If God Is Good: Faith in the Midst of Suffering and Evil

I truly live the book, but I was very disappointed in the condition of the book. It was not in acceptable condition. I would have nit purchased this had I seen it beforehand. It has bent pages and highlighted in all different colors very messily.

This is the BEST book I have EVER read for Christian growth and understanding sin. It is a MUST read for every believer and nonbeliever alike.

In my ministry career there have been a handful of events that have occurred where I had to throw out completely my lesson plans for the week and deal with the fears and questions each event brought with them. After 9/11 I can remember sitting with the teens and college students in the class room- all of us seemed shell shocked and confused. "How could this have happened?" After Katrina ripped into New Orleans and the Gulf Coast I gathered with some students in the gym as we tried to make sense of what we were witnessing on television. "What can we do?" After the Virginia Tech massacre I struggled to help my students process through why something so senseless could have happened. "Why?" Asking questions about evil and suffering when world events happen is one thing. But how do you deal with pain and hurt and cancer and evil and suffering and death when they strike closer to home? Many have wrestled with the question: "If God is good why does evil and suffering happen?" As a minister I wrestle with find a resource out there that will help me walk alongside someone as they struggle through personal pain, agony, and questions. Unfortunately, finding the right resource has been next to impossible. There are just way too many mixed messages out there. Typically books concerning the nature of evil and suffering in this world and whether or not an all-powerful God can do anything about it typically fall into three categories: 1) They are written from the perspective of an atheist and therefore write off any discussion about God and faith, 2) They are a sugary sweet devotional book that can be summed up with a pithy "Trust God and it will all work out" finale, or 3) They are deep philosophical treatises that often take readers, who are desperately seeking answers now, months to work through (if they finish). If God Is Good by Randy Alcon is decidedly much different and, rather than adhering to these categories, charts a brand new course. Alcorn does a tremendous job discussing the problem of suffering and evil in a way that is both personally engaging and full of scriptural integrity. This book is filled with personal stories of those who have been subjected to the worst that evil and death could throw at them. Some of these stories will tear your heart open. Make no mistake, this is no warm and fuzzy devotional book meant to rest on your bed side table. This is an engaging, thoughtful, well-reseached, and challenging book that will give you answers and hope in the middle of whatever storm you are facing. Alcorn finds his hope within the pages of scripture. He writes in the opening section that, as believers, we can deal openly and honestly with the problem of pain and suffering because God's Word deals openly and honestly with it. He writes, "The Bible never sugarcoats evil." Alcorn takes on false arguments, false gospels, and false expectations that all seek to distort, confuse, and destroy the faith of millions who face suffering and true ev

The first thing you notice about this book - If God Is Good: Faith in the Midst of Suffering and Evil - is its size. Weighing in at 512 pages, it's far from the small books that you sometimes find in Christian bookstores. Books this size are usually either novels or academic works. Not this book, though. It's theological, but not just academic. It's written for anyone who is wrestling with the question of how evil and suffering can coexist with a God who is both good and powerful. If you've wrestled with this question, you know it's a theological one. There are all kinds of issues to work through: the nature of good and evil, divine sovereignty and human choice, for example. The theodicy question is not an easy one, and it takes some skill to navigate the issues. But this question is also a practical one. If evil and suffering only presented an intellectual problem, it would be one thing. But what do you say to a rape victim, or a parent whose baby has died, or to a cancer patient who is facing death? If God Is Good is one of those rare books that manages to be both theological and practical at the same time. Of course, this is how theology is supposed to be, but not every book pulls it off. Alcorn deals with all the theological issues, but also offers stories that illustrate how others have confronted suffering. He also writes as someone who has clearly experienced suffering himself, and as a result the applications he offers are both practical and helpful. "I hope you are finding help from reading If God is Good," he writes, "but I also hope it's clear that I'm not proposing shrink-wrapped answers. There are none." I would recommend this book to someone who is suffering and looking for biblical insight. It's theological and helpful and avoids glib answers to complex questions. It's a little big for someone who is not a reader, but it's clearly organized so that someone can find what they need in the book even if they don't read it all the way through. But I would also recommend this book in general because we all need to grapple with these issues. Alcorn writes, "Those without a biblically grounded theology of suffering are always just one accident, disease, disability, natural disaster, or combat fatality away from losing their faith." I'd also recommend this book to pastors. There are tons of helpful illustrations and resources in this book. I've made references in the back to help me find illustrations and quotes on the topics covered in this book. Every one of us will experience suffering. Many of us are experiencing it now. We all know others who are suffering. Randy Alcorn helps us confront the questions of suffering in a theologically accurate and practical way. I highly recommend this book.

