A good Church these days is hard to find...

Bunyan isn’t ready to have Christian leave the Beautiful Palace yet. He has much more to teach us about the place of Church and Fellowship in the experience of a Pilgrim. There are at least 5 other dynamics of Church life for a Pilgrim to enjoy.

The first is at a table. It is unclear exactly what Bunyan has in mind. Does he intend to portray a Church family sharing life and enjoying a meal together, feasting while ‘all their talk at the table was about the Lord’? This is the very least that is conveyed, and blessed is the Church family that has such moments built into its life together (Acts 2:46). Others have wondered if Bunyan has something more specific in mind: the Church gathering at the Lord’s table for Communion? One scholar suggests: The meal at Palace Beautiful represents the fellowship that believers share together in Christ, especially in the regular observance of the Lord's Supper. Certainly the focus of the conversation is on Christ’s humbling Himself, and being obedient, even to death on a cross… If this was Bunyan’s intention, it would answer one of the most commonly voiced concerns about the Pilgrim’s Progress: it’s almost total lack of reference to the Sacraments (Baptism and Communion) which are so necessary for us in our pilgrimage.

The second is Peace & Refreshment. Our communion with the saints should leave us feeling re-assured, and confident in our discipleship, and at rest with God and His people. Many of Paul’s letters to the Churches begin with reference to peace, and our association with the people of God should leave us feeling refreshed. Our attempts to find rest without reference to the Church would have struck Bunyan as odd. And our loss of the Lord’s Day as a Day of Rest, in which we make the time for sustained fellowship with Church family would have grieved him. He would have seen that as something that weakened us in our pilgrimage.

Third is the teaching and preaching ministry of the Church. Unsurprisingly, this is rooted in the Scriptures, the ‘records of greatest antiquity’ that hold forth Jesus as Lord. Being taught from Scripture, by the Spirit, has already been a feature of Christian’s pilgrimage (at the House of the Interpreter), and here again Christian is told he must not depart till he has been taught from the recorded acts of Christ. But Bunyan also thinks that the history of the Church since the Apostles is worthy of our ‘study’. This is disputed, and some readers of Pilgrim’s Progress think Bunyan history Christian studies here is reference to the Acts of the Apostles. I’m not so sure. Bunyan has Christian exposed to ‘things ancient and modern’ which suggests something more contemporary. Bunyan believed that the persecution of the Church through the ages (which he was experiencing in a very direct way as he wrote in his prison cell) was prophetically anticipated in the Scriptures; and as Christians we are encouraged and instructed through the lives of those who have walked the narrow path before us.

The next day, Christian is lead to the armoury. It might surprise us that this Palace of rest, and peace, fellowship and teaching is also a house of war. But the militant aspect of pilgrimage, our fight against sin, the world and devil, is one Bunyan is about to give some attention to. Christian isn’t yet armed, but he is shown ‘the weapons of our warfare’ (II Cor.10:4), begins to be instructed in their use, and is re-assured of the victories His Lord has wrought through them.

And still he is not allowed to leave. Christian’s impatience to go forth is noteworthy, but dangerous. This is a common mistake made by us pilgrims. We think we know more than we do, that we have made more progress than we have, that we are more ready to face the dangers of discipeship than we are. ‘They desired him to stay till the next day also…’, and mercifully he consented. As a result, he is granted a vision of the ‘Delectable Mountains’. ‘They said it was Immanuel’s Land; and it is as common, said they, as this hill is, to and for all the pilgrims’. Christian is encouraged by a vision of a more mature discipleship, the promise of deepening intimacy with God, joy and growing delight in our King.

Whilst Christian is almost ready to press on, Bunyan isn’t suggesting that we can leave any of this behind. We never outgrow our need of, or our delight in, the Church’s ministry to us. These are consistent features in the life of any ‘Christian’ and to the extent we leave them behind, we fall behind on our pilgrimage.

Questions to ponder:

To what extent do you prioritise worship and fellowship with the Chruch on the Lord’s Day? How could you re-arrange your diary to give these things the precedence they should have?

How are you shaping your vision of what a more mature experience of being a Christian might look like? How are you making sure you grown into that vision?

When Church is Beautiful...

Having been welcomed as a genuine pilgrim, Christian is introduced to Prudence, Piety and Charity (and 'many others’ who welcome him but who aren’t named). Bunyan is giving us insight into the life of a local congregation, ‘built by the Lord … for the relief and security of pilgrims’. This shouldn’t be overlooked. So many have made shipwreck of their faith because they never grasped the importance of their engagement in the local fellowship of believers. When someone says they are a Christian, but they aren’t consistently and regularly involved in the worship and mission of a local Church, we have good grounds for scepticism. They might be a seeker, someone interested in, curious about, or even intrigued by the Gospel, but they have yet to be saved through it. To be a Christian is to be in the Church. As Cyprian, a north-African Bishop in the early third century wrote: No-one can have God as their Father, who will not have the Church as their mother.

