The Castle of Giant Despair

You think you've seen it all in Pilgrim's Progress and you've been in the Valley of the Shadow of Death, which was a pretty dark place, and you've been in Vanity Fair, which was a dark place, and now you're coming to perhaps an even darker place, the dungeon of the castle of giant despair. They're locked in a dungeon without food and without water and without light. The leavers can find themselves captured by giant despair in the basement of Doubting Castle. It's a dark place. Perhaps you've been there or someone you know.

So the question is, how do you get out if you're there? Hi, I'm Nathan W. Bingham and you're listening to Renewing Your Mind. This week, we're exploring John Bunyan's classic The Pilgrim's Progress.

Taking us on this guided tour is Ligonier teaching fellow Derek Thomas. If you're just joining us, this allegory follows the main character, a man named Christian, on his journey to the celestial city. And today he finds himself in the dungeon of giant despair's castle. But thankfully, there is a way out, and that's a truth that we all need to remember.

Here's Dr. Thomas. Welcome back in our studies in Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. Last time we saw the valiant faithful's martyrdom, and then that beautiful description that Bunyan gives of a chariot and horses reminiscent, of course, of Elijah, and that he's taken up to the nearest gate to the celestial city, and the sort of vindication of God to this faithful servant called Faithful. And then that little song that was sung in his memory, Well faithful, thou hast faithfully professed, Unto thy Lord with whom thou shalt be blessed, When faithless ones with all their vain delight Are crying out under their hellish plight, Sing, faithful, sing, and let thy name survive, For though they killed thee, thou art yet alive.

And then the next line, you know, that's a terrible bond of friendship that's been broken. Faithful has just emerged in the story, now he's been taken out of the story. The next line in Pilgrim's Progress says, Now I saw in my dream that Christian went not forth alone, For there was one whose name was hopeful, Being so made by the beholding of Christian, And faithful in their words and behavior, In their sufferings at the fair, Who joined himself unto him, And entering into a brotherly covenant, Told him that he would be his companion.

What a beautiful thing here. Faithful is gone, but this man, hopeful, has seen the death of Faithful. This blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church, Tertullian said, and out of martyrdom the church has emerged.

We see that story in Eastern Europe, we see that story in Korea, we see that story in China, we see that story in parts of Africa in the 20th century. And now emerges hopeful. Hopeful will be with Christian right to the end of the story. Some of you remember how Christian has a little bit of trouble crossing the river that eventually leads to the Celestial City, and it is Hopeful who actually almost carries him across that river at the end of the story. So, Hopeful is yet another friend and the importance of friendship, I think, in Bunyan's understanding of what the Christian life should be like.

Now, hopeful then has been converted through the valiant testimony of Faithful, in particular in vanity. Now, the two of them walk together and come across Mr. Byans, who is from the town of Fair Speech. He doesn't tell them his name, but he does relate to them some of his kindred, including a Mr. Facing Both Ways, the parson, Mr. Two Tongues, and his wife, my Lady Feigning's daughter, that's, I think, Bunyan cocking a snook a little at the aristocracy. Bunyan was decidedly blue collar, I think, and his politics, some of Bunyan's great interpreters in the 20th century have been of communist persuasion in political history for entirely different reasons, you understand. But in the bourgeoisie versus the proletariat, Bunyan was definitely of the proletariat variety rather than the bourgeoisie.

So, communist historians in the 20th century have sort of been drawn to Bunyan and have made him out to be something that I don't think he was. Byans tells Christian now, and Hopeful, tells them eventually that this is not his real name, but a name given to him by someone who did not like him, and he wants to go with Christian and Hopeful, but cannot leave his old principles since they are harmless and profitable. And as they look back, Christian and Hopeful see that three others have joined byans, Mr. Hold the World, Mr. Money Love, and Mr. Save All. Bunyan had a thing about preachers who preached that everybody would be saved in whatever way they thought. So, universalists were alive and well, of course, in the 17th century, and here's one called Mr. Save All. Now, it all sounds like a conversation about health and wealth as you overhear the conversation between byans and Mr. Money Love and Save All and Hold the World.

And eventually they drift out of the story. Hopeful and Christian now pass through a narrow plain called Ease with its little hill called Lucre. Lucre was a 16th, 17th century word for money, hence the King James talks about filthy lucre, meaning the love of money.

And there's a place now in this story called Lucre with a silver mine in it. A man called Demas calls out, and Hopeful is tempted to go back and have a look, but Christian senses the danger and stops him. Of course, Demas in the New Testament is the man who, having loved this present world, forsook Paul. On the highway, Christian and Hopeful come across a statue of a woman with the inscription, Remember Lot's Wife.

There's a discussion about the dangers of covetousness. Next, they come to a river where the two stop and take a drink. On either side are meadows and pasture and leaves that are good for medicine.

There's a recognition here of passages like Psalm 23 and Ezekiel 47 and Revelation 22. They lie down. They fall asleep. Actually, they spend several days there. And then they go on, and the road becomes considerably more difficult.

