Christian's Dilemma

"WORLDLY-WISEMAN: Who directed you to go this way so as
to be rid of your burden?
CHRISTIAN: A man who appeared to me to be a very great and
honorable person; his name, as I remember it, is Evangelist.
WORLDLY-WISEMAN: I most certainly condemn him for his 
advice, for there is not a more dangerous and troublesome way 
ahead in all the world than that into which he has directed you; 
and you will prove this to be so if you submit to his guidance. 
Indeed, you appear to have experienced some of this trouble 
already, for I notice dirt on you that surely comes from the
Slough of Despond. Yet that Slough is but the beginning of your 
sorrows, even as other pilgrims experience along the same way. 
Listen to me, since I am older than you! As you proceed along the 
way ahead, you are likely to experience wearisomeness, painfulness, 
hunger, perils, nakedness, sword, lions, dragons, darkness, and in a 
word, death, and what else? These things are certainly true since they 
have been confirmed by the testimonies of many pilgrims.So why 
should a man so carelessly place himself in danger by paying attention to 
the advice of a stranger?
CHRISTIAN: Why, sir, this burden on my back is more terrible to me
than all of those things that you have mentioned. No, to give careful 
thought, I don’t care what I meet with in the way as long as I can 
eventually be delivered from my burden." John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress


Worldly-Wiseman is intent on discouraging Christian to continue on his journey. He has evidently heard what has happened to others that came before. Worldly-Wiseman describes to Christian what happened to those pilgrims. He didn't lying nor exaggerate.


In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, 2 Timothy 3:12


Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? Romans 8:35

Paul mentioned events that he had already endured, before he was killed for his faith.


"I more so; in far more labors, in far more imprisonments, beaten times without number, often in danger of death. Five times I received from the Jews thirty-nine lashes. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I have spent in the deep.  II Corinthians 11:23-27


What is great is Christian's response to the warnings that he was given. " I don't care!" This is the type of burden that gets people to cry out to God to be rescued. Pastors don't have to sugar coat their services. They need to proclaim the power of the cross. For those that have been relieved of that tremendous burden by the cross, our cry will always..... 


"But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body."
II Corinthians 4:7-10