This post contains a reading of the initial 48 minutes of a 6.5 hour audiobook. My intention is to introduce Christians to this wonderful allegory about the Christian walk of faith. For those who would like to hear the entire audiobook, a link is provided at the end of this post; a brief bio of Bunyan is also provided there.
If you have read through the Bible and are fighting against your sin, then you will be amazed at how well this story parallels your walk. Even if you’re a new Christian, you may have already experienced numerous of the threats Bunyan identifies in his allegory.
As I read it a decade or so ago, a tingling sensation went down my spine because of how amazingly accurate his words described my own experience, as the Holy Spirit was dealing with my sin….
- Bunyan’s story is told in terms of it having been a dream wherein he saw all the events he recounted
- The Pilgrim’s name is Christian
- Christian began his pilgrimage after he had discovered, from Bible reading, that he was sinful; the burden he speaks of is his sin
- His journey is from the ‘city of destruction’ to the ‘celestial city’ [the latter is spoken of in Hebrews 11]
- During his pilgrimage through this earthly wilderness, Christian meets many characters; a few of these characters are helpful, but many seek to lead him out of the narrow way into wide and crooked ways
- Each character has a name in accordance with the threat he poses to Christian: for example, Mr. Worldly Wisdom, seeks to lead Christian from the biblical narrow way of God’s biblical prescription, to the wide, crooked way of worldly wisdom; such wisdom comes in many forms, two are presented with Mr. Worldly Wisdom, Mr. Morality and Mr. Civility
- Each short chapter begins with the introduction of a new character; at that time, a brief review is conducted in an interesting manner
- Via the characters in this 48 minute excerpt, you will find worldly counsel set against God’s counsel; man-centered religion set against God-centered religion; also, you will see that many of the characters that Christian meets seek to discourage him, turn him back to the city of destruction, and lead him out of the narrow godly ‘way
The following link it to the 6.5 hour audiobook:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36mSsYUAGoE&list=PL2S4V2bcQE8J_XCAOhk9Td3HjtXRfxpPA&index=1
The following narrative accompanied the above video at the YouTube site, Christian Sermons and Audiobooks.
Pilgrim’s Progress – Puritan John Bunyan / Full Classic Christian Audiobook
1 Peter 2:11 Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul.
Matthew 7:13 Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14 But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.
John Bunyan – (1628-1688), Puritan author
John Bunyan had very little schooling. He followed his father in the tinker’s trade, and he served in the parliamentary army from1644 to 1647. Bunyan married in 1649 and lived in Elstow until 1655, when his wife died. He then moved to Bedford, and married again in 1659. John Bunyan was received into the Baptist church in Bedford by immersion in 1653.
In 1655, Bunyan became a deacon and began preaching, with marked success from the start. In 1658 he was indicted for preaching without a license. The authorities were fairly tolerant of him for a while, and he did not suffer imprisonment until November of 1660, when he was taken to the county jail in Silver Street, Bedford, and there confined (with the exception of a few weeks in 1666) for 12 years until January 1672. Bunyan afterward became pastor of the Bedford church. In March of 1675 he was again imprisoned for preaching publicly without a license, this time being held in the Bedford town jail. In just six months this time he was freed, (no doubt the authorities were growing weary of providing Bunyan with free shelter and food) and he was not bothered again by the authorities.
John Bunyan wrote The Pilgrim’s Progress in two parts, of which the first appeared at London in 1678,which he had begun during his imprisonment in 1676. The second part appeared in 1684. The earliest edition in which the two parts were combined in one volume came out in 1728. A third part falsely attributed to Bunyan appeared in 1693. The Pilgrim’s Progress is the most successful allegory ever written, and like the Bible has been extensively translated into other languages.
John Bunyan wrote many other books, including one which discussed his inner life and reveals his preparation for his appointed work is Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners (1666). Bunyan became a popular preacher as well as a very voluminous author, though most of his works consist of expanded sermons. In theology he was a Puritan, but not a partisan. He was no scholar, except of the English Bible, but that he knew thoroughly. He also drew much influence from Martin Luther’s Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians.
Some time before his final release from prison Bunyan became involved in a controversy with two theologians of his day: Kiffin and Paul. In 1673 he published his Differences in Judgement about Water-Baptism no Bar to Communion, in which he took the ground that “the Church of Christ hath not warrant to keep out of the communion the Christian that is discovered to be a visible saint of the word, the Christian that walketh according to his own light with God.” While he agreed as a Baptist that water baptism was God’s ordinance, he refused to make “an idol of it,” and he disagreed with those who would dis-fellowship from Christians who did not adhere to water baptism
Kiffin and Paul published a rejoinder in Serious Reflections (London, 1673), in which they set forth the argument in favor of the restriction of the Lord’s Supper to baptized believers. The controversy resulted in the Particular (Calvinistic) Baptists leaving the question of communion with the unbaptized open. Bunyan’s church permitted pedobaptists (those who baptize children, such as the Calvinistic Presbyterian Church) to fellowship and eventually, Bunyans church even became a pedobaptist church.
On a trip to London, John Bunyan caught a severe cold, and he died at the house of a friend at Snow Hill on August 31, 1688. His grave lies in the cemetery at Bunhill Fields in London.