God's General - John Bunyan

GOD'S GENERAL - JOHN BUNYAN

John Bunyan was born in 1628 at Elstow, south of Bedford into a very poor family. John had a very low education whiles growing up. He grew up neck deep into worldliness even though he knew God.

VOICE FROM HEAVEN

One Sunday, whilst at the village park, he heard a voice from Heaven saying "wilt thou leave thy sins and go to heaven or have thy sins and go to hell?"

After this encounter, Bunyan tried all he could to mend his relationship with God but he still continued falling into sin everyday. Later, after searching through the scriptures, he realized his righteousness came from Christ not himself. This realization changed his life.

MINISTRY AND PERSECUTION

Bunyan then became an active member of a local church where he was allowed to preach. However, in 1660, Bunyan was arrested for preaching and told to either stopped preaching or be imprisoned. But he declared he would rather go to prison than disobey God.

The prison sentence which was supposed to last for three months was increased to twelve years for Bunyan. Whiles in prison, Bunyan wrote many Gospel tracts and Books of which his spiritual autobiography "GRACE ABOUNDING TO THE CHIEF OF SINNERS" was the most popular.

GREATEST WORK

In 1672, after spending twelve years in prison, John was released. Immediately, he started preaching again. He was rearrested in 1675 and imprisoned for another 6 months. It was during this time that Bunyan wrote his greatest work "PILGRIM'S PROGRESS". This book details a Christian's journey to heaven.

Pilgrim's Progress is one of the most popular books to ever been published in the English language. Thousands of editions have been published after the death of Bunyan. Pilgrim's Progress has been acted on stage several times and developed into movies. It is worth noting that Bunyan wrote all his great works whilst in prison.

In 1668, this God's General died and he is well remembered as one of the greatest Christian writers in history who preached the Gospel of Christ even under heavy persecution.

Source: ''70 Great Christians'' By Geoffrey Hanks