Randy Alcorn's Blog

Because of Jesus, Our Best Years Are Always Ahead of Us

Randy Alcorn — Wed, 22 Apr 2026 00:00:00 -0700

Recently, a friend turned 40, and I was reflecting on that season of my own life. I remember when I hit 40, wondering if most of my best years were behind me because I’d “passed my peak.” (Despite the fact that I knew our ultimate peaks are always ahead of us in a far better world, so we can NEVER pass them here!)

Little did I realize at age 40 that my most spiritually impactful years in this present life were still ahead of me. The same precious children we were raising were going off to college and would soon get married to our wonderful sons-in-law. Our daughters and their husbands would remain a major part of Nanci’s and my lives, and their future children, our grandchildren, would also become a vital part of us. We would be able to love them and coach them and encourage them and laugh with them and send them Scripture texts, and all the other things you do with grandkids. The oldest of our five grandsons got married last summer, and another is getting married this summer (both chose godly young women whom I adore!). I feel very connected to our daughters and sons-in-law and to each of our five grandsons, as well as to the church Nanci and I helped plant 49 years ago.

At 40, I had written only eight of my now 68 books, and nearly all of my most important books were still to be written. Some very deep and lasting friendships were still to be formed. Now at nearly 72, I am deeply grateful for all God has done in the last 32 years—even the painful things—and how He faithfully used both the joys and the suffering to refine Nanci’s character and mine. (He always knows best, even when it hurts, and sometimes it really does. As I write, four close friends have died in a five-week period, and I’m speaking at three memorial services in the next six weeks.)

The words “finish well“ mean more to me than they ever did, and I am more determined than ever to complete my race to the glory of God. Especially because I know that after the finish line, what awaits us is eternal goodness, glory, beauty, a restored earth, and a depth of relationship with God and each other beyond what we can imagine.

So I am daily seeking God‘s face and living in His grace and drawing near to Him. I’m also guarding my life against anything that would ruin or in any way diminish my heritage to my children and grandchildren and the people whose lives, by God‘s grace, I have been able to touch. I seek to live by these words: “He must increase and I must decrease” (John 3:30). And ironically, the greater His increase and the greater my decrease, the more joy there is!

My advice to anyone feeling unease about an upcoming “milestone” birthday is to cling to King Jesus, and if God has given you a spouse and children and perhaps even grandchildren, to love them well. Keep your focus on the kingdom of God, and remind yourself of these words: “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it” (Proverbs 4:23). These words certainly apply just as much to single people. God cares deeply about the condition of our hearts, and guarding and cultivating them should be our top priority.

By God’s supernatural grace and empowerment, may we be able to say this at the end of our lives here—with all eternity yet in front of us, where we will at last never pass our peaks, having resurrected bodies and minds and enjoying abundant life on God’s New Earth, worshiping King Jesus:

“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day” (2 Timothy 4:7-9).

Will We Sing in Heaven?

Randy Alcorn — Mon, 20 Apr 2026 00:00:00 -0700

The Bible is full of examples of people praising God with singing and musical instruments. In the Temple—a representation of God’s presence—288 people sang and played a variety of instruments (1 Chronicles 25:1-8). The psalmist instructed the people to praise God with trumpets, harps, lyres, tambourines, strings, flutes, and cymbals (Psalm 150). Hezekiah said, “We will sing with stringed instruments all the days of our lives in the temple of the Lord” (Isaiah 38:20). Jesus sang with His disciples (Mark 14:26), and the apostle Paul instructed Christians to sing to the Lord (Ephesians 5:19). James says, “Those who have reason to be thankful should continually sing praises to the Lord” (James 5:13, NLT).

The 144,000 “who had been redeemed from the earth” sing a “new song” before God’s throne (Revelation 14:2-3). Moses’ song, likely the song of Exodus 15, might be on the lips of God’s saints in Heaven. Revelation 15:3, describing John’s vision of Heaven, says, “They were singing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, ‘Great and marvelous are your works, O Lord God, the Almighty. Just and true are your ways, O King of the nations.’”

Will songs we know be in Heaven?

Scripture songs will endure, but other music from Earth may also be preserved. If we sing songs in Heaven that were once sung on earth, perhaps we’ll also sing the hymns of people like Isaac Watts, Charles Wesley, and John Newton. Consider Handel’s Messiah, Luther’s “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God,” the black spiritual “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot,” and Isaac Watts’s “Alas! and Did My Savior Bleed?” What about the thousands of great hymns and praise songs from hundreds of cultures? Imagine a remote tribe singing praises in a beautiful language you’ve never heard.

Although some lyrics will require theological corrections, others will be suitable as is, ready to be sung in God’s presence. Just as new songs will express old and new insights about God, the old songs will express earthly insights that in the context of Heaven will have a greater depth of meaning.

Will secular songs survive? Not if they dishonor Christ. But what about songs that cried for perspective and deliverance? We might recall and even sing such songs to remind us of when we longed for God and when he answered. Maybe other old songs, less deep but not sin-corrupted, will be sung just for fun. Which of your favorite songs will survive the fire? (If there’s a specific reason why some won’t, why listen to them now?)

We will also sing “new songs” in Heaven (Revelation 5:9; 14:3) and on the New Earth (Isaiah 42:10). This suggests that some of God’s people may serve as songwriters, eternally lending their talents to the praise of God.

Music is transcendent—a bridge between this world and another. That’s why people devote so much of themselves to it and gain such pleasure in it. We love the rich and varied rhythms and harmonies. In Heaven God will unleash our creativity, not confine it. As a musical novice, I might compose something worthy of Bach. (And what kind of music do you suppose Bach will compose?!)

Will we always be on our faces at Christ’s feet, worshiping Him?

No, because Scripture says we’ll be doing many other things—living in dwelling places, eating and drinking, reigning with Christ, and working for Him. Scripture depicts people standing, walking, traveling in and out of the city, and gathering at feasts. When doing these things, we won’t be on our faces before Christ. Nevertheless, all that we do will be an act of worship. We’ll enjoy full and unbroken fellowship with Christ. At times this will crescendo into greater heights of praise as we assemble with the multitudes who are also worshiping Him.

Someone might ask, will we have to sing even if we don’t like to? The question assumes facts not in evidence—that whatever we dislike now we’ll dislike then. But doesn’t experience tell us otherwise? Aren’t there foods we love now that we hated as children? Aren’t there books we love now that would’ve bored us when we were younger? Had we been able to decide as children everything we would do or not do as adults, wouldn’t we have robbed ourselves of countless joys? We mustn’t assume that everything we don’t like doing now we still won’t like doing in Heaven.

