The core of the unreached people of our world lives in a rectangular-shaped window! It is a belt that extends from West Africa across Asia, between 10 degrees north to 40 degrees north of the equator. If we are serious about providing a valid opportunity for all people and every city to experience the love, truth, and saving power of Jesus Christ, we cannot ignore the reality that we must concentrate on this region of the world which could be termed "the 10/40 Window." Why? There are six good reasons.
1. Historical significance. In the book of Genesis, we read the account of Adam and Eve and the fall of man. Then came the flood, followed by the building of the tower of Babel--all of which took place in the 10/40 Window. This effort by man to try to rally together in defiance against God resulted in the introduction of different languages, the scattering of the people, and the formation of nations.
Ancient history was worked out in the territory marked by the 10/40 Window--from the cradle of civilization in Mesopotamia across the Fertile Crescent to Egypt. Ancient empires came and went in this very spot. The fate of God's people Israel rose and fell depending on their obedience to the covenant with their God. Here Christ was born, lived his life, died on the cross, and rose again.
It was not until the second missionary journey of the apostle Paul toward the end of the biblical record that events of divine history occurred outside of the territory identified as the 10/40 Window. The fact that so much of God's dealing with humanity took place on that piece of earth is a significant reason to focus on it.
2. Unevangelized peoples. While this is only one-third of the earth's total land area, almost two-thirds of the people in the world reside there. These people live in 64 countries. They include both sovereign states and non-sovereign dependencies. Only those countries with a significant majority of their area lying within the 10/40 Window are included.
When the 55 most unevangelized countries are overlaid upon the countries in the 10/40 Window, we immediately see a very close fit. In fact, 97 percent of the 3 billion people who live in the 55 most unevangelized countries live in the 10/40 Window. This constitutes the core of the challenge of reaching the unreached.
We need to think of the mission of Christ who came to seek and to save the lost, as he taught in the parables about the lost sheep and the lost coin. Christ made great efforts to heal, restore, and save just one person. We need to consider Christ's mandate to preach the gospel to every creature, to make disciples of all the nations, and to be his witnesses to the uttermost parts of the earth when we think about the 10/40 Window.
3. The Heart of Islam. North Africa and the Middle East represent the core of the Islamic religion. Adherents to the Islamic religion are growing, as is suggested by the increased numbers making the pilgrimage to Mecca. Yet at the same time, it is reported that many Muslims--having studied the Koran in great depth--have discovered in the process that the highest prophet described in the Koran is Jesus Christ and not Muhammad. We must pray that the "eyes" and the "hearts" of the Muslims will be opened to the truth.
4. Three religious blocs. There is the Muslim bloc with 706 million people or 22 percent of the 3.6 billion people living in the 10/40 Window. There is the Hindu bloc with 717 million people or 23 percent of the people living in the 10/40 Window. And there is the Buddhist bloc with 153 million people or close to 5 percent.
On May 6, 1990, the Jordan Times in Amman published a report from Algiers titled "Collapse of Communism Will Weaken Islam." In a conference on the future of Islam, Egyptian writer Fahmi Howeidi argued that "the Islamic World is marginalized in a new map." Howeidi was among 40 scholars and political leaders from ten Arab countries attending the conference. He said: "Christianity has been regenerated in Eastern Europe .... Changes in Eastern Europe showed that a liberal model of society... based on Christian, capitalist values, was sweeping the world. Islam had yet to come up with a viable alternative."
5. The poor. More than 8 out of the 10 poorest of the poor, who on the average have a gross national product of less than $500 per person per year, live in the 10/40 Window. More than one-half of the population of the world lives in poverty with less than the average of $500 per person. Of these people, 2.4 billion live in the 10/40 Window. Despite this fact, only 8 percent of all missionaries work among these people.
In the book Target Earth, Bryant L. Myers of World Vision and MARC wrote an article titled "Where are the Poor and Lost?" Myers suggested that "the poor are lost, and the lost are poor." He arrived at this conclusion after observing that the majority of the unreached live in the poorest countries of the world.
As Christians gathered from some 170 countries at Lausanne II in Manila, there was a heart-felt concern expressed in the second section of the "Manila Manifesto" for the materially poor of the world. The document reads, "We have again been confronted with Luke's emphasis that the Gospel is the Good News for the poor (Luke 4:18, 6:20, 7:22) and have asked ourselves what this means to the majority of the world's population who are destitute, suffering, and oppressed."
There is a remarkable overlap between the 50 poorest countries of the world and the least evangelized countries of the world. In fact, 79 percent of the people who are the poorest are also in the least evangelized countries of the world. And when you relate them to the 10/40 Window you discover that 99 percent of these least evangelized poor--2.3 billion people--live in the 10/40 Window. Only 6 percent of the missionary force now works among this 44 percent of the world's population. This certainly constitutes the greatest challenge of this decade for committed Christians.
6. Quality of life. One way of measuring the quality of life has been to combine three variables: life expectancy, infant mortality, and literacy. More than 8 out of 10 of the people living in the 50 countries of the world with the lowest quality of life also live in the 10/40 Window. This represents 47 percent of the population, yet only 8 percent of the foreign missionary force works among these people. More than 9 out of 10 of these people live in Hindu or Muslim countries.
The psalmist wrote, "Blessed is the nation whose God is Jehovah" (Psalm 33:12). Certainly, in comparing the relationship of the quality of life in the 10/40 Window with that in those countries which have a higher percentage of Christians, it becomes apparent that God blesses a nation that turns to him. Yet in turn, he expects the nation who is blessed to be a blessing to other nations (Psalms 67:1-2).
Stronghold of Satan. Why do committed Christians need to focus on the 10/40 Window? Because it is a stronghold of Satan. The people living in the 10/40 Window have suffered not only hunger and a lower quality of life compared with the rest of humanity, but also have been kept from the transforming, life-giving, community-changing power of the gospel.
The Scripture makes it clear from the writings of Paul the apostle that "the god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God" (2 Corinthians 4:4).
In the same letter, the apostle writes, "For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds" (10:3-4). A careful observation of the 10/40 Window would indicate that Satan has established a territorial stronghold with his forces to restrain the advance of the gospel in that territory.
We need to significantly increase our efforts in this decade to reach those who are in the 10/40 Window. If we are to be faithful to Scripture and obedient to the mandate of Christ; if we are to see the establishment of a mission-minded, church-planting movement within every unreached people and city by A.D. 2000; if we are to give all people a valid opportunity to experience thelove, truth, and saving, power of Jesus Christ, we must get down to the core of the unreached--the 10/40 Window.
Luis Bush is the international director of the A.D. 2000 and Beyond Movement. For more information on the 10140 Window, write: 2860 S. Circle Dr., Suite 2112, Colorado Springs, CO 80906. Phone: (719) 576-2000.