The Pilgrim Who Was Never Baptized

What is this page about?

The man who writes this site wanted to test an idea. Here is the idea. The Pilgrim’s Progress tells a different story of salvation from the one the Church told for 1,500 years. It has no baptism. And it says we are saved by grace, but then it makes the pilgrim work hard to keep safe.

Six points

1. Bunyan was right about the most important thing. We are not saved by keeping the law. We are saved because Jesus died for us.
2. No one in the story is baptized. But at the Cross, angels give Christian the gifts that the old Church said come in baptism.
3. This was Bunyan’s choice. He wrote in another book that baptism is not the way into the Church.
4. After the Cross, the pilgrim must keep himself safe. He must not fall asleep. He must not leave the road. Bunyan also says that Jesus keeps the fire of faith burning. So this point is mixed.
5. When Christian is afraid, he looks inside himself. The old Church and Martin Luther told afraid Christians to look outside: “I am baptized.”
6. Step by step, there is a pattern. The story agrees with the old Church about sin and the law. It is different in the places where the Church put baptism, the Lord’s Supper, and the Church itself.

The good side first

Many people say Bunyan’s story is a true picture of the Christian life. They have good reasons.

• Bunyan loved Martin Luther’s book about the letter to the Galatians. He said it was the best book he knew, after the Bible.
• In the story, a man tells Christian to go to Mr. Legality to lose his burden. A burden is a heavy load. Here it means his sins. But Mr. Legality cannot help him. Keeping the law cannot take away sin.
• Christian’s burden falls off at the Cross. He does nothing to make it fall. He says that Jesus has given him rest by his sorrow, and life by his death.
• A young man called Ignorance thinks God will accept him because he obeys God’s law. Christian tells him that only Jesus’ goodness can save us. Luther taught the same thing.
• In a house on the road, Christian sees a fire. Someone throws water on it, but it keeps burning. Behind a wall, someone is pouring oil on the fire. This is Jesus. He keeps faith alive in our hearts.

All of this is true and good. But there is a question. What does the story leave out? Does it leave out different things by accident? Or does it always leave out the same kind of thing?

At the Cross

Christian comes to the Cross. His burden falls off and rolls into an empty grave. Then three angels come. Bunyan calls them Shining Ones.

• The first says, “Thy sins be forgiven thee.” This means: your sins are forgiven.
• The second takes away his dirty old clothes and gives him new clothes.
• The third puts a mark on his forehead. He gives him a roll of paper with a seal on it. Christian must show it at the gate of heaven.

There is no water. There is no minister. No one else is there.

Now look at what the Bible says about baptism:

For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

Galatians 3:27 · World English Bible

In simple words: When you are baptized, it is like you put on Jesus as new clothes.

Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Acts 2:38 · World English Bible

In simple words: Turn back to God. Be baptized. God will forgive your sins and give you his Holy Spirit.

Around the year 350, a bishop named Cyril taught people in Jerusalem who were going to be baptized. He told them what baptism gives. He said it is “a remission of offenses” (forgiveness of sins), “a garment of light” (shining clothes), and “a holy indissoluble seal” (a holy mark that cannot be broken). For hundreds of years, the Church also made the sign of the cross on the forehead of people at their baptism.

Did Bunyan mean to leave it out?

About 350 years before Bunyan, a French monk named Deguileville also wrote a story about a pilgrim. In that story, a lady called Grace takes the pilgrim to her house, the Church. He is baptized in a river. A bishop puts a mark on his forehead. Only then does he start his journey. So a story about the Christian life can begin with baptism.

In 1673, five years before The Pilgrim’s Progress, Bunyan wrote another book. In it he said that baptism does not make a person a member of the Church. He said that baptism is not the way in. So when he wrote his story, he did not put baptism at the start. It was not an accident.

Most churches did not agree with Bunyan. The Lutheran churches said baptism “works forgiveness of sins” and “gives eternal salvation to all who believe this.” Even the English Puritans, who were close to Bunyan, said baptism brings a person into the Church.

