Announcing the Winners of the “Share Heaven” Pack Giveaway

Here are the winners from August’s “share Heaven” giveaway. Each of the three winners will receive Randy’s books Heaven and TouchPoints: Heaven, along with a Heaven booklet and a packet of 25 Heaven tracks.

The randomly drawn winners are:

1) Jennifer (simplypraisinghim)
2) Kristi (cadymom7)
3) ~Tami (mymadakaja)

It’s our privilege to also choose an additional winner:

tina

All winners, please e-mail me at Stephanie (at) epm.org with your mailing address.

Check back on September 7 for the next blog giveaway—we’ll be giving away three copies of Randy’s brand new book If God Is Good. Stay tuned to Randy’s blog and Facebook for more excerpts, previews, and news about the book. You also won’t want to miss the Facebook party to celebrate the release of If God Is Good, taking place in the notes section of Randy’s Facebook page (www.facebook.com/randyalcorn), on September 14 from 5 to 7 p.m. PST. See you on Facebook!

Stephanie Anderson
Promotions Director
Eternal Perspective Ministries
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Building a Biblical Worldview

Acts 17:11 says that "Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true." We should come to God's Word with "great eagerness." If we're more eager to watch a sitcom or the evening news than to read God's Word, inevitably our worldview will be more influenced by sitcoms and the evening news than by God.

We should "search" the Scriptures—we must probe deeply, not just skim the surface and quote verses out of context which back up our worldview. We must search the Scriptures, not simply always accept what others say about the Scriptures. The Bible should always be my primary source, and all other sources secondary. If I let secondary sources shape my worldview, I will not have a biblical worldview. I need a worldview informed by and corrected by God's Word. We need to see culture in light of God's Word, not see God's Word in light of culture. Our conclusion may or may not be politically correct (that changes with cultural winds), but we shouldn't care—what it should always be is biblically correct.

We should "search the Scriptures daily." Many other sources of input come at us daily—the media and the opinions of professors, family, and coworkers. If we study the Bible only partially and occasionally, it will shape our worldview only partially and occasionally. Our worldview will be determined by whatever we choose to expose our minds to. Unless I establish a strong biblical grid, a scriptural filter with which to screen and interpret the world, I'll end up being worldly in my thinking.

The Bereans searched the Scriptures daily "to see if what Paul said was true." Now, if ever in human history you were going to assume that anther person's words were true, if you were ever going to take someone's word for it, not finding it necessary to double-check against the Scriptures, surely it would be with the apostle Paul. Yet the Bereans were commended for carefully scrutinizing Paul's words in light of Scripture. This reminds us that we should hold up under the scrutiny of the Scriptures not only the suspicious claims of an ungodly culture, but the well-intentioned words of godly parents and godly Christian leaders. If Paul's words needed to fall under the judgment of God's Word, so do all of ours.

Notice what happens here. Instead of God's Word being one more influence on us, God intends it to be authoritative over all other influences. It is not simply that I watch Seinfeld and read Time, the newspaper, Stephen King and Hemingway, and also get some input from the Bible. No—God intends that I read the Bible very differently than I read these others. I read it not simply as one more source of input, but as the Source and the authoritative standard by which I judge all other input.

Now, if I'm immersed in God's Word and biblically based literature, then and only then am I able to discern from the newspaper and Time and Hemingway and movies what values are being communicated and whether or not those values are true. Scripture becomes my grid, my moral filter by which I judge all other claims to truth. I can now pick and choose what is right based on my knowledge of God's Word.

But If I do not spend sufficient time in Scripture, or if I fail to realize the essential authoritative difference of Scripture and all else, or if I interpret Scripture in light of Seinfeld or Hemingway or Gladiator, then I will be led astray. If I am biblically grounded I can read the Book of Mormon and a book by the Dalai Lama and evaluate it appropriately. If I'm not, by reading such things I run the risk of believing untruths and being sucked into anti-Christian heresy.

This is why so many Christian young people "lose their faith" in both secular and Christian colleges. Being insufficiently trained in the Scriptures, they fail to screen out what their professors and textbooks and peers are saying (and how they are living). They absorb and end up adopting from the college a false worldview, usually a specifically anti-Christian worldview. Some reject their faith entirely and seldom come back to church, but many more become nominal Christians who have adopted a worldview that overshadows and undermines their faith—even if they remain church-goers.

It all comes down to this: is the Bible my authority, and how much time am I investing into knowing the Bible, so that I can interpret everything else in its light? Or am I giving my mind unfiltered access to all else, which will then dim the light of Scripture and cause me to be undiscerning and embrace that which is contrary to God's truth?

To be a biblical Christian, I must not simply affirm the inspiration of God's Word (that is necessary, but not sufficient). I must consciously critique everything else in light of Scripture (otherwise all else will unconsciously conform my mind to the world, the flesh and the devil). I must make a conscious effort to evaluate all my beliefs and my lifestyle preferences in the light of God's Word.