In Heaven, where everyone worships Jesus, no one says, “Now we’re going to sing two hymns, followed by announcements and prayer.” The singing isn’t ritual but spontaneous praise (Revelation 5:11-14). If someone rescued you and your family from terrible harm, especially at great cost to himself, no one would need to tell you, “Better say thank you.” On your own, you would shower Him with praise. Even more will we sing our Savior’s praises and tell of His life-saving deeds!

We Can Simultaneously Make Room in Our Hearts for God, People, and Animals

Randy Alcorn — Fri, 17 Apr 2026 00:00:00 -0700

Sometimes I’ve seen Christians be upset that a story about an abandoned or abused animal has prompted an outpouring of public dismay. Some believers say things like: “Look! They care more about an animal than people made in God’s image!”

Now of course, if people only care about animals, and care nothing about suffering people, including unborn children, that is certainly wrong! And believe me, in a culture like ours, the injustice committed against unborn children is a major blind spot. As has been noted by many prolife advocates, in this country you can get in major trouble for tampering with a bald eagle’s nest, but under the law in many states, an unborn child can be murdered with no repercussions; and in fact, abortion is celebrated by many. How tragic.

But none of this changes the fact that humans were indeed given a mandate in Genesis 1 and 2 to exercise benevolent dominion over the animals, and that mandate has never been rescinded. So when we see an animal suffering, especially at the hands of other people, it’s only right that we feel upset and even indignant (and again, this does not diminish the fact that we should feel far more upset when we hear of the suffering of people, especially children). A suffering animal in many ways represents what’s wrong with this broken world, affected by human sin—and also reminds us of the world as it once was, and was always meant to be, with humans and animals delighting in God and in each other without enmity, accidents, abuse, natural disasters, or predators.

One of the strangest assumptions people sometimes make is that if we love animals, we can’t sufficiently love God and people. But love is not a zero-sum game. Any person who would care for a stray cat or dog is more likely, not less, to offer help to needy people. (I often hear comments about how much money people spend on food and vet care for their animals. And certainly, we need to be wise stewards of what God has entrusted to us. But consider all the money spent on sports or watching sports, boating, skiing, golf, and other hobbies. I don’t think when anybody sees a golfer or a boater or a skier, they automatically assume he or she doesn’t care about people and their needs.)

Nanci had a mug that I still see whenever I open the cupboard: “What I love most about people is their dogs.” But her love for animals never overshadowed her love for people. On the contrary, it strengthened it. Nanci took a special interest in homeless people; she prayed for them and made considerable contributions to local rescue missions. Her affection for animals often led to a deeper connection with people, even facilitating spiritual conversations, especially with other dog lovers. (There are many lonely, single often widowed people whose animals are a gift from God for them. They may even feel their animals are one of the primary ways God shows His love for them. This has certainly been true for me with my dog Gracie, since Nanci went to be with Jesus.)

Loving animals can expand our capacity to love God and other people. Usually, a child who loves a pet will also love people more, not less. Many children learn compassion for people as they care for animals.

Some of my favorite animal videos show people rescuing and helping suffering animals. Here are two examples:

https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?height=476&href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Freel%2F3369927609847283%2F&show_text=false&width=267&t=0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPGkm3QxXXM?si=AyZ3j9YOKH_nsLVx

Something deep within us resonates with the goodness of assisting a helpless animal. Videos like these remind me of Romans 8:19: “All creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are.” These people—regardless of whether they believed in God at all—acted as His appointed caretakers for helpless animals, and in doing so, they foreshadowed the perfect, sinless children of God who will one day rule the New Earth to God’s glory.

So let’s be careful not to mock or dismiss people for being concerned about animals, and especially those that are suffering. Instead, let’s use that love for animals as a bridge to share about their Creator who loves them and entrusted their care to us. He’s the God who died on the cross to offer us eternal life with Him, and who has a wonderful plan for redeemed people on a New Earth that will also include animals.

Note from Eternal Perspective Ministries: Preorder Randy's book All God’s Creatures: What the Bible Says About Animals, Heaven, and the New Earth from EPM, and your book will ship by media mail when it releases this fall.

The Heavens Move Our Hearts to Worship the Creator

Randy Alcorn — Wed, 15 Apr 2026 00:00:00 -0700

Like many people, I enjoyed hearing updates about NASA’s Artemis II, which recently completed a 10-day mission around the moon, traveling over 800,000 kilometers. The photos that commander Reid Wiseman took of the earth are stunning! (The one above is titled, “Hello World.”)

I’ve especially loved all the quotes from pilot Victor Glover, who used the mission to share about his faith, saying, “We need Jesus, whether on Earth or circling the moon.” (Check out this touching video of Glover greeting a young girl with Down Syndrome.)

Astronomy has been an interest for me since my childhood. Years before I came to know Christ, I was outside every clear night looking through a telescope. I was fascinated by what I read about the violent collisions of galaxies, explosions of stars, and implosions into neutron stars and black holes. My love for the wonders of the universe helped prepare me to hear the gospel and respond to Christ.

The universe is vast, yet God is said to have created it with His fingers. Effortless. No big thing. “He made the stars also” (Genesis 1:14), like a universe 150 billion light years across. If we could wrap our minds around the vastness of creation, it might make us think that it is small, and we are bigger than we are. The truth is that creation is incomprehensibly vast, and we are indeed very small. “The LORD merely spoke, and the heavens were created. He breathed the word, and all the stars were born. Let all the earth fear the LORD; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him!” (Psalm 33:6,8, NLT).

There’s something in the human heart that responds with wonder to the heavens above us, and is moved to worship the Creator. I appreciate what Joe Carter writes in this article for The Gospel Coalition:

The Heavens Are Still Declaring—and Not Just to Astronauts

Most Christians would likely struggle if, out of the blue, someone asked them to share a message about Easter Sunday. But Victor Glover was put on the spot while 250,000 miles from home and with the whole Earth listening.

“I don’t have anything prepared,” said the unflappable former Navy test pilot and NASA’s current Artemis II pilot. “I’m glad you brought that up, though; I think these observances are important.”

“I think that for me one of the really important personal perspectives that I have up here is I can really see Earth as one thing,” he added. “And you know when I read the Bible, and I look at all of the amazing things that were done for us who were created—it’s . . . you have this amazing place, this spaceship.”

“You guys are talking to us because we’re in a spaceship really far from Earth, but you’re on a spaceship called Earth that was created to give us a place to live in the universe,” Glover said.

“Maybe the distance we are from you makes you think what we’re doing is special, but we’re the same distance from you. And I’m trying to tell you—just trust me—you are special. In all of this emptiness—this is a whole bunch of nothing, this thing we call the universe—you have this oasis, this beautiful place that we get to exist together,” he said, referring to Earth.

“I think, as we go into Easter Sunday, thinking about, you know, all the cultures all around the world, whether you celebrate it or not, whether you believe in God or not, this is an opportunity for us to remember where we are, who we are, and that we are the same thing, and that we’ve gotta get through this together.”

Glover was responding to a question from a reporter who mentioned the Christmas message delivered by the astronauts from NASA’s Apollo 8 mission. During that 1968 mission, about one in four people on the planet watched the video transmission from space on television.

Read the whole article.

Two years ago, I had the pleasure of getting to know astronaut Shane Kimbrough, who like Victor Glover, loves Jesus. (You can view Shane’s Instagram, where he shows some incredible photos and videos he’s taken in space, like this one.) We spoke together at a gathering for illumiNations, a collaboration between a dozen or so Bible translation agencies to help provide God’s Word in every language in our lifetime. Shane and I were asked to have a joint conversation with Bobby Gruenewald (founder of the YouVersion Bible app). The brother who set up our session together said to me, “Shane is a guy who’s been to the heavens, and you’re a guy who’s written about Heaven, so let’s put you together.” We had a great time talking about the New Earth, the view from space, and more. Watch our interview together here.

Christ Is Our Model for Prayer and Submitting to God’s Will

Randy Alcorn — Mon, 13 Apr 2026 00:00:00 -0700

During her four-year cancer battle, Nanci and I prayed together every night, asking God to remove the cancer. We asked Him to perform a miracle, and if He didn’t do that, to use the medical means over which He is sovereign to save her life. We understood that healing was never a certainty, and also knowing full well that sometimes He chooses to heal and sometimes He doesn’t, and even when He does the healing is temporary, and death always comes.

“For death is the destiny of every person, and the living should take this to heart” (Ecclesiastes 7:2). When doctors told us Nanci was going to die, she told me, “We always knew that, we just didn’t know when, and we still don’t.”

I don’t regret all those prayers for a moment. I believe it was right to ask, and I know we were sincere in our asking. God didn’t answer as we hoped He would. But then God also didn’t answer the prayer of Jesus to have the cup of suffering taken from Him.

In Gethsemane, Jesus prayed to his Father three times, saying, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will” (Matthew 26:39). A bit later, Jesus prayed, “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done” (Matthew 26:42). Though we asked God wholeheartedly to heal Nanci, we recognized Him as Lord and trusted Him to do His will even if it wasn’t our will. We knew what God sovereignly chose would be both for His glory and Nanci’s good.

Similarly, Paul prayed earnestly for God to remove a physical disability, but recognized God had a higher purpose in not removing it: “In order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:7-9).

Some people claim that if God doesn’t answer your prayers as you wish, it’s your fault because you lack faith. By the same logic, Jesus and Paul were at fault that their prayers weren’t answered as they desired. (But of course, Scripture does not fault them at all for this.)

Certainly, God sometimes graciously answers our prayers to relieve our suffering. This too testifies to His greatness, and we should praise Him for answering. But when He answers no, we should recognize that He desires to demonstrate His greater glory. May we then bend our knees and trust His sovereign grace.

Hebrews 5:7 says, “During his earthly life, he [Jesus] offered prayers and appeals with loud cries and tears, to the one who was ablet to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence.” In her journal, Nanci wrote these reflections after reading that verse:

We can and should use Christ as our model for prayer. What do we learn from this verse?

Jesus prayed to the Father while on Earth.

His prayers included appeals—so we can offer our requests and petitions, presenting our desires to God.

He even cried loudly sometimes, and cried with tears. We can and should express our level of anxiety and fear. God knows our hearts anyway!

Jesus knew that the Father was able to answer His prayer to save Him from death—so He prayed for that.

But Jesus was also fixed totally to God’s perfect will for His life and the plans God had for the whole world. “Never the less, thy will be done.”

This tells me we can freely come to God, pleading our requests, as long as we hold to the sovereign will of God. Since Jesus was without sin, it is not sin to plead our case to God. This is what He wants us to do. It is not more spiritual to simply pray that God’s will is accomplished no matter what our desires are. This prayer of Jesus proves that we are free to pour out our hearts’ desires to God. But then we must acknowledge and accept that God always has our best interests in mind. His ways are always best—even if we don’t understand them right away. Those paths He leads us on will be exposed to be the very best—if not soon, maybe later on. If not on this Earth, for sure on the New Earth.

And it’s important not to miss that Christ’s prayers were heard by God “because of his reverence.”

My prayers—my heart—must be in reverence to Almighty God. He is my God. I must bow to His will. I must bow to His holiness and justice. I worship His grace, mercy, kindness, and unfailing love. I acknowledge His omniscience, omnipresence, omnipotence, and wisdom.

Lord, please give me a more reverent mind and heart for you!

We Are to Draw on God’s Strength and Partner with Him in Our Sanctification

Randy Alcorn — Fri, 10 Apr 2026 00:00:00 -0700

Scripture says, “His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness” (2 Peter 1:3). So what do we need to live righteously that He has not given us in Christ? Nothing.

The source of strength we call upon is not our own, which is insufficient, but God’s, which is infinitely powerful. God says, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9). You bring the weakness, He brings the power.

Does any of this imply that it doesn’t take a lot of effort to live the Christian life? Of course not. But notice the intertwining of effort in this partnership with God—“To this end I labor, struggling with all his energy, which so powerfully works in me” (Colossians 1:29). We must make every effort to be righteous, to obey Him. Yet all the while we must do this appealing to His strength, not our own.

One caution is important here. Some people approach the concept of “allowing God to work through me” as if it were some passive condition whereby God invades you and takes over, automatically causing you to live righteously, bypassing your own will. Not true. The spiritual life is warfare. To win the fight you must take on the armor of God and wield the sword of God’s Word, which requires diligence and hard work (Eph. 6:10-18). As J. I. Packer says in his book Keep in Step with the Spirit, “The Christian’s motto should not be ‘Let go and let God’ but ‘Trust God and get going!’”

