Best-selling Christian author and noted theologian Tim Keller has passed away Friday following a battle with pancreatic cancer, his church says.
Keller, the founding pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City, was initially diagnosed with stage four pancreatic cancer in May 2020.
"It is with a heavy heart that I write today to inform you that Redeemer Presbyterian Church founder and long-time senior pastor, Tim Keller, passed away this morning at age 72, trusting in the sure and certain hope of the resurrection," Bruce Terrell said 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.
"While we will miss his presence here, we know he is rejoicing with his Savior in heaven," he added.
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Tim Keller, founder of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City, was receiving hospice care at home. (Tim Keller/Facebook)
Just prior his death, his son Michael wrote on his Twitter page Thursday that "Dad is being discharged from the hospital to receive hospice care at home.
"Over the past few days, he has asked us to pray with him often," his son’s statement read. "He expressed many times through prayer his desire to go home to be with Jesus."
"His family is very sad because we all wanted more time, but we know he has very little at this point," the message concluded.
In their update, Keller’s family said the 72-year-old was grateful for all those who have prayed for him.
"I’m thankful for my family, that loves me. I’m thankful for the time God has given me, but I’m ready to see Jesus," he prayed, according to the family update. "I can’t wait to see Jesus. Send me home."
Since Keller’s 2020 diagnosis, he has undergone two years of chemotherapy. He was also participating in the immunotherapy drug trial at the National Institute for Health in Bethesda, Maryland as recently as January.
However, despite the immunotherapy successfully killing 99% of the cancerous tumors, Keller announced in a Facebook post in March the return of additional cancerous tumors requiring him to undergo a variation of the previous immunotherapy treatment.
"They are unfortunately in some fairly inconvenient places, so the doctors encouraged us to go through the treatment again, this time targeting a different genetic marker of cancer," Keller wrote.
In April, he shared he was recovering from the treatments, and it would be a "long and slow process back."
Keller is also a survivor of thyroid cancer, which he was diagnosed with in 2002.