I must commit myself to making an examination, no matter how painful, of all my dearly-held beliefs (e.g. a loving God cannot send people to an eternal hell). And whenever they do not stand up to Scripture, I must abandon those beliefs. If I do not, then despite whatever I may profess to the contrary, my true authority is not the Bible, but my background, upbringing, peer group, the media, and schools that have influenced me. In short, I make myself and my culture (the flesh and the world) my authority.


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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 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. Ravi Zacharias. The simulcast is free to churches with CCN satellite dishes, but if even if your church doesn’t have one, visit www.ccn.tv/gameplan to learn more. The site also has a list of churches already signed up to broadcast the event so you can attend a site near you.



I wrote If God Is Good because the question of suffering and evil is the most commonly raised and perplexing problem there is. It’s unusual to have serious prolonged interactions about believing in God, with either believers or unbelievers, without them raising it.

I am also deeply concerned with how radically unbiblical viewpoints are being assimilated into the thinking of evangelical Christians. In If God Is Good, I wrote four chapters critiquing the attempts of misguided theologians to resolve the problem of evil by minimizing the divine attributes of omnipotence, omniscience, goodness, or love.

The first two actually have their proponents within evangelicalism. Open theism redefines and undercuts God’s omniscience, but this has a domino effect, which leads to denying his immutability and ultimately his omnipotence (i.e., God’s power is limited by his lack of knowledge).

Once we start tinkering with God’s attributes to solve a problem, the problems we create are far worse. Two of the people I interviewed for the book, Bible-believing Christians who have endured great suffering, shared with me that open theism has been a great encouragement to them. This viewpoint continues to gain traction among many evangelicals.

Along with other readers, Wayne Grudem and Justin Taylor went through my chapter on open theism, making helpful suggestions. While I believe in God’s causative foreknowledge (Calvinist view) in addition to his simple foreknowledge (Arminian view), the truth is that Open Theism contradicts the entire history of Christian orthodoxy of all kinds, including the Arminian tradition.

I also wanted to address the issue of mystery and faith, and our need to trust God even when we can’t see his purposes. That used to be a central part of faith, but somehow it seems more difficult for modern Christians. I argue that while the nature of faith is to trust God for what we do not see, we may base our trust in him on many things we have seen—His Word, His creation, and how he has shown himself in others in our lives and throughout history. I point out that if you write down the worst things that have ever happened to you and then write down the best things, there is often, especially when sufficient time has passed, a shocking overlap of the lists, confirming the workings of God’s sovereign grace.

Finally, what drew me to this issue is that the Bible itself (e.g., in Job, Psalms, and the prophets) repeatedly raises the problem of evil. It does so with a full range of insight and mystery. It doesn’t offer easy or simplistic bullet-point answers. But ultimately it offers more satisfying answers than any other worldview. And those answers are centered in the person and work of Jesus Christ, the second member of the triune God. In eternity, I could see Him looking at his children and stretching out His hands, asking us, in light of the questions we struggled with, “Do these look like the hands of a God who did not care?”


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Note from EPM: If God Is Good will be released Tuesday, September 15, and will be available for purchase online, in local bookstores, and from the Eternal Perspective Ministries website, where it can be pre-ordered now.

Also, on Monday, September 14 there will be a party on Facebook to celebrate the book's release. The party, which will take place in the notes section of Randy’s Facebook page from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. PST, will feature sneak peeks at the book, giveaways, trivia quizzes, videos, and some surprises. If you're not already following Randy on Facebook, go to www.facebook.com/randyalcorn to become a fan so you'll be able to join in. See you on Facebook!

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

My new book If God Is Good (release date September 15) 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 suffering under the Curse. In eternity he will reveal to us the riches of his grace in Christ, and we will see firsthand that the temporary evil and suffering will have yielded an eternal joy beyond what could otherwise have ever been known.

I labor hard on research and writing, and I made a commitment years ago never to waste my time writing a book if anything remotely close to what I wanted to write was already out there. But the more I studied the subject over the past two years, the more convinced I became that there was much I wanted to say, and in a particular way, that had not been said in one book.

I shaped the book to have a very distinctive approach and feel. I did this with my earlier books Money, Possessions and Eternity (a biblical and practical theology of money) and my big book Heaven (much of which is a biblical theology of the New Earth, then moving to imaginative aspects based on my biblical understanding). I sought in both books to say not just what had already been said, but what hadn’t been said, and to do it in a way that might reach readers who would normally not pick up a big book full of theology. In fact, If God Is Good is filled with theology, but my desire is to reach both those who love theology and those who can and need to learn to love it, and see loving it as part of loving God.

The structure of If God Is Good is reflected in its Table of Contents.

At first, I envisioned doing a short book on evil and suffering, built around a presentation on the subject I had done on a secular college campus, and later a modified one at my church. But because my book Heaven had surprised the publisher and the booksellers through its sales, it seemed to have proved that people were willing to read 500 pages full of Scripture and theology. This helped me decide to tackle a subject of such weighty and immense proportions as the problem of evil.

