The Life and Death of Mr. Badman

An Analysis of a Wicked Man's Life, as a Warning for Others (Bunyan Updated Classics Book 4)

John Bunyan

• Publisher: Aneko Press
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781622454211
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christianity

Horror has taken hold upon me because of the wicked that forsake thy law – Psalm 119: 53Updated, Modern English. Illustrated. The life of Mr. Badman forms a third part to The Pilgrim's Progress, but it is not a delightful pilgrimage to heaven. On the contrary, it is a wretched downward journey to the infernal realms. The author's goal is to warn poor, thoughtless sinners, not with smooth words they can ignore, but with words that thunder against their consciences regarding the danger of their souls and the increasing wretchedness into which they are madly hurrying. The one who is in imminent but unseen danger will bless the warning voice if it reaches his ears, however rough and startling it sounds. The life of Badman was written in an age when abandonment of moral principles, vice, gluttony, intemperance, habitual lewdness, and the excessive unlawful indulgence of lust marched like a ravaging army through our land, headed by the king, along with officers from his polluted peers. Are we not seeing the same thing, in every way? It is as if this book was written for us who are alive today.

Chapter 2

Badman’s Wicked Behavior in Childhood

WISEMAN: I’ll try to answer as you wish. I’ll start by saying he was very bad as a child. His beginning was ominous and foreshadowed that, in all likelihood, he was headed for no good. Even as a little one, he was inclined to several sins that showed him to be notoriously infected with sin so extensively that it affected every element of his nature. I’m quite certain he learned none of this from his father or mother, and he wasn’t allowed to socialize with children who were wicked, so he didn’t learn to sin from them. Rather, it was the other way around. Any time he freely moved about among others, he taught them new bad words to use along with bad behavior. To all of them he used to be the ringleader and master-sinner even as a child.

ATTENTIVE: This was undeniably a bad beginning and certainly demonstrated he was, as you say, corrupted − very much polluted with sin’s effect on his nature. If I may speak freely, I confess that in my opinion, children are born into the world polluted with sin. I think that often the sins of their youth, especially while they are very young, come about rather by voluntary obedience to indwelling sin than by examples set by others. Not that they don’t learn to sin by example too, but example is not the root but rather the temptation to wickedness. The root is sin within, for from within, out of the heart of men, proceeds sin (Mark 7:21).

WISEMAN: I’m glad to hear you are of this opinion and can confirm what you’ve said with a few mentions from the Word. Man, in his birth, is compared to an ass. Man is born like a wild ass’s colt (Job 11:12), to an unclean beast, and to a wretched infant in its blood. Hast thou not remembered the days of thy youth when thou wast naked and bare? Thou wast polluted in thy blood (Ezekiel 16:22). In addition, all the firstborn who were offered to the Lord were to be redeemed at the age of a month − clearly a tender age before which they could be sinners by imitation.11 The Scripture also establishes that by the sin of one, judgment came on all, and it assigns this reason − all have sinned (Romans 5:12; 3:23).

Nor is that baseless objection that Christ has taken away original sin by His death worth notice. First, because it isn’t found in Scripture. Secondly, it makes them incapable of salvation by Christ, because only those who personally recognize they are sinners are to have salvation through Him. Many other things could be added to this argument, but between two people who so well agree as you and me, these can suffice for now. But when an opponent of this matter comes to deal with us, then we’ll often have other strong arguments for him, if he’s an antagonist worth taking notice of.

ATTENTIVE: But, as was suggested before, he used to be the ringleading sinner, or the master of harm among other children. Still, these are only generalities, so please tell me in detail about the sins of his childhood.

WISEMAN: All right, I will. When he was just a child, he was so addicted to lying that his parents hardly knew when to believe anything he said. He not only invented and told lies, he also continued to maintain these lies as the truth, with such a bold face, that in his very countenance a person could clearly see the symptoms of a hard and desperate heart.

ATTENTIVE: This was certainly a wicked beginning and proves he began to harden himself in sin by that time. Because, unless he forced his heart to do so, a lie can’t be knowingly told and carried on as I see he did. Such a liar must harden his heart and muster courage in the execution of it. He must have reached a greater degree of wickedness to do this, since all he did went against that good upbringing you suggest he had from his father and mother.

