October 2, 2015 Show with Decherd Stevens on “‘Conflict & Triumph’ by William Henry Green” PLUS Paul D. Wolfe on his book “My God is True!”

Live from the historic parsonage of 19th century gospel minister George Norcross in downtown

Carlisle, Pennsylvania, it's Iron Sharpens Iron, a radio

platform on which pastors, Christian scholars, and theologians address the burning issues

facing the church and the world today.

Proverbs 27 verse 17 tells us, Iron sharpens iron, so one

man sharpens another.

Matthew Henry said that in this passage, quote, we are cautioned to take heed whom we

converse with and directed to have in view in conversation to make one another

wiser and better.

It is our hope that this goal will be accomplished over the next hour and we hope to hear

from you, the listener, with your own questions.

Now here's our host, Chris Arntzen.

Good afternoon, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, and the rest of humanity living on the

planet Earth who are listening via live streaming.

This is Chris Arntzen, your host of Iron Sharpens Iron, wishing you all a happy Friday on this second

day of October 2015.

And we have a very important program today and I advise you if you know

anyone who is suffering with cancer or they have loved ones who are,

rush to the phone, call them up, or email them or text them, and tell them to listen to today's

program at ironsharpensironradio .com, ironsharpensironradio .com.

For the full two hours, we are going to be speaking about surviving cancer

and we have two cancer survivors, one for each hour, to discuss this

situation and both men are in the Presbyterian Church of America, one of the largest of the

Bible -believing Presbyterian denominations that remains thoroughly reformed and faithful to the

scriptures.

And our first guest is Deckard Stevens, who is pastor of the Calvary

Presbyterian Church in Greenville, South Carolina, and we're going to be today discussing how

he was enormously helped and encouraged and blessed and comforted

through the book of the 19th century Princeton theologian William Henry Green

titled, Conflict and Triumph.

And this is a book that has been brought back into print by Banner of Truth and it's our

honor and privilege to welcome you for the very first time to Ironsharpensiron, Deckard Stevens.

Thank you very much, Chris.

Looking.

Forward to it.

Great.

Well, first of all, let's hear something about Calvary Presbyterian Church in

Greenville, South Carolina.

I think everything

about my

experience here at

Greenville Seminary, but I was

visiting Calvary

Presbyterian Church eight miles from my home at the time.

On the night, I

remember

going home that night thinking, I don't know what's good.

When I got home, I got to

thinking, I

said, well, well,

praise God.

And the Lord does indeed work in mysterious ways.

He does.

And that was a time allotted

here, but yes, it

was not what I was planning, but he opened the.

Door.

Yeah.

Well, it somewhat reminds me of Spurgeon's conversion when he was walking through a

blizzard and went into a primitive Methodist church for shelter.

And the pastor that was normally going to be there today, that day

wasn't.

And just a member of the church and ordinary members started repeating a verse of scripture over and over again.

And that was what broke the heart of stone of Charles Haddon Spurgeon and

brought him to salvation.

So God's providence is quite remarkable indeed.

And let's hear something specifically about briefly about the

Presbyterian Church in America in general, your denomination for our listeners who are unfamiliar with that.

A lot of folks that listen to my program, although they would be in a minority, some of them are

Catholic.

Some of them are even Muslim.

Some of them are of a member of no church.

So they may be just familiar with the mainline, typical liberal Presbyterian church down the road from them.

Tell us something about how the PCA as it is known is different.

Well, I have a lot of.

People that come through our without

apology.

Amen.

And so yes, the

liberal Presbyterians, as a matter of fact, when I got married, my wife was very

liberal.

Was she Missouri Synod

Lutheran or Wisconsin Synod Lutheran?

They were actually in the Evangelical Free Church.

Oh, okay.

Or that was the one they were

attending.

Yeah, there's

some

documents and

creeds.

Well, that is

very.

Good to know.

And I just want to before I forget, I'm going to give your church website for our listeners.

It's Calvary PCA, which stands for Presbyterian Church in America,

calvarypca .com.

Very easy to remember website, calvarypca .com.

All righty.