People live in a truth-vacuum, and I believe in the power of God’s Words to touch lives. I quote Scripture frequently in this book because God promises that his Word “will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it” (Isaiah 55:11). God never makes such a promise about my words or anyone else’s. I want this book to accomplish God’s purpose—and that will happen only if it remains faithful to his words.

Someone pointed out that we could cut a very large number of words from the big Heaven book simply by removing the Scriptures included, replacing them only with references. And we could cut more still by removing all the citations of theologians. But I believed the book would then be gutted of its power (in the case of Scripture) and its historicity as part of orthodoxy (in the case of the quotations). The publisher, and many others, have been stunned that the Heaven book has sold over 600,000 copies as a $25 hardcover. (By the way, 100% of the royalties are given to Christian ministries, not the one I direct, and Nanci and I couldn’t be happier about that arrangement.)

I don’t presume this book will sell as well as Heaven, but I do pray that many people will be touched by its biblical content and the insights of the theologians and faithful suffering Christians I quote.

In the process of research and writing I was continually aware that it was beyond me to pull this off, just as I had realized with the Heaven book and one of my novels (Dominion, which features an African American character in an African American context, and here I was, the writer, a white guy from the suburbs). But when you realize that apart from Christ you can do nothing, the continuous sense of dependence on the Holy Spirit yields benefits in your own walk, and hopefully in the book itself.

More about If God is Good in upcoming blogs.


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Note from Stephanie, on the EPM staff: If God Is Good will be released Tuesday, September 15, and will be available for purchase online, in local bookstores, and from the Eternal Perspective Ministries website, where it can be pre-ordered now.

Also, on Monday, September 14 there will be a book release party on Facebook. The party, which will take place in the notes section of Randy’s Facebook page from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. PST, will feature sneak peeks at the book, giveaways, trivia quizzes, videos, and some surprises. If you're not already following Randy on Facebook, go to www.facebook.com/randyalcorn to become a fan so you'll be able to join in. See you on Facebook!

Puppies For Sale: A story illustrating God's heart

This story, by an unknown author, was ciruclated years ago. It is likely fictional, as many such stories are, but think of it as a parable.

A store owner was tacking a sign above his door that read "Puppies For Sale." Signs like that have a way of attracting small children and sure enough, a little boy appeared under the store owner's sign.

"How much are you going to sell the puppies for?" he asked. The store owner replied, "Anywhere from $30 to $50." The little boy reached in his pocket and pulled out some change.

"I have $2.37," he said. "Can I please look at them?"

The store owner smiled and whistled and out of the kennel came Lady, who ran down the aisle of his store followed by five teeny, tiny balls of fur. One puppy was lagging considerably behind. Immediately the little boy singled out the lagging, limping puppy and said, "What's wrong with that little dog?" The store owner explained that the veterinarian had examined the little puppy and had discovered it didn't have a hip socket. It would always limp. It would always be lame.

The little boy became excited. "That is the little puppy that I want to buy." The store owner said, "No, you don't want to buy that little dog. If you really want him, I'll just give him to you." The little boy got quite upset. He looked straight into the store owner's eyes, pointing his finger, and said, "I don't want you to give him to me. That little dog is worth every bit as much as all the other dogs and I'll pay full price. In fact, I'll give you $2.37 now, and 50 cents a month until I have him paid for." The store owner countered, "You really don't want to buy this little dog. He is never going to be able to run and play with you like the other puppies."

To this, the little boy reached down and rolled up his pant leg to reveal a badly twisted, crippled left leg supported by a big metal brace. He looked up at the store owner and softly replied, "Well, I don't run so well myself, and the little puppy will need someone who understands!"


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Question and Answer of the Week: Choosing a Christian College or Secular University

What are some criteria to use for choosing a Christian college or a secular university?

It's summertime, and many recent high school graduates will be starting college for the first time this fall. Other young people are beginning to look into which college they would like to attend in the next few years.

When our daughters were considering a college, we told them, "Judge everything you hear by the Word of God, like the Bereans in Acts 17:11." There will be disagreements with faculty and students, of course, but that's healthy as long as people are appealing to a common authority, God's Word. But when they aren't, that's where the trouble begins. I would far rather send my kids—or go myself—to a school that has certain doctrines I don't embrace but that believes God's Word, than to one I cannot trust.

I have spoken at a fair number of Christian liberal arts colleges and have been concerned with the drift away from belief in God's Word, particularly in the biology, psychology, and sociology departments, but often even in the Bible departments. Unbelief spreads and expands like yeast. What really strikes me is the false advertising—the doctrinal statements are still very good, but they don't reflect the actual beliefs and teachings of many of the professors. As one academic vice-president of a Christian liberal arts college told me (when I was speaking there for the week), "If Christian parents really knew what their kids are being taught here, they'd pull them out of school tomorrow." Now, you'll never see that quote in a brochure!