In Great Joy, Packer wrote:

Sanctification, we now see, is both a gift (that is one side: God working in us to renew and transform us) and a task (the task of obedience, righteousness, and pleasing God). And we must never so stress either of the two sides that we lose sight of the other. Think only of the task, and you will become a self-reliant legalist seeking to achieve righteousness in your own strength. You will not make any headway at all. Think only of the work of God in your life, and the chances are that Satan will trick you into not making the necessary effort and not maintaining the discipline of righteousness so that, in fact, even as you rejoice in the work of God in your life you will be dishonoring it by your slackness. Hold both sides of the matter together in your mind, if you want your living to be right.

There is no contradiction between God working in you and you working to follow God. This is the nature of the spiritual partnership He establishes with us. He works, and so must we. If you pray that God will keep your thoughts sexually pure, then turn around and look at pornography, you act in contradiction to your prayer, showing it to be only words. You must demonstrate that you are serious about your prayer by taking all the steps to avoid sexual immorality of the mind and body. In other words, it matters what you do.

For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. (2 Peter 1:5-8)

Notice that it says “make every effort.” The good news is that God makes His resurrection power available to us to walk in victory over sin.

The Christian life is not a choice between loving and trusting Jesus, and making an effort to avoid temptation and sin. It is not either/or—it is both/and.

My New Book All God’s Creatures, Coming This Fall

Randy Alcorn — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 00:00:00 -0700

My latest book All God’s Creatures: What the Bible Says About Animals, Heaven, and the New Earth will be released from Tyndale House on November 17. It was a labor of love for the past three years—especially love for God first, and Nanci second.

I dedicated the book to Nanci, saying:

“To Nanci, my wife, soulmate, and best friend,

now living with Jesus:

Never has a woman had more love in her heart

for both God and his animals.

It was through you that I first came to love God.

When I saw you fall in love with our dogs,

it made me love you all the more.

Of all the books I’ve written,

I know this will be your favorite!”

The truth is, it is also my favorite book I’ve written. And this will be, if I’m counting right, book #67. Certainly, it is my most unique book.

Authors often say, “There’s no other book like this one,” because they aren’t aware of another book like theirs. But almost always a somewhat similar book exists—they just haven’t seen it.

However, I am an avid researcher, and I look far and wide, search extensively, and dig deeply, so very little escapes my notice. I know that while every book I have written is unique in its own way, other books, written by other evangelicals, are at least in certain ways similar to parts of mine.

For the first time in my writing career, I can confidently say there is no other book out there like this one.

Many of the books I’ve read about whether animals are in Heaven are self-published—not written by Bible scholars, but by lay people who dearly love their animals, tell readers their names, and suggest that it’s hard to imagine Heaven without their beloved dog/cat/horse/hamster/goat being there! I don’t minimize these books in any way; they are usually sincere, warm, and moving. But they normally do not argue a case from God’s Word as much from the feelings of their hearts. But I simply cannot name a serious, scholarly, accessible, Scripture-based, evangelical theology of animals.

(However, this is a long—but to me important—parenthetical statement, since I want to give credit where it’s due. In early 2026, pastor Clinton Archer of Christ Fellowship Church of Mobile, Alabama, submitted an excellent as-yet-unpublished PhD dissertation to Southern Seminary which, when he sent it to me, resulted in me extending my deadline an extra week because while our findings were similar in certain areas, he made several important points I hadn’t. I cited his thesis at least a half dozen times, more than any other source, squeezing them in at the last minute. I told Clint that if—I hope when—it is published I will happily endorse it. And when that day comes, I will rejoice that All God’s Creatures will not stand alone!)

One distinctive of All God’s Creatures is that I start every chapter with a compelling animal story and weave in many other stories as the book unfolds. While I wanted the book to stand up to scholarly scrutiny, I also wanted it to appeal to the average person, who loves animals like Nanci and I do! Most religious books on animals of any substance are written by theological liberals because, I think it’s fair to say, theologically conservative scholars have not for the most part taken animals seriously. (Perhaps we imagine if we did so, we would be buying into evolutionary assumptions or saying animals and people are equals or sounding like “bleeding heart liberals.”)

As for the possibility of animal afterlife, we tend to say, “Animals aren’t created in God’s image, so they can’t be in Heaven.” (Never mind that angels aren’t created in God’s image, and they are in Heaven!) Or “Animals don’t have souls or spirits so they can’t have an afterlife,” when in fact, the Bible uses the same Hebrew word nephesh, translated as “soul” for humans but usually not for animals even when used of both in the same immediate context (e.g. Genesis 1:20,24; 2:7). Furthermore, Ecclesiastes 3:21 clearly speaks of the “spirit of humans” and the “spirit of animals,” using the same Hebrew word ruakh and indicating that humans and animals alike have spirits!

I sought to make this book:

Biblically faithful, with careful treatment of Scripture.
Pastorally sensitive, recognizing that people love their animals, especially their pets, and naturally grieve their loss. This is as God would have it, and no one in our churches should be made to feel guilty for doing so! (Unfortunately, people are not always taken seriously when they grieve animals, and sometimes are corrected for it and thought to be unspiritual.)
Theologically corrective, because our evangelical doctrine of animals is so deficient as to be largely nonexistent, and what we have picked up from comments made in churches and seminaries is often dismissive and not grounded in Scripture.
Imaginatively rich while maintaining biblical grounding, demonstrating that while everyone speculates about the question of animals in the afterlife, some speculations are not based on Scripture, while others have considerable biblical support.
Full of true and delightful animal stories that entertain, encourage, and enlighten readers.

In All God’s Creatures, I make a clear biblical argument for animals on the New Earth. Scripture teaches that ultimately God’s people are not destined to a disembodied Heaven, but to a resurrected life on a renewed Earth, where God Himself will descend to dwell with humanity (Revelation 21). This doctrine of the New Earth is the solid foundation for considering the place of animals in eternity. I believe the Bible makes clear there will be animals on the New Earth in Isaiah 11 and 65. (While these texts could partly apply to the millennium, that cannot be their ultimate fulfillment because they are speaking of a time when the knowledge of God will be universal and permanent. For example, see Isaiah 11:9, which will not be true of the millennium and can only be true of the New Earth.)

But this isn’t just about the Isaiah passages. Romans 8:19-23 plays a major role in the book. The New Testament also repeatedly talks about God restoring all things. I explore passages such as Matthew 19:28, where Jesus speaks of the “renewal of all things” which we are to anticipate “until the time comes for God to restore everything, as he promised long ago through his holy prophets” (Acts 3:21). Similarly, Ephesians 1:10 says God’s plan is “to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ,” and Colossians 1:20 speaks of God restoring “all things in heaven and on earth.” These passages indicate a future restoration of life that extends beyond humanity to the entire created order on Earth.

