The Holy War (EP)

“Let all men know that Emmanuel, the son of El Shaddai the great king, has undertaken, in covenant with his Father, to recover Mansoul...” This dramatic story by John Bunyan, the author of Pilgrim’s Progress, is the account of the long and bitter battle for the city of Mansoul. The city is attacked by Diabolus using every means possible and the weakness and failings of the inhabitants of the city threaten disaster until Prince Emmanuel intervenes and secures victory. This modernised version of Bunyan’s original retains the beauty of his style, while making the story accessible to young and old.

Publisher: Evangelical Press
Type: Paperback
ISBN: 9780852342671

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John Bunyan was born in Elstow, near Bedford, in 1628, and followed his father into the tinker’s trade. He married a God-fearing woman (whose name is unknown) in 1648. Bunyan was convicted of his sin when he read The Plain Man’s Pathway to Heaven (Arthur Dent) and The Practice of Piety (Lewis Bayly). He made attempts to reform his life but realised that he was lost and without Christ. Bunyan came into contact with a group of women whose ‘joyous conversation about the new birth and Christ deeply impressed him’. They introduced him to their pastor in Bedford, John Gifford, who was instrumental in leading Bunyan to repentance and faith. By 1655 Bunyan was himself preaching to various congregations in Bedford, and hundreds came to hear him. John Owen said of him that he would gladly exchange all his learning for Bunyan’s power of touching men’s hearts. In 1660 Bunyan was arrested for preaching without official permission from King Charles II; he was to spend the next 12½ years in Bedford County Gaol. Although a time of much suffering, Bunyan’s years in prison were productive, for he wrote extensively, with only the Bible and Foxe’s Book of Martyrs beside him, publishing such titles as Christian Behaviour, The Holy City and A Defence of the Doctrine of Justification. Of particular significance for his life-story was Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners, which chronicled his life up to the time of his imprisonment. After some fruitful years of ministry, in March of 1675 Bunyan was again imprisoned for preaching publicly without a license. It was during this imprisonment that he began the first part of his most famous book, The Pilgrim’s Progress, which was to sell more than 100,000 copies in its first ten years in print. Released in 1677, Bunyan spent the last ten years of his life ministering to his congregation and writing, including Come and Welcome to Jesus Christ (1678), The Life and Death of Mr Badman (1680), The Holy War (1682), and the second part of The Pilgrim’s Progress (1685). He published ten more books in the last three years of his life, amongst them The Jerusalem Sinner Saved and The Acceptable Sacrifice.

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“It is my pleasure to encourage this noble effort and my privilege to pray that God will bless it.” From the foreword by Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones