Let the Nations be Glad by John Piper Subtitled The Supremacy of God in Missions, this book was originally marketed as the “sequel to the Supremacy of God in Preaching [and] draws on key biblical texts to show that worship is the ultimate goal of the church and that proper worship fuels missions.” To a large extent, Piper satisfies this goal and goes beyond it.
Often used as the book to read on missions, Let the Nations be Glad lived up to the hype. The book is composed of two parts, the first entitled “Making God Supreme in Missions, The Purpose, the Power, and the Price.” Here Piper speaks of the relationship between missions and three important actions: worship, prayer and suffering. Each of these chapters is loaded with scriptural support and, as usual, Piper’s favorite theme of seeking our own happiness in God emerges.
The theme of chapter one is, “Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is. Missions exists because worship doesn’t” (pp. 11, 40). Piper proves his point and also writes a helpful section on why God seeks His own glory.
Chapter two deals with prayer. Piper states, “Until you know that life is war, you cannot know what prayer is for.” Excellent statement. Piper’s postmillennialism comes out most clearly in this chapter, although in a footnote (p. 51) he attempts to minimize its impact on missions. Still there is a major difference when it comes to missions whether or not we believe that the goal is to extend the worldwide reign of Christ (p. 50).
Chapter three was on suffering. I’m just not sure anyone tackles this topic better than Piper. There are so many superb examples of suffering in this chapter for the cause. It also contains a powerful section on retirement (pp. 107-112), which is the overall thrust of the chapter. Just a passing observance, I think Piper comes awfully close to spiritualizing away the true meaning of Hebrews 13:12-14 (pp. 80-84), a passage that plays a prominent role in this chapter. Also sometimes Ifind myself a bit uncomfortable with how Piper seems to overly elevate the words of Jonathan Edwards to near inspiration. He offers from Edwards an interesting but mostly speculative explanation of degrees of happiness and glory in Heaven (pp. 89-91). Granted, Edward’s is close to inspiration, however, when the dust has settled he doesn’t know any more about Heaven than what the Bible reveals and you and I have access to! Let’s not elevate men above where they deserve! The opposite of True Worship!
In the final part of the book, “Making God Supreme in Missions, The Necessity and Nature of the Task,” Piper moves from the experiential to the doctrinal. Here he shines as he usually does when he is addressing doctrine and the application of it.
In chapter four, Piper is eager to prove that “God’s will is to glorify His Son by making Him the conscious focus of all saving faith” (p. 115). He proves from Scripture the reality of Hell, the necessity of Christ’s atonement and gives an excellent rebuttal to inclusivism (pp. 131-164).
The final chapter discusses the Great Commission, handling particularly what it means to make disciples of all nations. Piper’s view is that it means to reach all “people groups” not all individuals from within these groups (pp. 169, 172-173, 194, etc.). It should be mentioned that Piper’s postmillennial views show up again in this chapter (pp. 199, 204).
This is indeed a wonderful book on missions from a biblical perspective. Piper manages to interweave heavy theology with practical exhortation toward the missionary task—no easy feat. It is easy to see why so much praise has been lavished on this work. It should be mandatory reading for anyone in the church interested in missions… and that should be every Christian.
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