Despite writing endorsements myself, I hadn’t sought endorsements for my books for fifteen years. But if they were ever necessary for any book of mine, this is the one, simply because a significant number of people have been taught that there are no animals in Heaven and will naturally push back against the book despite its biblical grounding.

I am grateful that Dr. Wayne Grudem, who became a friend years ago when we taught a theology seminar together at a church, is among the endorsers of All God’s Creatures. (See this clip from when we spoke together, and at the 7:51 mark, he says the Heaven book changed his mind about animals being in the eternal Heaven.) Wayne is Distinguished Research Professor Emeritus of Theology and Biblical Studies at Phoenix Seminary and arguably the leading theological voice among U.S. evangelicals. His Systematic Theology has sold well over a million copies and is the central theology textbook in over forty seminaries and Christian universities. His book Bible Doctrine, an abridgement of his systematic theology, is also widely used. Both volumes are familiar to innumerable pastors, teachers, lay elders, and serious students in churches in the USA and around the world. Grudem kindly wrote of All God’s Creatures:

In this delightful and fascinating book, Randy Alcorn’s thesis is that in the age to come, God will remove the curse on the natural world—placed after the sin of Adam and Eve—so that animals will be “set free” from their current bondage (Romans 8:21) and will regain the “very good” (Genesis 1:31) nature they had in Eden. Alcorn argues convincingly that many friendly animals will inhabit the New Earth. I hope he is correct in his expectation that God, in his goodness, may even bring back to life our favorite pets. I anticipate that everyone who reads this book will gain a deeper appreciation for the wonderful animal kingdom that God created for our companionship and joy.

Another highly credible endorser is Douglas Groothuis, PhD, Research Professor of Apologetics and Christian Worldview at Cornerstone University and Seminary, and author of Christian Apologetics. One thing I love about Doug as a philosopher is his expertise in teaching logic and analyzing arguments to determine whether or not they hold up logically. I knew he would have very high standards, and I could only hope that All God’s Creatures would live up to them. Doug wrote this:

Given his previous work, we should expect Randy Alcorn to address every topic he writes on from a biblically grounded, theologically astute, pastorally sensitive, and well-documented perspective. This book is no exception. I have long leaned toward affirming that animals will be part of the new heavens and New Earth, but now I am sure of it, given Randy's argumentation. Despite how many Christians have ignored it, this topic is no small matter for Christian theology or apologetics. Randy has done us a wonderful service with this book. Ultimately, All God’s Creatures invites readers to rethink the nature of Heaven and the New Earth, deepen their understanding of Scripture, develop a truly biblical theology of animals, and embrace an expanded vision of God’s eternal plan of restoration and renewal—for people, for animals, and for all creation.

I’ll be sharing more about the book—with some excerpts and more endorsements—in the weeks and months to come!

Note from Eternal Perspective Ministries: You can now preorder All God’s Creatures from EPM, and your book will ship by media mail when it releases this fall.

Because of the Resurrection, One Day Everything Is Going to Be OK

Randy Alcorn — Mon, 06 Apr 2026 00:00:00 -0700

It’s been almost three years since author Tim Keller entered the presence of His Lord and Savior. As is said of Abel, so it can be said of Tim: “he still speaks through his faith” (Hebrews 11:4, CSB).

This video clip, and what Tim says about how the resurrection changes how we face challenges, is just so powerful:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ps3C6HVAzqU

Scripture tells us that grasping the implications of the doctrine of the resurrection, and knowing that this present world will end and be resurrected into new heavens and a New Earth, should profoundly affect our daily behavior: “You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God. . . . In keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness. So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him” (2 Peter 3:11-14).

Indeed, the physical resurrection of Jesus Christ is the cornerstone of redemption, both for mankind and for the earth. Without Christ’s resurrection and what it means—an eternal future for fully restored human beings dwelling on a fully restored Earth—there is no Christianity. And the power of Christ’s resurrection is enough not only to remake us, but also to remake every inch of the universe: mountains, rivers, plants, animals, stars, nebulae, quasars, and galaxies.

Nanci and I spoke often about what it will be like to live forever as embodied people on a resurrected earth—a world with trees, rivers, animals, music, literature, eating and drinking, reunions, new friendships, and above all, worshipping God with nothing to hinder us. Because we will continue to be God’s image-bearers, living on and reigning over a risen earth, there’s every reason to believe we will enjoy sports, drama, technology, and everything God designed human minds to come up with. Talking about this was immensely encouraging both to Nanci and to me.

The resurrection means that our grief and sorrow and pain have an expiration date. The world as it is now is under the curse, but God will lift it once and for all: “No longer will there be any curse” (Revelation 22:3). No more sin. No more cancer. No more dementia. No more suffering. No more death. God “will swallow up death forever” (Isaiah 25:8).

The Apostle Paul wrote: “Our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us” (Romans 8:18). This requires trust on our part, since the promised greater good is future and we can’t see it in the present. But instead of trusting ourselves and our limited sight, we can choose to trust the One who has an eternal plan of sovereign grace and has gone to inconceivable lengths to see that it will be accomplished.

For those who have embraced the redemptive work of Jesus, it’s not a fairy tale—we really are going to live happily ever after in Christ’s presence, to His glory and for our good. And as Tim reminds us, that magnificence should permeate our lives and our thinking today.

Resurrection Sunday Worked in Reverse to Make Good Friday Good

Randy Alcorn — Fri, 03 Apr 2026 00:00:00 -0700

Today is “Good Friday,” commemorating the crucifixion of Jesus:

“Carrying his own cross, he went out to the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is called Golgotha). There they crucified him, and with him two others—one on each side and Jesus in the middle” (John 19:17–18).

But that torturous death of God’s Son was the single most horrible injustice in human history. So WHY do we call it Good? Why not call it Bad Friday or Horrific Friday?

Because out of the appallingly bad came what was inexpressibly good. And the good trumps the bad because the bad was temporary while the good is eternal. God’s love and grace come to us soaked in divine blood.

The Cross is God’s answer to the question, “Why don’t you do something about evil?” God did do something…something unimaginably great and powerful. One look at Jesus—at His incarnation and the redemption He accomplished for us—should silence the argument that God has withdrawn to some far corner of the universe where He keeps His hands clean and maintains His distance from human suffering. God does not merely empathize with our sufferings. He actually suffers. Jesus is God. What Jesus suffered, God suffered.

