Week 11: The River of Death and the Celestial City — The Last Crossing and the Welcome

1."Betwixt them and the gate was a river, but there was no bridge to go over: the river was very deep." The two shining companions tell them plainly: "You must go through, or you cannot come at the gate." Only Enoch and Elijah have been permitted to avoid it. Why does Bunyan insist on the river — on death — as the necessary passage? What does it rob us of to pretend death is not real or that it can be bypassed?

2."You shall find it deeper or shallower as you believe in the King of the place." The depth of the river varies with faith. Is this theologically accurate or dangerously subjective? How does faith in Christ actually change the experience of dying? Can you think of people you have known — or stories you have heard — where faith visibly affected the experience of death?

3.Christian's experience in the river is harrowing: "a great darkness and horror fell upon Christian, so that he could not see before him... he lost his senses... he could neither remember nor orderly talk of any of those sweet refreshments that he had met with in the way." He is "much in the troublesome thoughts of the sins that he had committed." This is not a triumphant deathbed. What is Bunyan protecting us from by depicting Christian's crossing this way? What do we do with the fact that some of God's most faithful people die in anguish rather than peace?