Journey of Christian from City of Destruction to the Celestial City

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 Credits
 These Pilgrim’s Progress Presentations are as a result of Bible Studies I did at my home church in Moose
Jaw, Saskatchewan, Canada. The only thing I ask is that when you use them to present to others, that you
give the Good Lord credit through my name (Michal Lopianowski).
 Τhe version of Pilgrim's Progress I am using is the one by Barry Horner
 Most of the text in the presentations, if it is not sited on the page itself, comes from Barry Horner’s
Commentary on the Pilgrim’s Progress from his website: www.bunyanministries.org
 The comic snippets come from CREATOR ART STUDIO, published by KINGSTONE Comics at
www.kingstonemedia.com
 Any place where I mention Maltese Website as a reference, the material was taken from
www.lavvanztalpellegrin.com; which no longer seems to be working
 Other pictures are from www.garretttaylor.com and illustrations from Mike Wimmer
 As I complete more presentations I will be putting them on line; usually in the winter months

3. • Overview of John Bunyan's Life
• Legacy of the Book
• Why Pilgrim's Progress
 Allegory not story
 Plot summary
• Methods
 Proof texting
 Comment on use of commentaries
• Aim of this study
 Cautions
• My statement of faith

5. • 1628 John Bunyan born near Elstow, Bedfordshire.
• 1630’s briefly attends school.
 learns the trade of a tinker, or metalworker, from his father.
• 1642 Outbreak of Civil War between parliament and monarchy.
• 1644 - 47 Bunyan serves in the infantry of the Parliamentary Army.
 Upon his discharge, he returns to Elstow and is re-employed as a tinker.
• 1649-54 Spiritual turmoil and ambivalence, described in Grace
Abounding To The Chief Of Sinners, lead to Bunyan’s conversion.
• 1660-72 Bunyan is imprisoned for leading an unlawful religious
assembly.
• He supports his family by making shoe laces, preaches to inmates,
and spends much time writing Pilgrim's Progress.

6. • 1665 The Great Plague of London.
• 1666 The Great Fire of London.
• 1672 Charles II promulgates the Declaration of Indulgence.
 As a consequence, Bunyan is pardoned, released from prison, licensed to preach, and elected
pastor of the nonconformist Bedford church. His preaching reputation becomes widespread.
• 1678 The Pilgrim’s Progress is published by Nathaniel Ponder, friend of
John Owen.
• 1686 Part II is published
• 1688 Bunyan preaches his last sermon, August 19, on John 1:13,
 "Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man,
but of God."
• 1688 Having visited a friend to help reconcile a son with his father,
Bunyan catches a fever, dies in London on August 31, and is buried at
Bunhill Fields (famous nonconformist cemetery).

8.  The 200 year period following the
publication of The Pilgrim's
Progress in 1678 was dominated
by, and increasingly saturated
with, the printed page.
 During all this time, apart from the
Bible, The Pilgrim's Progress was
unquestionably the most widely
read book in the English-speaking
world.

9. Charles Spurgeon
• "Next to the Bible, the book that I value most is John Bunyan’s,
“The Pilgrim's Progress”, and I imagine I may have read that
through perhaps a hundred times. It is a book of which I never
seem to tire, but then the secret of that is, that John Bunyan’s,
“The Pilgrim's Progress”, is the Bible in another shape."
• And, 'It [The Pilgrim's Progress] is a volume of which I never seem
to tire; and the secret of its freshness is that it is so largely
compiled from the Scriptures.'
• Spurgeon said about Bunyan, that if you pricked him anywhere, he
would bleed Bible.

10. John Newton
• "Soon after I returned from Yorkshire, I began to
expound the Pilgrim's Progress in our meetings on
Tuesday evenings; and though we have been almost
seven months travelling with the pilgrim, we have not
yet left the house Beautiful; but I believe we shall set
off for the Valley of Humiliation in about three weeks.
I find this book so full of matter, I can seldom go
through more than a page, or half a page at a time."

11. J C Ryle, a writer, pastor and an evangelical preacher
of the late 1800s
• "I do not doubt that the one volume of Pilgrim's
Progress, written by a man who knew hardly any book
but his Bible, and was ignorant of Greek and Latin,
will prove in the last day to have done more for the
benefit of the world, than all the works of the
schoolmen put together. Wise and beautiful is the
comparison made by that master of allegory, John
Bunyan, in the Pilgrim's Progress."

12. • Benjamin Franklin writes that The Pilgrim's Progress
'has been more generally read than any other book,
except perhaps the Bible.'
• Without a doubt Pilgrim's Progress is a classic

14. J I Packer
• "For two centuries “The Pilgrim’s Progress” was the
best-read book, after the Bible, in all Christendom, but
sadly it is not so today.
• When I ask my classes of young and youngish
evangelicals, as I often do, who has read “The Pilgrim’s
Progress”, not a quarter of the hands go up. Certainly, it
would be great gain for modern Christians if Bunyan’s
masterpiece came back into its own in our day."

16. • The Pilgrim's Progress is not a story, but an allegory.
 What's the difference?
• An allegory is an "extended metaphor in which objects,
persons, and actions in a narrative . . . are equated with
meanings that lie outside the narrative itself "
 In this particular case, the meanings outside are all Biblical
• Nor is this a child's book.
 It is said that a person who thoroughly understands 'The Pilgrim's
Progress' is an accomplished theologian!