A powerful moment in the movie The Passion of the Christ occurs when Jesus, overwhelmed with pain and exhaustion, lies on the ground as guards kick, mock, and spit on Him. A horrified woman, her hand outstretched, pleads, “Someone, stop this!” The great irony is that Someone, God’s Son, was doing something unspeakably great that required it not be stopped. Had someone delivered Jesus from His suffering that day, He could not have delivered us from ours.

The Gospel accounts of the Crucifixion and Resurrection depict Christ’s deep unhappiness in Gethsemane and His anticipation of the Cross. Joy and happiness are overshadowed by sorrow and grief—until the release of death. What follows for Jesus is joy, but for the apostles it is overwhelming grief. Resurrection happiness soon shines its light, pushing sorrow into the shadows. Death is conquered, and our eternal happiness secured.

What would otherwise have been remembered as Terrible Friday is transformed into Good Friday because Christ’s resurrection works in reverse upon death. The hidden purpose in Christ’s suffering is no longer hidden—it becomes a spectacular cause for happiness. This is the gospel’s Good News! In the end, life conquers death, joy triumphs over suffering. Happiness, not sorrow, has the last word—and it will have the last word forever.

This secure future invades our present, so that even while death and sorrow remain, the new normal in Christ isn’t sorrow but happiness. As Easter worked in reverse to make Good Friday good, so our resurrection will work in reverse to bring goodness out of our most difficult days. Faith is a sort of forward memory in which we trust God’s promise of eternal happiness and experience a foretaste of that happiness in severe difficulty.

Have a wonderful Easter weekend with your families, realizing that every joy you experience now and ever will comes out of both the agony of Jesus on Good Friday and the triumph of Jesus on Easter Sunday. And every hardship you experience is something Jesus died to work together for your eternal good.

Moments That Reveal Our Sin and Our Need for a Savior

Randy Alcorn — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 00:00:00 -0700

In Mere Christianity, C. S. Lewis wrote:

When I come to my evening prayers and try to reckon up the sins of the day, nine times out of ten the most obvious one is some sin against charity; I have sulked or snapped or sneered or snubbed or stormed. And the excuse that immediately springs to my mind is that the provocation was so sudden and unexpected; I was caught off guard, I had no time to collect myself. Now that may be an extenuating circumstance as regards those particular acts: they would obviously be worse if they had been deliberate and premeditated. On the other hand, surely what a man does when he is taken off his guard is the best evidence for what sort of man he is? Surely what pops out before the man has time to put on a disguise is in the truth. If there are rats in a cellar you are most likely to see them if you go in very suddenly. But the suddenness does not create the rats: it only prevents them from hiding. In the same way suddenness of provocation does not make me an ill-tempered man; it only shows me what an ill-tempered man I am.

Lewis’s words are a good reminder that we should never excuse away our sins. Rather, we should be quick to recognize them, so that we can confess them to our merciful Savior. We may sometimes be able to fool ourselves and others, but never God. He knows what we’re thinking about and what we’re doing. And it is His appraisal of our life that ultimately matters. He is the Audience of One:

"Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence. If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there." (Psalm 139:7-10)

"Can anyone hide in secret places so that I cannot see him?” declares the LORD. ”Do not I fill heaven and earth?” (Jeremiah 23:23-24).

"The eyes of the Lord are everywhere, keeping watch on the wicked and the good” (Proverbs 15:3).

"My eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from me, nor is their sin concealed from my eyes.” (Jeremiah 16:17)

God not only sees our actions, He also knows our thoughts:

"You perceive my thoughts from afar. Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O Lord.” (Psalm 139:2, 4)

"[God] knows the secrets of the heart.” (Psalm 44:21)

"I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind.” (Jeremiah 17:10)

Incredibly, for those who know Jesus as Savior, we can rest assured that God has seen us at our worst, and He still loves us. Arms wide open, He invites our confession and repentance, which He always meets with His grace and forgiveness!

True Happiness Is Only Found in the Last Place Many People Look

Randy Alcorn — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 00:00:00 -0700

John Calvin said, “While all men seek after happiness, scarcely one in a hundred looks for it from God.” One reason is because we’re sinners. Another is because the average person wouldn’t imagine that happiness could be found in God. If they know Christians, they may or may not see any evidence that God makes people happy.

Many sense that the clock is ticking, and not only are they not happy enough, but even their present happiness is winding down. There’s a prevailing cynicism about whether lasting happiness can be found. Psychiatrist Thomas Szasz (1920–2012) said, “Happiness is an imaginary condition, formerly attributed by the living to the dead, now usually attributed by adults to children, and by children to adults.” Szasz implied that in our “enlightened” age, people no longer believe that those who have died live on in happiness. According to the naturalistic worldview, life ends at death. And even if those who reject a biblical worldview believed in an afterlife, they’d have no basis beyond wishful thinking to imagine it would be better than this one.

Unlike Szasz, Charles Spurgeon believed in Jesus and God’s Word, including 1 John 1:4: “These things we write to you, that your joy may be full.” Preaching on this passage, he said,

Come, let us be happy and joyful! If we have looked sad for a while, let us now be brightened by thoughts of Christ. . . . Let us not be satisfied until we have shaken off this lethargy and misery, and have once again come into the proper and healthy state in which a child of God should always be found, namely, a state of spiritual joy!

Jesus’ words “Ask . . . that your joy may be made full” (John 16:24) are remarkable. They indicate that joy is a major motive behind prayer. The Christian worldview doesn’t offer some vague, tenuous hope that there might be eternal happiness. It offers the solid promise of an eternal relationship with a happy God whose love is so great it sent Him to the Cross to secure our eternal righteousness and thus our never-ending happiness.

(Historically, there was no distinction between joy and happiness in the church and in the English language. Simply look up joy in a secular dictionary, say Webster’s Dictionary, and you’ll see it defined as happiness and, happiness defined as joy. They are synonyms with overlapping meanings. See this article for more.)

English Nonconformist minister Christopher Fowler (1610–1678) said that God’s children, because of “the love of God in Christ to them . . . have joy and comfort—that joy that angels cannot give, and devils cannot take.”

Jonathan Edwards said, “The enjoyment of [God] is the only happiness with which our souls can be satisfied. To go to heaven fully to enjoy God, is infinitely better than the most pleasant accommodations here. . . . [These] are but shadows; but the enjoyment of God is the substance. These are but scattered beams; but God is the sun. These are but streams; but God is the fountain.”

George Müller said, “I specially commend this point to the notice of my younger brethren and sisters in Christ. The secret of all true effectual service is joy in God.”

