Best-selling Christian author and prominent theologian Tim Keller died last Friday after battling pancreatic cancer, his church said.
Rev. Keller, the founding pastor of New York’s Redeemer Presbyterian Church, was first diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer in May 2020.
Bruce wrote, “It is with a heavy heart that it is known that Tim Keller, founder and longtime pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church, passed away this morning at the age of 72.” Terrell spoke on behalf of the Redeemer Network leadership team. “We are forever grateful for his leadership, heart and dedication to sharing the love of Christ with others.
They said, “We will miss him here, but we know he is rejoicing in heaven with his savior.”
Shortly before his death, his son Michael tweeted, “Dad is leaving the hospital for hospice care at home.”
Michael wrote later Friday afternoon, “Timothy J. Keller, husband, father, grandfather, mentor, friend, pastor and scholar, passed away this morning at his home.
“Dad waited until he was alone with Mom. Mom kissed Dad on the forehead and Dad breathed his last. We take solace in Dad’s last words… ‘The downside of my leaving There’s nothing.’ “I read the statement.
Keller underwent two years of chemotherapy after being diagnosed in 2020. He was also participating in an immunotherapy drug trial at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, as recently as January.
But even though the immunotherapy successfully killed 99 percent of the cancerous tumors, Keller announced in a Facebook post in March that additional cancerous tumors that had undergone modifications to previous immunotherapy treatments had returned.
“Unfortunately, they are in a very uncomfortable state, so doctors have urged them to treat again, this time targeting a different genetic marker for cancer,” Keller wrote.
In April, he said that he was recovering from treatment and that it would be a “long and slow recovery process”.
Keller is also a survivor who was diagnosed with thyroid cancer in 2002.