Critique of Piper's "Let the Nations Be Glad" - for World Missions and Collegiate Ministry Class

John Piper’s Let the Nations Be Glad gives fantastic guidelines to understanding the purpose for which we’ve been created. Piper’s stirring language and passionate explanation of the nature of God comes through in this book. His love for the Word of God and his desire for the ultimate glory of God is what fuels his flame to see missions bring all peoples into worship of God.

The idea that had a great impact on me came in the first 4 sentences of the book. It says

Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is. Missions exists because worship doesn’t. Worship is ultimate, not missions, because God is ultimate, not man.

Although the remainder of the book is full of great nuggets of truth, this truth seems to be the most important of all the words written in this book. It is so obvious that the rest of the book exists to support and lend credence to the idea found within the first 4 sentences of this book.

God’s supremacy over man and all the other created order is a biblical idea that Piper is bringing to light in his own words. He is passionately serious about pushing forth this biblical idea into the forefront of the minds of every Christian on the face of the earth. It is obvious that John Piper is walking in God’s ways. He is saying things that in no way contradict with the ideas and principles found within Scripture.

The beginning of chapter 4 puts this idea into slightly different words. Piper states, “The aim of missions is the ‘bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations’ (Rom. 1.5)” (Piper 111). The Bible is very clear that God empowers His people for the sake of His name. It is for no other purpose than to bring glory, honor, happiness, and joy to the heart of the Father. It is for His name’s sake that missions exists.

I fully agree with everything Piper writes in this book. Although the ideas that he espouses are sometimes hard to understand or even like, I find that Piper is more biblically based than any other preacher or author who I’ve ever been influenced by. When he says that God is ultimately interested in having people worship and extol Himself, I was offended at first. However, as I began to understand this concept better, it dawned on me that God is the only being in the universe whose selfishness works to the good of all of creation. It is exactly opposite for those of us who are part of the created way of existence. When we are selfish, it works to the detriment of our fellow creatures. But when we are focused on God’s glory, everyone wins. This is true. John Piper walks with God, and it is obvious in his writings.

Another ah-ha moment that had came when Piper quoted Richard Wurmbrand on page 79. It says,

We have to make the preparation now, before we are imprisoned. In prison you lose everything. You are undressed and given a prisoner’s suir. No more nice furniture, nice carpets, or nice curtains. You do not have a wife any more and you do not have your children. You do not have your library and you never see a flower. Nothing of what makes life pleasant remains. Nobody resists who has not renounced the pleasures of life beforehand (Piper 79).

Wurmbrand was imprisoned and tortured for the sake of Christ. Because of these amazing stories of the faith, I am encouraged to give up the comforts that I enjoy here in Denver in order to honor God and glorify Him. I pray that God would make it obvious where I need to go and what I need to give up in order to truly follow Him in spirit and in truth. I must realize, just as Piper realized, that it is our vocation as Christians to suffer. We are to die to ourselves and our selfish ambitions in order that Christ’s kingdom may come through and shine through us.

As I stated before, I can think of nothing that I disagreed with him about. He is a solid Christian who walks with God, which comes through in his writing and in his preaching. The only thing that I suggest for this book is to not get so bogged down with lists of prooftexts for an idea. Place the scriptures in the front or the back of the book, but place them all together in order to know where these scripture references are located. If they had been bunched together, it would have made organization much simpler. It would have made the flow of the book a little more streamlined, which means that it would have been easier to read, and then to read it again.

I am recommending this book to all of my family and friends. I want them to know the reasons for missions, as well as our purpose as Christians. I want them to know what I am learning through the diligent and responsible exegesis of the text of God’s Word. John Piper is concerned about the glory of God. That passion wears off onto the reader, and it is a glorious feeling. It is wonderful to know that there are still people in this world today who are interested in building up God’s kingdom by reminding them of their purpose on this earth.

This book made me nod my head in agreement. This book made me cry. But most importantly, this book motivated me to leave it all for the sake of Christ. I am interested in His glory, and I pray that I will never lose that interest. His glory equals my joy. To see Him glorified brings joy to me in ways that are not necessarily tangible. I love to see others worshiping Christ, especially if it is in another language. It brings me joy to know that I will be able to join with those people in the relationships that we have built. To know that God is honored and glorified is enough for me to feel joy like no other joy I’ve felt in my life. This book changed my life, and I suspect that it will change the lives of all who read it in the future.