Bunyan's masterful question-and-answer guide to the foundations of the Christian faith — direct, Scripture-saturated, and as unflinching about human nature as it is clear about divine justice.
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Bunyan's Catechism is a question-and-answer guide to the essential doctrines of the Christian faith, written by the author of The Pilgrim's Progress during the height of his pastoral ministry in Bedford. Originally published in the 1670s, it was designed to instruct believers — especially younger ones — in the foundations of biblical theology, from the nature of God to the consequences of sin.
The catechism moves systematically through the core tenets of Reformed Christianity: the uniqueness and knowability of God, the creation and fall of man, the nature of original sin, the varieties and degrees of sin, and the reality of divine punishment both in this life and the next. Bunyan's answers are characteristically direct, saturated with Scripture, and unflinching in their honesty about human nature and divine justice.
What makes this catechism endure is Bunyan's extraordinary ability to make theological reasoning feel like a conversation rather than a lecture. Every answer is grounded in specific biblical texts, yet delivered in the muscular, plain English that made Bunyan the most widely read Protestant writer of his era. For anyone seeking a concise yet thorough grounding in classical Protestant theology, this remains one of the finest entry points ever written.
On the Nature of God
How many gods are there? For Christians, there is only one God, the Father, from whom all things come and to whom we belong (1 Cor 8:6).
Why isn't the God of the Christians also the God of those who aren't Christians? He is their maker and sustainer, but they have not chosen Him as their God (Acts 17:24; Ps 36:6; Judg 10:14).
Are there other gods besides the God of the Christians? There is no other true God but Him. But because those outside the faith lack the grace given to Christians, they do not choose Him. Instead, they choose gods that accommodate and validate their desires (John 8:44).
What gods are these, that accommodate the desires of wicked people? The devil, who is the god of this world; the belly, which is the god of gluttons, drunkards, and those who live recklessly; and idle pleasures and vanities, which are, for the most part, the gods of the young (Job 8:4; 2 Cor 4:4; Phil 3:19; Exod 32:6; 1 Cor 10:7; 2 Tim 2:2; 1 John 5:21).
Who is a Christian? Someone who has been born again, made a new creature; someone who sits at Jesus' feet to hear His word; someone whose heart has been purified and set apart by faith in Christ (John 3:3, 5, 7; Acts 11:24; 15:9; 26:18; 2 Cor 5:17).
How do you distinguish the God of the Christians from the gods of other people? He is a Spirit (John 4:24).
Is there no other spirit but the true God? There are, in fact, many spirits (1 John 4:1).
What spirits are they? The good angels are spirits; the evil angels are spirits; and the souls of human beings are spirits (Heb 1:7, 14; 1 Kgs 22:21-22; Rev 16:13-14; Acts 7:59; Heb 12:23).
How, then, is the true God distinguished from all other spirits? In this way: no spirit is eternal but He; no spirit is almighty but He; no spirit is beyond comprehension and beyond searching out but He. He is also supremely merciful, supremely just, and supremely holy (Deut 33:27; Gen 17:1; Ps 145:3; Mic 7:18; Job 34:17; 1 Sam 2:2).
Is this God, being a Spirit, able to be known? Yes, and He can be known through His works of creation, through His providences, through the judgments He carries out, and through His word.
Can we understand Him through the works of creation? "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork" (Ps 19:1). "For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead" (Rom 1:20).
Do His works of providence also reveal Him? They certainly do, since through His providence the whole creation is held together in such harmony as we see, and this in spite of sin and devils. Consider also that from an angel to a sparrow, nothing falls to the ground apart from the providence of our heavenly Father (Matt 10:29).
Is He known through His judgments? "The Lord is known by the judgments He executes; the wicked is snared in the work of his own hands" (Ps 9:16).
Is He known through His word? Yes, most clearly: for through His word He reveals His attributes, His decrees, His promises, His way of worship, and how He is to be pleased by us.
