The Foolishness of Religion

The following is from John Bunyan's famous Pilgrim's Progress.

Christian: Met you with nothing else in that valley?

Faithful: Yes, I met with Shame; but of all the men that I met with on my pilgrimage, he, I think, bears the wrong name. The other would be said nay, after a little argumentation, and somewhat else; but this bold-faced Shame would never have done.

Christian: Why, what did he say to you?

Faithful: What? why, he objected against religion itself. He said it was a pitiful, low, sneaking business for a man to mind religion. He said, that a tender conscience was an unmanly thing; and that for a man to watch over his words and ways, so as to tie up himself from that hectoring liberty that the brave spirits of the times accustomed themselves unto, would make him the ridicule of the times. He objected also, that but few of the mighty, rich, or wise, were ever of my opinion; nor any of them neither, before they were persuaded to be fools, and to be of a voluntary fondness to venture the loss of all for nobody knows what. 1 Cor. 1:26; 3:18; Phil. 3:7-9; John 7:48. He, moreover, objected the base and low estate and condition of those that were chiefly the pilgrims of the times in which they lived; also their ignorance and want of understanding in all natural science. Yea, he did hold me to it at that rate also, about a great many more things than here I relate; as, that it was a shame to sit whining and mourning under a sermon, and a shame to come sighing and groaning home; that it was a shame to ask my neighbor forgiveness for petty faults, or to make restitution where I have taken from any. He said also, that religion made a man grow strange to the great, because of a few vices, which he called by finer names, and made him own and respect the base, because of the same religious fraternity: And is not this, said he, a shame?

Christian: And what did you say to him?

Faithful: Say? I could not tell what to say at first. Yea, he put me so to it, that my blood came up in my face; even this Shame fetched it up, and had almost beat me quite off. But at last I began to consider, that that which is highly esteemed among men, is had in abomination with God. Luke 16:15. And I thought again, this Shame tells me what men are; but he tells me nothing what God, or the word of God is. And I thought, moreover, that at the day of doom we shall not be doomed to death or life according to the hectoring spirits of the world, but according to the wisdom and law of the Highest. Therefore, thought I, what God says is best, is indeed best, though all the men in the world are against it. Seeing, then, that God prefers his religion; seeing God prefers a tender Conscience; seeing they that make themselves fools for the kingdom of heaven are wisest, and that the poor man that loveth Christ is richer than the greatest man in the world that hates him; Shame, depart, thou art an enemy to my salvation. Shall I entertain thee against my sovereign Lord? How then shall I look him in the face at his coming? Mark 8:38. Should I now be ashamed of his ways and servants, how can I expect the blessing? But indeed this Shame was a bold villain; I could scarcely shake him out of my company; yea, he would be haunting of me, and continually whispering me in the ear, with some one or other of the infirmities that attend religion. But at last I told him, that it was but in vain to attempt farther in this business; for those things that he disdained, in those did I see most glory: and so at last I got past this importunate one. And when I had shaken him off, then I began to sing,

“The trials that those men do meet withal,
 That are obedient to the heavenly call,
 Are manifold, and suited to the flesh,
 And come, and come, and come again afresh;
 That now, or some time else, we by them may
 Be taken, overcome, and cast away.
 O let the pilgrims, let the pilgrims then,
 Be vigilant, and quit themselves like men.”

Christian: I am glad, my brother, that thou didst withstand this villain so bravely; for of all, as thou sayest, I think he has the wrong name; for he is so bold as to follow us in the streets, and to attempt to put us to shame before all men; that is, to make us ashamed of that which is good. But if he was not himself audacious, he would never attempt to do as he does. But let us still resist him; for, notwithstanding all his bravadoes, he promoteth the fool, and none else. “The wise shall inherit glory,” said Solomon; “but shame shall be the promotion of fools.” Prov. 3:35.

Faithful: I think we must cry to Him for help against Shame, that would have us to be valiant for truth upon the earth. [source]

John Bunyan and Perseverance of the Saints

The following is from John Bunyan's masterful work Pilgrim's Progress.

Then I saw in my dream, that the Interpreter took Christian by the hand, and led him into a place where was a fire burning against a wall, and one standing by it, always casting much water upon it, to quench it; yet did the fire burn higher and hotter.

Then said Christian, What means this?

The Interpreter answered, This fire is the work of grace that is wrought in the heart; he that casts water upon it, to extinguish and put it out, is the devil: but in that thou seest the fire, notwithstanding, burn higher and hotter, thou shalt also see the reason of that. So he had him about to the back side of the wall, where he saw a man with a vessel of oil in his hand, of the which he did also continually cast (but secretly) into the fire.

Then said Christian, What means this?

