Book Review: The Goodness of God

I must say I was pleasantly surprised by Randy Alcorn’s book The Goodness of God: Assurance of Purpose in the Midst of Suffering. When I requested it from the Blogging for Books program, they were having a problem with their selection page and very few books were available. I sort of recognized his name and the topic sounded interesting but I wasn’t expecting much from a small, 117 page book on suffering other than some vague platitudes. What I got was a book I will definitely have my wife and kids read. I agree with Randy that the church as a whole has done a poor job of preparing Christians to endure suffering and not just endure but rejoice in times of trouble with our eye on the cross. This book is a nice step toward rectifying that shortcoming.

While I might quibble here and there with Randy just to be nitpicky, I found that he hit all the right points in this small book (he has a much larger and more comprehensive book on suffering that I might look to acquire). He points out that all suffering goes back to the fall. No matter what the question is when it comes to human suffering, the answer is always sin. He also takes pains to recognize the culpability of man for evil while giving appropriate attention to the sovereignty of God. God is not a helpless bystander in the midst of human suffering. Perhaps most importantly Randy speaks to the cross where two things happen. First, Jesus suffered and suffered unjustly as much as any human. He is not a distant God but a God who has experience suffering personally. Second, at the cross Jesus was made a propitiation for sin, opening the way for His people to someday escape the temporal suffering of the human condition and live eternity with Christ where there will be no tears, no pain and no suffering.

I can quite confidently say that I really enjoyed and was genuinely edified by The Goodness of God. It is not the comprehensive work on the subject of suffering but it is a great and doctrinally sound introduction that addresses the big issues of human suffering from a cross centered perspective.

(I received this book for free in exchange for an unbiased review from WaterBrook Multnomah)