And on their left is a meadow called Bipath Meadow. And there is a parallel path on either side of the fence, and because Christian and Hopeful are discouraged, they step over the fence and they join this path. Hopeful is somewhat suspicious, but Christian prevails.

The path, of course, leads them into trouble. They meet a man called Vain Confidence who says he is on his way to the celestial city, but that evening they hear him fall into a deep pit. A storm gathers. There's thunder.

There's lightning. They are nearly drowned by the rising rain water. Christian asks for Hopeful's forgiveness for having taken him thus out of the way. They come across a shelter. They fall into a deep sleep. What they don't know, of course, is that they have strayed into the grounds of Doubting Castle and Giant Despair, who occupies the castle with his wife, Difidence. And Giant Despair discovers them asleep in this shelter, and they take them captive.

They're locked in a dungeon of the castle without food and without water and without light. Now, Bunyan is describing events, I think, in his own life here from grace abounding, days of darkness, darkness of the soul. Bunyan experienced days of great depression, days when the light of God's countenance seemed to have been altogether taken from him. Perhaps in the background here are words from Psalm 88. If you're not familiar with Psalm 88, don't make the mistake of saying it's your favorite psalm. There is no light in Psalm 88.

It ends with the words, darkness is my only friend. That's a dark place to be where darkness is your only friend. It's one of those psalms that you're glad that it's there. It's like knowing that if the aeroplane at 30,000 feet is going to descend into the ocean, that your seat can be used as a flotation device.

I'm not sure how reassuring that is when you're heading to that sea at five or six hundred miles an hour. It's probably you're going home to be with Jesus' time. Well, Psalm 88, darkness is my only friend, and this is a very, very dark place. You think you've seen it all in Pilgrim's Progress, and you've been in the Valley of the Shadow of Death, which was a pretty dark place, and you've been in Vanity Fair, which was a dark place, and now you're coming to perhaps an even darker place, the dungeon of the castle of giant despair. Now, we're told by Bunyan that they're in this dungeon from Wednesday morning until Saturday night, and perhaps what he is alluding to is the last days of Jesus from the moment of his betrayal from Gethsemane and through his trial into the Friday and his death and his burial and Saturday and Saturday night, and he's, of course, raised on the Sunday. And perhaps there's an illusion here that this darkness is a darkness that our Savior has known and redeemed.

It's a wonderful thing for Christians who experience great darkness and experience depression for whatever reason, and they find themselves in Psalm 88. They find themselves in a place where darkness is my only friend, and Bunyan is sort of alluding here that Jesus has been here too. He's known what it is to be without a friend and to be surrounded by darkness, that the sun eventually refuses to shine upon him on the cross. Now, let's get back to the allegory. Giant despair has a wife.

She's called diffidence, which in the 17th century would mean suspicion or distrust. She urges giant despair, her husband, to beat Christian and hopeful, to torture them in effect and to do so mercilessly. And then something quite unexpected happens, and if you've not read Pilgrim's Progress carefully or you've not read it recently, you're just not expecting this. Giant despair urges Christian and hopeful to end their lives, to commit suicide. This is Bunyan.

Bunyan is a pastor. He's dealing with very dark issues, some of the darkest issues, the issues of suicide and the temptation to take one's own life. And all of us, I'm sure, in this room, and I'm certainly not an exemption to this, have known dear friends, Christian friends, who have taken their own lives, or we've been pastors in situations in churches where young people, college students especially, have taken their lives, and I've certainly had my share of those pastoral situations.

And they're among the most difficult and the most dark that you have to deal with. And what a mercy, what an insight, what a pastoral mindset Bunyan has that in this family tale, Pilgrim's Progress, that parents would read to their children, that here you reach this really dark, dark moment. And Christian and hopeful are genuinely tempted.

They are very tempted to take their own lives. And I think Bunyan is saying Christians do sometimes reach this place. Perhaps, perhaps Bunyan did, perhaps in his imprisonment, perhaps in the twelve years that he spent in prison, there were occasional evenings when he descended into a very dark place. It's a rather lengthy and sensitive section in Pilgrim's Progress, and if you have a mind to, I would urge you to study it carefully. Hopeful, it's Christian who is most tempted to take his life, Hopeful gives him ten reasons why he shouldn't, and they're absolutely wonderful. They're a Christian, Puritan pastor giving reasons why you shouldn't take your life. And on the Saturday evening at the urging of diffidence, giant despair takes them out into the castle yard, and he shows them skulls and bones and skeletons of those who have been killed in the past, bringing the temptation then to its peak, bringing the sense of despair and the hopelessness of the situation. And they're beaten once more, and giant despair doesn't carry out his threat to actually kill them, because he too is under the sovereign control and direction of Almighty God. And this is a wonderful section.

It's a dark section. I find it quite astonishing. But I also am impressed by the way Bunyan is actually ministering pastorally to an extremely difficult situation.

And he knows this is a family story. It's meant for parents to read to their children. And this book will become the most read book in Christian homes, and for probably 200 years, almost until the present generation.

