenes of natural and moral evil happening in the light of God’s sovereign power. While God gives Satan permission to act and boundaries to stay within (Job 1:12 and 2:6), it is Satan who is the primary cause of the evil and suffering (Job 1:13-19 and 2:7). At no point are these looked at as gifts, but as evils. When Job asks God for answers God’s answer (given over chapters 38-41) is basically, “I am God and you are not.”

In my opinion, Dr. Sproul’s approach claims more insight into this mystery than anyone actually has. We should not be afraid to acknowledge the ambiguity, mystery, and murkiness of the problem of evil. I think it is a very dangerous thing to try and explain why and how God uses evil in our sanctification process in the way he did in that video. The passages I quoted above from the Psalms don’t make sense if suffering, trouble, and evil are understood at their core as gifts sovereignly given by God for our benefit.

I welcome my readers’ thoughts and comments on this.