While waiting for supper there is a very deliberate discourse. Piety, Pridence and Charity lead and shape the conversation, and Bunyan is teaching us two critical lessons.

The first is about the value of our testimony to others. As Christian shares the story of how he began his pilgrimage, what he has learned in that pilgrimage, and the dangers and distraction he has overcome, he is an encouragement to others. This is a rebuke to any ego-centric view of Church involvement. So many make their decisions about which Church to go to, and indeed whether to go to Church at all, based on the perception of how it will benefit them… ‘What do I get out of this?’. This is deeply un-Christian, and betrays a shocking degree of spiritual immaturity, and possibluy a lack of salvation entirely. Or in Bunyan’s turn of phrase, a lack of ‘piety’. The Church benefits from the meaningful engagement of pilgrims: ‘since we have been so loving to you, to receive you into our house this night, let us, if perhaps we may better ourselves thereby, talk with you of all the things that have happened to you in your pilgrimage’. Christian becomes a source of blessing and encouragement to others as he shares with them his history of God’s dealing with him in His grace.

But as Prudence takes up the reigns, the conversation strikes a more reflective note. Christian isn’t simply telling his story, he is being invited to consider his inner motivations and struggles. In sharing his own experiences, he finds himself questioning, meditating, turning over in his mind not just what has happened, but why… He finds that he is gaining a deepening insight into God’s dealings with him, and that his heart’s desires are being increasingly re-oriented towards Christ and his future hope, Mount Zion. He formulates strategies and ways of structuring his life that will guard him in the future.

But Charity will not allow this to simply be an introspective process. Christian’s love for God cannot be forged in isolation from his love for others. And love for others finds expression in evangelism. We cannot really say we love others if we aren’t sharing Christ with them! Bunyan holds out a model of praying for and pleading with those we love and care for. This is very different from the attitude many today take. Parents who expect to shape their children in every aspect of their lives, decide to allow their children to make their own decisions about Christ when they are older. Many live in families with non-Christians day after day and never speak of Christ for fear that it would jeopardise their relationships. Many of those we work with and share life with would be surprised to discover we were Christians. Charity would never let this be! ‘Why did you not bring them along with you… you should have talked to them, and endeavoured to have shown them the danger of being behind… did you pray that God would bless your counsel…did you tell them of your own sorrow nad fear of destruction… But did you not, with your vain life, damp all that you by words used by way of persuasion…’? A better training course in evangelism would be hard to find! Charity demands that our whole life, our speaking and behaviour, our prayers, our efforts should all be directed towards this one great act of love: bringing others with us to Zion.

And so it is that as Chrisitan seeks to be a blessing to others in his Church, so he is taught, challenged, inspried, rebuked and encouraged by his Church. He in turn is blessed, and strengthened in his own faith, his own pilgrimage. Such are the dynamics of a Church which has Watchful for a pastor, where Discretion admits the faithful, where Piety, Prudence and Charity shape the conversation.

Questions to ponder:

How often do you have these kinds of conversations with others at MIE? Why do you think they are so rare? How could you make sure that they became more frequent?

What role do you see your involvement in Church having in your spiritual growth and Christian maturity? …and what role do you see your involvement in Church having in the spiritual growth of others?

How would you counsel someone who said they were a Christian but who didn’t really go to Church regularly? …or who kept missing Church because of other demands on their time? …or who was content to ‘watch’ Church online?

On meeting with Discretion

Christian makes it - in spite of himself - to the Beautiful Palace, but the reception is more cautious than we might anticipate! The Porter doesn’t simply welcome him in with open arms, but introduces a new character, Discretion. On the basis of her judgement, Christian will be received into the Palace, or not…

This may prove to be the part of Pilgrim’s Progress that feels most alien to us in the 21st Century British Church. We might feel slightly uncomfortable with the idea that before the Church ‘invests’ in Christian, encouraging him, equipping him, and preparing him for the trial ahead, there is a process of discernment to verify the authenticity of Christian’s faith. The need for such is apparent - we’ve already met a number of folk on the road with Pilgrim whose ‘faith’ it turns out was far from genuine.

We tend to be so grateful that anyone turns up to Church at all, that the idea of ‘testing’ the genuineness of their faith, or even their interest, seems counter-intuitive. We might even feel threatened at the prospect… There is of course a place for judgements of charity, and space for people to turn up for whatever reason and from whatever motive, good or ill. We see this in the ministry of Jesus and the experience of the Apostolic Church. But Discretion (the power to discern, and to make one’s own judgments) is required to ascertain those whose interest in Christ has spiritual integrity. She asks ‘whither he was going… what he had seen and met with in the way… and his name’. Christian’s testimony of his conversion and his pilgrimage to date bear the hall marks of sincerity, legitimacy and credibility. Only now is he welcomed in to meet others in the family, and to enjoy the privileges of the Palace.

