By Tim Newcomb, newspaper editor and freelance writer in Lynden, Washington

February 2010 – Randy Alcorn knew his book Heaven was going to be big. He was thinking size, not sales. Alcorn has always used Scripture references in his writing, but he wanted to do something different in his definitive work on heaven – he wanted to quote Scripture in the text. This practice not only ballooned the size of the volume, but it helped propel sales, as Heaven has sold over 600,000 copies in its five years and has not shown signs of slowing down.

To suggest a reason for the success of a Scripture-laden book, Alcorn does what he does best – he quotes Scripture. “Isaiah 55 says that God promises that His Word will not return to him empty,” Alcorn said. “Someone suggested reducing the actual Scripture content to references. I said, ‘No, it is fine to reduce my words, but the power of the Holy Spirit to transform is far and away greater in God’s words than in my words.’”

And he is glad he stuck to the plan. While he credits his publisher, Tyndale, with allowing him to expand what was to be 130,000 words into 180,000, he knows that Heaven sales – arguably the most successful book of its style ever – really opened doors for him to continue that style.

His fall 2009 Multnomah release of If God is Good, a book that covers the problem of suffering and evil, follows the style of Heaven. Demand created from pre-release reviews necessitated a second printing beyond the first 60,000 before the book was even released. For the second time, a lengthy work full of quotations of Scripture and theologians is making an impact. Originally, the book was going to be an 18,000-word piece skimming the surface of the topic. But largely due to the success of Heaven, Alcorn instead created something deep and thorough. Readers have shown they will digest it, a result of people clamoring for the truth.

Alcorn said that as he continues to write Scripture-filled books (except for a few upcoming smaller works) he knows the importance of quoting the Bible. After all, references aren’t enough to get the actual words of God into people’s hearts – Scriptures need to be imbedded in the text. “I consider myself a serious reader,” he said, “but it is interesting how seldom I go to look up a passage [that’s referenced in the text].

“Certainly I think people crave the teaching of the Word of God. It is very popular to talk about the postmodern era and that people don’t care about truth. I know many younger people who do crave truth. The matters of truth and falsehood have become foggier and more vague in our culture and there are many people who crave clarity in the middle of it.”

Readers also want something they can understand. “They are looking for things of substance that are communicated in reasonably understandable ways,” Alcorn said. “I labor to word things in such a way that a concept can have substance and at the same time be graspable and understandable.” He says that utilizing both substance and illustrations in abundance helps with that goal.

Both Heaven and If God is Good cover topics (heaven and suffering) that touch everyone, the “ultimate broad audience” every author looks for. Both topics are universal in application. “This isn’t something that only believers or only unbelievers struggle with,” Alcorn said. “They may phrase the question in slightly different ways, but they have similar questions.” So getting Scripture into the hands of hundreds of thousands of questioning readers is key to getting answers.

It isn’t only Alcorn’s two major-length non-fiction works that acknowledge the supremacy of Scripture. His short book The Treasure Principle lays out a lot of Scripture and has sold over 1.2 million copies.

Alcorn has woven a Scriptural base into his popular novels, too. His first two novels, Deadline and Dominion, really served as a precursor to Heaven. Scenes in the books depict life in heaven, but they aren’t all from his creative mind.

“What I did was study what Scripture says about heaven and I wanted to portray the reality of heaven as a real place where life continues, where people go right on existing,” he said. “My logic was to look at what Scripture says and let it serve as the parameters and the fence to have imaginative liberty. But I don’t want imaginative liberty outside of the boundaries of Scripture.”

Staying within those boundaries in his personal life means that Alcorn doesn’t measure success in terms of sales, but of impact. With 30 titles and 4.5 million books in print, his influence is only growing. And with it comes Scripture in the hands of readers. That’s the kind of impact Alcorn craves.