Season 5 Podcast 34 John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, Episode 7, Chapter 2 C, “The Interpreter Cont.”

A New Voice of Freedom

Season 5 Podcast 34 John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, Episode 7, Chapter 2 C, “The Interpreter Cont.”

In last week’s episode, we are introduced to The Interpreter. In this week’s episode we continue with The Interpreter.
Then I saw in my dream, that the Interpreter took Christian by the hand and led him into a place where was a fire burning against a wall, and one standing by it, always casting much water upon it, to quench it; yet did the fire burn higher and hotter.

The Interpreter is teaching Christian how to read the symbolism of the Bible. It is probably accurate to assume that John Bunyan has memorized the Bible, if not the Old, certainly the New Testament, for the Biblical allusions are ubiquitous. As Christ sometimes interpreted His parables, The Interpreter interprets each of the scenes in the journey. Christ asks The Interpreter, “What means this?”

The Interpreter answered, "This fire is the work of God that is wrought in the heart: he that casts water upon it to extinguish and put it out, is the devil; but, in that thou seest the fire notwithstanding burn higher and hotter, thou shalt also see the reason of that."

The purpose of Pilgrim’s Progress is to make the invisible world visible. Inherent in Pilgrim’s Progress is that everything has meaning, both temporal meaning and spiritual meaning. In other words, the invisible world, which means the hand of God, and the visible world, which means the world as we see it, coexist; however, all temporal things have spiritual implications.

The paradox becomes even more complex. We all may share a similar physical experience; however, none of us actually perceive it alike. We may even share a similar spiritual experience, yet none of us perceive it alike.

That is the price of mortality. For example, some may look at the night sky and see intelligent design and thus attribute it to the hand of God. Others may look at the same night sky and see the same order yet attribute it to luck or accident or chance or serendipity of circumstances.

That is why the Interpreter is necessary. It is his job to explain the spiritual implications or spiritual feelings of our physical experiences, even if it is in vision. One of the paradoxes of life is that we may have exactly the same physical experience yet none of us see it the same. Even the physical descriptions vary for we are human. What one sees, hears, touches, tastes, or smells in our mortal world another though standing by our side may not.

As to the things which Christian sees, the reader must find analogies to his or her own world. This even the Interpreter cannot do for him. The Interpreter may interpret an event, but he cannot define the event for it is different for every person. For example, “This fire is the work of God that is wrought in the heart,” though visible to Christian, it is not really visible to all people, even all Christians. One must feel the burning of the bosom or the testimony of Christ or the feelings of the Holy Ghost. Pilgrim’s Progress is an allegory that symbolizes the spiritual road that every Christian must take. Remember that Christian has forsaken everything to venture on his quest to escape the city of destruction. Bunyan assumes you, like Christian, are on the same journey, on the same path, on the same quest. As shortly made clear by the Interpreter, the end goal of every good Christian is the Celestial Kingdom. Nothing less is acceptable as you will see.

So then he led him about to the other side of the wall, where he saw a man with a vessel of oil in his hand, of the which he did also continually cast, but secretly, into the fire.