Why is there suffering if God is Good?

Randall Murphree - Guest Columnist - 9/26/2009 4:00:00 AM

When I pick up a book by Randy Alcorn, I know I’m about to be better educated, highly challenged, or richly rewarded -- or, more likely, all three. Whether he’s crafting a riveting novel or articulating an in-depth look at the truths of the Christian faith, Alcorn is one of this generation’s premier Christian wordsmiths.

His newest nonfiction title, If God is Good (Multnomah, 2009) is insightful, incisive, and instructive. Recognizing the value of story and anecdote, Alcorn uses them as devices to bridge the mental gap we often have between concrete and abstract.
 
Why did my mother suffer so with cancer? Why was my 10-year-old daughter assaulted by a pedophile? Why was I fired with no notice? Why did my husband abandon me and our kids? Why did the accident take the life of my only son? Those questions or similar ones inhabit the suffering seasons of life for just about everyone, Christians included. And there are no easy answers.
 
“Pain is always local,” Alcorn writes. “It has a face and a name.” Thus he helps us grasp truth by illustrating it with real struggles of real people. It boggles my mind to wonder how many people he interviewed during his two years of research for this 512-page volume -- both for personal stories of suffering and for sound biblical insights from noted scholars.
 
For example, the first page of chapter one carries the story of Greg Laurie, whose 33-year-old son Christopher died in an auto crash. Laurie, a pastor and evangelist, later told a crowd of 29,000, “I’ve counseled many people who have lost a loved one, and I thought I knew a little bit about it. But I have to say that when it happens to you, it’s a whole new world.”
 
It’s this human element that Alcorn uses to make this book so strong, so captivating, so practical for all of us who have been devastated by loss, pain, or evil.
 
Chapter 1 sets the stage by raising the question of why this problem of evil and suffering is so important. Nothing is more universal to the human experience than suffering, Alcorn says, and it is critical to bring a Christian perspective to the discussion.
 
“More people point to the problem of evil and suffering as their reason for not believing in God than any other,” Alcorn writes. Thus it is incumbent on the believer to understand the Bible’s teachings on suffering, to be able to deal with suffering in his own life, and to be able to address the subject intelligently with others.
 
Alcorn suggests that most evangelical churches have failed to teach people on the realities of evil and suffering. “Since the question will be raised,” he writes, “shouldn’t Christian parents and churches raise it first and take people to Scripture to see what God says about it?”
 
Subsequent chapters address more of the questions we may have in mind but be afraid to ask, e.g., Why Doesn’t God Do More to Restrain Evil and Suffering? Why Doesn’t God Explain His Reasons? The book’s final section gives guidance for finding God, finding help in dark times, and finding grace.
 
Founder of Eternal Perspective Ministries, Alcorn has been noted in recent years for his exhaustive research and prolific writing on heaven (Heaven, TouchPoints: Heaven, 50 Days of Heaven, Heaven for Kids, et.al.). His novels have also reflected themes dealing with heaven, but Safely Home, his most highly acclaimed novel, is a story of persecution of Christians in China.
 
If God Is Good is vintage Randy Alcorn -- informative, encouraging, and thorough. It’s a volume worth reading straight through, then keeping close at hand for reference when life’s challenges seem overwhelming.

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