Recently, Catherine “Kate” Middleton, the Princess of Wales and a member of the British royal family, recently divulged that she has cancer. This has led to all sorts of speculation among Evangelicals about Middleton’s diagnosis. Specifically, Evangelicals want to know if God gave Middleton cancer.
Recently, Troy Black, a Christian YouTuber, author, and prophetic voice, prophecied about Middleton’s cancer diagnosis. Forty-one minutes long, the prophecy is one long word salad about why God is in control; except when he’s not; why Satan is in control; except when he’s not. Throw a bunch of Bible verses and theological verbiage in a bender, blend it up and what you end up with is Black’s prophecy.
Some people say ‘this is what they [Middleton and King Charles] get.’ They’re saying ‘this is what God put on their family.’
Then I heard the Lord say this. He said, ‘But that’s not the way I work. I didn’t give her cancer, and I don’t give that to people. That’s not the way I work.’
There also exists an enemy of God and of God’s people, and of the entire world, and his name is Satan.
[Black likens this to the book of Job where Satan is allowed to do things to Job, however, it was not God who was the one actively doing the things that caused great pain to Job.] He allowed Satan to have a certain authority over Job for a time for a certain reason.
Either God gave Middleton cancer or he didn’t. If, as Evangelicals allege, God is sovereign, the creator, king, ruler, and potentate over Heaven and Earth and all who live therein, then God is responsible for what happens to us. Either God is God, or he isn’t. Either he is in control of everything, or he isn’t. If God knows, sees, and hears everything, and is actively involved in our lives right down to knowing how many hairs are on our heads and the exact moment when we will die, then he alone controls the universe.
When “good” things happen, Evangelicals love to trumpet the sovereignty of God. However, when “bad” things happen, God is suddenly weak, powerless, and indifferent. Satan is to blame for the bad shit that happens in life. However, Satan is a fallen angel; a being created by God himself. Can Satan do ANYTHING that God does not permit him to do? If God is sovereign, then the answer is no. All of Job’s suffering was ultimately at God’s hands. Satan was just a tool God used to teach Job a lesson.
If God is everything Evangelicals say he is, then there is no question or doubt about how Middleton got cancer. God gave it to her. But, Bruce, this means God is a monster. How dare you question God’s divine will. Shut the fuck up! His ways are not your ways, and his thoughts are not your thoughts. The Apostle Paul said in Romans 9:
Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth. Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will? Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?
As an atheist, I don’t believe in the existence of God. People get cancer for all sorts of reasons, including DNA and environmental exposure. I have been surgically treated for basal cell and squamous cell cancer three times. Every six months, I go to the dermatologist to have pre-cancers removed via freezing. I am scheduled to have a biopsy of a growth on my nose next month. Why? I am a light-skinned, blue-eyed redhead. I have Scandinavian blood. These factors I had no control over. That said, I have had more serious sunburns — blistering, skin-peeling burns — than I can count. I never used sunscreen until I was in my 30s. I thought getting sunburns was just a part of being a redhead. Boy, do I regret my negligence (and that of my parents for not insisting I wear proper clothing). God has nothing to do with my skin cancer or anything else for that matter. And neither does Satan. Life happens, and all we can do is embrace what comes our way and do what we can to make things better.
Bruce Gerencser, 66, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 45 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
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If God gave Princess Kate or King Charles cancer – or anyone else for that matter- then he’s a shitty god. I remember hearing a bit from the rabbi who wrote “When Bad Things Happen to Good People” at the bereavement group at our Catholic Church. The gist was that God is not all powerful. There are things out of God’s control. The rabbi lost a young son to progeria and I lost a child to complications of prematurity. I was not an atheist then, but that gave me comfort. What was not comforting at all was the book that some fundie neighbors sent explaining that God killed our child so that be saved. My husband threw that book in the trash where it belonged.
This type of claim by god botherers, whilst patently ridiculous to anyone exercising the least level of logic, is (as usual) not even consistent within its own philosophy. We are told that god gives us free will, and that ultimate judgement will depend on how we exercise that free will. The moment god steps into our lives in the here and now, whether to give cancer to a child, or to find somebody’s car keys, then he/she/it interferes with that exercise of free will. Of course, the believer will always think god is stepping into help, and continue to pray, whilst the atheist is appalled at the inconsistency of god, and so becomes even more of a disbeliever. God really isn’t very smart in the world of evangelicals/fundamentalists.
