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The Strait Gate: Or, Great Difficulty of Going to Heaven
A TREATISE EVEN MORE RELEVANT NEARLY 350 YEARS LATER
The Strait Gate is a treatise written by Puritan author, John Bunyan, author of "The Pilgrim's Progress." This treatise was originally published in 1676 with the purpose of the wickedness prevalent among many professing believers in Bunyan's day. One of the issues arose from the general laxity in the preaching the gospel; and near kin to it, was the ease with which someone could make a confession of faith- having no conviction of sin, nor fruit of repentance, and no holiness of living. John Bunyan took the matter to task.
Free from his incarceration at the Bedford Jail for two years (after 12 years in prison), Mr. Bunyan exhorted his readers to embrace a pure gospel, a Biblical gospel. Bunyan viewed the Person and work of Jesus Christ the mainspring from which every aspect of acceptable Christianity was produced, be it doctrinal, dutiful or devotional. "Good works must flow from faith, or not at all," wrote John Bunyan in his 1663 treatise, Christian Behaviour (first published in 1674).
FROM GEORGE OFFER IN 1862
In his "Editor's Advertisement," prelude to this treatise in The Complete Works of John Bunyan, George Offor wrote, "If any uninspired writer has been entitled to the name of Boanerges, or a son of thunder, it is the author of the following treatise. Here we have a most searching and faithful display of the straitness or exact dimensions of that all-important gate, which will not suffer many professors to pass into the kingdom of heaven, encumbered as they are with fatal errors. Still 'it is no little pinching wicket, but wide enough for all the truly gracious and sincere lovers of Jesus Christ; while it is so strait, that no others can by any means enter in.' This is a subject calculated to rouse and stimulate all genuine professors to solemn inquiry; and it was peculiarly intended to dart at, and fix convictions upon, the multitudes of hypocritical professors who abounded in Bunyan's time, especially under the reigns of the later Stuarts."
More than 150 years since Mr. Offor wrote his advertisement, and nearly 350 years since Mr. Bunyan wrote this treatise, error has multiplied and, worse, been magnified to nearly culminate with a mishmash of every error and corruption of the gospel since the birth of the church in the first century.
With Mr. Bunyan's treatise, "The Strait Gate," the discerning believer will agree that the Bedford tinker-turned-preacher's exhortation to receive knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior must come from the scriptures alone, and that this knowledge must be received and understood by the light of the Holy Spirit; and logically presenting the Biblical truths in Mr. Bunyan's unique and indefatigable way, you will be encouraged by this work and rejoice in its purity of propositional truth, revel in its sincerity toward practical application, and resolve to take up a more passionate devotion to Christ's person as God and Savior.
SPURGEON ON BUNYAN'S WRITING.
Of John Bunyan and his classic story, Charles H. Spurgeon had this to say: ..".he cannot give us his "Pilgrim's Progress"- that sweetest of all prose poems- without continually making us feel and say, 'Why, this man is a living Bible!' Prick him anywhere; his blood is Bibline, the very essence of the Bible flows from him." Although Mr. Spurgeon preached this concerning Bunyan's famous allegory, once you've read this treatise, you'll readily agree, that Bunyan's blood is indeed Bibline in everything he writes.
May you benefit greatly from the puritan heart and mind of John Bunyan, forged by God's Word and formed by Christ's Divine Light.
The Strait Gate is a treatise written by Puritan author, John Bunyan, author of "The Pilgrim's Progress." This treatise was originally published in 1676 with the purpose of the wickedness prevalent among many professing believers in Bunyan's day. One of the issues arose from the general laxity in the preaching the gospel; and near kin to it, was the ease with which someone could make a confession of faith- having no conviction of sin, nor fruit of repentance, and no holiness of living. John Bunyan took the matter to task.
Free from his incarceration at the Bedford Jail for two years (after 12 years in prison), Mr. Bunyan exhorted his readers to embrace a pure gospel, a Biblical gospel. Bunyan viewed the Person and work of Jesus Christ the mainspring from which every aspect of acceptable Christianity was produced, be it doctrinal, dutiful or devotional. "Good works must flow from faith, or not at all," wrote John Bunyan in his 1663 treatise, Christian Behaviour (first published in 1674).
FROM GEORGE OFFER IN 1862
In his "Editor's Advertisement," prelude to this treatise in The Complete Works of John Bunyan, George Offor wrote, "If any uninspired writer has been entitled to the name of Boanerges, or a son of thunder, it is the author of the following treatise. Here we have a most searching and faithful display of the straitness or exact dimensions of that all-important gate, which will not suffer many professors to pass into the kingdom of heaven, encumbered as they are with fatal errors. Still 'it is no little pinching wicket, but wide enough for all the truly gracious and sincere lovers of Jesus Christ; while it is so strait, that no others can by any means enter in.' This is a subject calculated to rouse and stimulate all genuine professors to solemn inquiry; and it was peculiarly intended to dart at, and fix convictions upon, the multitudes of hypocritical professors who abounded in Bunyan's time, especially under the reigns of the later Stuarts."
More than 150 years since Mr. Offor wrote his advertisement, and nearly 350 years since Mr. Bunyan wrote this treatise, error has multiplied and, worse, been magnified to nearly culminate with a mishmash of every error and corruption of the gospel since the birth of the church in the first century.
With Mr. Bunyan's treatise, "The Strait Gate," the discerning believer will agree that the Bedford tinker-turned-preacher's exhortation to receive knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior must come from the scriptures alone, and that this knowledge must be received and understood by the light of the Holy Spirit; and logically presenting the Biblical truths in Mr. Bunyan's unique and indefatigable way, you will be encouraged by this work and rejoice in its purity of propositional truth, revel in its sincerity toward practical application, and resolve to take up a more passionate devotion to Christ's person as God and Savior.
