At a glance: this is a 14-week study and discussion guide for Through Gates of Splendor by Elisabeth Elliot, with 98 questions organized by reading assignment. Week 1 is free to read, with no card required.
Through Gates of Splendor by Elisabeth Elliot is one of the most gripping missionary accounts ever written. Published originally in 1957 and reissued in 1986, it tells the true story of five young American men — Jim Elliot, Nate Saint, Ed McCully, Peter Fleming, and Roger Youderian — who gave their lives in January 1956 while attempting to make peaceful contact with the Huaorani (then called "Auca") people of the Ecuadorian jungle. Elisabeth Elliot, widow of Jim Elliot, tells the story with remarkable restraint and literary beauty, allowing the men's own journals, letters, and radio communications to speak for themselves. The book's thesis is not simply that these men were heroes, but that their deaths were not a tragedy — they were a consummation. These men had counted the cost, had surrendered their lives fully to God, and when the moment came, they stepped through the gates of splendor into eternity. Their sacrifice ultimately bore tremendous fruit: the Huaorani people were later reached with the gospel, in part through the courage of Elisabeth Elliot and Rachel Saint themselves.
This study guide is designed for individuals or small groups who want to read Through Gates of Splendor slowly and prayerfully, allowing its story to penetrate not just the mind but the will. The recommended approach is simple: read the assigned chapter(s) before your group meets (or before your personal study time), pause to journal your responses to the orienting questions, and then discuss or pray through the material together. Some weeks cover a single chapter; others may group shorter chapters. The questions move from comprehension to application to reflection, so resist the urge to skip straight to the personal questions — grounding yourself in what actually happened will make your reflection richer and more honest.
What can you expect to gain? Readers consistently report that this book breaks open a comfortable Christianity and replaces it with something more costly and more joyful. You will be confronted with the gap between the men's total abandon to Christ and the partial surrender most of us offer. You will also be deeply encouraged — because the story does not end in the jungle. It ends in grace. By the time you finish, you will have wrestled with questions of calling, sacrifice, suffering, sovereignty, and hope, and you will have done so not in the abstract but through the lives of five real men and the families who loved them.