Well, tell us something about when.

You discovered that you had cancer and how that happened.

Well, again, the doctrine of

my wife and daughter in

1989, I'm sorry, getting things mixed up here.

They had had some health problems, and so they

had met our deductible for our insurance.

And my wife said, you can get a physical for $20.

Go in and you

haven't had one

since we got

married.

So you said, are you having problems?

I

said,

no, I want

to be safe.

He tried to

reassure me.

He said, now listen, I don't think it's a kind of high.

He said, I'm gonna send you to a urologist and I'm just gonna get you checked out.

So we did a

biopsy three

months.

In three months, we checked it in three points.

You know, I think we need to do a second biopsy.

So we did a second biopsy, came back

negative in three months, and

the number was three.

And I said, something's going on, and we've got to find it.

So they kept bringing exams

that were big

to be cancer,

natural medicine, vitamins.

And then that year, and

it was

like with each blow that came in the

life of Joe, the doctors were giving me one more piece of bad news.

The

year 2000, he put an

ultrasound on the desk in front of us and circled a section of it.

And he said, right there's your cancer.

He said, you know,

as long as we get it, he

said it all

breaks out of the wall of that.

So while he said,

and he wanted us to begin dealing with

it.

And before that, before you even had the routine.

Exam, I'm assuming since you were just doing it for a routine exam, that you were not experiencing.

Any symptoms at all.

No, that was the whole thing.

If I had not, if my wife and daughter had not, if

I had not wanted to get a physical that I hadn't had in 22 years, if I

hadn't gone in, if it hadn't done that, none of

this way.

Yeah.

My mother, who is now in glory with Christ.

For eternity.

My mother in 1995 passed away from pancreatic cancer, and she passed away within

six weeks of being diagnosed.

And she was given by the doctor six months to live and she passed

away within six weeks.

And another friend of mine, an associate pastor on Long Island, Bobby Lloyd,

who I have interviewed in my program in the past when it was on Long Island.

He had a very similar circumstance to you where he went for a routine exam and

they caught pancreatic cancer in him at a very early stage, which is very,

very rare to happen.

And they were able to successfully remove that tumor from his pancreas.

And that was probably over a decade ago and he's still alive and well.

And it's just amazing that because that is almost always a certain death sentence when you

get pancreatic cancer.

Yeah.

And so I just wanted to throw that in there.

That was an interesting similarity with Bobby Lloyd and yourself.

So the I want to tell some of our listeners about this book, Conflict and Triumph,

the argument of the book of Job unfolded by William Henry Green.

This is a book that ministered to you greatly during this time.

And I just want to let our listeners know a little bit something about William Henry Green.

He was a 19th century Princeton theologian.

He held the chair of Biblical and Oriental Literature at Princeton Theological Seminary from 1851

till his death.

As one of America's foremost linguists and outstanding Old Testament scholar, he opposed

the conclusions of the higher critical movement and did more than anyone, any man, any one

man of his time to rally and steady the church under the shock

of a sudden and mighty assault of the trustworthiness of the Scriptures.

And this is a book that has been brought back into print by the Banner of Truth.

And tell us something how the Lord providentially also used this book in your life

when you not only discovered.

You had cancer, but as you continued to battle it.

Well, the numerous ways of

what God

used.

One of the

things was the

Holy Spirit,

the

Mother

of the Devil,

and some of these others I think.

These are

pretty

shocking.

When he

brings out

that

this

was all

probably

on the earth

of the East,

the only place

is

that

they

couldn't

die

even if

he kills you.

Wow.

Now, I had heard from, I don't know if it was a pastor, but it was so many years ago,

I can't remember where I heard it.

And I don't know if William Henry Green offers this as a possibility, but

I had heard someone say that in compassion

for her husband, Job's wife said, curse God so you will die,

so that God will strike you dead and you'll be put out of your misery.

Not that she wanted him to die because she hated him or was mad at him, but because she wanted him to be put out of his

misery.

I don't know if you've ever heard that.

Before.

I did come across that

in studying for me,

and I began to look at

her as

the height

of,

so even to question, not.

But what I learned

through that particular instance, I was

diagnosed, and for

anybody who's

ever,

because

I knew,

I

know

all

the,

back

on

the,

let me

give

you

some need to

just sit by them

because you just don't,

little by

little, it was

learning to.

How old were you when you were diagnosed with the cancer?

Well, it would have been

about.

Okay.

Yeah, that's too young to hear that you may very well die.

And by the way, I want to let our listeners know, I have a surprise for them,

that if they email us a question, if you're among the number who email us in time

and your question is good enough to be read on the air, you can't just write, can I have a

free book, as somebody jokingly did a couple of days ago.

But if you write a question on this topic for our guest,

Deckard Stevens, Banner of Truth has given us some copies of Conflict and Triumph, The Argument

of the Book of Job Unfolded by William Henry Green.

They've given us several copies to give away for free to you.

And I already have a listener that had emailed us prior to me

announcing this.

And let me know, let me tell you that the email address is chrisarnson at gmail .com,

by the way, chrisarnson at gmail .com, c -h -r -i -s -a -r -n -z -e -n

at gmail .com.

And please give us at least your first name and the city and state where you live and the country where

you live if you live outside the USA.

And I do have some bad news for the Canadian and overseas listeners.

I'm sorry we cannot give you free books.

One of my sponsors, Cumberland Valley Bible Book Service, out of the kindness of their hearts, sends out

these free books.

And since we give out so many of them, they would be strapped with a really huge shipping charge

every month because of the fact that we do have a number of overseas listeners that seems to be

growing every day, especially Australia for some reason.

But we thank you for your listening to our program.

And we would love to hear from you nonetheless with a question, but we can't give you a free book.

But Shane from Birmingham, Alabama writes, praise the good God you

survived the horrible disease.

How did your faith in our beloved Lord, if you experienced it at the time, help you deal with the

diagnosis and the different treatment options that you may or may not have had?

How

did you

handle it in regards to that and to

anyone?

It doesn't have to be cancer, but any trial or whatever that

you're going through.

What I've watched

is what

the doctor said,

and that is the way God corrects.

Now Joe did all this, yet

will I trust him?

He says, I know that one of these days I'm going to

be with my Redeemer.

So he's confident of glory.

He's confident of God's sovereignty, but he still thinks God has done him.

Elihu completely turned you

to sin.

That's why God is mistreating you.

And they view Elihu

comes

affliction.

It's for your good.

Elihu is interesting

enough.

We heard a

message.

It's affliction

quickly as possible.

The

writer of

Hebrews, no chaser,

painful.

It yields the peace.

And that's what Elihu, it's

not because he's mad at you.

It's not because you've sinned.

That's not even on the table.

And Joe acquiesces.

In fact,

can we pick up where God speaks after our

commercial break?

We can certainly do that.

Yeah, that's a good time to break here.

And if you'd like to join us on the air, as Shane in Birmingham, Alabama did, with a question of your own

about cancer, about our guest, Deckard Stevens' bout with cancer

and victory over it, about William Henry Green's book that helped him, Conflict and Triumph, the

argument of the book of Job unfolded, just send us an email at ChrisArnzen

at gmail .com.

That's C -H -R -I -S -A -R -N -Z -E -N at gmail .com.

Please give us at least your first name, your city and state of residence, and your country of residence if you live outside the

USA.

And as I said earlier, only our USA listeners can receive a free book.

And if this is a personal, private matter that

you do not want to, if you don't want to

disclose your name because it's such an intimate and private situation, we will respect your privacy and let you remain

anonymous.

ChrisArnzen at gmail .com.

ChrisArnzen at gmail .com.

Don't go away.

We're going to be right back after these messages.

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Welcome back.

This is Chris Arns.

And if you just tuned us in, our guest is Deckard Stevens.

For the first hour of the broadcast, he is the pastor of the Calvary Presbyterian Church

in Greenville, South Carolina.

And we are discussing his bout with cancer and his triumph over it and how

the book, Conflict and Triumph, the argument of the Book of Job unfolded by William Henry Green, how this

book specifically ministered to his life.

