Tim Keller’s health has seen ‘remarkable’ improvement amid stage 4 cancer, doctors say
Popular pastor and author Tim Keller, who is battling stage 4 pancreatic cancer, was told by doctors that his health has seen “remarkable” improvement in the months following his diagnosis, according to his wife, Kathy Keller.
In a series of tweets posted on her husband's official Twitter page, Kathy Keller thanked supporters for their prayers and shared an update regarding the pastor's condition.
"Through God’s mercy and your prayers, there has been remarkable improvement in the last 18 months — in fact, his doctors are using words like 'fantastic' and 'dramatic' to describe the progress. Your prayers are working!" she wrote.
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"As Tim’s begins a new round of chemotherapy this week, we hope you will pray for continued effectiveness of the treatment with even fewer side effects. Thanks again for the outpouring of love and support. We are grateful and ask for your continued prayers."
Keller, the founder of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City and City to City, was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer in May 2020. He publicly revealed his illness less than a month later. At the time, he asked supporters to pray that God would use “medical means or his direct intervention to make the cancer regress to the point of vanishing.”
“I feel great and have no symptoms. It was what doctors call an ‘incidental pickup,’ otherwise known as providential intervention,” he said. “I have terrific human doctors, but most importantly I have the Great Physician himself caring for me.”
He added, “Though we have had times of shock and fear, God has been remarkably present with me through all the many tests, biopsies, and surgery of the past few weeks.”
Keller, the co-founder of The Gospel Coalition, is also a survivor of thyroid cancer, which he had in 2002. He wrote about the experience in his book, Walking with God Through Pain and Suffering.
The pastor has regularly updated supporters on his condition and continued to speak, write and participate in ministry. In June, he said he was "extremely encouraged" by his body's response to his cancer treatment.
In an April 2021 interview with The Christian Post, Keller also expressed gratitude for his health despite mentioning that pancreatic cancer is typically an aggressive disease that often claims its victims within a year.
“My wife Kathy and I are pretty grateful,” he said in the interview. “It looks like I’ve got more time than we thought when we originally got the diagnosis.”
The pastor told CP that no matter what lies ahead, he’s “ready for anything.”
“What the future holds, I don’t know. Pray that I would have years and not months left, and that the chemotherapy would continue to be effective. But we are ready for whatever God decides for me. We’re spiritually ready," Keller contended.
“I do know,” he added, “that the resurrection of Jesus Christ really happened. And when I die, I will know that resurrection too.”
