Having read Alcorn's book "Heaven" several years ago, I was intrigued by the chance to read another of his well-balanced and thoroughly researched books. In my experience, this difficult subject is the most challenging question Christians have to deal with - How could a good and all-powerful God allow the kind of suffering and evil that is so common on this earth?
Alcorn looks at this issue from every angle in this 500+ page book. He covers the main theological views of the nature of God that have come out of trying to resolve this issue: limiting God's power, limiting God's knowledge (open theism), limiting God's goodness, and limiting God's love. He deals with the issue of the fall and sin as general (not usually specific) causes of suffering. He also discusses how we can account for apparently gratuitus evil & pointless suffering. He looks at the question of why God delays the ultimate punishment of evil, and God's lack of explanation of the reason for suffering and evil. (As in the life of Job. As far as we know, Job was never given the explanation for the reason behind the incredible loss and devastation he suffered. As readers if the book of Job, we are given a glance into the spiritual warfare - the attack of Satan that was behind it all. But we never see that revealed to Job.)
Alcorn looks at this issue from every angle in this 500+ page book. He covers the main theological views of the nature of God that have come out of trying to resolve this issue: limiting God's power, limiting God's knowledge (open theism), limiting God's goodness, and limiting God's love. He deals with the issue of the fall and sin as general (not usually specific) causes of suffering. He also discusses how we can account for apparently gratuitus evil & pointless suffering. He looks at the question of why God delays the ultimate punishment of evil, and God's lack of explanation of the reason for suffering and evil. (As in the life of Job. As far as we know, Job was never given the explanation for the reason behind the incredible loss and devastation he suffered. As readers if the book of Job, we are given a glance into the spiritual warfare - the attack of Satan that was behind it all. But we never see that revealed to Job.)
Alcorn's primary explanation for suffering & evil is the theory that God, being both all powerful and completely loving, always works in our best interest. The suffering that He allows is used by Him to bring about His ultimate purpose in our lives. This was not a new argument to me, but Alcorn took it to a new level. He argues that the good God wants to bring into our lives would not be possible without the suffering. God allows evil because his ultimate good cannot be accomplished without it. Of course, accepting this argument requires faith and trust in God, because we often do not see the reason for the suffering until much later - if ever, in this life.
I had a personal example of this occur in our family's life while I was reading this book. My 6 yr old came down with a pretty severe case of strep throat. When I took him to the doctor, his throat was hurting him so badly, he wouldn't swallow anything. The doctor told me there was no point in sending us home with an oral antibiotic if he wouldn't swallow. We spent 5 or 10 minutes trying to convince my little guy to swallow a few sips of water so that he wouldn't have to have the antibiotic administered through a shot. But, he refused & I knew that even if we got him to swallow a little bit in the doctor's office, that didn't mean he would do it for me at home. So, I told the doctor to go ahead and administer the shot. It was heartbreaking to have to hold down my already sick and miserable son for the shot to be administered. He struggled, cried, and yelled, "No, Mommy - no shot! Please don't let them give me a shot!!" But I knew that, as his mother, I had to let him go through this short term misery, to prevent him from going through more sickness and misery later.
Twenty-four hours later, he was feeling much better. By the next week, both the illness and the pain of the shot were a distant memory. Alcorn argues that for Christians, our suffering will be much the same - distant and seemingly light and easy once this life is over.
While I agree with almost all of the positions Alcorn puts forth in this book, I have to say that there still is no answer to this question that is completely comfortable and satisfying to me. But I do rest in this belief:
"Therefore, we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all." 2 Corinthians 4:16-17.
Sojourner