If you'd like to join us on the air with a question of your own, our email address is chrisarnsen at gmail .com.

Chrisarnsen at gmail .com.

And we do have a couple of listeners already waiting in the wings, but I want to return to where we left

off first.

And by the way, Deckard, Shane in Alabama says, you are awesome!

With about five exclamation points.

And interestingly, Shane is blind, and he is going to try to, he

wants me to try to get him a digital copy of this book.

And if we can't, he can just obviously give the book to someone who can read it to him.

But if you could pick up where you left off, Deckard.

Okay,

well, we were

just talking about

the

beginning.

Job is on

the hot

seat.

Why don't you go out to the ocean and lay your hand on the great.

And the Leviathan was like a dinosaur, was a giant sea monster.

Right, right.

And so this awesome creature.

But what God is doing,

he's not just,

I think what

when

Job

said,

no

matter

what.

Amen.

Amen. Amen.

Yes, it's

much

better

to

know.

It's ironic that many Christians who are not reformed, who do not believe in the sovereignty of

God, they think it's cruel and horrible to tell people that God had something to do with

their tragedy, whatever it is.

And it's ironic, because isn't it much better to know there's a purpose, a good purpose, a

godly purpose, a wonderful purpose for the infliction, than it to be some kind of

haphazard, meaningless, purposeless trial that you're going through?

I don't even understand the logic behind Christians wanting to separate God completely from

the illness or the trial that they're going through.

Right.

Well, I can't remember.

If we pray that

God will

intervene, that

God will change,.

That God will control, or God will...

Yeah, I read J .I. Packer quoted the same individual, I believe.

Yeah.

We do have another question from your neck of the woods.

We have a question from your neck of the woods in Greer, South Carolina.

Maria says, you mentioned it took you two weeks to feel on your feet again.

What besides this book on Job helped you remember the faithfulness and goodness of God the most?

Were there specific scriptures, times of prayer, or special support.

Shown by

family?

Well, I think a

combination of the

Bible reading,

make use of what God has given

one another.

Amen.

And by the way,

Maria in

Greer, South Carolina,

please send us

your

mailing.

Address, because you're also going to be getting a free copy of Conflict and Triumph, the argument

of the book of Job unfolded by William Henry Greene.

You did not give us your full mailing address when you emailed your question.

So we look forward to getting that and shipping that out to you.

We have another listener, Abby, another listener in Alabama.

Abby writes, as you went through the many ups and downs of remission, side

effects, helpful and maybe not so helpful advice from people who wanted to do something for you,

how did the love of Christ again, if you experienced that at the time, help you to

deal with this issue?

Thankfully, I didn't.

Answer in dealing

with it.

I

said,

lady, I

don't

have to.

And she came

back on

with

everybody that was on the

board.

Amen.

Wow.

We

have

an

anonymous

listener

who

says

that

when going

through a crisis,.

The friends in her church and elsewhere seem to

respond to her more like Job's friends that had negative things to

contribute to his life.

Can you give us some of your insight into Job's so -called friends that

were detrimental to his experience?

I

think

Job's

friends,

obviously, as you

study,

if

you

go

through

a

crisis,

that's a section in the book called Comfortable Departure.

Yes, I've heard of that.

And he lists them up

while you're

studying.

Amen.

Amen.

Great point.

So it's true.

Yeah,

I'd

like to

throw in.

A plug of my own Jerry Bridges book, Trusting God Even When Life Hurts. Yes.

And R .C. Sproul's Surprised by Suffering. Yes.

Very good books for those kinds of things.

We have Arnie in Perry County, Pennsylvania asks, are you totally cancer -free?

And do you know of a percentage of folks who are cancer -free

after your cancer was successfully treated, where it returns?

Had no injured

youth.

I did.

Seriously, God's got something for me to do.

Maybe he wanted me to do this.

Amen.

He's kept, just give all the glory and honor to him for the

way he's sustained.

Christian in Carlisle, Pennsylvania asks, sorry if you have already said something

about this,.

But are there lasting effects from this cancer now in your life?