On Creation and the Fall of Man
Out of what did God make the world? "Things which are seen were not made of things which do appear" (Heb 11:3).
How long did it take Him to make the world? "In six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them" (Exod 20:11). "And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had made" (Gen 2:2).
Out of what did God make man? "The Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul" (Gen 2:7).
Why does it say that God breathed into him the breath of life? Does this mean that man's soul shares in the very nature of the Godhead? This does not teach that the soul shares the nature of the Godhead; rather, it shows that the soul is not made of the same material as the body, which is dust (Gen 18:27).
Is the soul, then, of the same nature as the Godhead? No, because God cannot sin, but the soul can; God cannot be destroyed in hell, but the souls of the unrepentant will be (Ezek 18:4; Matt 10:28).
How did God make man at the time of his first creation? God made man upright (Eccl 7:29). "In the image of God created he him" (Gen 1:27).
When God made man, did He leave him without any rule to live by? No: He gave man a law written in his nature and also placed a specific command on him, but man violated both and broke them (Gen 3:3, 6).
What did that sin deserve? Spiritual death on the very day it was committed, physical death afterward, and eternal death at the last (Gen 2:17; 3:19; Matt 25:46).
On Death and Its Kinds
What does it mean to be spiritually dead? It means being cut off from God and living without Him in the world, driven by the ignorance within human nature and by the power of sin (Eph 4:18-19).
How does this separation from God show itself? It shows in the love people have for their sins, in their reluctance to come to God, in the hollow excuses they make for their wrongdoing, and in their ignorance of the profound mysteries of His blessed gospel (Eph 2:2-3, 11-12; 4:18-19; Rom 1:28).
What is physical death? It is the separation of body and soul: the body returning to the dust from which it came, and the spirit returning to God who gave it (Gen 3:19; Eccl 12:7).
What is eternal death? It is the permanent separation of body and soul from God, and their being cast into hell fire (Luke 13:27; Mark 9:43).
Do people go body and soul to hell as soon as they die? The body remains in the grave until the sound of the last trumpet. But if a person dies in wickedness, the soul goes immediately away from the presence of God into hell, as into a prison, where it is held until the day of judgment (1 Cor 15:52; Isa 24:22; Luke 12:20).
On Original Sin
Do we come into the world as morally upright as our first parent did? No. Adam came into the world without sin, having been made that way by God Almighty. We, however, come into the world as sinners, made so by the corruption he passed down to us.
How can we demonstrate that we come into the world already corrupted? We are the fruit of something unclean, defiled from the very moment of our conception, and by nature we are children of wrath (Job 14:4; Ps 51:5; Eph 2:3).
Can you offer further proof of this? Yes. Scripture tells us that through one man, sin, death, judgment, and condemnation came upon all people (Rom 5:12-19).
So we enter the world already as sinners? Yes. We are transgressors from the womb, going astray from the moment we are born, speaking lies (Isa 48:8; Ps 58:3).
But just as Adam fell with us in him, did he not also rise by faith with us in him? After all, he had no children until after he received the promise. He fell as a representative of all humanity, but he believed the promise as a single individual. Adam's faith did not save the world, even though Adam's sin destroyed it.
But don't some people argue that we are sinners only by imitation, not by nature? Yes, and in doing so they deceive themselves. God's word is clear: we are children of wrath by nature, meaning by birth and by generation.
Can you bring further proof of this? Yes. On the very day we were born, we were already corrupted in our own blood, cast out as something loathsome. Furthermore, children in ancient times who were dedicated to the Lord required a sacrifice to be offered on their behalf at one month old, which was well before they could have sinned by imitation (Ezek 16:4-9; Num 18:14-16).
Can you demonstrate this from experience? Yes: the first things that bloom and emerge in children reveal their ignorance of God, their disobedience to parents, and their innate hostility toward a holy life. Their inclinations naturally run toward vanity. Beyond this, small children die, which could not happen if God did not count them as sinners, since death is the wages of sin (Rom 6:23).