SPURGEON ON BUNYAN'S WRITING.
Of John Bunyan and his classic story, Charles H. Spurgeon had this to say: ..".he cannot give us his "Pilgrim's Progress"- that sweetest of all prose poems- without continually making us feel and say, 'Why, this man is a living Bible!' Prick him anywhere; his blood is Bibline, the very essence of the Bible flows from him." Although Mr. Spurgeon preached this concerning Bunyan's famous allegory, once you've read this treatise, you'll readily agree, that Bunyan's blood is indeed Bibline in everything he writes.
May you benefit greatly from the puritan heart and mind of John Bunyan, forged by God's Word and formed by Christ's Divine Light.
80 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1995
About the author
John Bunyan
1,873 books1,517 followersJohn Bunyan, a Christian writer and preacher, was born at Harrowden (one mile south-east of Bedford), in the Parish of Elstow, England. He wrote The Pilgrim's Progress, arguably the most famous published Christian allegory. In the Church of England he is remembered with a Lesser Festival on 30 August.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
June 19, 2018
I must admit at the outset that I have rather different eschatological beliefs to the author when it comes to the kingdom of God, but by and large even with these disagreements, there is much in this book to appreciate and agree with, as is generally the case when one reads Bunyan [1]. Suffice it to say that I do not believe that mankind has an immortal soul but rather that eternal life of any kind must be given as a gift by God, and that even those who believe rest in the grave until the return of Jesus Christ at which point they will be raised at the last trumpet and will dwell with God and Jesus Christ and their resurrected brethren together forever in God's Kingdom. Be that as it may, the author does not spend a great deal of time speculating about heaven, which means that the points of disagreement between the author and I are rather minimized in the face of our much greater agreement about the difficulty of salvation as a human being and the rather small amount of people who profess to believe in Jesus Christ who actually follow Him.
Over and over again in this short treatise the author points out the difficulties of salvation and makes comments that correspond with his more famous work in Pilgrim's Progress about the obstacles within us and outside of ourselves that make salvation such a difficult challenge. What would seem like a fairly straightforward discussion about the narrowness of the way into God's kingdom becomes a way of talking about how salvation has always been rare in human history and that the vast majority of those who profess to follow Jesus Christ do not do so. In fact, there is nothing about which I can disagree with the author's point, one only wonders what it was that made and continues to make salvation so rare, and here the author gets part of the answer right but does not give the whole answer. It is likely that given the author's lack of understanding about the history of Christianity, he focuses more on the barriers related to our love of sin and our lack of commitment to God's ways rather than going into detail about how following God has always been a difficult matter because Hellenized Christianity and biblical Christianity have always been so antithetical to each other.
Nevertheless, the author at least appears to understand this problem at least in part because of his own struggles. Recognizing the corruption of the Christianity of his time and the way that it was enmeshed in heathen carousing and in political grandstanding, and recognizing as well that those who like himself were motivated by sincere religious belief ended up falling under government persecution, he correctly extrapolated his own experiences and the insight gained from looking at the Bible to point out the relative scarcity of believers across all human history. If he did not tie in the Sabbath, for example, to this scarcity, he can be forgiven because of his own lack of knowledge about Christian history, but his concern with the difficulties of being a genuine believer in this present evil world are definitely something that has to be kept in mind by those who would wish to make Christianity more popular by being less rigorous, something that is bound to fail and a very common approach these days as well as in the author's own times. Even without perfect agreement there is still much to appreciate here.
[1] See, for example:
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2015...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017...
Over and over again in this short treatise the author points out the difficulties of salvation and makes comments that correspond with his more famous work in Pilgrim's Progress about the obstacles within us and outside of ourselves that make salvation such a difficult challenge. What would seem like a fairly straightforward discussion about the narrowness of the way into God's kingdom becomes a way of talking about how salvation has always been rare in human history and that the vast majority of those who profess to follow Jesus Christ do not do so. In fact, there is nothing about which I can disagree with the author's point, one only wonders what it was that made and continues to make salvation so rare, and here the author gets part of the answer right but does not give the whole answer. It is likely that given the author's lack of understanding about the history of Christianity, he focuses more on the barriers related to our love of sin and our lack of commitment to God's ways rather than going into detail about how following God has always been a difficult matter because Hellenized Christianity and biblical Christianity have always been so antithetical to each other.
Nevertheless, the author at least appears to understand this problem at least in part because of his own struggles. Recognizing the corruption of the Christianity of his time and the way that it was enmeshed in heathen carousing and in political grandstanding, and recognizing as well that those who like himself were motivated by sincere religious belief ended up falling under government persecution, he correctly extrapolated his own experiences and the insight gained from looking at the Bible to point out the relative scarcity of believers across all human history. If he did not tie in the Sabbath, for example, to this scarcity, he can be forgiven because of his own lack of knowledge about Christian history, but his concern with the difficulties of being a genuine believer in this present evil world are definitely something that has to be kept in mind by those who would wish to make Christianity more popular by being less rigorous, something that is bound to fail and a very common approach these days as well as in the author's own times. Even without perfect agreement there is still much to appreciate here.
[1] See, for example:
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2015...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017...
December 2, 2020
I cannot recommend this book enough. Jesus says clearly enough that few people will be saved and they will find it difficult, but a great multitude will believe they're saved, deceiving themselves all the way to destruction. Most professing Christians will be in hell. Those who are saved will be found striving.
Maybe hearing it from this saint will help open our ears to the words of God. Lord, help us to know your love so we can love you and share your love with everyone around us, amen.
Maybe hearing it from this saint will help open our ears to the words of God. Lord, help us to know your love so we can love you and share your love with everyone around us, amen.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews