Cancer or Sin — Is there a “magic shield”?
“I think I’ve figured out a way to distinguish all cancer cells from all normal cells. It’s not a magic bullet—it’s a magic shield.”
- Valter Longo, PhD.
I don’t know about you, but I feel sick when I hear the word “cancer.” I’ve personally known five people who have died of this horrific disease in 2022. Recently, a family member received news that it has spread throughout her body. A close friend had a tumor removed on her hand. Another friend’s new year started with the devastation of finding out that her boyfriend has it.
As for me, I have a higher risk of colorectal cancer because of my inflammatory bowel disease. I’ve already had two large polyps removed (thankfully benign) by the age of 30, and I’ve lost count how many times I’ve drunk that horrid stuff that makes you run to the bathroom before a colonoscopy, to consistently screen for inflammation and cancer.
I’m confident to assume that you know someone who had it, has it, or maybe it’s you yourself that had to hear the shocking diagnosis. It’s everywhere. It’s escalating. And it’s not going away.
For those of you that don’t know this, I am a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist and a big nerd when it comes to nutrition and health. I love studying the human body because God’s glory is magnificently displayed in the intricate and unique way He created us, and nutrition plays a vital role in our health and well-being. Where I geek out the most is connecting how the human body makes sense through a biblical worldview of the Creation, Fall, Redemption, and Restoration story.
For example, I recently listened to an interview with a physician named Valter Longo, who shared his research regarding cancer and nutrition. Since cancer is so rampant, I was fascinated by what this doctor had to say, so I checked out his book, The Longevity Diet, from my local library. Dr. Longo explains the genesis of cancer cells: “When certain genes in cancer cells are modified through a mutation (a change in the DNA sequence), they become oncogenes.”[1]
This sounds very similar to what happened in the book of Genesis. Man was made in the image of God, complete and full of glory in His presence. {Creation}
Yet, a mutation occurred in our human identity and purpose. Something changed this sequence of holiness and perfect communion. If you’ve ever watched a baby turn into a toddler (I have TWO of those in my house), you realize quickly that no one taught them to scream “NO” while chucking food across the kitchen, throw a tantrum on the ground, or fight over a toy yelling, “MINE.” This behavior didn’t have to be taught because the mutation of sin has been passed down and has been multiplying throughout every generation since that first human said, “NO, I want…” {Fall}
We’ve all been affected by the cancer of sin and are helplessly grasping for a cure. Maybe it is actual cancer or another illness staring you in the face. Or it’s a sin temptation. An addiction you can’t kick. Someone in your life that is difficult to love. Your past trauma that never seems to leave. Grief that suffocates. Unforgiveness toward someone who has harmed you. A negative pregnancy test, again. Weariness from the weight of carrying life’s burdens. Anxiety that taunts you. Shame that haunts you.
It’s hard to escape these effects of sin, especially when they seem to be “stuck in ‘always on’ mode,” which is how Dr. Longo describes cancer cells. He continues his explanation by stating that “cancer cells divide more than they should, regardless of the signals they receive to stop dividing.” They have “the ability to disobey orders and continue growing.”[1]
Sounds to me like anxiety—obsessing over thoughts, worries, and fears. They just grow, and grow, and grow.
Shame doesn’t care one bit about you. It wants to take over your identity, so that you are more shame than human.
Envy starts undetected, and when left unchecked, it divides and divides until it eats all your joy.
Ask anyone who is battling addiction, and they will tell you they feel stuck. Oh, and before you pass over this and think I’m only talking about the alcohol, drug, or s*x addict, think again. How many times did you look at your phone today? Could you give up coffee tomorrow?
Every one of us is in a constant battle with idolatry—the worship, love, and desire of something or someone more than God. Idolatry disobeys orders and ignores any signal to stop. King David understood this and warns us of idolatry’s cancerous result: “The sorrows of those who take another god for themselves will multiply.” (Psalm 16:4, HCSB)
Our cancerous sin diagnosis is deadly. The consequences are numerous, accumulating, and leaving us hopeless. Is there a remedy?
As far as physical cancer is concerned, Dr. Valter Longo has seemed to have found a “magic shield” to protect the healthy cells, while targeting the cancer cells. Let me make this simple by using an example similar to one he used. Picture a battlefield in a valley with two opposing sides, the good guys vs. the bad guys. Archers are hiding up in the mountains ready to shoot their arrows at the bad guys. But from that vantage point, how will they know which soldiers to aim at? Therefore, the archers alert the good guys with a signal, and immediately they kneel and raise their shields. Now the archers shoot their arrows, piercing only the bad guys who are still standing, exposed with no protection.
In this example, the good guys are the healthy, normal cells, while the bad guys are the cancer cells. The common approach to cancer treatment is to find the “magic arrow” to target only the cancer cells, since the deadly arrow, chemotherapy, is also toxic to the healthy cells. However, Dr. Longo has found that there is a way to protect the healthy cells by giving them a “magic shield.”
What is this “magic shield”?
Fasting.
After extensive research over a few decades, Dr. Longo has discovered that “if you starve an organism, it will go into a highly protected, non growth mode—this is ‘the shield.’” Therefore, “If you starve a cancer patient before injecting chemotherapy, normal cells will respond by putting up a defensive shield.” The shield blocks the toxins from coming into the normal cells. “But the cancer cells will ignore the command to kneel and thus remain vulnerable—providing a way to potentially eradicate cancer cells with minimal damage to normal cells.”[1]
As much as I am nerding over this research, I’m even more giddy over the spiritual implications. What if there is a “magic shield” to protect us from the effects of sin that we face on earth? What if in our spiritual battles we can kneel, put up our shields, and be guarded from the sin struggle, depression, anxiety, shame…you name it?
I don’t need decades of research; I only need Truth from the Source of Life. How timely that even before I came across this physician’s book, the Spirit would first lead me to 2 Chronicles 20, with a war plan to fight our spiritual battles.
Let me set this battle up. Jehoshaphat was the king of Judah, and “a vast number from beyond the Dead Sea and from Edom has come to fight against” him (v. 2). His first emotional response was fear—a very normal, human response. But what he did in response to his fear changed the playing field…
“He resolved to seek the Lord.” (v. 3)
And guess how Jehoshaphat sought the Lord?
Fasting.
“Then he proclaimed a fast for all Judah, who gathered to seek the Lord.” (v. 3)
The Hebrew word for fast, tsum, means “to cover over the mouth,”[2] preventing food from being consumed. The Bible has several reasons and examples of fasting, and in differing amounts of time. The point wasn’t the fast itself; it was the motivation driving the fast.
“Fasting in itself, just as any simple abstinence from pleasure, did not move Yahweh God. However, to devote yourself to prayer and reading God’s Word is to put a pure and uninhibited focus on the Lord, and to fast is to involve your entire body in seeking God. When the people were truly seeking righteousness and became obedient, God was moved (Is. 58:5-7, Acts 10:30-33).”[3]
Jehoshaphat faced his battle by stripping away what physically sustained him, so that he was desperate for the Lord to be his sustaining strength. Here’s another comparison: most doctors have thought that Dr. Longo is crazy to suggest starving a cancer patient! As a dietitian, I initially gasped! They need their nutrition and energy! Just like we think we need to fuel up, plan, prepare, and have all our comforts before facing our own battles. Yet, Jehoshaphat (not to mention several other examples in the Bible) went to fight almost weaker…in the world’s sense of weak.
But God never does things like we would, because this “weakness” is the very thing that brings us strength…
“Let us learn this great lesson that abstinence, moderation, and self-denial in temporal things are a help to the spiritual life. After eating a hearty meal, one does not feel much desire to pray. To willingly sacrifice our own pleasure or bodily enjoyment, and to subdue the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes, will help us to set our minds more fully on heavenly things. The very exertion needed in overcoming the desires of the flesh will give us strength to take hold of God in prayer.
“The great lesson is this: our dullness in prayer comes from our fleshly desires for comfort and ease. “Those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires” (Galatians 5:24)…For the practice of prayer, to really take hold of God and have communion with Him, it is necessary that all that can please the flesh is sacrificed and given over to death.”[4]
Do you have goosebumps yet? Stay with me…
Jehoshaphat declared the fast, gathered everyone together, stood in the temple, and prayed to Yahweh. Please take a moment to stop and read his prayer: 2 Chronicles 20:5-12
We could take a deep dive into his prayer, but I want to focus on how he concludes with my favorite phrase:
“We don’t know what to do…”
How many times have you been in your war and thought, “I don’t know what to do!!!” The “cancer” cells are too many, and they are overtaking you.
