“Is cancer satanic?”

Steve Brown:
Is cancer satanic? The answer to that and other questions, on Key Life.

Matthew Porter:
If you think laughter isn’t spiritual or that faithfulness to God means conformity to Christian stereotypes, then this program probably isn’t for you. But if you’re looking for honest, Biblical answers to honest questions, welcome to Key Life. Here’s our host, author and seminary professor Steve Brown, along with Pete Alwinson from ForgeBibleStudy.com

Steve Brown:
Hey Pete.

Pete Alwinson:
Hey man, how you doing? Happy Friday.

Steve Brown:
I’m doing really good.

Pete Alwinson:
Good.

Steve Brown:
You know Matt Heard, don’t you?

Pete Alwinson:
Yeah.

Steve Brown:
He lives in Colorado, but he’s going to be here next week. And I asked him if he would do a week of regular Key Life programs.

Pete Alwinson:
Oh great.

Steve Brown:
He’s going to do it. And, he’s kinda new at it, but he’s a great communicator.

Pete Alwinson:
Oh, he is. Yeah.

Steve Brown:
He’s a great author and a communicator. So, you guys be listening next week. I’m going to take a break. I’m old. I’ve got to rest sometimes. And I’m going to take a rest, and you and I are going to do an Advent series.

Pete Alwinson:
I’m looking forward to that. Yeah

Steve Brown:
And, so I’m going to share this microphone and then I’m going to go and eat bonbons and watch soap operas.

Pete Alwinson:
Right. Exactly. No, you’ve just got other things you’re going to be doing.

Steve Brown:
Yeah, that’ true.

Pete Alwinson:
I know you.

Steve Brown:
By the way, that’s Pete Alwinson and Pete for over 25 years has been coming into this studio. And we’ve been answering questions and we’ve loved every minute of it cause we really like your questions and we like you. You can call 1-800-KEY-LIFE anytime you want. And you can record your question. And sometimes we put those on the air. Or you can write to

Key Life Network
P.O. Box 5000
Maitland, Florida 32794

In Canada, it’s

Key Life Canada
P.O. Box 28060
Waterloo, Ontario N2L 6J8

Or you can e-mail us at [email protected]. And by the way, when you’re emailing us at [email protected], don’t forget to go to ForgeTruth.com. That’s the Forge ministry, and it will blow you away with the information that you’ll get. But don’t send a gift to him, send it to us. And all of those touch places are places where you could help us financially, if you can. If you can, please do. And I promise we’ll be faithful with your gift. If you can’t, say a prayer for this ministry. Speaking of prayer Pete, why don’t you lead us in prayer and we’ll get to some of these questions.

Pete Alwinson:
You’ve got it. Father, we stop now at the end of this week, just for a minute and just thank you for the fact that we can come into your presence. And Lord, we honor you. Father, Son and Holy Spirit, we praise you and it’s good for us to remember that you are all powerful, you’re all knowing, you’re all loving and you’re gracious and merciful. We’ve seen your grace and your mercy this week. And Lord, we ask that you would just continue to draw us closer to you. You know our needs, you know the questions that we have. And even as we do question and answer in this series, we realize that we have so many questions. We ask Holy Spirit, that you would lead us and guide us in the way we should go, lead us in your word and bring truth to set us free. Thanks for Steve. Thanks for Key Life and this great ministry and just pray that Lord Jesus, you would be honored and glorified, even in this time of Q&A, that we commit to you right now in your Holy Name. Amen.

Steve Brown:
Amen. Pete, let’s go to our phone lines.

Caller 1:
I heard a comment with you and your partner concerning cancer in the satanic side. I think the satanic side of cancer is not so much the illness as it is the treatment, the way we go about it. And I think God told us in Genesis, this is what we do. Thank you.

Steve Brown:
Well, good comment. Did he say he was suffering with colon cancer?

Pete Alwinson:
I don’t know. Maybe, I didn’t catch that.

Steve Brown:
I think. And I think you made a reference to it in passing and I think on a regular Key Life program, I had referenced David Seel’s book. He was, he’s in heaven now, I’m pretty sure, but he was a missionary we’ve supported for years and was a physician. And he wrote a book called Does My Father Know I’m Hurt. And in that book, he used the metaphor of cancer, as a metaphor for Satan. And it was very good. And the illustrations that he used, they were all Biblical. So, I wouldn’t equate cancer with Satan, but in the sense that all evil, and cancer’s evil, has its roots in the dark side. There are implications there don’t you think?

Pete Alwinson:
Yeah, for sure. I mean, both you and I have had many people in our lives and our ministries who we love, who’ve gone through cancer. I mean, their faces just, I could see several of them right now. And it’s just, you hate it so much. It’s so insidious and you think you, you think you get it and it comes back. So, at any rate, we hate cancer, but Satan is cancerous in his demonic realm. And the unseen realm and what they’re doing to undermine peoples and culture and families and children, it’s just destructive.

Steve Brown:
That’s so true. So, it is a good metaphor. You know, our worship leader at the church I tend is right now going through chemotherapy. And she had cancer a number of years ago and was miraculously healed and she was back at leading worship last Sunday.

Pete Alwinson:
Good.

Steve Brown:
And had plenty of energy and was going. So, I think God’s going to do it again.