Why do Christian schools hire such teachers? Probably because they are slavishly committed to maintaining accreditation, no matter what. A faculty opening in the sociology department? Five people apply and only one with a Ph.D. and published papers or books? Hire him. Not a Christian? Well, that's okay, he's a good educator. Cumulatively, over decades, you can see where this will lead.

I'm not a hard-core separatist fundamentalist (though I certainly believe in the fundamentals). I'm comfortable with a broad range of evangelicals, Calvinist and Arminian, charismatic, non-charismatic and anti-charismatic. What alarms me is not a healthy diversity of viewpoints—I'm all for that. What alarms me is the abandonment of the doctrines and standards of Scripture and the conformity to the current drift of society. This applies to homosexuality, feminism, and a host of other things.

I'd recommend asking some questions of former and present students. Unless you find an unusually forthright person, I wouldn't trust the answers you get from the school's PR department—their job is to make the school sound wonderful, and if they pick up your concerns about doctrine, they'll often reassure you the school is rock solid, even though it's not. Ask juniors and seniors, who are committed to the authority of the Scriptures and are mature believers, what they have seen in the classrooms. Ask around and find a committed, biblically solid Christian prof and ask him what's really believed and taught.

I suggest you visit the campus, go to some different classes and ask of yourself or others:

What is the atmosphere in the classrooms?

Are the professors committed to the infallible Word of God?

Is there a vibrant spiritual life among students and faculty? Are students and faculty involved in local churches?

Many students at Christian colleges drift from church while in school, and many of those never regain a solid commitment to the church. It's vital for a school to be committed to the importance of faculty and student involvement in the local church and to make it a requirement.

If your child is going to a secular college or a Christian college that doesn't adhere to the authority of the Scriptures, is he/she mature enough to face the worldly temptations as well as the intellectual challenges to his faith?

We would never send out missionaries who are insufficiently trained and prepared to deal with the false religions and temptations of another culture. OK, I'm going to say it: I think no young person should be sent to a secular college—or for that matter many "Christian" colleges—unless he is exceptionally knowledgeable of the Scriptures, is leading a strong Christian life, knows how to resist peer pressure and resist temptation to sex and drugs. (Many Christian kids go off to college and by the second term lose their virginity. Premarital sex is normal on most campuses, even some Christian campuses.)

If he is not prepared to question his professors and if he may give in to their skepticism and attacks on the Christian faith, he does not belong there. If we want our children to lose their faith, there are less expensive ways to help them do that! (I'm being deliberately sarcastic to make an important point.)

The son of one of my friends, who attended a secular university, said, "In college you're either a Christian or you're not. It's very black and white, no middle ground. The Christian group on campus was my family away from home." If your child goes to a secular college, I would first check into the campus ministry (Campus Crusade, Navigators, InterVarsity, DiscipleMakers, etc.) and the strength of local churches. Unless they get hooked up in a discipleship and accountability context, they will almost certainly have their Christian beliefs undermined.

I highly recommend every parent read, and then discuss with their kids, J. Budziszewski's book How to Stay Christian in College and University of Destruction: Your Game Plan for Spiritual Victory on Campus by David Wheaton.



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School Officials Face Possible Jail Time for Public Prayer

To be honest, I sometimes tire of all the emailed and website warnings I receive about how the civil rights of Christians are being eroded. Yes, there is usually some truth in them, but overstatement as well. So I’m sometimes skeptical.

In this case, however, posting this article from the Washington Times seems appropriate. I don’t know the details of the case, but the possibility of jail time for a principal and athletic director, for reasons of public prayer, definitely gets my attention. If someone believes some of the content of this article to be incorrect, please provide me with a credible source refuting it. Thanks. Here’s the article:

School prayer charges stir protests
By Julia Duin

Students, teachers and local pastors are protesting over a court case involving a northern Florida school principal and an athletic director who are facing criminal charges and up to six months in jail over their offer of a mealtime prayer.

There have been yard signs, T-shirts and a mass student protest during graduation ceremonies this spring on behalf of Pace High School Principal Frank Lay and school athletic director Robert Freeman, who will go on trial Sept. 17 at a federal district court in Pensacola for breaching the conditions of a lawsuit settlement reached last year with the American Civil Liberties Union.

"I have been defending religious freedom issues for 22 years, and I've never had to defend somebody who has been charged criminally for praying," said Mathew Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel, the Orlando-based legal group that is defending the two school officials.

An ACLU official said the school district has allowed "flagrant" violations of the First Amendment for years.

"The defendants all admitted wrongdoing," said Daniel Mach, director of litigation for its freedom of religion program. "For example, the Pace High School teachers handbook asks teachers to 'embrace every opportunity to inculcate, by precept and example, the practice of every Christian virtue.' "

The fight involving the ACLU, the school district and several devout Christian employees began last August when the ACLU sued Santa Rosa County Schools on behalf of two students who had complained privately to the group's Florida affiliate, claiming some teachers and administrators were allowing prayers at school events such as graduations, orchestrating separate religiously themed graduation services, and "proselytizing" students during class and after school.