Had been no, so

the Lord wants

to contact me about this.

I have a boatload of information

for them.

And what contact information specifically would you like to give?

They could just contact me by my email, which is.

PCAPastor at BellSouth .net.

PCAPastor at BellSouth .net.

That's very easy to remember.

Well, we thank everybody for sending in your questions.

We're out of books now, at least we're out of the book Conflict and Triumph.

And even our anonymous listener, we have your address, so we'll ship that out to you.

I'd like you to spend the next four minutes Deckard, to really give our listeners what you

most want etched on their hearts and minds before.

They leave the program.

I would say it's

steady not to

hurt them.

God's not, he's not trying to make, and we

think about

pain that

God

would

take.

I gave it to you, and

I gave it to you.

Everything,

and if we

could

believe the promise.

Well, I thank you

so much Deckard Stevens for.

Being on our broadcast today, and I definitely want you back in the near future to address either the same

issue at greater depth, or another topic that may be burdening you to

speak about.

And I know that your website is calvarypca .com,

calvarypca .com.

And I know that the phone number of your church there in Greenville, South Carolina

is 864 -294 -0895, 864 -294 -0895.

And once again, if you could give your email address for our listeners.

Well, thank you so much Pastor Stevens, and I hope you enjoyed this past hour as much as I did.

Well, it was a pleasure, and may the Lord bless you.

Great, well God bless you brother, and we'll be talking to you soon, God willing.

All right, thank you.

Bye -bye now.

And if anybody would like to join us on the air now with a question for our next guest,

our next guest is Paul D. Wolfe.

And Paul D. Wolfe is also a cancer survivor, and the author of My God is True,

Lessons Learned Along Cancer's Dark Road.

And that is also published by Banner of Truth.

And our email address is chrisarnsen at gmail .com, c -h -r -i -s -a -r -n -z -e

-n at gmail .com.

So for the next hour, we will be interviewing Paul D. Wolfe on his own triumph over cancer,

and we've got some books waiting for you for the first several people who email us questions.

Our email address again is chrisarnsen at gmail .com, chrisarnsen at gmail .com.

Don't forget to give us your first name at least, your city and state of residence, and your

country of residence if you live outside of the USA.

And if you're among the first several listeners, give us your whole address so we can ship you out a copy of the book.

We'll be right back after these messages, so don't go away.

Hi, I'm Chris Arnsen of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio.

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There's a 40 coin limit, so order now while supplies last.

Call 888 -260 -8111.

888 -260 -8111.

Visa, MasterCard, Discover, and American Express welcome.

Price is subject to change, so call now at 888 -260 -8111.

888 -260 -8111.

If you prefer ordering your brilliant uncirculated 19th century Morgan silver dollars by check,

mail it today to Long Island Galleries, 9 Susan Drive, Wading River, New York

11792.

That's Long Island Galleries, 9 Susan Drive, Wading River, New York 11792.

Remember they're only $54 per coin with free shipping and handling and a 40 coin limit.

New York State residents must add sales tax.

Long Island Galleries is honored to sponsor Iron Sharpens Iron Radio.

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Welcome back.

This is Chris Arnzen.

If you've just tuned us in, our whole program today, the whole two hours, has been dedicated

to survivors of cancer.

In the first hour, we already interviewed Deckard Stevens and his struggle

and victory over cancer and how the book Conflict and Triumph, the argument of the book of Job

unfolded by 19th century Princeton theologian William Henry Green, how that ministered

to his life.

And upcoming now for the next hour, we are going to be interviewing Paul D. Wolfe, who is the

author of My God is True, Lessons Learned Along Cancer's Dark Road.

But before we go to our guests, I just have a brief announcement from one of our sponsors,

Pastor Bruce Bennett and the Word of Truth Church in Farmingville, Long Island, New York,

invite you to join them at their sixth annual Bible conference tonight and tomorrow.

This year's topic will be eschatology, a biblical examination of the four major end

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Well, it's my honor and privilege now to welcome for the very first time Pastor Paul

D. Wolf, who serves as an associate pastor at New Hope Presbyterian Church in Virginia.

And as I said earlier, he is the author of My God is True, Lessons Learned Along Cancer's Dark Road.

