Review: "90 Days Of God's Goodness"

Randy Alcorn's devotional, 90 Days of God's Goodness: Daily Reflections That Shine Light On Personal Darkness, is a book that I have savored for many months now. The readings average three pages, beginning with the Scripture, then a meditation on the Scripture often including quotes and insights from famous Christians of times past and present, and ending with a prayer. These devotions were crafted to assist those who wonder, “If God is good why is there so much evil and suffering?” Alcorn largely addresses the questions by leading us to look at the hope of the future that we have in Christ – not merely as spirit bodies, but, as resurrected flesh and blood people living in the kingdom. In 90 different ways Alcorn looks at the suffering of the world, more and sit and confesses it to be true, and then points us on to the hope that we have in Jesus. I appreciated the use of Scripture to begin each meditation as well as his prayer to conclude each one, but above of all, is the meditations themselves in the wealth of examples of quotations from persons other than himself that make this work stand out and be helpful to a wide variety of people. The book not only helps one to come to some sort of peace with suffering in the world. But it raises questions and makes one think about what the kingdom will be like. That is not to say that Alcorn has been there or knows all perfectly – as one reads through the meditations, he moves back and forth between using the word “heaven” and describing the physical kingdom of earth that we will live on in our resurrected bodies. I must say I was not sure how Alcorn conceives of the kingdom or heaven – he certainly affirms that our resurrected bodies will be physical bodies, but at times it seemed as though heaven and the new earth were different places, other times that they were the same place, and other times where there was almost a merger or a connection between the two (cf. 128). Perhaps that is simply a matter of working with what the Scripture tells us in not knowing all the details. Again, this is a book that will make the reader think and question and look back at what the Bible actually says not only about suffering and evil, but about what is prepared for us after death. There were times I questioned how he came to his conclusions: for example, on page 149, he states that Hal is the absence of God. While I have heard that before, I'm not sure that is clear biblically. Also in meditation 48 he seems to indicate that it would be possible for God to lose some of the elect. On page 264, he states that death was not part of God's original plan, but that human sin brought it into the world against God’s Will. This is an idea I cannot accept – the Fall and all of its results were part of God's original plan to glorify Himself through the sending of His Savior – that is what I read in Scripture. Overall I found this to be an excellent book, a thought-provoking book, a biblical book – one that will help many people –whether struggling with sin and evil and suffering now or at some point in the future. Although Alcorn is not infallible, this book is well worth reading, taking days, weeks, months to meditate on, and then to turn back to the Scripture and think about the glorious reality that will be when Jesus returns. [This review appears on Amazon.com and on my blog. I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review.]