John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg
knew how to get the full attention
“It was Sunday morning early in the year 1776. In the church where Pastor Muhlenberg preached, it was a regular service for his congregation, but a quite different affair for Muhlenberg himself. Muhlenberg’s text for the day was Ecclesiastes 3 where it explains, ‘To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven; a time to be born, and a time to die, a time to plant, and a time to pluck what is planted…'”
“Coming to the end of his sermon, Peter Muhlenberg turned to his congregation and said, ‘In the language of the holy writ, there was a time for all things, a time to preach and a time to pray, but those times have passed away.’ As those assembled looked on, Pastor Muhlenberg declared, ‘There is a time to fight, and that time is now coming!’ Muhlenberg then proceeded to remove his robes revealing, to the shock of his congregation, a military uniform.”
“Marching to the back of the church he declared, ‘Who among you is with me?’ On that day 300 men from his church stood up and joined Peter Muhlenberg. They eventually became the 8th Virginia Brigade fighting for liberty.”
“Frederick Muhlenberg, Peter’s brother, was against Peter’s level of involvement in the war. Peter responded to Frederick writing, ‘I am a Clergyman it is true, but I am a member of the Society as well as the poorest Layman, and my Liberty is as dear to me as any man, shall I then sit still and enjoy myself at Home when the best Blood of the Covenant is spilling? …So far am I from thinking that I act wrong, I am convinced it is my duty to do so and duly I owe to God and my country.”
The above is one story of one pastor who chose the path of Liberty and Freedom…and that Liberty and Freedom has been graciously bestowed by our Heavenly Father to each of us. It has been freely offered, freely sacrificed for by Christ Jesus, and it is the duty of each of us to acknowledge that precious gift and to not give it away lightly. There were hundreds of such men and women during that awful epoch of our American History who chose the path that Pastor Muhlenberg took. There were many such brave souls who opted to sacrifice all for God, Family, and Country during that period of the Birth of our Nation and during other such battles as these, before and after this Revolution. It was and is the birth pains of an Nation that the founders of this Nation and those who descended after bear. Our Nation is not so very old….it has not been long since it was first conceived and birthed. Indeed, we are still being birthed…but now in a very different way. What is being birthed is not what the Creator envisioned or created, nor what our forefathers and mothers hoped to realize. It is not at all what they bled and died for.
Each of us have inherited in some form the genetic material of these people who came seeking Liberty and Justice; these people who bore up under severe hardships from their countries of origin, despotic rule that came in the form of societal structure….religious, political, familial, educational.
The pastors of that day, and their congregations, were living out of what had come over 100 years prior…where religion and politics were woven into the same fabric. There was no separation between the two spheres. This Revolution against Britain would culminate in a totally different awareness and way of life than had ever been lived on this planet; and may never be seen again in the present state of things. What remained was a hope and a promise….a Republic. And this Republic was created out of the awareness that the people who then inhabited this country were a moral and upright people; people who were fashioned from 2000 years of formation out of the womb of salvation that only Christ Jesus can offer. A people who were honed by thousands of years before Christ walked the Earth by way of the Israelites who had been scattered and dispersed many times in their history. This New Jerusalem, a country that was fashioned entirely by their Creator. The Constitution (Part 1–the Declaration of Independence, and part 2), was and is a covenant between the people of America and their Heavenly Father. It was written for a Christian people….who are fully able to internally govern themselves. Thus, the meaning of a Republic that was inspired by God’s Word and spells out the mission of God’s children and Christ’s ambassadors on Earth.
John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg was an American clergyman
Continental Army soldier during the American Revolutionary War
A political figure in the newly independent United States
A Lutheran minister
he served in the United States House of Representatives
and
United States Senate from Pennsylvania
Not being a Preacher man along with not being a Saint
I suspect John Peter
would punch
the Good Lord knows he’s earned it
nie wieder