Former Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse revealed in a lengthy X post that he has been diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer and that he is going to die soon.
A professing Christian, Sasse, 53, served two terms in office before quitting politics to become the president of the University of Florida in 2023—a post he left shortly thereafter on account of his wife having health issues. Prior to entering politics, he was the president of Midland University, a Lutheran college associated with the ELCA.
Notably, he was one of seven Republicans who voted to impeach Trump following the January 6 Capitol riot.
In a post that has received more than 20.5 million views at the time of writing, Sasse reveals:
“This is a tough note to write, but since a bunch of you have started to suspect something, I’ll cut to the chase: Last week I was diagnosed with metastasized, stage-four pancreatic cancer, and am gonna die. Advanced pancreatic is nasty stuff; it’s a death sentence. But I already had a death sentence before last week too — we all do.”
He notes that he and his wife have grown “closer than ever” in the past few months and praised the accomplishments of his three children, the youngest of whom is 14.
“There’s not a good time to tell your peeps you’re now marching to the beat of a faster drummer — but the season of Advent isn’t the worst. As a Christian, the weeks running up to Christmas are a time to orient our hearts toward the hope of what’s to come.
…Such is the calling of the pilgrim. Those who know ourselves to need a Physician should dang well look forward to enduring beauty and eventual fulfillment. That is, we hope in a real Deliverer — a rescuing God, born at a real time, in a real place. But the eternal city — with foundations and without cancer — is not yet.
Remembering Isaiah’s prophecies of what’s to come doesn’t dull the pain of current sufferings. But it does put it in eternity’s perspective: “When we’ve been there 10,000 years…We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise.”
While insisting he’s “not going down without a fight,” he concludes:
“As we celebrate Christmas, we wish you peace: “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned…. For to us a son is given” (Isaiah 9).”
6 responses to “Ben Sasse Reveals Terminal Cancer Diagnosis ‘Death is a wicked thief…we hope in a real Deliverer — a rescuing God’”
Coincidentally (but maybe not), just this morning, before reading this article, I read those passages in Isaiah. And it has struck me that Isaiah and Peter are where the phrases “new heavens and new earth” are found. (2 Peter 3:13 quotes Isaiah 65:17 and Isaiah 66:22) The promise is all throughout scripture. It is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We await a new heavens and new earth where righteousness dwells, with new bodies that are not corrupted. But with Jesus first and foremost, suffering the most brutal death of all, Isaiah and Peter were brutally killed by those who did not want to hear the truth. Perhaps those who didn’t like hearing that they cannot have or create heaven on earth. The death of neither of those men is recorded ins scripture, but I would not be surprised if those who killed them believed they were doing a service to God. “Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God.” – John 16:2
It is important to understand this, in order to understand the Gospel. Man is made OF flesh and spirit. He is made FROM dust and the Breath of God. When man sinned, all of creation was corrupted. Basically the “dust” was corrupted. Not just his own flesh. And this is what many who seem to think it’s all about creating God’s kingdom on Earth fail to understand. When we are born again, the Word of God is implanted in us (James 1:21, etc.) and we receive the Holy Spirit, to counter the corrupt flesh and to keep it restrained. The Holy Spirit uses the implanted word, to empower our own spirit to constrain the corrupt flesh. But the Holy Spirit and implanted word, do not “fix” our flesh and make it incorruptible. The flesh is corrupt. It can neither enter nor inhabit the Kingdom of God (1 Cor. 15:50). Those who essentially claim otherwise, that His Kingdom can be created within a fallen and corrupt creation, inhabited by corrupt and fallen flesh, are denying the entire Gospel.
Test the spirits. Exercise discernment. Know the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
I need to do some further study on this. I’ve been digging into the scripture about it, to understand exactly what is corrupted by sin, exactly what the Holy Spirit does when one is born again, and to understand in greater detail how it all works. It has occurred to me that if the spirit were not corrupted, then there would be no need for Jesus, and no amount of wickedness in this life would matter. So what I wrote above may not be entirely true. The Holy Spirit may also heal a corrupted spirit. In the original Hebrew, the word translated as “heart” refers to both flesh and spirit, the “mind”, the inner self. More or less, where the flesh and spirit meet. We know He cleanses the heart. But studying the matter, it seems to me that the spirit would also have to be corrupt.
I know some of you already know and understand all this. Feel free to correct anything I’ve said that is not correct and true.
Giving it more thought, that does need to be corrected. Both the flesh and spirit are inherently corrupted because of sin. When one is born again, his flesh is still corrupt, but his spirit is cleansed. I badly missed the obvious, and made a serious error. For the unsaved, their spirit is also corrupted.
Still studying this and trying to understand. Here is an informative link: https://biblehub.com/topical/t/the_holistic_nature_of_humanity.htm
It would make sense to me, since the soul/heart is more or less where the flesh and spirit meet. So the flesh cannot enter, but the soul and spirit can. And it is through his spirit that man is able to clearly perceive from the creation of the world, and has no excuse – first few chapters of Romans. And the heart is desperately wicked, and out of it comes wickedness (Mark 7, etc.).
I’m beginning to somewhat understand a bit better how God is and has always been the God of both Jew and Gentile, and what it is that the false religions of the world, including apostate Christianity, have in common – basically the spirit attempting to restrain the flesh, but not good enough, man trying to work his way to heaven, which is impossible because the heart is also corrupt. So the Holy Spirit more or less empowers our spirit to push the wickedness out of our heart, and to keep it out. Not by any major amount of work or effort, but as a free gift. (His yoke is easy and His burden is light)
This might be getting a bit closer …
There’s no need for anybody to understand things in such a mechanical fashion, to understand how it all works, but for me, it is helping me to understand. I just need to be careful from now own, to not post things that may not be correct.
If the previous comment makes it (had a link to Bible Hub), to add to it, and understand what Paul is saying in Romans 1. The religions of the world know and see from creation, and are essentially an attempt by man to cleanse his own soul/heart by constraining the flesh. But man cannot do it of his own accord. In some religions, men hide themselves away for decades and devote their life to controlling the flesh, and do get become able to control their flesh in ways others cannot, but they still are never strong enough to cleanse their heart of the wickedness within it. We live in a world that has lost sight of these most basic things. That the Gospel of Jesus Christ is not religion. It is the truth, clearly perceived from the creation of the world.