But is this “secret” known by young people being trained for church ministry and missions in Christian colleges and seminaries today? J. C. Ryle warned,

True religion . . . was intended to increase real joy and happiness among men. The servant of Christ . . . has no right to hand over innocent recreations and family gatherings to the devil and the world. The Christian who . . . walks the earth with a face as melancholy as if he was always attending a funeral, does injury to the cause of the Gospel.

An Ever-Increasing View of God’s Greatness Is the Path to Peace, Including in Grief

Randy Alcorn — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 -0700

On March 13, I lost a dear friend in John Perkins; on March 19, I lost a very close friend, Carlos “Chuck” Norris (I will eventually write my thoughts about him, now is just too soon); and tomorrow, Saturday, March 28 is the fourth anniversary of Nanci's death.

For those who recently began your grief process, I can assure you that if you know Him, and reach out to Him, God will be there for you. “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you” (James 4:8). He'll be faithful. If you’re not certain you know God, you can become certain. See this article, as well as a 90-second explanation of the gospel I gave when asked by Greg Laurie.

The process of grieving is not a sprint; it’s more like a marathon, with plenty of hills, and the need to drink a lot of water along the way. There will be a roller coaster of emotions, and right when do you think you’ve “gotten over” the grief, it comes back with a vengeance. But it does get better in time. (And if it doesn't, please reach out for help from your church, pastor, or Christian friend. I highly recommend GriefShare.)

In a strange way, grief can be a gift—somehow even a privilege—and for me it has been a daily companion. It is much easier to live with now than at first, but even right after Nanci’s death, I always knew that the only cure for my grief would’ve been to have loved her less. But the absence of love isn't a good solution to anything; rather, it is itself a disease. We grieve because we love, and we need to embrace love, not deny it or push it away from our hearts. Pushing your loved one out of your mind is not healthy grieving—it is denial, and actually slows down your ability to grieve properly.

Dr. Colin Murray Parkes wrote:

The pain of grief is just as much part of life as the joy of love: it is perhaps the price we pay for love, the cost of commitment. To ignore this fact, or to pretend that it is not so, is to put on emotional blinkers which leave us unprepared for the losses that will inevitably occur in our own lives and unprepared to help others cope with losses in theirs.

I have much more happiness in my life than I have sadness, but nothing will ever cause me to not miss Nanci. I wouldn't want to not miss her. I will miss her until that glorious day when I first see Jesus and also see Nanci again.

Nanci’s example has continued to impact me and our daughters and their families. What God brought her through the dying process gave her a bigger view of God. That made all the difference in Nanci’s life. (I encourage readers to see this index of what I’ve written on loss, grief, eternal hope, and Nanci’s life and homecoming. There are links to several blogs with wonderful insights written by her.)

She wrote in her journal:

This is my greatest ambition: “…a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised” (Proverbs 31:30).

I want to be a woman who fears the LORD. I want to worship God, and always hold in my heart a desire to fear Him.

And she truly lived that out.

Reflecting on Psalm 25, Nanci wrote, “Psalm 25 shows me that I can wait/trust/ask for guidance after knowing God’s ways.” Read the whole psalm, then come back to read her prayer in response:

Yahweh, I begin by lifting up my soul to you—the God I trust—with great confidence.

May that which seeks my defeat (fear, weakness of resolve, self-pity, impatience, pride, bad/ungodly advice from others) never succeed in causing you or me shame. I thoroughly believe that when I wait for you, I have every reason to put my hope in you.

Continue to make your ways clear to me. I trust that when I know and follow your truth—the truth about you, and your ways—then you will reveal to me the practical day-to-day “ways” I am to choose.

You are the God of my salvation. Therefore, the best and only course for me to take is to wait all day long for you.

May your work in my life be according to your ancient mercy and steadfast love rather than according to my past sins. I am totally unworthy of your grace.

Work on my behalf in your steadfast love and goodness, O Yahweh!

Because you are solely good and upright, you are pleased to instruct me—a sinner—in your way. You delight to do this. You are ready to do this—always! You will lead the humble in what is right. You will teach the humble your way.

For those of us who keep the ways you have shown us—the way of fearing you—those paths are filled with nothing but steadfast love and faithfulness. But fearing you has to come first.

Please LORD, may your Holy Spirit direct my prayers and desires first to knowing you and your ways.

What a Grieving Christian Needs to Know

Randy Alcorn — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 00:00:00 -0700

In this video clip from my interview with Costi Hinn, I share the importance of grieving with hope as believers in Jesus Christ:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhCIojCiDBw

I’ve heard it said, “There’s no wrong way to grieve.” I disagree.

Certainly, there are different ways and lengths of time to grieve. We should not rebuke or lay guilt on the brokenhearted! Even knowing He would raise Lazarus, Jesus wept for and with his grieving family.

The Bible says this about grief: “And now, dear brothers and sisters, we want you to know what will happen to the believers who have died so you will not grieve like people who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and was raised to life again, we also believe that when Jesus returns, God will bring back with him the believers who have died” (1 Thessalonians 4:13–14 NLT, emphasis added).

This means grieving as if we have no hope is the wrong way to grieve. And grieving while embracing Christ’s rock-solid promise of His second coming and our resurrection—and that of all who love Him—is the right way to grieve.

A grieving father wept as he told me, “I will never again hug my daughter.” I asked, “Don’t you believe in the resurrection?” He said, “Of course.” I responded, “But the resurrection means you will hug your daughter again and again!”

Jesus said, “Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have” (Luke 24:39). Our resurrection will follow the model of His (Philippians 3:20–21; 1 Corinthians 15:49). We will have the same bodies made new and perfect. Those who believe in the resurrection will grieve while consoling themselves that they will live forever with their Redeemer and their redeemed loved ones in their redeemed bodies on a redeemed earth!

We grieve the wrong way when we surrender ourselves to debilitating grief, allowing it to eclipse our love for God and others. Of course, most grief needs time, comfort, and counsel, not repentance. Still, if self-absorbed grief draws us further from Jesus, we need to repent, not only for God’s glory, but for our own good and that of our families. It’s a paradigm shift to learn neither to deny our losses nor be buried by them, but to bring them to the feet of Jesus who sympathizes with us and also empowers us (Hebrews 4:15–16).

Our grief has an expiration date. The world as it is now is under the curse, but God will lift it once and for all: “No longer will there be any curse” (Revelation 22:3). No more sin. No more cancer. No more dementia. No more suffering. No more death. God “will swallow up death forever” (Isaiah 25:8).

