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It was 1775. On April 19th the British army, which had been our army up until that time, attacked a group of farmers standing on Lexington Green to defend their homes. That group of some seventy-five farmers were members of the local church at Lexington. Their Pastor, Jonas Clark, had been preparing them for this moment by his preaching over the last twenty years. He had taught them the Biblical principles that support self-defense from an aggressive enemy. Captain Jonas Parker, head Deacon and leader of the group on the Green, called out to his men, “Steady men, steady; don’t fire unless fired upon. But if they want a war, let it begin here.” The British did fire, and eight Americans died. The rest of the Americans then returned the fire, and then they scattered to the woods to make their way to Concord, where they would join with a much larger force of Americans. At Concord they would repulse the British attack and win the day. The impossible had occurred: An army of farmers had defeated the British army of professional soldiers, the greatest army on earth in that day. Why? Colonial Pastors would give the credit to their God, Jesus Christ. As Jedediah Morse would reveal, the inspiration behind the fighting of our army of farmers was the Ministers of the Colonies. Morse stated,
“The prayers and public [sermons] of the [ministers]…who were friends to their country, (and there were few who were not) breathed the spirit of patriotism…”
(America’s Providential History, McDowell-Belials, Provident Press; 1989, p. 135)
At the end of that same year, Peter Muhlenberg, a Pastor in the Shenandoah Valley, preached a stirring sermon concerning the rights and responsibilities of God’s people in their present conflict with England. As he finished his sermon he stated,
“There is a time for all things—a time to preach and a time to pray…” But, he went on to say, those times had passed away; then he stated, “There is a time to fight, and that time has now come.”
(Ibid., p. 145)
He then removed his clerical robe and revealed the uniform underneath: That of an officer in Washington’s Continental Army. He marched off that day at the head of several hundred men who volunteered to go with him to fight for their liberty.
The time has come for Pastors to again take the lead in teaching the people of God Biblical governmental principles. We, as ministers of God, must relearn the Biblical principles of defending our persons and our property, since our persons are made in the image of God; and any attack against a person is an attack against the God who made that person in His own image. Likewise any confiscating of property, by an individual or by government, is a theft of what belongs to God, since God Himself has entrusted that property to the individual who is being robbed. Indeed He states in His Word:
“The earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.”
(Psalms 24:1)
Likewise, we who lead the Church of Jesus Christ must again learn the Biblical principles of government—both its spirit and its form. Most of us have recognized the need for a moral spirit in government. What we, as ministers, have known less about is the Biblical form of government. And since we can’t teach what we don’t know, God’s people do not know the difference between a democracy and a republic. And we’re losing our liberty to preach the Gospel in public because of it!
Will you commit, as a church leader, to relearn the principles of government from the Bible? Will you ask God to give you the courage to teach those principles, no matter what it may cost you?
Think about it; because if you don’t, someone else will do your thinking for you—and for your children! And you won’t like what that brings to you. I’m Don Pinson, this has been Think About It.