On Saturday, Jan. 18, Phil Johnson, executive director of Grace to You and an elder at Grace Community Church (GCC) in Sun Valley, California, provided a health update on the 85-year-old Pastor John MacArthur.
“For those who missed my reply to someone who asked,” Johnson posted on social media, “John MacArthur is still in the hospital, so keep him in your prayers. He’s been bedridden long enough they are giving him physical therapy.”
Earlier this month, Johnson shared that MacArthur is receiving treatment for complications stemming from a heart valve replacement he received last year.
For those who missed my reply to someone who asked: John MacArthur is still in the hospital, so keep him in your prayers. He’s been bedridden long enough they are giving him physical therapy.
— Phil Johnson (@Phil_Johnson_) January 18, 2025
Phil Johnson Provides Own Health Update Regarding Blood Cancer
Johnson also gave an update on his own health. Last June, the GCC elder shared that he was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, an incurable blood cancer. However, although there isn’t a cure for the cancer, it is controllable with treatment.
“My cancer treatment so far has been somewhat eventful (a couple of trips to the USC Medical Center for extra stitches on a surgical incision), but it has not been as bad as I feared,” Johnson said.
RELATED: John MacArthur Hospitalized To Receive Treatment Related to Heart Valve Replacement
“The drugs they have me injecting myself with make me feel feeble, with lots of bone pain,” he added. “And the blood thinners I’m on have caused havoc with the port they put in my jugular.” Johnson said that his wife, Darlene, “gets upset when [he is] bleeding from the neck.”
Johnson shared that what he is going through “could be worse,” and it probably will become worse after he begins chemotherapy treatment on Jan. 27.
“I thought about posting a picture I took while they were trying to fix the dialysis catheter protruding from my jugular,” he said. “But my neck was so bruised and bleeding that the pic was a little too graphic, even for me.”
Johnson has work alongside MacArthur for over 40 years, editing the majority of MacArthur’s books.