This was the most widely published book, apart from the English Bible in English literature. Consider for a minute the testimony of Spurgeon. Spurgeon, of course, loved Pilgrim's Progress, often cites from it. Almost take a sermon at random from the Metropolitan Tabernacle, and you'll see Spurgeon's love for Pilgrim's Progress. Spurgeon tells us of a time in his autobiography. A man comes to the service.

This is when they were in the Surrey Gardens, rather than the Metropolitan Tabernacle. A man who came to the service, and he's despondent, and he's thinking of ending his life, and then he hears Spurgeon one day, and then he's delivered. And Bunyan is telling you about this in his autobiography. He tells of his own story. When there was a fire in the church, in Spurgeon's church, somebody in the balcony cries out, Fire!

It's a hoax. But there's a stampede to get out to the building. This is before all the sort of civil codes that we now have for fire escapes and so on. Several people are killed. Think up to about a dozen people are killed in the stampede to get out of the building. Spurgeon is absolutely and totally shaken by it. He's out of commission. He doesn't preach for months afterwards. He is urged to go to the south of France to this house that somebody loans him to recuperate.

He is in the depths of depression because of this incident that he experiences. Well, on the Saturday night, about midnight, Christian and Hopeful begin to pray. And I thought I would read part of the story to you of the way in which this tale is now told, as Bunyan himself tells it in Pilgrim's Progress. Towards evening, the giant goes down into the dungeon again to see if the prisoners had taken his counsel to end their lives. But when he came there, he found them alive.

And truly alive was all. For now, what for want of bread and water and by reason of the wounds they received when he beat them, they could do little but breathe. But I say he found them alive, at which he fell into a grievous rage and told them that seeing they hadn't obeyed his counsel, it should be worse with them than if they had never been born. At this they trembled greatly, and I think that Christian fell into a swooned. But coming a little to himself again, they renewed their discourse about the giant's counsel, and whether yet they had best take it or no. Now, Christian again seemed to be for doing it, but Hopeful made his second reply.

And so on, he describes now these ten reasons why he shouldn't take his life. On the Saturday night about midnight, they began to pray and continued in prayer till almost break of day. Now, a little before it was day, good Christian, as one half amazed, break out in his passionate speech. What a fool, Kothi, am I, thus to lie in a stinking dungeon, when I may as well walk at liberty. I have a key in my bosom called Promise, that will, I am persuaded, open any lock in Doubting Castle.

Then said Hopeful, That's good news, good brother, pluck it out of thy bosom and try. Then Christian pulled it out of his bosom and began to try at the dungeon door, whose bolt, as he turned the key, gave back, and the door flew open with ease, and Christian and Hopeful both came out. Then he went to the outward door that leads into the castle yard, and with his key opened that door also. After he went to the iron gate, for that must be opened too.

But that lock went damnable hard, yet the key did open it. Then they thrust open the gate to make their escape with speed. But that gate, as it opened, made such a cracking that it waked Giant Despair, who hastily rising to pursue the prisoners, felt in his limbs to fail, for his fits took him again, so that he could by no means go after them. Then they went on and came to the king's highway, and so were safe, because they were out of his jurisdiction. Now, when they were gone over the stile, they began to contrive with themselves what they should do at that stile, to prevent those that shall come after them from falling into the hands of Giant Despair. So they consented to erect there a pillar, and to engrave upon the side thereof. This sentence over this stile is the way to Doubting Castle, which is kept by Giant Despair, who despiseth the king of the celestial country, and seeks to destroy the holy pilgrims.

Many, therefore, that followed after, read what was written, and escaped the danger. This done they sang as follows, Out of the way we went, and then we found what was to tread upon forbidden ground, and let them that come after have a care, lest they for trespassing his prisoners are, whose doubting castles doubting, and whose names despair. Well, in part two of Pilgrim's Progress, Christiana, actually two of the sons and some others, go into this castle and destroy it. And just remember, just remember this part of the story where this warning is given, because the two boys, they're teenagers.

They're just ready for a fight, and they go in to destroy the castle and raise it to the ground. But a very dark, dark section of Pilgrim's Progress that ends with this key called promise, that's lying all the while in his bosom. It's the promise of the covenant that God will always hear the cries of His children who come to Him by faith. In our distress, may we not forget the key called promise, an important and very practical lesson today on Renewing Your Mind from Derek Thomas as he walks us through John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress. What I love about The Pilgrim's Progress is just how memorable the characters and their experiences are, making it easy to remember and to bring up, especially when speaking to your children or to new Christians about the Christian life.

But it's also treasured by seasoned saints. Dr. Thomas mentioned Charles Spurgeon today, and Spurgeon said that he'd read it at least 100 times. So if you'd like to get better acquainted with The Pilgrim's Progress, request your copy of Dr. Thomas' 19-part series today. When you give your gift of any amount at renewingyourmind.org, we'll send you this three-DVD set and give you digital access to all of the messages and the study guide. You can make that donation, as I said, by visiting renewingyourmind.org, or you can call us at 800 435 4343. After being in Doubting Castle, and before that Vanity Fair, and before that, the Valley of the Shadow of Death, next we'll journey to a far sweeter location, the Delectable Mountains. That's tomorrow, here on Renewing Your Mind. .