Randy Alcorn

Selama lebih dari empat tahun, Nanci, istri saya yang tercinta, berjuang melawan kanker. Waktu itu ada banyak kabar baik, dan banyak pula kabar buruk. Kami mengalami pasang surut emosi selama tiga kali operasi, tiga kali penyinaran radiasi, dan tiga kali kemoterapi.

Just as you can take verses out of the Bible and argue for universalism, so you could take various things I say to argue for it, but then you have to look at the whole body of the argumentation.

Sometimes we make the foolish assumption that our heavenly Father has no right to insist that we trust Him unless He makes His infinite wisdom completely understandable to us. But if God offered us constant explanations for the circumstances we face, our lives would not be free or normal, and would not allow for faith or trust.

In this clip from a conversation with Jay Rudolph on The Plumb Line Radio Show, Randy addresses the parable of Lazarus going to Abraham’s bosom, the place called Paradise. Randy points out that God is not depicted there, but His people are. God’s people could not be in His presence because the Resurrection had not happened yet. God is going to bring the Present Heaven to the New Earth and relocate His people to the New Earth.

In this clip from a conversation with Jay Rudolph on The Plumb Line Radio Show, Randy talks about our resurrection bodies in reference to 1 Corinthians 15. He explains that we will have our resurrection bodies on the New Earth after the resurrection, but not in the Present Heaven.

In this clip from a conversation with Jay Rudolph on The Plumb Line Radio Show, Randy says God made us to be not just spiritual but also physical beings, and He promises the eventual physical resurrection of our bodies.

Back in the 1970s when I was a brand-new Christian, it was popular for people to ask questions like, “Can God create a stone so heavy that He cannot lift it? If not, then He is not all powerful, and if so, He is not all powerful. Therefore, if it is impossible, that contradicts Scripture.” To some it seemed convincing, but it was just a ridiculous self-contradiction that proved nothing at all.

Like countless others, I was greatly saddened by the murder of 31-year-old Charlie Kirk, the founder and president of Turning Point USA, a few days ago. My prayers have been with his family and friends and church. Many of us have wept for their pain and suffering, and wept for our country as well.

Life in this world—the way it is now and the way we are now—can be difficult, can’t it? It’s easy to become burdened, discouraged, depressed, or even traumatized when you suffer the loss of a loved one, when your health is failing, or when your dreams—your family, career, or lifelong ambitions—have crumbled.