We who are grieving need to hear these words: “Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:16, 18).

The Gospel Is All about Jesus

Randy Alcorn — Mon, 23 Mar 2026 00:00:00 -0700

Tragically, many reject God because of the behavior of those who profess to be God-followers. I do know many honest and loving and gracious and generous Christians. Unfortunately, you will rarely see them in newspapers and on television, and in my experience, I don’t see all that many online either. This is very sad. I believe it grieves the heart of God.

How should we respond to this, when it’s brought up as an objection to the gospel? First, I think we should acknowledge to our skeptical friends that there are indeed many hypocrites. (And if you are a hypocrite, then repent, ask forgiveness, and trust God to empower you to no longer be one. And if it happens again, repent again, and get help from those walking with Jesus who can help hold you accountable for your attitude, actions, and words.)

But we also need to explain to our unbelieving friends that it makes no sense at all to reject Jesus because some of His followers, including us, can sometimes be hypocritical!

What, after all, is the gospel all about? Is it about us? No! Consider what we’re told in Acts 16:29-31:

The jailer…fell trembling before Paul and Silas…and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.”

It’s notable that Paul and Silas were in jail and instead of complaining about it, were singing songs of praise to God. So yes, their example was important. The jailer wouldn’t have been drawn to their faith had they not been visibly different than the average prisoner. The same is true for us in our neighborhoods and workplaces and locker rooms. People should see Jesus in us!

However, note what Paul and Silas did not say to the jailer: “Believe in us—since we’re so great—and you will be saved.” No, they said, “Believe in Jesus and you’ll be saved.” The Good News is not about how great you and I are (thank God for that). It’s about how great Jesus is and the wonderful things He’s done for us.

Regarding the problem of hypocritical Christians keeping people from believing, we should point out that many people of all sorts, including atheists and agnostics and Hindus, don’t live consistently with what they profess to believe. (For instance, some of the most intolerant people I know pride themselves on their tolerance, and are blind to their own intolerance, e.g. toward the sincere beliefs of Christ-followers.)

In other words, Christians don’t own the monopoly on hypocrisy. Furthermore, there are plenty of humble, loving, and generous Christians. People need to open their eyes and see them. Unfortunately, the attention typically falls on false Christians or loudmouths or hypocrites.

This is all part of Satan’s diversionary tactics. But the gospel is all about Jesus. The Jesus that Christians believe in is good, even when His followers violate His teachings. The Bible never says you have to believe in Christians to be saved. (If it did, I could not believe the gospel!) It says you have to believe in Jesus, who said, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life; no one comes to the Father but by Me” (John 14:6). He’s the One we’re invited to come and see (John 1:46). He’s the only One who can save and transform us.

As Tim Keller put it, “Jesus himself is the main argument for why we should believe Christianity.” That’s the life-changing truth, and that should be the message we share.

Reaching Readers from Around the World with an Eternal Perspective

Randy Alcorn — Fri, 20 Mar 2026 00:00:00 -0700

The international reach of our ministry has been so much further than I ever could have imagined back when Nanci and I started Eternal Perspective Ministries in 1990. My books have now been translated into over seventy languages, and we have articles on our website in 34 languages besides English.

I get excited about reaching people of every tribe and nation and language, and while of course we don’t have resources in every language, we have something to offer in an increasing number, which is very encouraging! If you know people who speak these languages, please share what we have available. We are continuing to translate meaningful articles, and pray that God will use them to reach people around the world.

Here are some notes we’ve received from international readers:

I am from Malawi. I just finished reading your book Managing God's Money, and I must say it has made me look at my life differently. I feel like I have a purpose now. I am currently waiting on God for a new job which I know is coming soon, but this time I want to do things differently. I made mistakes while working at my previous job, and now I have grown and I want to please God in all that I do and everything He entrusts me with. I really want to read The Treasure Principle, but I don’t have access to it. I am reading Managing God's Money again. May the good Lord bless you for all you are doing for the kingdom.

Hello Randy Alcorn, I am a 17-year-old Christian. I had the opportunity to become acquainted with your book, and it made me feel both happiness and deep sorrow. This experience was very meaningful to me. The book I read is Heaven: Thoughts on Eternity (Sonsuzluğun Işığında: Cennet Hakkında Düşünceler). I would love to read your other books as well; however, as far as I know, only three of your books have been translated into Turkish, and they are no longer in print. I wish more of your books could be translated. While reading your book, I felt as if I were talking with you personally. I wanted to thank you for the peace and joy it brought me.

I’m a Romanian believer that lived under the iron curtain up until my mid-20s, when the Revolution came. I lived in the Northwest part, close to the Hungarian border, near the city of Oradea. I’ve been reading your book If God Is Good and found out you’ve been to my country in the 80s. Thank you for being there for my brothers and sisters and sharing in their suffering. May the Lord richly bless you!

I am re-reading Safely Home. This story has meant so much to our family. Bedankt! Thank you from Holland.

As we approach the New Year of 2025, we spent time praying with the faculty of our church as we read and impart your book, Managing God's Money. Thank you for the theology of money and concrete instructions that led to many challenges, awakenings, new decisions in life. - 김영규목사, Sandol Church (Sandol means Livingstone) in Suji, S.Korea

Dear Mr. Alcorn, thank you so very much for your book The Purity Principle. We are a couple from Germany and are very thankful, that your book has been translated into German. We are reading this book to our eleven and 13 year old daughters. I just started the chapter where you write about the movie Titanic. Thank you so very much for speaking so openly. I got tears in my eyes because I'm so thankful, your words are so encouraging for us as parents. It's a struggle for us to find good movies that we can watch with over girls. They don't agree with our "narrow mindedness" concerning movies. We are part of Bible-believing conservative Church in Germany, but even dear brothers and sisters watch movies like Titanic and give them to us to watch with our girls. This is quite challenging for us. And now I am so very glad and thankful and encouraged by your book. Your words help us to keep our own hearts and minds clean and the minds and hearts of our kids. The Lord Jesus blesses us through your book. Thank you very much. The Lord bless you and keep you in His presence.

Dear Mr. Alcorn, today I re-read your book Courageous after I finished Safely Home again, after 15 years. It's been a pleasure to read your books, and it encourages me to take following Christ more seriously. I believe, maybe more than ever, especially in the Netherlands, that we need these kind of books to help people not to be lukewarm, but to light a fire in their hearts to follow Christ without reservation and hesitation.

Randy Alcorn's Blog

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