And he himself is a cancer survivor.

And it's my honor and privilege to welcome you for the very first time ever on Iron, Sharp and Zion, Paul D.

Wolf.

Well, Chris, I appreciate the invitation.

Well, tell us something about how you came to Christ and also something about.

The

church

where

you are

the

associate

pastor.

I

graduated

then.

Praise

God.

And

tell

us.

Something now about New Hope Presbyterian Church in Fairfax, Virginia.

Yeah, well,.

We're a

congregation

of...

There's something

very appropriate

about a

church

meeting

in a

firehouse, isn't there?

That's right.

And I should say that the young children especially enjoy...

How often are your services interrupted by the screeching sirens of

a fire engine leaving the.

Facility?

And every once...

Great.

Well, I want to let our listeners

know that we are

accepting.

Emails.

If you have questions for our guest on his book, My God is True,

Lessons Learned Along Cancer's Dark Road.

And I know that I have personally been recommended this book a number of months ago

because I providentially had several close friends who had developed life

-threatening and even terminal cancer and inoperable cancer.

So I had purchased a number of these and gave them away.

And I'm trusting that the Lord will bless them.

I know it did certainly bless one particular individual who was struggling with cancer

for quite a bit, but who is now, thanks be to God, cancer -free.

But well, tell us about that day you discovered that you had cancer.

Yes.

Well,

I

can

tell

you 99.

Wow.

Because

at

that

point,

that

was

our...

And

what

specifically

were you diagnosed with in regard to cancer?

It was non -Hodgkin's lymphoma.

And it...

Now,

fortunately...

And how old were

you when

you got

the

diagnosis?

I was

28.

Wow.

28 years old.

Yeah.

And yeah, I have a friend, Jack, from New York who had non

-Hodgkin's lymphoma and he also survived that and is alive and well and healthy and strong today.

Wonderful.

So tell us about the emotions that ran through you, the fears.

I know that not all Christians, just like not all people in general,

respond identically alike.

Everybody has their own unique situation.

Obviously, when news like that hits you, your age is going to be very

relevant to how you react.

But even those with the strongest faith can be put through scary

trials that strike fear within their hearts.

Tell us something about what you went through.

Yeah,

I...

And

I'd

had

enough...

I

think

I can

spend

a

member...

And

I

do

think of

our

congregation.

He's the one who's been preaching the word to us all those years.

And that's...

Those are my impressions anyway.

And we do have an anonymous listener

in New Mexico who says, should you always be

honest and tell a person with a terminal disease who has been diagnosed

with a short time to live?

Should you always let them know about that?

Or should you...

Is it ever right to be merciful and keep them in ignorance about that

prognosis?

Perhaps just give the answer for all of that, for the medical professionals and also for the family, the friends.

Yeah, well...

You know, I don't

think that our...

The doctors with my own mother who had pancreatic cancer,.

She was told exactly what she had.

But I don't believe they ever told her that she only had six months to live in their opinion.

And she passed in six weeks.

We let her know of the dangerousness of the illness and

the fact that it was inoperable and all that.

In fact, the doctor did tell her it was inoperable.

But she knew.

In fact, she was actually asking me every day.

She had become a firm believer in the gospel during her

experience dying.

And she every day would say to me, do you think Jesus has taken me home today?

I sure hope so.

That was a blessing to me not to hear, I don't want to die.

I don't want to die.

It was the opposite.

She was like, I can't wait to go home to Jesus, Chris.

Do you think he'll come today for me?

Yes.

So if a husband or wife or if children, adult

children know about the certainty of this person's death, I mean, barring a miracle, of course, should they

let the patient know?

Hard time imagining a circumstance.

Sure.

And

our

anonymous

listener

in New

Mexico,.

We have your address.

We thank you.

And you are going to receive a free copy of My God Is True, Lessons Learned Along Cancer's Dark

Road by Paul D. Wolfe, our guest today.

And this is also due to the kindness and generosity of Banner of Truth.