Keeping himself safe

After the Cross, Christian has many dangers on the road. What helps him?

• He falls asleep and drops his roll. He must go back and look for it.
• He leaves the road for an easier path. A giant called Despair locks him in a dark prison.
• He must stay awake on the Enchanted Ground, where the air makes people sleepy.

Sometimes friends or angels help him. But in this story, no danger is met by baptism, by the Lord’s Supper, or by a minister saying “your sins are forgiven.” Christian must stay awake and keep himself safe.

At the end of the story, the young man Ignorance comes to the gate of heaven. The gatekeepers ask him for his roll. He looks for it in his coat, and finds nothing. He is taken away. Bunyan writes that there is a way to hell even from the gate of heaven.

Many readers then ask: “Am I like Ignorance? Do I really have the roll?” But the roll is inside the coat. Only the reader can look for it. For the old Church, baptism was the sign. It was done to you, by the Church, on a real day, in front of people.

A great teacher of the early Church, Augustine, wrote that even staying faithful to the end is “the gift of God.” Bunyan believed this too. But in his story we mostly see the pilgrim keeping himself.

When the pilgrim is afraid

Doubting Castle. Giant Despair keeps Christian and his friend Hopeful in prison for four days. Then Christian remembers that he has a key in his coat. The key is called Promise. It opens every door. The key is God’s promise, and that is good. But Christian forgot it for four days, and he had to find it himself.

The river. At the end, the pilgrims must cross a deep river. This river stands for death. The angels say the river is deeper or less deep, depending on how much you believe. Christian starts to sink. He remembers his sins. Hopeful holds him up and says, “Be of good cheer, Jesus Christ maketh thee whole.” This means: be brave, Jesus makes you well.

What Luther said. Martin Luther often felt great fear and doubt. He told afraid Christians not to look inside themselves. He told them to say: “Nevertheless I am baptized.” This means: even so, I am baptized, and God has promised to save me. He told dying people to look at Jesus, not at themselves. He said God’s sign and promise “will not lie.”

The Church

Christian comes to a big house called Beautiful. It is the Church in the story. It was built so that pilgrims can rest and be safe. But first, four women ask Christian many questions. Where did he come from? Why did he start the journey? Then he can stay. They give him dinner, a bed, and armour.

These are good things. But the house gives Christian nothing new. He already had forgiveness from the Cross. The house only welcomes people who are already Christians.

The old Church said something different. A teacher named Cyprian, around the year 251, said that God is our Father and the Church is our mother. Luther said the Church is the mother who gives birth to every Christian through the Word of God.

Leaving his family

At the start of the story, Christian’s wife and children call to him to come back. He puts his fingers in his ears. He runs away, crying, “Life! life! eternal life!”

The good side first. Jesus said that we must love him more than our own family (Luke 14:26). Bunyan himself left his wife and children when he went to prison. He said it was like pulling the flesh from his bones. Later in the story, Christian says he tried hard to bring his family with him. And in Part 2 of the book, his wife and four sons go on the journey too.

But the Bible shows whole families coming to faith together.

Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.

Acts 16:31 · World English Bible

In simple words: Paul told a jailer: believe in Jesus, and you and your family will be saved. That same night, the whole family was baptized.

Paul also told a Christian married to someone who did not believe to stay with them (1 Corinthians 7). Luther once ran away to a monastery to save his own soul, against his father’s wishes. Later he said this was wrong. He taught that caring for your family is a holy work. He said that when a father washes his baby’s nappies with faith, God and all his angels are smiling.

What this shows

Check it yourself

1. Read the part of The Pilgrim’s Progress where Christian comes to the Cross. What does he get there? Who gives it to him?
2. Read Galatians 3:26–29. What does Paul say happens in baptism?
3. Read Acts 16:25–34. What happened to the jailer’s family?
4. Read what Luther’s Small Catechism says about baptism.
5. Think about your own life as a Christian. Where has God given you something from outside yourself?