Season 5 Podcast 37 John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, Episode 8 Chapter 2 D, “The Final Judgment.”

A New Voice of Freedom

Season 5 Podcast 37 John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, Episode 8 Chapter 2 D, “The Final Judgment.”

In last week’s episode, we continued with The Interpreter. In this week’s episode we conclude as he takes us to the Final Judgment.
Speaking to a man, once of great faith locked in a cage, Christian asks, “But how camest thou in this condition. The man answered,

I left off to watch and be sober. I gave free reins to sin; I sinned against the light of the Word and the goodness of God; I have grieved the Spirit, and He is gone; I tempted the devil, and he has come to me; I have provoked God to anger, and He has left me; I have so hardened my heart that I cannot turn.

Of course, these were all obstacles that the Bible warned against. It is impractical for our purposes to trace down every Biblical allusion used in Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress. It would turn this podcast into an encyclopedia of the Bible. But I shall use the above to illustrate just how rich the allusions are. Notice from the following that in the above short paragraph there are at least seven Biblical Allusions, many more if one traced down all repetitions.

watch and be sober.

“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: (1 Peter 5:8

gave free reins to sin;

“Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.” Romans 6:12

sinned against the light

“For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame. (Hebrew 6:4-6)

grieved the Spirit,

“And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.” (Ephesians 4:30)

tempted the devil,

“But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.” (James 1:14)

provoke God to anger,

“Remember, and forget not, how thou provokedst the Lord thy God to wrath in the wilderness: from the day that thou didst depart out of the land of Egypt, until ye came unto this place, ye have been rebellious against the Lord. Also in Horeb ye provoked the Lord to wrath, so that the Lord was angry with you to have destroyed you.” (Deuteronomy 9:7-8)

hardened my heart

“Happy is the man that feareth alway: but he that hardeneth his heart shall fall into mischief.” (Proverbs 28: 14)

One message of Pilgrim’s Progress is personal accountability. In the war against Satan on earth, Bunyan analyzes the cunning of Satan; however, he holds us personally accountable for our own actions.

The irony is that the man has put himself in the cage willingly. Christ holds out hope for everyone; however, Satan has so bound the man that he has convinced himself that he can never get out of the cage; therefore, he willfully, from his despair, stays there and refuses to take the steps of repentance necessary to get out of the cage. It is Satan who tells Christians they can’t repent, not God.

Christian asks the Interpreter, “But are there no hopes for such a man as this?” Again, the Interpreter tells Christian, “Ask him.”

Then said Christian, "Is there no hope, but you must be kept in the iron cage of despair?"

It is the man himself who answers the question, not God, Not the Holy Ghost, not the Gospel of repentance. He answers,

“No, none at all.”

Christian tries to tell the man in chains “Why? The Son of the Blessed is very pitiful.” However, the man will not listen to Christian. He declares.