Pete Alwinson:
I hope so, and you know, they’ve come further in treatment and particularly with pills now, rather than just the chemical drip, and there’s, it’s just, I’m not medical, so I’m not using all the right terminology, but they still are making progress. And that’s good.

Steve Brown:
And God, remember if you say that cancer is like Satan, remember that like Satan, cancer is under the sovereignty of a God who is good and who’s good all the time. And there’s always hope.

Pete Alwinson:
Yeah. Good.

Steve Brown:
So, I appreciated that comment. It was a good comment. What does it mean, this is an e-mail, to take up one’s cross?

Pete Alwinson:
Yeah. Well, those who took up their crosses died on those crosses. So, there really is this death metaphor.

Take up your cross and follow me, die to yourself.

Steve Brown:
It has an intentional, thing to it doesn’t it?

Pete Alwinson:
It really does.

Steve Brown:
You know, it isn’t your husband’s not your cross and your wife is not your cross.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s right.

Steve Brown:
The cross is something that we, that old song, the world behind me, the cross before me, it can get you killed. But it means I’m going to follow Jesus, no matter what.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s right. That’s right. It really does. And it really is what this ministry is all about because grace helps us see that the depravity of our sin and how much Jesus really has done for us. And it makes you want to say, I’m going to take my cross up. I want to follow you,

Steve Brown:
Yeah, I’m with you.

Pete Alwinson:
with all of the implications of that. And in our culture, it is getting more difficult to be ostensibly a Christian.

Steve Brown:
You know, that’s not all bad, is it?

Pete Alwinson:
No, it is not. It’s good for us.

Steve Brown:
You know, one of the, you know, we flourish when we’re in trouble.

Pete Alwinson:
Yeah.

Steve Brown:
We don’t flourish when we’ve got too much. In my devotions the other morning, I was reading that proverb that said, you know, don’t give me, don’t make me rich and don’t make me poor cause if I’m rich, I’ll ignore you. And if I’m poor, I won’t, the same thing will happen. And I thought, you know, I pray that for the church too. You know, we have in our past had great political power, great leverage, our sermons were printed in newspapers and we almost died spiritually. So, now we’re getting down to the muscle.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s true. And, we in the church have to be careful that even on some of these social issues that we’re fighting each other over that we’re not letting each other speak and loving each other, that we keep really Christ centered and Gospel focused.

Steve Brown:
That’s true. And because it’s so hard today to, you know, say to your friends, I’m a Christian and I just thought you ought to know that. If you have trouble doing that because you know the kind of negative reaction you have, you just took up your cross.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s right. Yeah. Or say, I can’t do that because I’m a Christian or I can’t believe it. Yeah.

Steve Brown:
Do believers need to repent of their sin?

Pete Alwinson:
Well, I know I do. And so, yes, yes.

Steve Brown:
You know, we get that question in a lot of different forms, a lot of times. And it comes from a teaching that says that Christ died for your sins past, present, and future. And so, you don’t have to repent. I mean, in fact, when you do you’re denying the grace of God, And that sounds like it’s logical, but it’s not. Simply because repentance is a gift that God gives us. If I couldn’t repent, I couldn’t live because repentance is knowing who you are and who God is. Who’s right. And who’s wrong. Telling him so, and sometimes even being very sorrowful for that.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s right.

Steve Brown:
You said the other day that, you know, we were talking about thinking about things in the past and how they come back to bite us and you just blush and you think, how could I have done that or said that. The joy is, Lord, it’s me, that I don’t have any excuses. I can’t blame it on anybody else. It’s just me. And at that point, there’s great power in the Christian’s life. Repentance is the source of our power and we don’t repent. We live a life of repentance.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s right. That’s right. It’s every day. And, in many respects, and we have that freedom to face ourselves because of what Christ has done. We can repent.

Steve Brown:
And that is freedom, isn’t it?

Pete Alwinson:
It is freedom.

Steve Brown:
There’s that old Puritan prayer.

My sins are too heavy to carry, too deep to undo, and too real to hide.

And they really are. And because they are so difficult, God has provided a joyous, freeing way to be free of it.

Pete Alwinson:
Yeah.

Steve Brown:
And that’s repentance.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s right. That’s right. And so sometimes I have to say, am I feeling shame because of what people think of me or am I sorry for my sin because of the shame that it may have brought to Christ.

Steve Brown:
And sometimes you don’t know the difference.

Pete Alwinson:
Sometimes I don’t.

Steve Brown:
And when you don’t, you can repent of that.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s right.

Steve Brown:
So, even that’s freedom.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s right.

Steve Brown:
So, repentance is not the guy walking around with a sign that says turn or burn, repent or go to hell. That’s not what it is. It’s not, you better give that sin up and immediately you better be up perfect follower of Christ. It’s not that. It’s an attitude. It’s from a Greek word, that means that. And it means, knowing the truth, agreeing with God at every point, not making excuses and living a life that way. And it’s a wonderful way to live.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s right. Blessed are those who mourn and they become meek, the Beattitudes.

Steve Brown:
That’s right. That’s how I became a spiritual giant.

Pete Alwinson:
Exactly.

Steve Brown:
I just wanted you to know that.

Pete Alwinson:
Exactly.

Steve Brown:
Guys, we’re out of here. Key Life is a listener supported production of Key Life Network.