WISEMAN: A lack of good upbringing, as you suggested, is often a cause for why children so easily become bad so soon, but even more when such training is absent and there are bad examples enough to contribute to such behavior. It is sad to say, but it is like this in many families, and as a result, poor children are trained up in sin and nursed within the home for the devil and hell.

But this wasn’t the case with Mr. Badman, because to my knowledge his lying behavior brought great grief to his parents. Their hearts were broken when they saw this in their young son, because they hadn’t fallen short in encouraging and correcting him in an effort to make him better. But he didn’t want to be told, but I heard it said to him over and over and over that all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone (Revelation 21:8, 27), and that whosoever loves and makes a lie would have no part in the new and heavenly Jerusalem (Revelation 22:15).

But nothing helped. When a suitable time or an occasion to lie came upon him, he easily invented, told, and stood firm in his lie as if it were nothing but the truth. And he hardened his heart in this way with a straight face. It caused those around him to stand by and wonder. He even continued his lying when punished under the rod of correction, which is appointed by God for parents to use so they might keep their children from hell. Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child, but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him (Proverbs 22:15). Do not withhold correction from the child; for if thou shall beat him with the rod, he shall not die. Thou shalt beat him with the rod and shalt deliver his soul from Sheol. (Proverbs 23:13-14)12

ATTENTIVE: Truly it was, as I said, a bad beginning. He served the devil early on, and he became nurse to one of his brats, for a spirit of lying is the devil’s brat, for he is a liar and the father of it (John 8:44).

WISEMAN: Right, he is truly the father of it. A lie is spawned by the devil as the father, and is brought forth by the wicked heart as the mother. There is another Scripture which also says, Why has Satan filled thy heart to lie? (Acts 5:3). He calls the heart that is big with a lie, a heart that has conceived − by the devil. Why hast thou conceived this thing in thy heart? Thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God (Acts 5:4). True, his lie was a lie of the highest nature, but every lie has the same father and mother as this lie. For he is a liar and the father of it. As a result, a lie is the brat of hell, and it can’t be in the heart before the person has committed a kind of spiritual adultery with the devil. Therefore, the person who tells a known lie has lain with and conceived it by the devil, the only father of lies. For a lie has only one father and mother, the devil and the heart. It’s no wonder then, that the hearts which hatch and bring forth lies are so much like the devil in regards to temperament, habits, or natural disposition. It’s no surprise that even though God and Christ have resolved their word against liars, a liar is wedded to the devil himself.13

ATTENTIVE: It seems unbelievable to me that since a lie is among the offspring of the devil, and since a lie brings the soul to the very den of devils, specifically the dark dungeon of hell, that people should be so desperately wicked as to become familiar with such a horrible thing.

WISEMAN: It also seems unbelievable to me, especially when I see for how minor a matter some men will study, contrive, and tell a lie. You’ll have some who lie over and over just for a monetary profit. Yes, lie and stand firm in it, although they know they’ve lied. You will have some people who won’t hesitate to tell lie after lie, even when they gain nothing by it. They’ll tell lies while in ordinary conversations with their neighbors, as they share their news, jests, and their tales – all adorned with lies. If they don’t, they don’t seem to sound interesting or show much to the imagination to the one being told.

Sadly, what will these liars do when they are tossed down into hell, to be with that devil that conceived those lies in their heart, and so be tormented by fire and brimstone, with him forever and ever for their lies?

ATTENTIVE: Can you give some examples of God’s judgments on liars that someone can tell to liars when they hear them lie, so perhaps they can be made afraid and ashamed to do so when they hear it?

WISEMAN: Examples! Why, one would think that Ananias and his wife are enough of an example to put a stop to a spirit addicted to lying. They were both stricken down dead by God Himself for telling a lie, in the midst of a group of people.14 But if God’s threatening of liars with hellfire and the loss of the kingdom of heaven won’t succeed in convincing them to stop lying, I can’t imagine what telling th...