Customer Reviews

The Book That Transforms Nations: The Power of the Bible to Change Any Country

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I couldn't put this book down. It was so easy to read and so easy to understand. I loved how Loren Cunningham tied together world history from the 1500s to the Word of God. The main point of this book is to show how whenever a nation uses the Bible as its highest standard of guidance, it will get blessed. He even takes time to explain how certain "non-Christian" nations also got blessed by behind-the-scene missionaries who implemented Biblical ideas into those nations. He also challenges us all to become nation builders too by abiding in the Word of God. Everyone who wants a very brief summary of the history of Christianity and the economic growth of certain nations for the past 500 years should read this! It will blow your mind away.

I loved this book, so much that I have already given out a few copies to others as gifts. Cunningham convincely presents the truth that there is power in reading the word of God, the Bible, so much that it can effect what happens in a nation that carries out its truth. He tells many wonderful, historical cases of countries where a single person or a group of people were following the Bible's truths and changed the course of their country's history. It is so amazing to see that one book can shift history, transforming the nation toward good things. He gives good, practical ideas of getting the Bible into the world. I felt like this was a hope-filled solution to the world's great needs. The Bible leads us to Jesus and He is the answer to all our needs. Great book.

This is one of the most incredible books I have read. It really gets to the missionaries heart and anyone that has a heart to see the Gospel spread.

This book is one that should be read by anyone wanting to engage the world today. Loren Cunningham uses the Bible along with history to show how that the world was meant to be engaged in spheres. I call it domains, but its the same concept. I'll have all our interns and others I work with read this book - it's a natural compliment to the book I wrote Glocalization. This book is going to have a very long shelf-life.

This book is incredible. Cunningham has first-hand in-depth knowledge about a host of countries and their stories.
It's amazing to see how different nations that are rich and prosperous today have been shaped by God's Word - how God's Word can, in fact, change a nation of poverty and corruption into a prosperous nation. He gives a number of examples of this, and explains how this happened - and can still happen today.

Loren Cunningham believes that the Bible is responsible for most of the good that goes on in the world. He tells a number of interesting stories to back this point up: William Carey in India (borrowed from Vishal and Ruth Mangalwadi), Abraham Kuyper in Holland, Hans Hauge in Norway, South Korea, Pitcairn, Martin Luther in Germany, John Calvin in Geneva. Then he ties things together by offering biblical principles for transforming nations. He also tries to explain the case of Japan, which is prosperous but not very Christian, and writes about the hope biblical reformation offers for Latin America and Africa.

The stories are great. (Read Mangalwadi's own books, as Loren recommends, for more details on India.) Many of the principles Loren gives also seem solid: the inter-relationship of unity and diversity, the interesting contention that Latin America derived a harmful machismo from the long Muslim occupation of Iberia, some of Loren's principles, such as "a determined few can . . . change the course of an entire country."

I have two problems with the book. First, Cunningham is weak when it comes to numbers, or perhaps just plain sloppy. The claim that 6% of Japanese are "followers of Christ" is absurd. (I've lived in the country for six years, and taught hundreds of students; stats I've seen show that less than 1% go to church.) Nor are there "110 million" Christians in China yet; the true number is probably about half that. (I'm a scholar of Chinese religion, and have interviewed people around China about their faith, or lack thereof.) When I told Cunningham the number was off, he said he got it from David Barrett, and that's who he was going with. But Barrett is wrong; shouldn't that make a difference? This makes me wonder about other "factoids" that Loren throws out: biological knowledge doubles every 180 days, the wealth of India is controlled by five families. It seems to me preachers of the Gospel should be more careful with their facts.

The second problem with the book is it seems to me Cunningham over-generalizes. I agree the Gospel has had a tremendous redeeming effect on human society. I talk about that in my own books. (Most recently, The Truth Behind the New Atheism.) But you can't talk about progress without talking about other factors as well -- especially technological innovation and capitalism. Japan isn't the only non-Christian nation that has prospered lately. Communist China is quickly becoming wealthy, and so is India. Of course Christians and Christian principles may play a role, but it's not nearly as simple and straightforward as Cunningham implies.

Read this book for the stories. For better research, and more careful thinking, I'd recommend Mangalwadi, Stark (some people have argued that Stark gets some of his facts wrong, too -- but the level of analaysis is far higher, and there's a lot more detail), and my own The Truth Behind the New Atheism.

I love YWAM, and have gained a lot from my involvement with it over the years. But reading this book, I can see why I've always felt that the organization could use a little more input from thoughtful Christian scholars. The goal of missions, after all, is to preach Truth.