In January, the Santa Rosa County School District settled out of court with the ACLU, agreeing to several things, including a provision to bar all school employees from promoting or sponsoring prayers during school-sponsored events; holding school events at church venues when a secular alternative was available; or promoting their religious beliefs or attempting to convert students in class or during school-sponsored events.

Mr. Staver said the district also agreed to forbid senior class President Mary Allen from speaking at the school's May 30 graduation ceremony on the chance that the young woman, a known Christian, might say something religious.

"She was the first student body president in 33 years not allowed to speak," he said.

In response, many members of the 300-plus-member student body taped crosses to their mortarboards and stood for an impromptu recitation of the Lord's Prayer during the ceremony.

Mr. Mach responded, "We believe students have the constitutional right to pray voluntarily in public or private. Constitutional problems arise only when public school officials promote or endorse prayer or specific religious views."

The criminal charges, which carry up to a $5,000 fine and a six-month jail term, originated with a Jan. 28 incident in which Mr. Lay, a deacon at a local Baptist church, asked Mr. Freeman to offer mealtime prayers at a lunch for school employees and booster-club members who had helped with a school field-house project.

Mr. Staver said no students were present at the event, which was held on school property but after school hours.

"He wasn't thinking he was violating an order," he said. "Neither did the athletic director. He was asked to pray and so he did."

Mr. Mach said the event was during the school day and that Mr. Lay, the school's principal, has said in writing that students were present.

"Decisions about the religious upbringing of children should be left in the hands of parents, not school officials," he said. As to whether prayer constitutes "religious upbringing," he said, "If school officials were promoting non-majority faiths and religious viewpoints, I suspect there'd be an uproar."

The ACLU brought the matter to the attention of U.S. District Court Judge M. Casey Rodgers, who issued a contempt order for the two men.

Meanwhile, members of the small community of Milton, Fla., where Pace High School is located, have contributed more than $10,000 toward a legal defense fund for the defendants.

Anti-ACLU T-shirts are also being sold and the proceeds donated.

Judge Rodgers' order also included Michelle Winkler, a clerical assistant who was attending a school district event in February with other school employees at a local naval base. There, she asked her husband to offer a blessing for a meal, says the ACLU, adding that students were present and led the Pledge of Allegiance.

"She didn't do the blessing; she asked somebody to do it," Mr. Staver said. "The ACLU is sending people to school to monitor things happening on campus and see if there is anything encouraging religious activity, then running to the court if they see anything."

Her trial, which could result in a fine, is scheduled for Aug. 21.


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Paul Tripp on Motivation and Obedience in Children

I read this question, from Abraham Piper, and answer, from Paul Tripp, on the Desiring God blog. For those of you not familiar with Paul, he's the president of Paul Tripp Ministries, whose purpose is "to place the truths of the Gospel—the person and work of Jesus Christ—in the middle of the messy and confusing situations and relationships in which every person lives." He's also on the pastoral staff of Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia and is a professor at the Redeemer Seminary in Dallas, Texas.

You've said that we deny the gospel when we use guilt, threats, or manipulation to motivate good behavior. How is that different from the ways God motivates us?

(The following is Paul's answer edited and slightly abridged. Listen to the audio for his complete answer.)

God's warnings and encouragements are not just tools to manipulate my behavior, because it's clear that God is not satisfied with that. I think that what he is after is my heart.

Isn't that exactly why God rages through the prophets against Israel? He says, "These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. I won't take that. I don't want your holy days. I don't want your solemn assemblies. I don't want that stuff! I want your heart."

That's not what many parents want. If a parent is yelling at a child, it's not because they want their hearts. They want to create enough fear in that child so that they'll do what they want them to.

If I had the heart in view, I would never motivate that way because it's damaging to the heart of a child. God's warnings, on the other hand, are never damaging to the heart. They're after the heart, because he knows if he doesn't have my heart, he doesn't have me.

In the Old Testament, we see that God's people would actually, on the way to the temple, make sacrifices to Baal. On the way to the temple! That's how deep the idolatry was in their heart. If God is zealous after our hearts, he's never going to allow that.

But often a parent will tell a child to do something, and the child will yell at the parent as he is going down the hallway. But as long as the kid does what he was told to do, the parent is satisfied.

Now what is the yelling telling me as a parent? It's telling me I don't have a submissive child. I don't have that child's heart. That's actually disobedience dressed up as obedience, because the child is raging against authority as they're technically doing what they've been asked. God would never call that obedience.

So when parents call that obedience, they're being satisfied with something God wouldn't be satisfied with. They're telling their children something that is very dangerous, letting them think that they can be obedient without an obedient heart.