The Interpreter answered, This is Christ, who continually, with the oil of his grace, maintains the work already begun in the heart; by the means of which, notwithstanding what the devil can do, the souls of his people prove gracious still (2 Cor. 12:9). And in that thou sawest that the man stood behind the wall to maintain the fire; this is to teach thee, that it is hard for the tempted to see how this work of grace is maintained in the soul. [source]

Confessing our sins

The following is a brief excerpt from John Bunyan.

"Acknowledge thine iniquity," saith the Lord (Jer 3:13). This is a hard pinch, I know what I say, for a man to fall down under the sense of sins by acknowledging them to be what the Lord saith they are; to acknowledge them, I say, in their own defiling and polluting nature; to acknowledge them in their unreasonable and aggravating circumstances; to acknowledge them in their God-offending and soul-destroying nature, especially when the conscience is burdened with the guilt of them. Yet this is duty: "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive" (1 John 1:9). 

"Pilgrim's Progress" vs. "The Shack"

Sometime ago I finally read through Pilgrim's Progress for the first time in my life. As I finished, I couldn't help but remember that the front cover of William P. Young's The Shack (which I've reviewed before) has Eugene Peterson (infamous for his Message translation) comparing Young's book to John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. I decided to discuss just how different these two books actually are, and why comparing them is not only offensive to the memory of Mr. Bunyan, but the discerning reader.

1. Plethora of scriptural citations/references vs. Absolutely none

Pilgrim's Progress is, from the very first page on, literally dotted with either scripture citations or references to scripture citations. This is not merely John Bunyan's opinion or his own personal theology, but the teachings of scripture put into a literary format. Many modern versions of Pilgrim's Progress either place the scriptural index right in the text itself, or at the end of every chapter.

The Shack, by stark contrast, has absolutely no scriptural citations, nor references to scripture. None. There could never be a scripture index because there are no verses to cite. Everything is from the mind of William P. Young, and everything that is written is simply from the substance of William P. Young's personal beliefs. At times scripture is vaguely referred to (such as Mack asking "Weren't you always running around killing people in the Bible?", etc.), but never is a direct reference made.

This plainly reveals the original source material for these two works: John Bunyan's source was the Bible; William P. Young's source material was an idol known as William P. Young's theology. This is probably one of the most important differences between the two.

2. Orthodox Metaphors vs. Heretical Metaphors

Metaphors abound in Pilgrim's Progress, and virtually every character is a representation either of an attitude, a virtue, a vice, or a worldly truth. For example, the character of Pliable, who joins Christian early on but quickly abandons him at the Swamp of Despondence, is a representation of individuals who enjoy the idea of salvation, but then quickly run away at the conviction of their sins. Another example is Faithful, Christian's initial fellow pilgrim who is martyred by the residents of Vanity Fair and becomes a literal representation of the command from scripture to "be faithful until death" (Rev 2:10).

There are, however, very few metaphors in terms of God Himself. Christ is referred to as "Lord of the Hill," "King of the Land," etc., but no one within the story specifically represents Christ in any way other than what He is as the Glorified Lord. There are some who say that the character of Interpreter is meant to be the Holy Spirit, but even if this were so, it would not represent the Holy Spirit in Person so much as what the Holy Spirit does for the believer (that is, endow him with saving knowledge regarding Christ). While Bunyan has fun with literary interpretations, he does not stray too far from what scripture says of a believer's world view and, most of all, scriptural theology.

The Shack, by contrast, is an entire book centered around what is ultimately a bad metaphor for the Trinity (three people inside a shack). To top it off, every ethnic group seems to be represented therein: the Father is an old black woman, the Son is a Middle Eastern man (somewhat fitting, I suppose), and the Holy Spirit is an Asian woman. We are later introduced to a Hispanic woman named Sophia who is said to be the personification of God's wisdom.

What's more, William P. Young's literary interpretations are simply heretical. Papa (the Father character) reveals crucifixion scars on her hands and says, "We were there together," meaning that the Father and Son were crucified together and suffered together, which has been considered heretical since the early days of the church. It likewise contradicts the teachings of scripture that we are reconciled by the Son's body (Col 1:21-22) and that it was the Son who took upon flesh (John 1:14) and humbled Himself before men (Phi 2:5-11). The Father could only have scars if He had a physical body, and unless we are Modalists, we cannot rightfully say that He did.

This is probably one reason why so much of Bunyan's book deals with metaphors pertaining to believers and their interaction with faith and the world, rather than direct interaction with God. Any false representation would have led to dangerous grounds, and most likely Bunyan sought to avoid such traps.

