Wrapping up Pilgrims Progress

Well, last Sunday the young men in my Sunday-school class finished reading the Pilgrim’s Progress. During our discussion time, we talked about how much was made over Christian and Hopefull by the heavenly host (Luke 15:7)Nas they were being escorted up into the Celestial city. I also mentioned to class how it was expressly pointed out how an opening to Hell existed even near to the Clestial city, ever so much as one existed near the begining and in the middle of the pilgrim’s journey. We also discussed the contrast between the reception of Christian and Hopefull, and that of Ignorance; how he could not produce his scroll, and that the Lord of the place would not even see him, and how he was carried away to the opening of Hell.

This Sunday I am confident Pastor Rod will present an excellent Easter message, so in Sunday school we are going to wrap up Pilgrim’s Progress by looking at the life of John Bunyan. I did that a bit at the begining of our reading several months back, but I have found some more material from an audio biography by Dr. Piper on the life of John Bunyan that has aired this week in four parts, so I am going to give a bit more detailed info on Bunyan’s life. I also began reading Tom Nettles book, By His Grace and for His Glory, and have just gotten to the chapter that discusses Bunyan, so I plan to use some of that too.

The week after Easter I will begin taking the class through The Baptist Faith and Message 2000, article by article. I will be leaning heavily upon Pastor Rod’s notes from his recently-finished Wednesday-evening lessons on the same subject. If you would like to hear those audio tapes, they are available online at Bulldogs and Piggies. They began back in October and you can find them under the title “What Does It Mean to be Baptist? (#’s 1-18).

Christ is Risen!
He is Risen indeed!

Have a blessed Resurrection day.
Wayne Hatcher