And you should be getting that, God willing, in a short while.

And our thanks to Cumberland Valley Bible Book Services in Carlisle, Pennsylvania for shipping our

free books.

And their website is cvbbs .com, cvbbs .com,

Cumberland Valley Bible Book Service.

And we thank them for not only sponsoring our program, but for shipping out these books.

We do have another listener, Harrison in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania,

who says, have you experienced anyone from the

Word of Faith Pentecostal movement telling you that the reason you had this cancer

was because of a lack of faith?

Or do you know anything about this group?

And how would you respond to someone from this group,.

Should

they say

something

like that to

you?

I'll

say

that

I, God,

my

father,

at

that

point,

actually got a word from the Lord that day.

Has she ever said, I told you so?

Well, I haven't had any interaction with her since that day.

So that's a long -winded way of saying, in answer to the question, no, I never

encountered from

that and

even

turn back to the

book.

Yeah.

I can't believe that there was a couple, a husband and wife.

On a radio station I worked for for 15 years, who were Word of Faith

Pentecostals, name it and claim it kind of Pentecostals.

And the wife actually said on her show, when Job said, the Lord giveth

and the Lord taketh away, that Job was in sin when he said that,

even though the Bible itself said that Job did not sin.

So utterly amazing.

But anyway, we have to go to a break right now.

And if you'd like to join us on the air with a question of your own, our email address is chrisarnsen at

gmail .com, C -H -R -I -S -A -R -N -Z -E -N at gmail .com.

And if you have a question and you're among the few that get the question to us in time, and it's good enough to be read on the air,

you will receive a free copy, compliments of Banner of Truth, of our guest Paul

Wolf's book, My God is True, Lessons Learned Along Cancer's Dark Road.

Please give us your mailing address when you shoot your email out to us.

If you live in Canada or overseas, we apologize, but we cannot include you in these

winnings because of the fact that our client or our sponsor, I should say, who ships out these

books free of charge for us, would certainly have

huge shipping costs every month if all of our overseas listeners were to get free books.

So I hope you understand.

But we would love to hear from you anyway, if you live in Canada or overseas, at chrisarnsen at gmail

.com, chrisarnsen at gmail .com.

Don't go away.

We'll be right back with Paul Wolf and a discussion of his survival of cancer and his book,

My God is True.

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Lending faith, finances and generosity.

That's the thriving story.

Welcome back.

This is Chris Arns.

And if you just tuned us in, we are interviewing at the moment Paul D. Wolf, who is the author

of My God is True, Lessons Learned Along Cancer's Dark Road.

And before we return to our interview, I just want to thank another one of our sponsors, Providence Baptist

Church of Norfolk, Massachusetts, where Pastor Mark Lukens is the pastor.

And we thank them from the bottom of our hearts for seeing Iron Sharpens Iron as a

worthy way to spend some of their money from their monthly budget to help keep this program

on the air.

And if you have any further information that you'd like about Providence Baptist Church in Norfolk, Massachusetts,

whether you live in the area or whether you have friends or family that do, or you plan to visit the area or move there,

their website is providencebaptistchurchma .org.

And we thank them so much for sponsoring this broadcast.

The situation that we are in right now is that you have discovered that you have cancer.

You're only in your 20s.

You're married less than a year.

And all of these things are racing through your head.

Tell us something about any kind of life expectancy the

doctors may have told you.

About when you received this news.

Yeah, well, as I was saying before, at

first,

there was a

great

deal of

uncertainty.

And by that point, I'd already undergone surgery.

Our friend Shane, again, from Birmingham, Alabama,

says or asks, what have you learned about suffering that you could impart to someone

who may be going through what you have gone through?

And what does the redemptive work of Christ on the cross mean to you.

Now?

Yeah, yeah.

Wow, that's a great point that for some reason I really haven't thought about much.

That's an.

Excellent

point.

So

don't

try to

be a hero

when you

want

to be

able to.

And Shane from Birmingham, Alabama, just sent another email saying how blessed he has been from your excellent

answers.