This happens when I'm focused on doing whatever I can do to get my kid to do what I want him to. But if I could get at his heart for a moment, then when he goes to bed with his room still messy, it's still a victory. Maybe we haven't gotten to the room cleaning yet, but we've gained ground in the most important thing—the Lord ruling his heart.

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Question and Answer of the Week: Why does God take some people to heaven so young?

Why does God take some people to Heaven prematurely—before it seems He should—and others so late when they are old and in such pain?

Isaiah 55 says God's thoughts are higher than ours. He has purposes we can't comprehend. I have seen marriages healed and siblings become sold-out believers through the death of a child or teenager. When I first answered this question a few years ago, a friend was holding her eighteen-month-old son in her arms, waiting for him to breathe his last. She was praying over him, reading Psalms aloud, trying to comfort and prepare him—and herself—for what was to come.

Who knows how many doctors, nurses, and patients were profoundly impacted by this child's ordeal? Who knows what family members turned to Christ?

Little David's life was just as long as God knows is best. I can't explain His purposes, and no explanation can or should remove a parent's grief. But I do know God's ways are best, and one day we will have a much clearer picture.

I have also seen older loved ones suffer who—for their sake—I wished God would take home sooner. But God has a purpose for them up to their last moment of life. Once again, the impact on family members of a godly person who faces disease and death can have effects we can't measure. It can produce in them a Christ-likeness that couldn't have been otherwise achieved.

Often God uses waning health and vitality not only to increase impact on others who benefit by caring for the elderly (my father and I gained a much closer relationship in his final years, when he needed my help), but by preparing the sick and elderly for Heaven. It is easier to let go of this world when there is no realistic hope that our health will improve, but only get worse. Now the whispers of Heaven become glad shouts of invitation: "Come here, where all will be right—not again, but for the first time!"

As the blind relish the promise of sight, and the lame the promise of full mobility, the sick long for health, and the old long for the fresh vitality of youth.

As loved ones go through great difficulty, we too are weaned from desperately clinging to them. I would never have considered taking measures to end my dying parents' lives, because I would not dare play God. But in both cases I was able to say, "If this treatment might add two months to their lives but make that two months more miserable for them, please withhold it and do everything you can to make them comfortable."

In stark contrast, many today seem eager to usher parents into eternity. I have heard people speak of their "inheritance" being wasted on care for their terminal parents. "Honor your father and mother" is a command we should take seriously. God enforces His commandments—the consequences of denying loving care for our parents will surely be grave. Those who are motivated by greed and not wanting to bother caring for their parents need to repent. It is too easy to disguise as "mercy" hidden agendas that are selfish.

I would also add that there is great encouragement in the fact that for true believers death is not the end of a relationship, but only an interruption.

Our loved ones, as they age and weaken, have not passed their peak, as the world imagines. They have yet to reach their peak. And if a peak is ever reached in the next world (I doubt it will be), there will never be a subsequent decline. The thrill of being in the presence of Christ will never wear off, and the adventures ahead of us will always be better than the ones behind. Our God offers not the end of longing, but the continual fulfillment of it—infinite joy and gratitude to the One who did it all for us. Our believing loved ones, whether parents or children or spouses or friends, will be there to greet us, likely eager to show us some favorite places. For those who know the grace of Jesus, the ultimate reunion awaits us.


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Sharing the Gospel in Portland's Pioneer Courthouse Square

Thirty years ago, Ron Rohman began preaching in front of the old Pioneer Courthouse at SW Fifth and Morrison streets in downtown Portland, Oregon. Now that their children are grown, his wife Karen (pictured here with Ron) has joined him in his ministry, which they call intercessory evangelism. Today they witness together in Pioneer Courthouse Square, the "Living Room" of Portland.

When I first met Ron twenty-one years ago I wasn't sure what to think of him. Within a year or two, I became sure. I love this brother and his wife, and I thank God for the faithful ministry of Ron and Karen, patiently and cheerfully telling the gospel truth to some who are interested and others who scorn them, including (sadly) some Christians who don't think "street preaching" or confrontive evangelism is cool. (D. L. Moody, when criticicized for his evangelism methods once said, "I like the way I do it better than the way you don't do it.")

"We simply argue that the cross be raised again, at the center of the market place as well as on the church building," Ron and Karen Rohman write. "We are recovering the claim that Jesus was not crucified in a cathedral between two candles, but on a cross between two thieves, on the town garbage heap, on crossroads so cosmopolitan that they had to write His title in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek—at the kind of place where cynics talk smut, thieves curse, and soldiers gamble, because that is where He died, and that is what He died about, and that is what followers of Jesus should be about."

This e-mail from Ron and Karen about one of their experiences is a great example of their faithfulness in living out the fruit of the Spirit and drawing others to Him.

A certain young man in his mid-twenties has come by our corner at SW Sixth and Morrison at the Square for the past few years. He will grab a tract out of Ron’s hand and then stop and tear it up and throw it on the ground. He usually does this so quickly that we don’t even see him coming.

