Who is Ignorance?

Written by Gabriel

The character Ignorance in the book Pilgrim’s Progress is a pilgrim in search of the Celestial City, but he actually represents those who are false converts to the Christian faith.   In the book it said that Ignorance was “born in a country that lay off a little on the left hand.”  Christian and Faithful meet Ignorance as soon as they left the delectable mountains.  When they meet Ignorance and ask him where he is going he replies that he is going to the Celestial City.  They then see that Ignorance has no mark on his forehead and has no scroll to identify him.  They then ask how he means to enter through the gate without a mark on the forehead or a scroll.  Calmly Ignorance replies that he “knew his Lords will” and that he was a “good liver” that he “gave every man his own” and he gave “tithes to the church.”  That is what he said that makes him a false convert.

Now you may say, “Isn’t it good to pay tithes, live a good life, give each man his own, and know our Lord’s will?”  Yes these are all good things however living a good life is not what makes you a Christian.  In Ephesians 2:8-9 the Bible declares, “For it is by grace you have been saved through faith and this not of yourselves, it is the gift of God not by works, so that no one can boast.”  That passage says it all.  We have been saved through faith in Christ.

In the book having faith in Christ and being accepted as a Christian is represented as a Pilgrim being allowed entrance at a wicker gate that is the beginning of the way to the Celestial City.  When we read in the book we find that Ignorance did not enter at the gate but entered the path some other way.  Hearing this Christian is led to believe that Ignorance will not be accepted at the Celestial City but will be refused as a trespasser.  In the end Christian is right.  In Galatians 1:8 it clearly states “But even if we or and angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel other that the one we preach to you, let him be eternally condemned!  In this verse when it refers to “the Gospel we preach to you” it is referring to the Gospel of Christ.  So when it says “if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned”, it is saying that if anyone is preaching a gospel contrary to that of Christ Jesus let him be eternally condemned.  When Ignorance said that even though he never entered by the wicker gate (or wasn’t accepted by grace through faith) he thought he would be accepted because he led a good life.  He was preaching a different gospel than that of Christ Jesus.  At the end of the book after Pilgrim and Hopeful were accepted Ignorance was denied entrance and two angels flew him to the hole in the hill (a byway to hell) and threw him in.  We can now derive that since Ignorance who represented the false converts was condemned, Bunyan was asserting that all false converts (those who believe they can enter heaven by living a good life) will be eternally condemned.  Let us take warning and make sure that we are truly saved.  For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.  John 3:16