Some Pilgrims in Progress

" These all . . confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth” (Hebrews 11:13).

Mona and I are graduates of Pacific Christian College in S. Calif.  We have been blessed with two girls, Penny Lee Zasadny & Rena Parlee Thompson, a registered nurse. We also have a grand daughter Rose Maria Zasadny, all of whom live in greater Chicago.

In our pilgrimage together, we have lived in Okinawa while I was serving as a Chinese linguist in the U.S. Army.  After discharge from service, we relocated in Eugene, OR where I completed doctoral studies in Sociology. 
After graduation we moved to Illinois and served with Christian Liberty Academy. We now reside in Seminary, MS near Hattiesburg.  I have served as Lecturer in Sociology at William Carey University and Mississippi College.  Now, I am a Health/Nutrition Advocate & a Substitute Teacher.   

                                                                                 Wilson L. Thompson, PhD.

Some Pilgrims in Progress currently involves a pilgrim named Wilson Thompson and his friends largely throughout the Midwest.  These include ministers, teachers, businessmen, engineers, medical professionals and so forth.  We share concern about the need for God’s people to recover a balanced reading of the Bible beginning with Genesis that takes into account both individual and social facts revealed therein. We see triumphs and disasters of God’s people, preserved in the Bible, as  examples that “are written for our admonition” (I Cor. 10:11) even in the Twenty-first Century.  Yet,
in Western industrial nations our hyper-individualistic  perspective tends to obscure the Biblical message with cultural static. 

The enigma of Elijah, for example, cannot be explained in terms of “depression” resulting from descent into the valley after a “mountain top experience.”  Further, it is totally out of sync with the real world.  After all, do we really expect that a General Patton is disposed to defeatist depression after each victory?  Isn’t it silly to suppose “depression” is the “hangover” of success?  Click the page for Elijah’s Enigma to read short studies that probe this “rest of the story” of Elijah. 

Similarly, the Biblical Sociology page contains short studies of the Patriarchs in social perspective sequenced for convenience of those visiting Some Pilgrims in Progress.  First-time-visitors may also peruse trivia questions posted on our Trivial Bible Facts? page for not-so-trivial Bible facts.  For example, How old was Jacob when he left home?

 
The impetus for Some Pilgrims in Progress website began with publication of A Pilgrim’s Progress in Prayer: Genesis in Social Perspective by Wilson Thompson.  This illustrated, fifty-two week series of prayers incorporates Biblical social facts.  Its introductory Pilgrimage Itinerary contains a standing “Invitation to Christians everywhere to read the whole Bible each year in social perspective” emphasizing Biblical social facts revealed in Scripture.  Those who accept this open invitation in effect join this diverse group of pilgrims in progress.

Some Pilgrims in Progress, as indicated above, has posted a number of subsequent short studies of prominent men, women and events in the Bible in social perspective.  They provide implicit examples of how to approach the study of the Bible’s social facts.  Explicit discussion of criteria for study of Biblical social facts will be forthcoming this year, the Lord willing.

We welcome your contribution to further development of Biblical social facts revealed in Genesis. Your input will foster understanding of the patriarchs and of their sizeable community of servant-saints, whose lives and notable achievements by faith are part of the inspired record.

This website serializes the published prayers of A Pilgrim’s Progress in Prayer and the unpublished prayers of the forthcoming volume on Exodus we hope to publish within the year, funds permitting.

So, welcome to Some Pilgrims in Progress.  May your visit be fruitful.  In this pilgrimage, we will, Lord willing, become more familiar with “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” (Ephesians 6:17), Christian’s sole offensive weapon.
                                                                                                          

                      Wilson Thompson, PhD.
                      Seminary, Mississippi