Well, last week he came by with his girlfriend and grabbed the tract and stopped and then asked Ron, “You know what I am going to do with this don’t you?” Upon recognizing him Ron said, “You are going to tear it up and throw it down.” He then said that he wasn’t going to do that this time, as he gave the calendar card back to Ron. Something had changed in him. He apologized for his behavior over the past few years, saying that his attitude had been wrong. He talked about being treated the way he treated others and that he was working on change. He then went on to talk at length with Ron about his beliefs and how they were changing.

Now while he was talking with Ron, his younger girlfriend was talking with Karen and said that she had grown up in a Baptist church and had received Jesus during that time. This gave Karen plenty of time to listen to her story and to share the love of Jesus with her from a relational point of view instead of a religious one.

After about twenty minutes had passed, the young man and his girlfriend left with handshakes and friendly smiles. This particular interaction had been about three years in the formation. Thankfully one fruit of the Holy Spirit is patience or longsuffering. We are not sure how many calendar cards and curses we had to endure to get this conversation and opportunity to witness, but it could be close to fifty.

This is just one of the “street stories” we have to pass along to encourage you to endurance, perseverance, and patience. We just never know when there might be some kind of a breakthrough with those who pass us by in the Living Room. And you just never know when the next time you see a particular person they might stop and talk with you, asking you about what you believe and why.

And by the way, I still believe there's definitely a place for street preaching.


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Creation Points to God’s Greatness and Beauty

Romans 1:20 says, “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made.” The entire creation declares what God is like. That includes animals.


True, the animal kingdom is under the Curse that came with humanity’s fall. See Romans 8:20-21, “For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God."


Therefore the viciousness in some animals, for instance the animal that eats its own young, does not speak of God’s character. Nevertheless, there is a beauty to the animal kingdom, even evident today in its fallen state, that God celebrates as the Creator. In his self-revelation in the book of Job, he speaks of many of his animal kingdoms, including the horse, which he describes with obvious fondness and pride (Job 39:19-25).


These photographs are among National Geographic’s best. To me they are a worship experience. They speak not only of the beauty of God’s creation, but the skill of others of God’s creatures—the photographers. Enjoy and worship the great God of creation. And look forward to the wonders that await us on the New Earth, where there will be no more curse (Revelations 22:3).


Here's more of the best pictures of the year. For more great pictures, visit National Geographic.




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Twenty Years Ago Today: Rescued in Alaska

Today is the twentieth anniversary of an unforgettable experience.

In 1989, I’d spoken at a missionary conference in Palmer, Alaska. Afterward, we were headed north to Galena, on the Yukon River, by small plane. My ten-year-old, Karina, and I were flying with our missionary friend, Barry Arnold, and his daughter, Andrea, also ten. Nanci and our daughter Angie were leaving with the rest of Barry’s family an hour later in another plane, tak­ing a different route.

Well into the flight we were cruising over a beautiful waterfall at three thousand feet, when suddenly the engine lost power. We saw smoke. Realizing that there was no oil pressure, Barry had to shut off the engine, which looked like it was about to burn. Suddenly we were descending rapidly in a rough mountain pass where there was no place to land. It looked like we wouldn’t make it.

By God’s grace, Barry spotted just the right strip to come down on, dodged the rocks in a beautiful emergency landing. Had we been only a few miles farther, there would have been nowhere to land. We would have crashed. I will always thank God that my friend Barry was a skilled pilot—but as he has said later, this situation was bigger than his skills; we needed God to intervene, and He did.

We landed at 4:30 P.M. Barry couldn't reach anyone by radio, but set off the emergency locator transmitter. We put rocks out to form an SOS, set up shelter, ate C rations, and prayed for our families, who would soon real­ize we were down but wouldn’t know we were alive. Then we waited, hoping and praying that we would be rescued before the black cold night came upon us.

Barry had sleeping bags for all of us, and we could have survived for some time. But our hearts were with our families who didn't know where we were. As it turned out, because the locator transmission appeared to place the plane in a glacier several miles away, the search and rescue team, Vicki and Nanci had no reason to believe we had survived. We found out later they were searching mainly for a plane wreck. Nanci and Angie, who was only eight years old, talked about the possibility that Karina and I might be in Heaven.

In the next hours we saw three planes. Two were com­mercial flights, flying high. They weren’t listening to the emergency frequency, didn’t see our SOS or fire, and didn’t notice us waving white flags. The third airplane could have seen us, but the pilot wasn’t looking.

It got darker (though in August in that part of Alaska, darker wasn't that dark). We prepared to spend the night.

At 10:30 P.M. a search and rescue plane saw our flare. After we’d been seven hours on the ground, near midnight, a huge craft descended from above, bright lights piercing the darkness. It was a search and rescue helicopter.

The pilot got out and flashed his broad grin. He was a welcome sight! He said, “We expected wreckage. We didn’t think you’d be alive.”