We have John in Suffolk County, Long Island, New York, who says, I understand that

you already have dismissed the word of faith movement, but what do you say to people that we should

always pray, expecting our prayers to be answered with certainty,

such as a healing, that to do otherwise is to doubt God?

How do you

answer

that

question?

How

terrifying

it is.

That would

be absolutely terrifying.

That, by the way, every

Christian who knows to pray is now in charge of the universe.

Amen.

And we have about

13 minutes left, so if you'd like to ask a question of our.

Guest, chrisarnson at gmail .com.

Chrisarnson at gmail .com is the email address.

So are you completely cancer -free today, and what is the expectancy,

if at all, that cancer may return?

Yes,

I

am

cancer

-free,

diagnosed in 1999.

It was

around

10, and

I think

even...

I'm assuming that since you were such a young man when you went through this trial, that it

matured you more rapidly, especially in regard to the faith, than

you may have matured otherwise.

I mean, that's a guess on my part, but if you could tell us something about that.

Yeah,

well, I

got

the

sense

by the

time

I

graduated,

you

can

go

through

something

like

that and think, oh boy, I've got it made now.

I've had my life.

The Lord has...

He has paid my dues.

I've met my quota.

I won't have to suffer again, because, you know, this past year has had...

Before I forget, I just wanted to...

I don't know if you've read this, but I wanted to quickly also highly recommend a little booklet

that you could get very inexpensively from Chapel Library, and that's Sickness by J .C.

Ryle, which has been very helpful to me going through trials in my

own life, whether they involve sickness or not, and also it's a very easy thing to give away to

people on large scale when they are ill because of the

brevity of the booklet and also the very inexpensive cost of the booklet,

and you could get that at chapellibrary .org, chapellibrary .org.

J .C. Ryle was a 19th century Anglican bishop, low church

bishop, and had a lot in common with the theology of our guest today.

Just out of curiosity, has Bishop Ryle spoken to you from the past at all in any significant way?

I have read some, Ryle.

I haven't read that particular...

Oh, that's excellent.

And so I really want you to leave our listeners with what you most want etched in their hearts and minds before they

leave the program today.

Time.

Yes, we do.

Minor

inconvenience...

Yes, and although the Word of Faith Pentecostals may be in serious

heresy with their insistence that you will definitely be healed on this earth if you have

a strong enough faith, if you place your trust in Christ, something better will happen.

You'll be eternally healed.

Absolutely.

And that's with certainty.

That's right, and that's a great response to all those claims.

Are you available for speaking engagements at conferences and things such as that?

I am, yeah.

Well, I know that your church's website is newhopefairfax .org, that's f -a -i -r -f -a

-x dot o -r -g, newhopefairfax dot o -r -g.

Any other contact information you care to share?

Well, let's see.

I have a website that's in another book on the

subject.

Great.

Well, I definitely want to have you back to discuss your other book.

Well, I'd enjoy it.

I've enjoyed our time today, Chris.

Well, I'm grateful for you being on, and I know that our listeners are grateful,

especially those who have already written in.

We do have a listener that has a question that we don't have time to bring up because of the time running out here, but

since you gave us your address and it's a good question, we're going to ship out a book to you, and that's the last

book, actually, that we have left.

And definitely, Paul, perhaps even in another minute, if you could say a

farewell to our listeners with some jewel that they may have pressed upon their hearts

today.

Sure.

In about a minute, if you could do that right now.

Oh,

yeah.

Well...

Amen.

And we want to thank everybody who listened today, especially those who took the time to write questions.

I want to thank you again, Paul Wolfe.

I'm eagerly looking forward to your return to our program to discuss your other book.

And I want to remind our listeners that next Tuesday, we have Todd Friel of

Wretched TV and Wretched Radio is going to be our guest for the very first time on Iron Sharpens Iron, so I'm looking forward to that.

And in a couple of weeks, we have Ken Ham, the world -renowned creation apologist.

But I want you to have a blessed and safe weekend, and I want you all to always remember for the rest of your lives that

Jesus Christ is a far, far greater savior than you are a sinner.

God bless, and we look forward to seeing you next time on Iron Sharpens Iron.