Jehoshaphat gives us the “magic shield”…
“…but we look to You.” (v. 12)
The literal Hebrew translation is “but on You our eyes look.”
Friend, I think we’ve overcomplicated our war plan. We are trying to find the “magic arrow” to fix us. Yet, we are searching in all the wrong places or putting too much hope in the wrong tactics. And what scares me the most is how much our culture’s influences have pushed the Lord aside in our American Christianity, or He’s only an “add on” to the possible solutions.
The solutions that this world, social media “influencers,” celebrities, and even some doctors have to offer are not working. Rather, the complete opposite of healing is occurring. Dr. Longo found out something else that’s relatable: “We discovered that oncogenes also make cells weaker and more vulnerable to the damage caused by toxins.”[1]
Without a shield, this world will make you weaker and more vulnerable. The toxins of lies like self-love, tolerance of sin in ourselves and others, chasing comfort, beauty, and happiness, turning to medication first, striving for more “likes,” “views,” and “shares”…are damaging. Then the war hits, and we get back on the hamster wheel that “is stuck in ‘always on' mode” and can’t get off. I think we can all agree that we are not just trying to survive this life, but thrive in it. But the toxins of this world are causing major damage physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.
Here’s how I know this to be true: Is what you are doing working? I mean, really working and not only putting a bandaid on the real problem? Are you finding freedom or more bondage? Increasing joy and peace or further depression and anxiety? Hope or despair?
Maybe we have made it more complex than it needs to be by looking towards ineffective, worldly advice and gimmicks. Please don’t hear me say it’s easy. I understand grief, anxiety, depression, addiction, envy, physical illness, and the bondage these sins have had on me and the ongoing struggle. No, I’m saying the Bible has graciously given us a clear, specific “magic shield" to fight our spiritual battles—fasting—a spiritual discipline that is not encouraged or talked about enough. Our first response has not been like Jehoshaphat’s: seeking the Lord with fasting, praying, and turning our eyes only on Him.
Therefore, I believe that we should take regular periods of time to fast from food as a way of using our entire bodies to seek the Lord. However, fasting from food should only be temporal and not permanent. What fleshly desires in your life are actually feeding your “cancer” sin cells? What is making you more vulnerable in your battle instead of staying highly protected? What do you need to “sacrifice and give over to death”? Taking a nice break (aka fast) from social media or your sin struggle or addiction does not win your battle, just like God didn’t respond unless the motive was an undivided heart looking to Him.
Also, when we fast from physical and worldly pleasures, we are able to “set our minds more fully on heavenly things.”[4] The shield covers us so that we are no longer focusing on the battle, fearing the “cancer” that is about to consume us. Peter took his eyes off of Jesus and sank. I’ve been fixating on the chaos of toddler twin boys, homeschooling two older children, while navigating my husband’s filmmaking life, and I’m drowning. Instead, on Him our eyes should look. Seeing God grander and holier and more powerful changes our perspective on the battle surrounding us. Allowing his love, mercy, and grace to cover us gives us strength and courage in the fight.
Let’s get back to Jehoshaphat to see one more thing. The Lord responds to his prayer and fasting, but maybe we will get to that another day. I want us to end with Jehoshaphat and Judah’s response in addition to fasting, before and during their frightening battle…
“Then Jehoshaphat bowed with his face to the ground, and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem fell down before the Lord to worship Him.” (v. 18)
Sounds like kneeling to me.
“Then he consulted with the people and appointed some to sing for the Lord and some to praise the splendor of His holiness. When they went out in front of the armed forces, they kept singing: Give thanks to the Lord, for His faithful love endures forever.” (v. 21)
Sounds like the signal to put up the shield:
Now we can face our battles, protected against our cancerous sin cells.
Continue reading here.
I have no affiliation with Dr. Valter Longo. If you want to learn more about his nutrition and fasting recommendations for not only cancer, but diabetes, cardiovascular, inflammatory, autoimmune, and neurodegenerative diseases, find him here: www.valterlongo.com
Valter Longo, PhD, The Longevity Diet (New York: Avery, 2018), 118-119.
Preacherboy Production. "Strong’s Concordance.” Apple App Store, Vers. 64. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/strongs-concordance/id1425215177 (accessed on 10 January 2023).
The Study Bible for Women (Nashville: Holman Bible Publishers, 2014), 611.
Andrew Murray, Abide in the Secret Place (New Kensington: Whitaker House, 2020), 36-37.