Week 10: The Delectable Mountains and the Enchanted Ground — Seeing the City and Staying Awake

1.On the Delectable Mountains, the shepherds — Knowledge, Experience, Watchful, and Sincere — show Christian and Hopeful four sights: the Hill Error (those who fell for heresy about the resurrection, still lying unburied), the Hill Caution (the blind men stumbling among the tombs — former pilgrims blinded by Giant Despair), the by-way to hell (used by those who had "a show of pilgrimage"), and finally, through a perspective glass from the Hill Clear, a distant glimpse of the Celestial Gate. What do these four sights together say about the final stages of the Christian life? Why does Bunyan pair a glimpse of glory with such grave warnings?

2.Looking through the perspective glass, "the remembrance of that last thing that the Shepherds had shown them, made their hands shake" — and they could see the gate only dimly, "something like the gate." Trembling hands make for uncertain vision. How does the weight of what we know about sin and apostasy appropriately temper our assurance? Is it possible to hold trembling and hope together? What does that look like?

3.Ignorance appears — slipping into the road from a crooked lane from the country of Conceit. He has never come through the wicket gate; he believes his heart is good because it tells him so; he thinks Christ justifies his obedience rather than replacing it. Christian's devastating question: "How dost thou believe?" Ignorance's answer reveals that he believes Christ makes his own religious duties acceptable to the Father — rather than trusting in Christ's personal righteousness alone. Why is this distinction so important? How widespread is Ignorance's understanding of justification today?