The Pilgrim Concept

From The Sword & Trowel 2014, issue 1 by Dr Peter Masters

 

Are we prepared for a pilgrimage, or do we expect fulfilment and purpose from this alien land? The concept of pilgrimage is tremendously important to the Christian, giving guidance on the believer’s stance in all the circumstances of life.

‘These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth’ (Hebrews 11.13).
THE BIBLE is full of pilgrimage. The eleventh chapter of Hebrews speaks among others of Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, who are described as ‘strangers and pilgrims on the earth’.
      ‘Strangers’ literally means foreigners, people of a different culture and language. ‘Pilgrims’ are those who live in a foreign land, away from their own people.
      In the Bible the pilgrim word implies a journey – travelling home – as we see in Hebrews 11.14. It describes those who ‘seek a country’. Biblical pilgrims live in another country alongside the resident community, but they do not fully integrate. They are ‘alongsiders’, soon to go home. They may accomplish great things for the benefit of the country in which they live (as Joseph did), but they never cease to be pilgrims.
      They are not like ex-patriots who choose to settle in another country either because they are making their career there, or because they like it better than their own country. Most ‘ex-pats’ are where they are because they want to be, but a sojourner or pilgrim in the Bible has no burning desire to be where he is, except for the service of the Lord, the salvation of souls, and the love of his family. A pilgrim’s primary interest is not in his present country.
      The concept of pilgrimage is tremendously important to the Christian, giving guidance on the believer’s stance in all circumstances of life. Without this concept we become unnecessarily sensitive to all the problems and trials of life.
      The pilgrim concept is specially vital at the present time, when an increasing number of evangelicals advocate being ‘culturally progressive’ or ‘culturally relevant’, exhorting us to get much more into the world. The very word ‘pilgrim’ sounds a warning, reminding us of our duty to be distinctive and set apart for Christ.

Today's new teaching says we must love it here, do the things that worldlings do, sing their songs, play thier genre of music, dance their dances, watch their films...

 That most famous book The Pilgrim’s Progress powerfully takes up the pilgrim term. We remember, too, how Jacob spoke of ‘the days of my pilgrimage’, and that David said, ‘I am a stranger and a sojourner.’ He was a king over his people, and yet he declared himself to be a foreigner and a temporary resident. The apostle Peter also referred to believers as ‘strangers and pilgrims’. Is this term true of us?       The heroes of faith in Hebrews 11  ‘all died in faith, not having received the promises in their earthly lifetime, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them’. They made the promises of an eternal home the engine of their lives, declaring by their lifestyle that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.
      Their lives said, ‘We do not belong here. We are foreigners and temporary dwellers, living in tents, and looking forward to something far better.’      Today’s new teaching says we must love it here, do the things that worldings do, sing their songs, play their genre of music, watch their films and plays, dance their dances, and wear their most daring styles, along with other compromises that would have horrified believers throughout the last two millennia.
      Whenever there is a great catastrophe in a wealthy country such as the USA, a freak hurricane, perhaps, destroying homes and possessions, the TV cameras focus on affected residents. In the background we see demolished homes and possessions strewn everywhere. No doubt the people are insured and will survive, obtaining new homes and goods, but they are seen distraught and inconsolable, as if their world has come to an end. We understand the shock and upheaval, and the disappointment of losing appreciated things, but so often we see a reaction more appropriate for multiple loss of life. It has evidently meant too much to the sufferers to lose the things they possessed. What has happened is to them the greatest blow imaginable.
       Bible pilgrims never thought like that. This world was never their place. Earthly losses and disappointments were never the end of the world to them, because their minds and hearts were not set wholly on earthly things. In a sense they travelled lightly through life, and so should we.