John Bunyan and Pilgrim’s Progress

Yesterday, we visited some friends and their very new baby, who they had decided to call Christian, which was the name of the hero in John Bunyan’s book, “The Pilgrim’s Progress”. The children’s version of the book is something my friends had read to their other children, which they liked, and thus the name.

According to Wikipedia: “John Bunyan (1628 – 1688) was an English writer and Puritan preacher best remembered as the author of the Christian allegory The Pilgrim’s Progress … Bunyan came from the village of Elstow, near Bedford. He had some schooling and at the age of sixteen joined the Parliamentary Army during the first stage of the English Civil War. After three years in the army he returned to Elstow and took up the trade of tinker, which he had learned from his father. He became interested in religion after his marriage, attending first the parish church and then joining the Bedford Meeting, a nonconformist group in Bedford, and becoming a preacher. After the restoration of the monarch, when the freedom of nonconformists was curtailed, Bunyan was arrested and spent the next twelve years in jail as he refused to give up preaching”.

According to Wikipedia: “The Pilgrim’s Progress from This World, to That Which Is to Come is a 1678 Christian allegory written by John Bunyan. It is regarded as one of the most significant works of theological fiction in English literature and a progenitor of the narrative aspect of Christian media … Bunyan began his work while in the Bedfordshire county prison for violations of the Conventicle Act of 1664, which prohibited the holding of religious services outside the auspices of the established Church of England … The entire book is presented as a dream sequence narrated by an omniscient narrator. The allegory’s protagonist, Christian, is an everyman character, and the plot centres on his journey from his hometown, the “City of Destruction” (“this world”), to the “Celestial City” (“that which is to come”: Heaven) atop Mount Zion. Christian is weighed down by a great burden—the knowledge of his sin—which he believed came from his reading “the book in his hand” (the Bible). This burden, which would cause him to sink into Hell, is so unbearable that Christian must seek deliverance. He meets Evangelist as he is walking out in the fields, who directs him to the “Wicket Gate” for deliverance. Since Christian cannot see the “Wicket Gate” in the distance, Evangelist directs him to go to a “shining light,” which Christian thinks he sees … “

A few days ago, I came across a podcast titled: “Antichrist and His Ruin”. I confess, I knew nothing prior to then about those putting together the podcast but the accompanying blurb was enough to entice me into reading: “Jacob Reaume, pastor of Trinity Bible Chapel, joins us to talk about an upcoming documentary he is producing, Antichrist and His Ruin, dealing with the life and witness of John Bunyan, the biblical teaching on the doctrine of antichrist, and the call to the church for courage and faithfulness”. I have been an admirer of Bunyan since my youth. I have read his Pilgrims Progress several times and every time challenged by the message contained therein. I have gone on record that if ever I were to appear on the program “Desert Island Discs”, when one is asked what items of music one would want with them along with books to go with the Bible and the works of Shakespeare, if cast alone on a desert island, my choice of book would be Pilgrim’s Progress.

Those who follow my blogging will know I sometimes allude to an antichrist system beginning to take over the world and possibly making way for the appearance of THE Antichrist of Revelation 13, and another reason why I decided to listen to the podcast besides my fascination with John Bunyan. I was not disappointed and was intrigued this was a subject Bunyan had written concerning (to be checked out) and gives further insights why Bunyan acted as he did even though at a great cost to himself and his family. As one of those of them inclined to join the resistance (within godly restraints) to the Antichrist system that seems more evident, particularly since the plandemic , notwithstanding the onslaught against those beholden to the truth, just round the corner in my neck of the woods (and already happening elsewhere), I have no doubt there will be a price to pay when doing so, just as Bunyan found. Few now know about Bunyan’s detractors (and if they did, it would be in a negative sense) but the legacy Bunyan left can be seen down to this day. For one thing, he was not beaten by the bad guys, whatever they threw at him – he couldn’t be for he had principle. In a day when bad people are honoured, Bunyan is infinitely more worthy, more than any I can name. His message remains strangely relevant, as does his example. It is one we do well to follow but there is a price to pay.