We found out later there were four airplanes and two helicopters combing the mountains looking for us. And the last plane was headed home when the pilot felt prompted to fly over our area, which wasn't where the signal seemed to be coming from. Otherwise, we’d never have been found that night. God did other things to care for us, including providing pure fresh water gushing up from the ground, in an area where all the rest of the water was extremely muddy.

I still remember the squeals of delight from our ten-­year-old girls as that big military helicopter with its powerful searchlight and deafening roar landed only forty feet from us. (You see a little of this in the video below.) I’ll never forget the sense of wonder and gratitude. When they took us on board and flew us to spend the night in a hunting lodge, it was an indescribable feeling.

I know what it means to be unable to make it out on my own. I know what it means to be overlooked by those unaware of our plight. And I know what it is to be found by someone searching, someone with resources we didn’t have but desperately needed.

We would have done much better in the Alaskan wilder­ness without our rescuers than any of us can do without God. Left to ourselves, we’re utterly helpless and hopeless. We can’t lift a finger on our own behalf. We’re lost in sin’s wilderness, stranded, trapped in a remote ravine. No one can hear us. There’s no way out. Left to ourselves, we’ll die.

Unless someone comes down from above, to rescue us.

That’s our only hope. And that’s the gospel—God heard our cries; He searched for us, found us, and paid the ultimate price to deliver us.

I thank God that He preserved our lives twenty years ago. I look at what He has done over all these years, I look at our daughters and sons-in-law and grandsons, and am so grateful for what happened that day. God doesn't always spare His children from tragedies, as some of you well know. But when He does, we should be profoundly grateful. And we are. In fact, next week (didn't work this week) our family is getting together with the Arnold family and good friends to recall and celebrate God's goodness that day.

Here's a five minute video that captures some of what happened that day, starting from where we took off in Palmer, Alaska. Nanci and Vicki are in the opening, and our younger daughter Angela, then eight is in the plane with Karina, though she got out to make room for Andrea, so wasn't on the flight. Barry Arnold—then a missionary and now a pastor at a wonderful church called Cornerstone, here in Gresham, Oregon—wrote the little intro and a few captions. I shot the video footage from the front passenger seat, until just above the ground when Barry yelled, "It's gonna be rough!"



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


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Giveaway of the Month: “Share Heaven” Pack

This month we’re giving three winners a “Share Heaven” pack that includes Randy’s books Heaven and TouchPoints: Heaven, along with a Heaven booklet and a packet of 25 Heaven tracks. They’re great tools to help you share the hope of Heaven with others!

Inspired by Randy Alcorn’s best-selling comprehensive book Heaven, TouchPoints: Heaven is a smaller 210-page paperback containing biblically based answers to many questions about what life will be like on the New Earth.

The 60-page Heaven booklet is a sampling of the questions and answers found in the larger book and is being distributed widely at memorial services and funerals, and used as an evangelistic tool with friends and neighbors. (Available in packs of 20.)

In the Heaven tract, Randy explains that Heaven isn't our "default destination" and that specific preparation must be made if we are to safely arrive in Heaven. (Available in packs of 25.)

Here’s how to enter: Leave a comment on this post by Sunday, August 30. (If you're reading this post on Facebook or Amazon or elsewhere, visit http://randyalcorn.blogspot.com/2009/08/giveaway-of-month-share-heaven-pack.html to leave your comment.)

In order to qualify for the giveaway, you must include your contact information (a blog, e-mail address, or website), otherwise we cannot contact you if your name is drawn. (If you do leave an e-mail address, to avoid having it picked up by spammers, I recommend encoding it, such as: youraddress AT yahoo DOT com) Need help posting a comment? Click here for step-by-step instructions. For further assistance, contact me at stephanie(at)epm.org

The three randomly drawn winners will be announced in a blog post on Monday, August 31, so be sure to check back and see if you won.

If you're a previous winner, rather than entering, we'd encourage you to share this giveaway with friends who are not familiar with Randy's books and Eternal Perspective Ministries.

To check out Randy’s other Heaven titles, visit the EPM website. All Heaven-related books are on sale from EPM during the month of August at a 40% discount. (Sale excludes the Heaven Study Guide, Heaven Bible Study Workbook, Heaven Group Discussion Guide, Heaven booklets and Heaven tracts.)

Stephanie Anderson
Promotions Director
Eternal Perspective Ministries
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5 Years Ago, and 35 Years Ago

Five years ago today, Jake Stump, our first grandchild, was born. Thursday everybody comes over to celebrate this milestone. Love you, Jako! You're a delight. (And so are those other grandsons!)

Thirty-five years ago was also the wedding of my best friend Jerry Hardin, who's now with Jesus. That's me on the right. (Jerry's the skinny one.)

You can read my blog I wrote about Jerry on the 15th anniversary of his home-going. I wrote a chapter about my friendship with him in In Light of Eternity. Can't wait to see my "old buddy" Jer again.



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