This is in line with the historic practise of the Church, which has often included a more formal process of discernment. Indeed, in the early centuries of the Church, you wouldn’t even be considered for baptism until you had completed a three-year discipleship training programme (called the Catechumenate); and had been subjected to an examination by the Bishop. You would have needed a Sponsor who could corroborate your claim to conversion and growth in discipleship. Egeria, who visited Jerusalem around 400 AD and who kept a diary of her trip, records what she witnessed during such an examination:

“Then one by one those seeking baptism are brought up, men coming with their fathers [sponsors] and women with their mothers. As they come in one by one, the bishop asks their neighbours questions about them: ‘Is this person leading a good life? Does he respect his parents? Is he a drunkard or a boaster?’ He asks about all the serious human vices. And if his inquiries show him that someone has not committed any of these misdeeds, he himself puts down his name; but if someone is guilty he is told to go away, and the bishop tells him that he is to amend his ways before he may come to the font. He asks the men and the women the same questions. But it is not too easy for a visitor to come to baptism if he has no witnesses who are acquainted with him…’.

In some parts of the Church today such a formal process is still followed. In the Anglican Church it tends to be less formal, more relational; and we consider the genuineness of someone’s faith or otherwise to be generally self-evidencing in their involvement in Church worship and mission. In other words, people who are genuine tend to stick around and get involved in the opportunities we have for worship, discipleship, mission, and growth. People who aren’t tend not to.

There is a structured element of discretion built into Anglicanism as well - though it is more ‘negative’ in the sense that it precludes those who show clear evidence of not being genuine, rather than interrogating someone to validate their claims to follow Christ. We see a good example of this in the BCP’s Introduction to the ‘Administration of the Lord’s Supper’:

If a Minister be persuaded that any person who presents himself to be a partaker of the holy Communion ought not to be admitted thereunto by reason of malicious and open contention with his neighbours, or other grave and open sin without repentance, he shall give an account of the same to the [Bishop], and therein obey his order and direction…

Questions to Ponder:

Do you think the Church should ‘test’ the authenticity of people’s faith before accepting their claims to follow Christ? What might such a test look like?

What might be the benefits of having such a structure in place?  How might it be abused?

Should we relate differently in Church life to those who we think are Christians, as opposed to those we think are not?

Lions on a Leash

As Christian crests the Hill Difficulty, he meets Timorous and Mistrust, running in the wrong direction. Unlike Simple, Sloth and Presumption, whose sin was simply to stay where they were and not make progress in their pilgrimage and faith; and unlike Formalist and Hypocrisy, who were intent on finding an easier way, these two are determined to make a rapid retreat! Mistrust explains their hasty withdrawal: ‘…just before us lie a couple of lions in the way, whether waking or sleeping we know not, and we could not think, if we came within reach, but they would presently pull us to pieces’. The further they went in their pilgrimage, the more danger they found they had to navigate.

In his spiritually weakened state, having lost the joy and confidence of the Lord’s presence and preserving grace, Christian feels the pull of fear in his own heart. He feels caught: if he goes back to the City of Destruction, there ‘is nothing but death, but; to go forward is fear of death’. The difference Christian perceives even in his fearful condition, is that if he goes forward there is sfatey and life everlasting in the Celestial City beyond death. And so he resolves, ‘I will yet go forward’.

But he has lost much of the day because of his sleeping in the midst of Difficulty, and as the darkness falls he comes to a ‘very narrow passage’. It leads to the Beautiful Palace, but lying in the way Christian sees for himself the lions that had caused such distress to Timorous and Mistrust. His fear is exacerbated as he realises that ‘These beasts range in the night for their prey’. He realises that if he had come earlier in the day, the lions would have been sleeping (as they were when Faithful passes by the same way), and his journey would have been considerably less stressful!

Bunyan shows us something that Christian cannot see in the failing light: the lions were chained. This not an insignificant point. We face enemies in our path; ‘Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour’ (I Pet.5:8). But - and this is crucial - he is on a leash. Even in his fury against the Church, he can go no further that he is permitted (see Job 1-2 for a graphic exploration of this).

But Christian’s earlier failure comes back to bite. He isn’t able to discern the Sovereignty of God in his suffering and trial, and in the enemies he faces. The result: ‘he was afraid, and thought also himself to go back after [Timorous and Mistrust], for he thought nothing but death was before him’. Again we witness the same temptations in Christian that others have faced. And we see him deal with them so very differently: Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. (Jas.4:7). Feeling the same fear as Timorous, Christian meets it with faltering courage born out of confidence in God. Feeling the same faithlessness as Mistrust, Christian meets it with a resolve to rely on the promise of the New Creation (II Cor.4:16-18).

