God is the Greatest Good and the source of all lesser goods: “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father” (James 1:17). Wayne Grudem says in Systematic Theology, “The goodness of God means that God is the final standard of good, and that all that God is and does is worthy of approval.”

I first posted about “the problem of goodness” on my blog 14 years ago, but it is still relevant to conversations I’m having today with others (nothing has changed other than the fact that I am 14 years older!). People always talk about the problem of evil, and how it threatens the Christian worldview, but they almost never talk about the problem of goodness and how it threatens non-Christian worldviews.

Randy Alcorn was interviewed on The Thinking Out Loud Podcast with Kevin and Kyle about his book If God is Good. In this audio clip, Randy talks about God's unlimited goodness and love.  

Atheists’ argument that goodness and moral standards can exist without God does not hold up. If there’s no God, people don’t live after death and aren’t held accountable for their actions, good or evil. 

Philip Hallie’s marvelous book Lest Innocent Blood Be Shed tells the true story of Le Chambon, a French town where Pastor André Trocmé’s church, under the Nazi occupation, provided Jews with food, shelter, protection, and means of escape. 

Randy Alcorn talks about the common grace of God in this world and what it would be like to be apart from all grace of God in Hell. This video clip was excerpted from Randy's Eternity 101 DVD class.

When it is so common to ask “Where is God When Evil Happens?” I can’t think of a better way to end 2012 than to post this from John Piper, who asks “Where Was God in All the Goodness of 2012?”

I’ve been attending and speaking at the C.S. Lewis Summer Institute at Oxbridge. Yesterday afternoon at one of the seminars, I talked about the problem of evil and suffering. 

I can't say that this book answered all my questions, or that everything made perfect sense to me, but there were several light bulb moments for me as I read through it. It also opened the door for some further discussion with my husband. -A.