Phil Johnson, the executive director of the Grace to You ministry, recently thanked God’s “providence” in a health update amid an incurable cancer diagnosis. “I want to say thank you again to the countless people who told me they were praying for me during my hospitalization last month,” Johnson wrote on X Monday. “My ‘catastrophic’ kidney malfunction turned out to be a sort of blessing in disguise.”
“In the hundreds of blood tests and a bone-marrow biopsy doctors ordered, they discovered I had Multiple Myeloma, a kind of blood cancer that lets the proteins in my blood attack other organs,” he continued.
According to The Christian Post, Johnson pointed out that after a meeting with an “excellent doctor” earlier in the morning, he was prescribed “a cocktail of drugs, followed by a bone marrow transplant.”
“Multiple Myeloma is not curable, but this treatment should make it go into remission,” he explained. “The goal, as I understand it, is to keep me alive long enough for something else to kill me.”
“I’m glad that in the providence of God, they were able to diagnose this before the cancer progressed so far that no treatment could help.”
In conclusion of his thread, Johnson cited Psalm 31:15, which states, “My times are in His hand.”
Johnson first announced his health issues in an April 5 post on X, where he told his followers, “I ended up in the ER this morning with a pulmonary embolism.”
He shared that the next day, he had begun dialysis after blood tests concluded he was suffering from “critical kidney malfunction.”
In follow-up posts, Johnson explained how he was undergoing dialysis “three times a week for the foreseeable future.” Last month, he had surgery to remove the dialysis catheter from his neck. Two weeks ago, doctors discovered his Multiple Myeloma following a bone marrow biopsy.
Johnson is an elder at Grace Community Church, led by pastor John MacArthur, and serves as pastor of GraceLife, one of GCC’s fellowship groups. Additionally, Johnson has founded several websites, including a blog titled Pyromaniacs, and has edited most of MacArthur’s books. The two have become close friends over the last 40 years.
Photo Credit: ©Facebook/Phil Johnson
Milton Quintanilla is a freelance writer and content creator. He is a contributing writer for CrosswalkHeadlines and the host of the For Your Soul Podcast, a podcast devoted to sound doctrine and biblical truth. He holds a Masters of Divinity from Alliance Theological Seminary.