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Available
Collection
Description
In Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners, John Bunyan recounts his inner thoughts as he grappled with his faith. Bunyan takes us through the struggle of his own sin and how grace led him from a conflicted conscience to a powerful preacher of the gospel. Modern readers will find encouragement in Bunyan's remedies for his own troubled conscience, as well as hope that God has used so greatly a man who struggled so deeply.
Publication
(2012), 192 pages
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Media reviews
Paul Dare
Finally! I found it! A copy of Bunyan’s autobiography Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners. OK, I’ve been able to get it for years, but never for this cheap. $3.50 at a used bookstore in Royal Oak, MI. There it was, just sitting quietly on the shelf. So innocent, so unassuming. Lime green
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cover fading from either over use or neglect. I picked up the 10 books on top of it and pulled it out carefully. A modern English version too?! Score!
So far it’s both what I expected and filled with surprises. Because I love Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress I’ve heard a lot of folks make mention of his autobiography and highly recommend it. They were right. It is good. It’s an amazing chronicle of Bunyan’s struggle and vacillation between trusting God’s promises and believing Satan’s accusations. It sheds some great light on his upbringing and life before being drawn to Christ. It speaks about his marriage, his exposure to other Christians and his favorite hobbies as a young man. What I did not expect to read was how long his struggle to believe and be assured he was in Christ actually drug on. He went back and forth between great hope and utter despair for almost 87 pages (in my copy). He reflects on this struggle and is encouraged by how the Lord used it to teach him great things that would stay with him the rest of his journey toward the heavenly city. I am also pleasantly surprised to find out how much of his personal experience was drawn upon to write the worlds most famous allegory, Pilgrim’s Progress.
The book was great, I finished it a few days ago. Much of what Bunyan describes herein could’ve been written by me from my own conversion experience.
I highly recommend this. Show Less
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LibraryThing member tjsjohanna
Maybe it is just the modern world in which I grew up, but Mr. Bunyan's journey to conversion in Christ was a lot of work. Much more work than most faithful people I know seem to think it takes to become converted to Christ. Mr. Bunyan relates a fearful back and forth mental journey from desiring to
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be wicked to rejoicing in the saving love of Christ. He genuinely struggles with his desire to be saved and his fear that he will be found wanting. It inspired me to put more effort into my relationship with Christ - to examine my life more closely and not take for granted the easiness of obtaining grace. I also found it interesting that Mr. Bunyan's conversion was a long process. There is the impression "out there" that one must "accept" Christ and then that's it. I think Mr. Bunyan had it right. Man is a variable creature, and must be engaged in the process of conversion probably his whole life. Great book. Show Less
LibraryThing member DanielSTJ
An interesting account of the inner peremeations of Bunyan's soul. Although I am not religious, I did consider it enlightening and highly personal. Bunyan puts everything on the page here, for the reader to bestow, and attempts to make it legible and clear. The writing is fairly clear as well.
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There are a lot of religious connotations and references that might go over one's head, but he provides the basic supplementary quotations that provide understanding to the whole. Show Less
LibraryThing member lachlanp
THis is John Bunyan's account of he came to rest in Christ for his eternal security. It took him a long time to get there, with many doubts and much searching of scripture. He was extremely familiar with the Bible long before he came to the end of this process, though some places (especially
I found it encouraging to have a glimpse into the heart of a great Christian and see that riding the pinnacle of joy is not our constant experience. Even after this, John was often troubled with depression and heavy attacks of doubts. To quote from his conclusion:
> I have wondered much at this one thing, that though God doth visit my soul with never so blessed a discovery of himself, yet I have found again, that such hours have attended me afterwards that I have bewen in my spirit so filled with darkness that I could not so much as once conceive. what that God, and that comfort was, with which I have been refreshed. [tldr: sometimes he was given a great sight of God, yet often immediately after he had a terrible period of darkness]
> I have sometimes seen more in a line of the Bible than I could well tell how to stand under, and yet at another time the whole Bible hath been to me as a dry stick -- or rather, my heart hath been so dead and dry unto it, that I could not conceive the least dram of refreshment though I have looked it all over.
But he realised these were given by God for his good, to keep him humble, to remind him how necessary Christ is, to watch, and to pray always.
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Hebrews) he misunderstood to be sentencing him to ruin, beyond Christ's reach. By God's grace, he was eventually able to understand each passage in context and realise that no sinner can exhaust the sacrifice of Jesus.I found it encouraging to have a glimpse into the heart of a great Christian and see that riding the pinnacle of joy is not our constant experience. Even after this, John was often troubled with depression and heavy attacks of doubts. To quote from his conclusion:
> I have wondered much at this one thing, that though God doth visit my soul with never so blessed a discovery of himself, yet I have found again, that such hours have attended me afterwards that I have bewen in my spirit so filled with darkness that I could not so much as once conceive. what that God, and that comfort was, with which I have been refreshed. [tldr: sometimes he was given a great sight of God, yet often immediately after he had a terrible period of darkness]
> I have sometimes seen more in a line of the Bible than I could well tell how to stand under, and yet at another time the whole Bible hath been to me as a dry stick -- or rather, my heart hath been so dead and dry unto it, that I could not conceive the least dram of refreshment though I have looked it all over.
But he realised these were given by God for his good, to keep him humble, to remind him how necessary Christ is, to watch, and to pray always.
Show Less