On the Nature of Sin
What is sin? Sin is a violation of the law (1 John 3:4).
A violation of what law? Of the law written into our nature, and of the law of the Ten Commandments as recorded in the holy scriptures (Rom 2:12-15; Exod 20).
When does someone sin against the law of nature? When you do anything that your conscience tells you is a wrong against God or another person (Rom 2:14-15).
When do we sin against the law as written in the Ten Commandments? When you do anything they forbid, even if you were unaware that they forbid it (Ps 19:12).
How many ways are there to sin against this law? Three: through sinful thoughts, through sinful words, and through sinful actions (Rom 7:7; 2:6; Matt 5:28; 12:37).
What if we sin against only one of the Ten Commandments? Whoever keeps the whole law and yet fails at a single point is guilty of breaking all of it: "For he who said, 'Do not commit adultery,' also said, 'Do not kill.' Now if you do not commit adultery but you do kill, you have still become a transgressor of the law" (Jas 2:10-11).
On Punishment and Hell
Where will God punish sinners for their sins? Both in this present world and in the world to come (Gen 3:24; 4:10-12; Job 21:30).
How are people punished in this world for sin? God uses many methods to punish sinners in this life: sickness, loss, hardship, and disappointment, among others. Sometimes He also gives them over to their own sinful desires, to darkened minds and hardened hearts, and sometimes even to powerful delusions so that they believe lies and are condemned (Lev 26:15, 26; Amos 4:7, 10; Rom 1:24, 28; Exod 4:21; 9:12-14; Zeph 1:17; Rom 11:7-8; 2 Thess 2:11-12).
How are sinners punished in the world to come? With a worm that never dies and a fire that will never be put out (Mark 9:44).
Where do sinners go to receive this punishment?"The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God" (Ps 9:17).
What is hell? It is both a place and a condition of the most terrible kind (Luke 13:28; 16:28; Acts 1:25).
Why do you call it a place? Because in hell all the condemned will be confined as in a prison, held in their chains of darkness forever (Luke 12:5, 58; 16:26; Jude 6).
What kind of place is hell? It is a dark, bottomless, burning lake of fire, vast enough to hold every soul that perishes (Matt 22:13; Rev 20:1, 15; Isa 30:33; Prov 27:20).
What do you mean when you say it is a fearful condition? I mean that those who are cast into it will be tormented in the most terrible way imaginable, specifically through wrath and fiery indignation (Rom 2:9; Heb 10:26-27).
In what parts of themselves will they suffer this torment? In both body and soul, for the fires of hell will consume both beyond anything we can currently imagine (Matt 10:28; Luke 16:24; Jas 5:3).
How long will they remain in this condition?"These shall go away into everlasting punishment" (Matt 25:46). "And the smoke of their torment ascends up forever, and they have no rest day or night" (Rev 14:11). For they "shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power" (2 Thess 1:9).
But why couldn't the ungodly simply be punished in this world, so that we could see it and believe? If the ungodly were punished in this world, it would in all likelihood have destroyed the entire order that God has established among humanity. Who could have endured watching flames of fire, hearing the groans, and perhaps seeing the tears of condemned loved ones, whether parents or children? This is why, just as Tophet, the ancient place of execution outside Jerusalem, was located beyond the city walls, and just as gallows are built outside the towns, Christ has arranged for those who are to suffer this kind of torment to be taken away: "Take him away," He says (out of this world), "and cast him into outer darkness, and let him have his punishment there; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth" (Matt 22:13).
Beyond this, faith is not produced by peering into hell and watching the damned suffer before our eyes, but by "hearing the word of God" (Rom 10:17). For the person who will not believe Moses and the prophets will not be persuaded even if someone were to come back from the dead, or even if someone were to appear to them in flames to convince them (Luke 16:27-31).