17. Leland Ryken
• There is a right way and wrong way to deal with the
allegorical aspect of The Pilgrim’s Progress.
 The wrong way is to slight the literal, physical level of action on the
premise that the religious meaning is what really matters.
 The right way is to abandon ourselves to the story qualities of the
work and let the second level of understanding grow out of that
narrative experience.
 For example; Giant Despair first of all needs to be a terrifying giant
in our imagination, and then he becomes a picture of psychological
and theological realities.

18. • C.S. Lewis, after settling on the fairy tale genre, began to
realize that these stories might have a remarkable power
for readers.
 "I thought I saw how stories of this kind could steal past a certain inhibition
which paralyzed much of my own religion since childhood. Why did one find it
so hard to feel as one was told one ought to feel about God or about the
sufferings of Christ? I thought the chief reason was that one was told one
ought to. An obligation can freeze feelings. And reverence itself did harm. The
whole subject was associated with lowered voices; almost as if it were
something medical. But suppose casting all these things into an imaginary
world, stripping them of their stained-glass and Sunday school associations,
one could make them for the first time appear in their real potency? Could one
not thus steal past the watchful dragons? I thought one could."

19. Joe Ridney says,
 "We ought not begin by trying to identify every Christian
correspondence or layer of meaning. Instead (and this is especially
important when introducing children to the stories) we ought to first
immerse ourselves in the stories as stories.
 We must learn to trek across the Narnian countryside, swim in the
Narnian seas, distinguish Calormenes from Archenlanders, etc.
 Indeed, we must learn to breathe Narnian air, a metaphor that Lewis
uses elsewhere to describe what it means to come to know God.
 Then, having learned our Narnian stars and feasted at Cair Paravel
— in other words, once we’ve stolen past the watchful dragons —
we can then turn our attention to the deeper, Christian layers of
meaning."

20. • Pilgrim's Progress powerfully expresses the truth that the
present life is a spiritual journey.
• When Jesus Christ liberates a sinner from the power of sin,
He also extends an invitation to a lifetime of discipleship.
• BUT, the path of the Christian life is riddled with many trials,
dangers, and obstacles.
• Nevertheless, the journey to the Celestial City is also laden
with displays of God’s grace and faithfulness.

22. • To first of all enjoy this gift the Lord has given us through the pen of
John Bunyan.
 Let us not miss the forest for the trees!
• To glean and reflect on Biblical Truths in the light of Scriptures, by
identifying with characters, places, and events, to assess our own
spiritual condition.
• Ultimately to grow in the delight of God and to treasure Him more
and more.
 Ps 119:103 How sweet are Your words to my taste! Yes, sweeter than honey
to my mouth!
 1Pet 2:2-3 … long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in
respect to salvation, if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord.

24. • Proof texting is the method by which a person
appeals to a biblical text to prove or justify a
theological position without regard for the context of
the passage they are citing.
• As the saying goes, "a text without a context is a
pretext for a proof text."

25. • Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about
anything they ask, it will be done for them by my
Father in heaven. Matt 18:19
• For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be
made alive. 1Cor 15:22

26. • I get really nervous about people who are so opposed to
proof texting they never think in terms of texts. I think
exactly the opposite should be drilled into people.
 Test all things; hold fast to what is good (1 Thessalonians 5:21).
 I don’t know any way to test all things except by verses in the Bible
that teach truths in the Bible. If you try to abstract truths from the
Bible and disconnect them from verses because you are so averse
to proof texting, do you know what is going to happen?
 You won’t have truth in the end. You will have vague, general ideas
that you can massage to fit your own ideas.

27. • In book he wrote for pastors, in the preface to his book,
he speaks to an objection to using commentaries. The
objection goes something like this:
 As a Christian, I have the Holy Spirit. And I have His wonderful work
of illumination. I don’t need commentaries, I don’t need to rely on
the thoughts of others, I can go right to the source.
• Now, here’s Spurgeon’s answer to that objection.
 "I find it odd that he who thinks so highly of what the Holy Spirit
teaches him, thinks so little of what the Holy Spirit teaches others
also."

28. Stephen J. Nichols – Ligonier Ministries
• "I find it odd that the church of the 21st century thinks so highly of
what the Holy Spirit has taught it today that it thinks so little of what
the Holy Spirit has taught the church in the first century, the
second, the third, the forth, and so on, and so on."
• The Holy Spirit has been at work in the church for the past 21
centuries. It is rather prideful to think that we have nothing to learn
from the past. Enough humility to say, we need the past, and
enough humility to visit it from time to time as in this study of
Bunyan's work.

29. • Realize the cautions when using a book besides the Bible
• We have to be careful
 not to be crippled to the point that we can only pick up Scripture
via another book.
 not to be so absorbed into the story emotionally that it leads us to
believing what is being stated over and above Scripture.
 to realize that Bunyan's experience, which is reflected in the
allegory, will not necessarily reflect the way things happen in our
lives, or other people's lives.
• Scripture must always be final!!!

30. • Gal 6:3
 For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.
• Education
• Event Horizon
• Caron Church
• Theology
 Generally – The Apostles' Creed
 Specifically, I affirm and embrace
 the truth of God’s sovereign,
 His covenantal love;
 Man’s inexhaustible depravity;
 Jesus’ particular redemption;
 the Spirit’s effectual work in the soul of man; and
 the perseverance of all true Christians to the end.

32. • Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren,
knowing that as such we will incur a stricter judgment.
Jas 3:1
• Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a
workman who does not need to be ashamed,
accurately handling the word of truth. 2Tim 2:15

33. • 10 The brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away
by night to Berea, and when they arrived, they went
into the synagogue of the Jews. 11 Now these were
more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for
they received the word with great eagerness,
examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these
things were so. Acts 17:10-11