Had a really good chuckle Bruce..Thank you for your gift of saying things with enormous humour. Go for it more Brother !
I guess there is a niche on YouTube for long winded “prophecies” that are very verbose but say almost nothing. I noticed he had a prophecy about (“crime history”) Biden, but alas no election prediction (though his Trump video has a prophecy that “he will reign again”). (I love election prophecies because they have a 50-50 chance and are typically wrong.)
As for Kate’s cancer, it doesn’t take a “prophet” to know what’s going on. She likely had a hysterectomy earlier in the year because of a growth. Since most cancers are benign it was likely assumed that the growth was but a biopsy was performed and it turned out to be cancer. As a preventive measure a round of chemo is done to kill any cancer that may have spread. Best wishes to her an her family.
When maladies (like a car crash) are macroscopic we see this and it is normal cause-and-effect, when it is microscopic (cancer, viruses, vaccines) then it becomes part of the realm of the almighty. Pretty silly when you think about it.
Well, you know, the Royal Family is in charge of the Church of England (a.k.a. Anglican/Episcopal Church). So, you know, God is punishing them for not being True Christians (TM).
(snark)
Seriously–I hope she recovers well.
Hell yes, Paul, that’s exactly what I’d say to the God who formed me. More accurately, I’d say it to assholes like you who supposedly speak for God. Grow the fuck up, Paul. Live and let live and quit trying to scare the shit out of everybody else, you little sawed-off bastard.
i say to this Troy Black ‘allaenat qubala ‘ant mawhum’.
“I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.” Isaiah 45:7 KJV
That pretty much sums it up, doesn’t it?
I posted this verse in comments on an evangelical friend’s social media post regarding the problem of evil, and she deleted the entire post. If you’re going to believe the Bible is the literal, inerrant, inspired word of God, you can’t really ignore this verse, right?
Yeah, that verse, and Romans 9 really angered me when I first read it while studying the Bible at home. I’d never read it in my youth, as no one I knew ever bothered. Reading it as a young adult was quite the adventure,as it was so new to me. Talk about disappointment! I never expected to see verses like THOSE in that Bible. It was rather irksome to me to hear it during a sermon. Such things never sat well with me. It didn’t mess with my faith much, but it was ugly,just the same,lol ! And unfortunately,there are LOTS of Christian books, that are just plain crappy. At the Christian bookstores we went to long ago, you’d see ones advocating abuse of children, Eurocentric diatribes from Tim La Haye, etc. You don’t see many of them anymore like you once did. There isn’t one within 20 miles of me, as far as I know.
(Ray Bradbury) “I’m a cafeteria Christian. I’ll take a little of this, and some of that, but none of that.”.
(pastor’s response after Ray passed) “Ray Bradbury’s in hell.”
Back in the Pleistocene (okay, not quite that long ago, actually the mid-1980s) I had a very senior colleague who was skilled at solving the kind of management problems that no single manager could solve, but required getting several people engaged and on the same page to agree to some compromise. He was incredibly good at such difficult, crappy work, especially since the people involved were rarely grateful for his effort; he was helping them accomplish stuff they didn’t want to deal with in the first place. But it meant he would get one such fire put out, and another one would pop up in his queue. He insisted he ran the SLJD, aka “Sh***y Little Jobs Department”.
It occurred to me a couple of decades ago that the Biblical Satan runs God’s SLJD. Torturing Job, tempting Jesus, and any other work God doesn’t want to get his hands dirty doing, gets assigned to Satan. Satan’s continuing job is to take believers’ blame for stuff that is ultimately God’s fault.
At least my colleague was able to retire. Maybe, when Jesus finally gets off his rear and returns, we can throw Satan a retirement party. Assuming I’m already in Hell, I volunteer to organize it! (I suppose paper plates and napkins wouldn’t be a good idea, and it’ll be hard to keep the beer cold. Hmmm…)