If God is Good by Randy Alcorn is a stunning must read. Recent years have seen several books attacking Christianity, and much of the arguments against the existence of God are based upon the presence of evil and suffering within the world.Alcorn spent years pulling together materials to support his thesis that of course God is good, and that He has a reason for the suffering we face. Through liberal usage of Scripture as well as commentaries by lots of theologians, he offers case after case for the goodness of God. I kept a pen and pad of paper next to me while reading this book, because there is an astonishing amount of wisdom here. For Christians struggling with this issue themselves, this offers answers. For those suffering, it offers hope, and for those who question God on this basis, it will force them to question their certainty. This is a book you truly need to read for yourself because it is certain to become a pivotal book in Christian theology.

My latest book to read and review was If God is Good: Faith in the Midst of Suffering and Evil by Randy Alcorn. I was really looking forward to this book because I have always admired Alcorn's work. He's always biblically and theologically sound while at the same time dealing with real questions that real people ask. This book was no exception. This book is a huge volume - 494 pages. However, the chapters are short enough to be read and digested in one sitting. They are also comprehensive, covering just about any topic or question someone might raise about the questions of evil and suffering. Alcorn has done his homework on this topic. The reader can tell that these are questions that are important to the author. He wants to present a biblically sound answer to the questions that rock the faith of believers and present real challenges to the faith of unbelievers. Alcorn is also honest enough in his presentation to show that the lack of real faith in unbelievers actually helps to increase their frustration with God on this topic. His purpose in this book is not only to show what Scripture has to say about evil and suffering, but to show that the Christian faith presents the best defense of these issues and the only real basis for hope in the midst of the pain. He does not try to be a public defender for God. He allows God's word to speak for itself. Alcorn's book is the best I have ever seen on this sticky subject. Most of the books I have seen either present a mushy defense that is heavily weighted on a loving God or read like theological defense with about as much readability as a the congressional tax code with little compassion for the deep questions and pain that people experience. Alcorn uses a lot of relevant stories of suffering and how those who experienced them found real hope in the Christian faith. This book should be on every pastor's shelf and should be the basis for a relevant sermon series on this topic for his flock.

It seems a fair question, doesn't it? If God is truly good, as Christians insist, then how can there be so much suffering in the world? Since ancient times this question has led skeptics to believe that God cannot, must not, exist. Even today's so-called New Atheists show how little is really knew when they use the existence of suffering and evil as a linchpin of their arguments against God's existence. Quite simply, they say, if suffering and evil exist, then God must not. Yet though people have wrestled with this question and allowed it to drive them from the faith, many more have wrestled with it and have come to the conclusion that God does exist despite suffering. They have found that suffering is God's invitation to trust in him and to hold out hope for a better world to come. If God Is Good is the latest book from Randy Alcorn's who is probably best-known for his last major release, Heaven, which has sold well over a half million copies in hardcover. From my experience, Alcorn primarily writes three types of books: novels, very small books and very large books. If God Is Good, like Heaven before it, fits squarely in the final category. Weighing in at 512 pages, this is a good-sized hardcover that offers a thorough examination and defense of faith in the midst of suffering and evil. The topic Alcorn deals with in this book is a particularly difficult one. Humility and practicality, trademarks of his ministry, are evident in the books earliest pages. "If I thought I had no helpful perspectives on the problem, it would be pointless for me to write this book. If I imagined I had all the answers neatly lined up, it would be pointless for you to read it." He seeks to get right to the bottom of the subject and, as we learn, a sound theology of suffering touches upon many different areas. This leads him into theology that is increasingly foundational, plunging into deeper and deeper waters. He looks to the source and nature of evil, human depravity (advocating total spiritual inability), free will (arguing for compatibilism), divine omniscience, omnipotence and omnibenevolence, the existence of Heaven and Hell, justification, sanctification and so on. What area of the Christian life remains untouched by this great question of suffering? In what area of life or theology is evil not an unfortunate consideration? Throughout the book Alcorn's style is stridently didactic, bearing shades of Heaven. But where Heaven depended heavily on questions and answers, If God Is Good leans upon bolded headings followed by explanations. The style is unique in all the books I've read, but quite effective. These are headings that cannot be skipped over as they are integral to the flow of the book. So choosing a page at random, we see a heading of "Free Will in Heaven." Immediately below that is a bolded sentence saying, "Free will in Heaven will not require that we be capable of sinning or that humanity may fall again." There follows seven or eight paragraphs of e