That resolve is strengthened in fellowship. The Porter, Watchful, explains the situation, and ‘trembling for fear of the lions, he went on … taking good heed to the directions of the Porter’.

‘He heard them roar, but he came to no harm’. Again, Jesus’ prayer is answered: ‘My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one’ (Jn.17:15). I wonder how often that prayer has been answered in our own lives, when we barely had the wit to pray for ourselves? Such is the grace of Jesus, that Christian makes it safely to the Beautiful Palace.

Questions to ponder:

Can you trace similar dynamics in your own experience of pilgrimage… times in your life when your sin has made life more difficult than it needed to be?

Can you trace the patterns of grace even in such times?

Blessed Assurance

Christian has already found support and encouragement in his journey in other Christians: Evangelist; Interpreter; and Help (at the Slough of Despond). He’s met his fair share of hindrances as well… and as he presses on he meets three more: Simple, Sloth and Presumption. As soon as he has experienced the power of the Cross, Christian seeks to share this good news with others… but each awakens and speaks only long enough to warn us of the dangers they personify, and then they lie down again to sleep. Christian continues on, albeit ‘troubled’ by the idea of those who ‘so little esteem the kindness of him that so freely offered to help them’. Tragically, we’ve undoubtedly had similar encounters. Watch out for these three characters when they re-appear in Part 2.

We may think that with his experience at the Cross so fresh in his mind, Christian would be fairly immune to distraction. But then he meets Formalist and Hypocrisy on their way from '‘the land of Vainglory’ and ostensibly on their way to ‘praise on mount Zion’. Christian is confused: ‘Why came you not in at the gate?’. It is always a shock to the system to meet those involved in the life of the Church who aren’t actually born again. And as in Bunyan’s dream, they often sound so sure of themselves, so confident of their own legitimacy, and so dismissive of our own perspective and convictions. It’s hard not to be intimidated, and easy to doubt yourself. It may take some patience, and we do well to follow Christian’s example of ‘often reading in the scroll’, but eventually Difficulty exposes their true nature and their true destinies.

Mind you Christian doesn’t navigate the Hill without some problems of his own. Wearied from his exertions, he stops - legitimately, for ‘the resting place was made by the Lord of the Hill for the refreshment of weary travellers’ - but as he sleeps his scroll falls out of his hand.

This has puzzled readers of Pilgrim’s Progress for generations. Firstly, in spite of the fact that the Lord provides for rest, there is a sense in which Christian has abused this privilege. The clue seems to be in the phrase, ‘pleasing himself, he at last fell into a slumber’. Later Christian will rue ‘his sinful sleep’; and wonders at his own wretchedness ‘that I should sleep in the daytime… in the midst of Difficulty! That I should so indulge the flesh as to use that rest for ease to my flesh, which the Lord of the Hill hath erected only for relief of the spirit of pilgrims!’ . A messenger awakens him and rebukes him when it is almost night (which sounds ominous!), ‘Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider her ways and be wise’ (Prov.6:6). Rest is good, and can be a blessing, but when it is indulged it becomes laziness and is damaging to us. Christian is not free from the faults that characterise others he meets (Sloth). Often what distinguishes true Christians from false ones is not necessarily their lack of sin, but their lack of desire for sin, and their willingness to repent. Although, over time that does lead to a mitigating of sinful behaviour.

Having turned the Lord’s help into a hindrance, Christian repents, and speeds on his way. But he has left the scroll behind. What does the scroll represent? Some have thought that it symbolises Christian’s salvation. Can a Christian lose this? Bunyan would hardly countenance such an idea. But can a Christian lose their assurance, their confidence that the Lord is at work in and through them? …that He is preserving them in the way? That seems more likely what Bunyan is warning against. When Christian meets Timorous and Mistrust, who cannot believe that the Lord would lead them past the lions, Christian reaches for his scroll ‘that he might read therein and be comforted’. When he can’t find it, he is in ‘great distress’.

Christian’s sinful slumber has consequences for his pilgrimage. His failure to ‘watch and pray’ has left him ill-equipped to rebuff Timorous and Mistrust, and hopelessly unable to face the lions in the road ahead. He must retrace his steps and rediscover his joy and confidence in the faithfulness of His God to lead him through such dangers before he can go any further.

Questions to ponder:

How would you counsel a Christian who was insecure in their relationship with God? How serious an issue do you think it is to lack confidence in that relationship? How would it damage our discipleship?

How can we cultivate greater confidence and joy as Christians?

What is the link between spiritual assurance, and courage?