3. Obvious Allegories vs. Near Literal Representations

As already stated, Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress is an entirely allegorical book. Like Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy, it was never meant to be a literal interpretation of anything. Bunyan avoids any possibility of this being accepted literally by stating early on that all of it is a dream, and reminds the reader throughout the book that he is simply repeating what he saw in a dream.

Young, on the other hand, opens up The Shack with a claim that his story is true and that there is a real person named Mack who shared this experience with him. Now granted, I know that Young doesn't really believe that Mack exists nor does he claim this in public, but this leads to a different feel for The Shack than Pilgrim's Progress. That is, while Bunyan introduces the story as a dream, and hence the reader understands that the language of Pilgrim's Progress is that of a dream, Young introduces The Shack as a first-hand account, hence readers are supposed to have the mindset that a man named Mack really did go through all these experiences. That is, the reader is led to have a mindset that God really would manifest Himself as He does in The Shack.

If a man named Mack had indeed experienced all that is told of in The Shack, I would have promptly pointed him to Paul's warning that "even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light" (2 Cor 11:14).

4. Absolute Truths vs. Vague Theology

The main protagonists of Pilgrim's Progress (Christian, Faithful and Hopeful) meet various people along the way and, in particularly near the end, hold long discussions with them. What is thoroughly discussed is not only what is wrong and what is right, but that the wrong is an evil wrong that can benefit no man. The character of Ignorance, for example, is told by Christian and Hopeful that he cannot hope to enter the Celestial City (heaven) by his own ways, but he rejects their pleas and is in the end cast out by the Shining Ones (angels) of the city. Another example is seen in the character of Mr. By-ends and his friends, who discuss theology but are thoroughly silenced by Christian and Hopeful when their beliefs are shown to be completely fallacious.

Furthermore, the theology of John Bunyan is plainly seen in the pages of his book. One cannot walk away from Pilgrim's Progress and wonder what Bunyan believed in regards to salvation, our role in salvation, and God's sovereignty. In fact, if one reads Bunyan's purely theological works after reading Pilgrim's Progress, they will find a great consistency with the novel. Everything is there for you, in black and white, and easy to understand. Considering Bunyan wrote this in prison, in the midst of his own persecution, we should not be altogether surprised.

By contrast, The Shack reads like an Emergent book in the sense that the theology is at times so vague that it's difficult to lay down exactly what Young is trying to say. The one that stood out to me the most was William P. Young's Jesus responding to the question "Do all roads lead to you?" with: "Most roads don't lead anywhere. What it does mean is that I will travel any road to find you."

This, of course, leads the book to become very dangerous. When our Blessed Lord speaks of tares and wheat in the gospels, the tares He refers to are plants that look like wheat but are actually poisonous, and cannot be fully shown for what they are until the time of harvest. Young's book, like so many, is essentially a literary tare. It might, from the initial reading, seem orthodox, or even semi-orthodox, but when one really gets down and studies what he is saying, one realizes just how heretical it is. One of the biggest examples of this in the book (next to the previously mentioned teaching of universalism) is the teaching of a restorative hell, shown in the scene where Mack reconciles with his deceased father. Young does not flat out say he believes in a restorative hell in the book, but when one reads through what he is teaching, that is the obvious conclusion.

Bunyan is not afraid to come out and say, "This is what I believe, it is based on the word of God, and I am sticking by it whether you like it or not." Anyone afraid to do likewise, and anyone who feels they need to essentially hide their theology, should themselves and their work be considered very dangerous.

5. God-centered Goals vs. Man-centered Goals

The goal of Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress was to be an evangelical tool. It was written to explain the gospel in literature. It was written, first and foremost, to present God's message to the world while remaining faithful to the word of God.

The Shack, on the other hand, is essentially something to make someone feel better. Young himself experienced some great suffering in his life, and many who hold The Shack to be a wonderful piece of literature are likewise those who suffered from some tragedy in their life. Young has even said in interviews and lectures that certain representations (such as the crucifixion scars on the Father) were done to make people feel closer to God. The entire goal of the book, then, is to please men through emotional connections.

Some might wonder why I am presenting this as a contention against Bunyan. After all, isn't it good to make people feel better? I respond that the idiom is "the road to hell is paved with good intentions," not "the road to heaven." There is nothing worse than presenting falsehood and distortion of truth in the form of spiritual healing. It is just as bad as a doctor giving poison to a patient on the pretext that it will save their lives from a disease.

As such, what Young did in The Shack was try to make people feel better by completely distorting scriptural teachings and misrepresenting how God has revealed Himself to be. Unfortunately many people, seeking to please their itching ears, have grasped onto his work as a great piece of literature simply because it makes them feel better. I for one would much rather have a terrible life on earth with hopes of a glorious life in heaven than a great life on earth with an eternity in hell.