If God Is Good by Randy Alcorn: Faith in the midst of suffering and evil
Everyone of us will experience suffering. You may be in such a time now. We see the presence of evil in the headlines every day. It all raises questions about God — Why would an all-good and all-powerful God create a world full of evil and suffering? How can there be a God if suffering and evil exist? Atheists such as Richard Dawkins and even former believers like Bart Ehrman answer the question simply: The existence of suffering and evil proves there is no God.
But in the illuminating book If God is Good, best-selling author Randy Alcorn challenges the logic of disbelief, and brings a fresh, hopeful, and thoroughly biblical perspective to the issues these important questions raise.
Alcorn offers insights from his conversations with men and women whose lives have been torn apart by suffering, and yet whose faith in God burns brighter than ever. He reveals the big picture of who God is and what God is doing in the world — now and forever. And he shows the beauty of God’s sovereignty — how it ultimately triumphs over suffering and evil in our lives and the world around us.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Randy Alcorn is the founder and director of External Perspective Ministries and a New York Times best-selling author. He has written more than twenty-five nonfiction books, including Heaven, The Treasure Principle, The Purity Principle, and The Grace and Truth Paradox. His novels include Deadline, Dominion, Deception, Edge of Eternity, The Ishbane Conspiracy, and the Gold Medallion winner Safely Home. Randy and his wife, Nanci, live in Oregon and have two married daughters and five grandsons.
MY THOUGHTS
We all go through periods of our life where suffering hits us. For some, it cuts deep and drives even deeper. Others we are able to get by for some unbeknownst reason. Regardless, we know that Christ is good, even if we have a hard time telling our brains that. I have to say that I did not know what to expect when I received this book in the mail. It was a lot thicker than I was expecting and therefore contained a lot more pages. I was finally able to make my way through If God is Good and the vast amount of information contained in it to offer a review.
- The main subject of the If God is Good is the goodness of God even in the midst of suffering.
- If God is Good is was written to challenge the logic of disbelief in God’s goodness.
- The best audience would be mature Christians who are able to work through large amounts of Scripture.
First of all, If God is Good is written in simple enough language for most people to understand, but there is a lot of ideas presented. You will have to want to finish this book to make it through. There are forty-five chapters and within those are enough points to break out into chapters of their own. It is not that there is bad information, but there is a plethora of it.
The intent of If God is Good is to address the issue that so many people have with how God can be both good and allow suffering and evil to occur. I would be telling a lie if I had not encountered this in my own life. At points, I feel like I wrestle with this thought and I have seen others wrestle as well. On this side of Heaven, I do not think we will ever be free of the tension.
Alcorn does a fabulous job of addressing the objections people have with Scripture and basing all of his points on Scripture. Having never read a book by Alcorn, I was excited to see that he allows Scripture to speak rather than interpreting ideas into Scripture.
For me to write an in-depth review of If God is Good would require hours of my time. Like I said, there is a vast amount of information here covering a broad range of topics. It would be a highly beneficial read for anyone wanting to know how to explain the goodness of God to their neighbors.
Overall I give If God is Good four out of five stars due to its highly important subject and vast amount of resources. It addresses most issues people have when trying to reconcile God and suffering.
Originally posted at Matthew Lloyds blog but he has graciously shared his insights with us here. Matthew was given If God is Good for free by BloggingForBooks in exchange for an unbiased review.