On the Degrees and Circumstances of Sin
Are there degrees of torment in hell? Yes, because God will reward everyone according to their works. "Woe to the wicked, it shall be ill with him, for the reward of his hands shall be given him" (Isa 3:11).
Who is likely to be punished most severely there, adults or children? The punishment in hell is not assigned according to age, but according to sin. Whether the person is an adult or a child, the greater the sin, the greater the punishment: "For there is no respect of persons with God" (Rom 2:11).
How do you distinguish between greater sins and lesser ones? By their nature, and by the circumstances surrounding them.
What do you mean by their nature? I mean when sins are deeply serious in themselves (2 Chr 33:2; Ezek 16:42).
What kinds of sins are the greatest? Adultery, fornication, murder, theft, swearing, lying, covetousness, witchcraft, sedition, and heresy, along with anything similar (1 Cor 6:9-10; Eph 5:3-6; Col 3:5-6; Gal 5:19-21; Rev 21:8).
What do you mean by the circumstances that surround a sin? I mean things like spiritual light, knowledge, the preaching of God's Word, godly companions, and timely warnings.
Do these circumstances actually change the nature of a sin? Yes. When these things are present in a sinner's life, they can turn small sins into great ones, even greater than far more serious sins committed in the deepest ignorance.
How do you prove that? Sodom and Gomorrah wallowed in all, or nearly all, of those gross sins listed above. They were described as exceedingly wicked, living in sins too shameful to name without blushing. And yet God swore that Israel, His own church, had done worse than they had (Ezek 16:48). The Lord Jesus confirmed this in His warning: "I say to you, that it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for you" (Matt 11:24; Luke 10:12).
And was this the reason, namely, that Israel had circumstances surrounding them that Sodom did not? Yes, as will become clear if you read the three chapters referenced above.
When am I sinning against light and knowledge? When you sin against the convictions of your own conscience, when you sin against a law of God you know well, and when you sin despite the counsel and warnings of friends, you are sinning against light and knowledge (Rom 1:32).
When am I sinning against the preaching of the Word? When you refuse to hear God's ministers, or when you hear them and still refuse to follow their sound teaching (2 Chr 36:16; Jer 25:4-7; 35:15).
When else am I sinning against the preaching of the Word? When you mock, despise, or slander ministers, when you spread lies about them or willingly receive the lies others spread, when you persecute those who preach God's Word or feel a secret satisfaction watching them suffer, you are sinning against the preaching of that Word (2 Chr 30:1, 10; Rom 3:8; Jer 20:10; 1 Thess 2:15-16).
How will godly acquaintance make my sin greater? When you sin against the counsel, warnings, and appeals of godly people, and when their very lives serve as a rebuke to you and yet you sin on regardless, your guilt deepens. This is exactly how Ishmael, Esau, Eli's sons, Absalom, and Judas all sinned. Each of them had good company, sound counsel, and a righteous example set before them by those close to them, yet they sinned against all of it, and their judgment was all the heavier for it. Ishmael was cast out (Gen 21:10), Esau was hated (Gal 4:30), Eli's sons died suddenly (Mal 1:2; 1 Sam 2:25, 34; 4:11), and both Absalom and Judas came to a strange and terrible end by hanging (2 Sam 18; Matt 27).
Are sins made worse in this way given any special name? Yes. They are called rebellion and compared to the sin of witchcraft (1 Sam 15:23). They are called willful sins (Heb 10:26). They are called briars and thorns, and those who produce them are near to being cursed, whose end is to be burned (Heb 6:7-8).
John Bunyan was a tinker's son with almost no formal education who became one of the most influential writers in the English language. Imprisoned for twelve years for preaching without a license, he used his time in Bedford jail to write prolifically. His masterwork, The Pilgrim's Progress, has been translated into over 200 languages and has never been out of print. Bunyan's genius was in translating deep theology into vivid, plain-spoken prose that ordinary people could immediately grasp.
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