Randy Alcorn - If God Is Good Study Guide: Companion to If God Is Good

P ART I

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1-B:

P ART 2

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Welcome to an exploration of the vital and universal themes that are discussed in Randy Alcorns book If God Is Good.

This study guide will be the most help to you if youre going through it as part of a small group or class (see the Group Leaders Guide at the back of this book). But of course you can benefit greatly from going through it on your own as well.

Whats Here?

This is a thorough guide to a fairly large book, but the structure is simple. This guide includes components and questions that link to each chapter in IGIG. Youll see four elements here for each IGIG chapter, marked by these four headings:

Focus In
Interact
Explore Further
Investigate Deeper

Focus InThis component briefly highlights a few of the most important points made in the IGIG chapter. Reading this will get you warmed up to the topic.

InteractHere youll find a few brief excerpts reprinted from the IGIG chapter, and each excerpt is followed by a question to help you interact with it.

Explore FurtherThese questions help you reflect further on the chapters topic, and they often direct you back into the pages of IGIG to scan the chapter and look for certain things.

Investigate DeeperThese are the most comprehensive questions; they assume you are fully acquainted with the IGIG chapters content.

Youll see subheadings throughout this study guide that tell you which chapter in IGIG these elements correspond to, so you may easily go back and forth from the book to the study guide.

The Pace and Approach

This companion guide to IGIG is designed for use in a variety of ways. Choose which best suits your schedule.

We suggest you follow one of three approaches:

OverviewThis is designed as a four-week course. Youll notice from the contents page that this guide is divided into four parts; in this overview approach, you study one part each week. (As you do, complete everything under the Focus In and Interact headings, but skip all the rest.)

ExploratoryHere we suggest an eight-week course. With this simple structure, each of the four main parts is split in twowith an A unit and a B unit. So alternate each week between units A and B until all four parts are completed. (Youll complete Focus In and Interact and also the questions under the Explore Further heading.)

IntensiveThis is a suggested thirteen-week course linked closely to the structure of IGIG, which includes an introduction, eleven sections, and a conclusion (1 + 11 + 1 = 13). Youll see headings here in the study guide text that exactly match those section headings in IGIG. (In this intensive approach, youll complete everything in this study guidenot only the elements mentioned above, but also everything under the Investigate Deeper heading for each chapter.)

Youll notice that the number of bullets you see helps you remember which elements in the study guide go with which approach:

Overview (four weeks): Do everything under any heading that has a single bullet (), and skip the rest.

Exploratory (eight weeks): Complete both the single-bullet and the double-bullet () sections, and skip the rest.

Intensive (thirteen weeks): Complete everythingincluding the triple-bullet () sections.

Summary: The Three Approaches

To summarize, here are the three approaches we suggest:

Each week youll do one of the four main parts in this study guide:

Week One Part 1: The Burning Question

Week Two Part 2: Our Search for Solutions

Week Three Part 3: God at Work

Week Four Part 4: Our Best Response

Within each of these parts, youll do everything under any heading that has a single bullet () and skip the rest.

Each week youll do half of each main part in this study guide:

Week One 1-A: Somethings Wrong

Week Two 1-B: Tragic Choices

Week Three 2-A: Alternative Answers

Week Four 2-B: The Great Drama

Week Five 3-A: Whos in Control?

Week Six 3-B: Eternal Perspectives

Week Seven 4-A: Accepting Gods Purposes

Week Eight 4-B: What We Can Do

Within each of these parts, youll completeboththe single-bullet ()andthe double-bullet () sections and skip the rest.

Each week, youll complete the study guide contents that correspond to each of the numbered sections in IGIG (youll see the headings clearly marked within the study guide text):

Week One Facing the Hurt and Confusion (corresponds to the introduction in IGIG)

Week Two Section 1: Understanding the Problem of Evil and Suffering

Week Three Section 2: Understanding Evil: Its Origins, Nature, and Consequences

Week Four Section 3: Problems for Non-Theists: Moral Standards, Goodness, and Extreme Evil

Week Five Section 4: Proposed Solutions to the Problem of Evil and Suffering: Limiting Gods Attributes

Week Six Section 5: Evil and Suffering in the Great Drama of Christs Redemptive

Week Seven Section 6: Divine Sovereignty and Meaningful Human Choice: Accounting for Evil and Suffering

Week Eight Section 7: The Two Eternal Solutions to the Problem of Evil: Heaven and Hell

Week Nine Section 8: Gods Allowance and Restraint of Evil and Suffering

Week Ten Section 9: Evil and Suffering Used for Gods Glory

Week Eleven Section 10: Why Does God Allow Suffering?

Week Twelve Section 11: Living Meaningfully in Suffering

Week Thirteen Final Thoughts About God, Goodness, Evil, and Suffering (IGIG conclusion)

Throughout these weekly assignments, youll complete everythingincluding the triple-bullet () sections.

At a Glance

Heres a chart to help you remember the week-by-week structure, depending on which approach you choose: