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Randy Alcorn
 
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Randy Alcorn's Blog: writing

What are the Challenges and Payoffs of Writing?

writingI was asked recently about what the biggest payoffs and challenges in my writing are. One question was whether writer’s block is one of the difficulties.

 
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Tips on Writing from C.S. Lewis

C.S. LewisFor the past few days, I was at a cabin at the Oregon coast to do some extensive, uninterrupted writing on the Courageous novel. Related to writing, my friend Justin Taylor posted this a few months ago on his excellent blog. Loving Lewis as I do, I've heard it before, but part of it not for years.

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Is there a purpose for evil and suffering we overlook? (video)

father and childOur inability to understand all God’s purposes in evil and suffering should not surprise us.

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Why does God allow evil and suffering? (video)

crossIn my life, I’d already seen enough evil and suffering to feel deeply troubled by it. What I needed was to find perspective on what troubled me. In this process of writing If God Is Good, I’ve taken most pleasure in focusing closely on God, exploring his attributes of goodness, love, holiness, justice, patience, grace and mercy. While my journey has offered no easy answers, I’ve felt bowled over by how much insight Scripture gives us.

I’ve looked at a God who says, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering” (Exodus 3:7). I found great comfort in hearing God speak of a time when he could bear his people’s misery no longer (Judges 1:16). I revel in God’s emphatic promise that he will make a New Earth where he will come to live with us, and on which “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain” (Revelation 21:4).

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What is the problem of goodness? (video)

flowersWhile atheists routinely speak of the problem of evil, they usually don’t raise the problem of goodness. But if evil provides evidence against God, then shouldn’t goodness count as evidence for him? And wouldn’t that be evidence against atheism?

From a non-theistic viewpoint, what is evil? Isn’t it just nature at work? In a strictly natural, physical world, shouldn’t everything be neither good nor evil? Good and evil imply an “ought” and an “ought not” that nature is incapable of producing.

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God’s Redemptive Purposes for Evil and Suffering



(Click here if you're unable to view the video.)

hopeThe stronger our concept of God and Heaven, the more we understand how Heaven resolves the problem of evil and suffering. The weaker our concept of God and Heaven, the stronger our doubt that Heaven will more than compensate for our present sufferings.

If Heaven did not exist, we could never solve the problem of evil and suffering, for we would never receive any lasting compensation for it.

Nanci read me letters written in 1920 by her grandmother, Ana Swanson, to her family in Sweden. Because Ana suffered severe health ...

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What do you want readers to take away from If God Is Good? (video)

hands holding roseUnbelievers and believers have the same heart-cry in response to evil and suffering: “Something's terribly wrong.” We know we were made for something far better. But our heart-cry itself is revealing—why do we expect more or hope for more? Why are we outraged by evil and suffering when if the atheists are right it’s no more than we should expect in a world of random chance and survival of the fittest? Where do we get the standard of goodness by which we judge evil to be evil?

In If God Is Good, I appeal to unbelievers and believers alike to consider these questions: Why is there so much good in the world? Why do the great majority of suffering people want to go on living nonetheless? Is evil and suffering just bad luck, or is there a rational explanation for it? Is there a redemptive purpose for it? Can we as hurting people, and as those trying to help hurting people, find perspectives that recognize the full force of evil and suffering, yet offer hope? I suggest the answer is yes.

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The World of Christian Books and Writers

John KohlenbergerI got back late last week from the annual Christian Booksellers convention. Always in July, it’s normally in a hot, sweaty southern city. This year was Atlanta, next year is Orlando. We haven’t been back to Dallas since it hit 120 degrees several years ago. Now if we could only have it in Portland or Seattle... Anyway, I’m going to spend a couple blogs talking about it.

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If God is Good...what is this book about?



If God Is Good ...My new book If God Is Good addresses what is arguably the greatest issue in human history: the problem of evil and suffering.

The question is this: Why would an all-good and all-powerful (and all-knowing/all-wise) God create or permit a world with so much evil and suffering? This is not merely a problem, but the problem. Not only do atheists raise it, a poll of Christians revealed it is the question people would most like to ask God.

God promises to return and finalize his redemption of his once-good creation, to remove once and for all the evil and ...

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Why did you write a book about evil and suffering?

Before I get to today’s blog, I wanted to mention an upcoming event I’ll be speaking at that the men from your local church might be interested in getting involved with. On Saturday, September 12, I’ll be speaking on the subject of Heaven at the Game Plan for Life: A Champion's Guide to a Successful Life national simulcast event, broadcasting live from Grove Avenue Baptist Church in Richmond, Virginia. The seminar will offer a straight-talking, winning strategy for applying God’s truth to everyday issues, and speakers will include Joe Gibbs, Dr. Tony Evans, and Dr ...

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