Randy Alcorn

I do not know how many thousands of years old the earth is, but I don’t believe it is millions.

As followers of Christ, we are to believe the truth (2 Thess. 2:12), love the truth (2:10) and walk in the truth (3 John 3). We are also to speak the truth, which sets us in stark contrast to “the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming” (Eph. 4:14). 

Telling the truth is no longer normal. In America, a man can lie about his past, violate his marriage vows, make promises he has no intention of keeping, and break those promises without a shred of guilt. Indeed, he can deny he actually made them in the first place, or make you feel like he is breaking them as a matter of principle. And such a man can be more than just some cheap sleazy crook. He can be president of the United States.

Read Acts 2 and Acts 4 and you see a radical difference in the church, a profound transformation in the way people treated each other. Christians were different in the way they behaved, in the way they lived. They were characterized by visible acts of love and generosity and joyous sacrifice for the good of others.

Our view of heaven is comparable to standing out in a hallway and staring past an open door into a dark room. Getting a grasp of the resurrection and the New Earth is like stepping in and flipping on a light switch. Suddenly the shadowy images become recognizable…while our eyes have to adjust to the light, everything starts to make sense.

Some terms Lord Foulgrin uses in his letters, with translations.

Today countless children grow up begging and grabbing and clinging onto all the things money can buy. As adults, they rarely outgrow this shallow self-centeredness, but simply graduate to more money and bigger toys. Living their lives on earth as if this were all there is, they fail to prepare for their eternal future.

The fact is that our children will not stand up and resist this tide unless they become men and women of character, courage and spiritual vitality. We are to pass on to them the baton that was handed us by a previous generation of Christians.

I visited China in the Fall of 1999 while doing background research for Safely Home.