Demonstrates the importance of knowing and meditating on God's Word

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	• Grace Abounding John Bunyan Whitaker House, 1993 average customer review:based on 9 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

There's hope for you too in God's Abounding Grace

A lot of us are familiar with John Bunyan as the author of The Pilgrim's Progress, whose influence in Christendom is second to the Bible. Bunyan was a preacher, a prolific writer and a shining saint for God. However when we read this book we find out that he was an atheist and infidel in his youth, enjoying sin and rebellious towards God. Inwardly he suffered from tormented nightmares of demons and judgment, but outwardly he went on pretty much as any other sinner, taking delight in sin and being the ringleader of mischief. Several times he nearly lost his life, and even though there were several close calls, still he did not turn to God. After his marriage, he participated in religious activities, went through the motions of attending church and generally lived as he pleased, each time successfully shrugging off pangs of guilt. One day, after church, while playing a sport, a voice seemed to call out to him from heaven to his soul, which said, "Wilt thou leave thy sins and go to heaven, or have thy sins and go to hell?" Bunyan was convinced it was the Lord Jesus looking down on him in displeasure. What follows details his sinking into despair, his desparate attempts at working his way into God's good graces, and his struggles with temptation and doubt. In a strange sort of way, it is comforting to read about Bunyan's struggles and identify with them because you can see how he turned out so greatly used by God. He rationalized, made excuses and tried every way to justify himself. Bunyan did not try to gloss over his motivations but gave an honest account of his struggles from avowed sinner, to religious hypocrite before he was finally converted. He describes in great detail his doubts and despair, his yearning to be converted to Jesus Christ, and then being assured of his salvation by reading the Bible and praying. Reading this book will help you realize how God's grace can abound and save even the most wretched of sinners and gives us abounding hope.

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Demonstrates the importance of knowing and meditating on God's Word

I've been looking forward to reading this book for years ever since I read Bunyan's classis Pilgrim's Progress, I've wanted to read Grace Abounding to learn more about his incredible man of faith. I also recently read The Hidden Smile of God by John Piper who introduces the reader to three incredible men of God including Bunyan. So actually reading the journey of Bunyan himself in his own words was thrilled...but difficult at the same time. Bunyan struggled greatly with the concept of grace; he wrestled with understanding how God's grace could be sufficient to save a sinner as great as he. Grace Abounding is a peering into the soul of Bunyan as he goes through this deep personal battle wanting to believe that God was able to cleanse him of all unrighteousness, but constantly confronted with the holiness of the divine.

Just over half way through the book, Bunyan surrenders to the will of God in his life. He finally and fully grasp that the grace of God was truly sufficient. Then his heart is set aflame to share this grace with others and he becomes one of the great preachers and writers of all time, even though he goes on to spend a dozen years confined to prison for preaching contrary to the teachings of the Catholic Church. Personally, it was interesting to see the cultural battle Bunyan faced at the time looking back from my vantage 500 years later to see that America is the beneficiary of his great struggles with the prevailing church of the day. As Bunyan sat in prison, he wrote about the great journey from a metal worker to a pastor of the gospel of Christ - in allegory form for the Pilgrim's Progress and in autobiographical form in Grace Abounding.

I can understand why many believe this book is a classic - the thoughts and insights that Bunyan has into the Word of God were profound and significant. It was amazing to read how Scripture flowed through his mind irrigating every thought so that his life bore much fruit. I wouldn't recommend the book to a younger reader, it is a difficult read, but well worth the effort.

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Grace abounding is a great book

Grace Abounding....is an excellent autobiography of John Bunyan and his spiritual struggle to obtain assurance of his salvation in light if his belief that he had committed the unpardonable sin. Recommended to anyone who may be facing the same struggle with this question. Each paragraph of the text is numbered and, thus, it is easy to put the book down at any point and pick it back up later without losing train of thought. Since the book was written over 300 years ago, it is interesting to have insight into the thoughts of a Christian who lived during that time and to compare with current Christian thinking.

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A Significant "Life"

I could scarcely imagine why this book turned up first on my page of recommendations from amazon. I checked the reasoning, using the convenient little clicker, and found that Bunyan was expected to appeal to me because I had reviewed "Gosta Berling's Saga." That, my friends, is firm evidence that computers are still short on intuition.

Fascinated, however, I read the eight reviews of this fairly obscure title, and found that they were all written by sincere believers in the strict Calvinist theology preached by John Bunyan in his lifetime, according to which we are all "sinners in the hands of an angry God" whose judgment passes our apprehension. According the Calvin and Bunyan, our 'works' and even our eagerness to be 'saved' is of no fundamnetal importance; as one reviewer writes, "we do not choose God; God chooses us." That's not a system of belief I find appealing, though I ought to be consoled by the idea that God might 'choose' me whether I like it or not.

Bunyan was a cogent writer, though his style takes acclimatization. This biography is a major document of English history, as sure a way to get a feel for bookish English Puritanism as the masques of Henry Purcell are for the other side, the party of the theater-loving Cavaliers. As such, it belongs on the shelf with other profound self-exposures - Augustine's, Cellini's, Rousseau's - but don't expect the man to be any more attractive than his fanatical faith. He was truly "an angry sinner in hands he thought were God's."

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Grace

This is the autobiography of John Bunyon and his life. It is about his life before and after Christ and the grace of God upon his life. John wrote this classic while in prison. He went to prison for preaching the gospel.

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Grace Abounding (1666) is a classic work of spiritual autobiography--a genre which flourished in Calvinist England as anxiety over the state or destiny of one's soul led to rigorous self-scrutiny and the sharing of holy experiences. This edition sets that book alongside other highly interesting and varied contemporary spiritual autobiographies, making its cultural milieu more meaningful to the modern reader. The search for proof of God's favor, in all its personal and psychological intensity, is offered not only from John Bunyan's perspective, but likewise from those of Richard Norwood, John Crook, Lawrence Clarkson, and Agnes Beaumont. Also featured are an introduction, a bibliography, several explanatory notes, and a useful appendix entitled Radical and Nonconformist Groups in 17th-Century England.

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