So, Ian asked us where we were from. I told him and asked him “Why are you sitting by Bunyan’s grave?”
He said he is stranded in London, trying to get back to his home in another part of England, and that it was a quiet pleasant place.
I asked him if he knew Bunyan. He said “Not in the least, but I assume he was a non-conformist.” I said, “In many ways.”
Then I asked him if he knew “Pilgrim’s Progress” and he had heard of it, then “Are you a Christian?” This moved Ian directly into connecting with his anger regarding conservative politics all the way from Cromwell, to Thatcher, to today’s conservatives and the state of England government today. He’s not happy.
He expressed hatred for Christians, and in effect, Jesus, but interestingly expressed some regard for the historic English non-conformists due to their “rebellion” against the Church of England – an organization he also hated due to their great wealth and (in his opinion) failure to serve people with that wealth.
I tried to reel it back in to his spiritual status and asked him about Jesus, who he believes was basically a figment of legendary imagination.
Ian instead aimed to worship Mithras. We had a non-productive discussion about why there were lots of references to “God,” “the Lord,” our “Father” etc at Bunhill, but not one reference to Mithras.
In the end, I told this sad, angry man that despite his anger and regard for organized religion he would one day find himself in greater need than his current situation when death would loom, and that he would then face his Judge and that my prayer and strong recommendation would be to call on the only God who is able to save to the uttermost. “Call on the name of the Lord” Jesus Christ, and be saved. He assured me he would keep that in mind, and we parted ways.
Colin and I then spent some time at John Wesley’s church and grave, pretty well wandering free, sneaking around among the empty grounds and building. We gave thanks for Wesley’s evangelistic heart and ministry and went in to finish up the rest of our day in London.
We then went and had a nice English dinner at a nice old pub (The Singer). There were some rowdy young men outside that I spoke to which made that time extremely interesting! You’ll have to ask me later about him, but the man in the middle was NOT American! 👀
The rest of the day was spent getting back to our little hotel room to clean up and rest up for Sunday. We planned to go to church at Spurgeon’s Metropolitan Tabernacle.
I’ll share our interesting experiences there in the next post. Pray for Ian!
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