Peter Wülffing

This article deals with the theologian Peter Wülffing. For other people see Peter Wülfing .

Peter Wülffing , also Petrus Wülffing or Wülfing (born May 1, 1701 in Elberfeld , † February 17, 1776 in Ronsdorf , both today districts of Wuppertal ) was a Reformed theologian and Zionite .

Life

Peter Wülffings was married to Anna Luise Martius (1713–1784) and had several children: Anna Maria Elisabeth (baptized 1733), Johann Jakob (1735–1765), Elias (1741–1807), Sarah (1746–1791), Gerson ( 1751–1813), Anna (1752–1787) and Peter David (1754–1814). 1727 he was in Düssel , 1731 in Urdenbach , 1732 in Dusseldorf and from 1743 in Solingen as a priest working. Wülffing often traveled as a preacher through the Bergisches Land , including to Düsseldorf and Elberfeld. The sermons in Elberfeld were permeated with the idea of ​​a pure, true Zionite church that had to isolate itself from its surroundings. This was not limited to a distant expectation or postponed, but rather conveyed directly to the audience and applied to one's own time and circumstances.

In Elberfeld he became a staunch supporter of the Philadelphic Society around Elias Eller and his second wife, the prophet Anna Catharina vom Büchel . Von Büchel announced in a revelation on February 20, 1737: "I want to give him (Wülffing) the keys of the kingdom of heaven." Wülffing then called himself primarily Peter ; a name that was associated with the disciple of Jesus as the owner of the key power and reflected the influence that Wülffing had within the society and within the later community in zu Ronsdorf. From 1726 at the latest, von Büchel prophesied, among other things, that she and Elias Eller would build up the new Zion , and that she would be called to beget a son with Elias Eller who would rule the world as the new Savior and Messiah (see also Rev 12 : 5  EU ).

In 1741 Wülffing applied for a pastorate in the newly founded Ronsdorf. The election of the community elders in a secret, written procedure, however, fell to the first preacher Daniel Schleyermacher with seventeen against four votes . But when a second pastor's office was set up in 1745, Wülffing received nineteen votes in the first election, while his four competitors shared thirteen votes. In the second election, thirty-two of the thirty-two voters were in favor of Wülffing. With great enthusiasm he was picked up by envoys from Ronsdorf in Solingen and brought to his new place of work, where he exerted significant influence. The celebratory speech on the occasion of Elector Karl Theodor's visit to Ronsdorf in 1747 was not given by the first and older pastor Daniel Schleyermacher, but by Wülffing, who had just come to Ronsdorf.

In 1746, Wülffing was appointed consistorial councilor and synod member in Jülich and Berg by the Prussian King Friedrich II , with a seat and vote in the Bergische Synod for life. With the renouncement of a seat and vote in this synod in 1754 there was a break between the Reformed and the Zionites , who constituted themselves as an independent community around Eller, Büchel, Schleyermacher and Wülffing in the New Jerusalem (Ronsdorf). To this end, Wülffing wrote the Ronsdorf catechism in 1756 on the counsel of God , the covenant between God and man , and the division of time into different stages of the divine plan of salvation .

The independent Zionite church in Ronsdorf unter Wülffing only lasted about ten years. Already in 1764 there was a break between him and the then second Ronsdorf preacher Johannes Bolckhaus , a stepson of Eller. Decades before, Bolckhaus had had to swear to Elias Eller that he would never marry when he was sealed on the occasion of admission to the Philadelphia partnership. After Eller's death, however, he married a widow Schüller (née Knevels) , over which he got into an argument with Wülffing. On December 10, 1764, the Ronsdorf preachers Wülffing and Johannes Bolckhaus were formally removed from their offices and titles by the Düsseldorf government. The solemn suspension in Ronsdorf took place on May 22, 1765, followed by Ronsdorf's return to the Reformed Synodal Association. In 1764 Wülffing was temporarily imprisoned in a prison in Düsseldorf. A printing ban was issued against him in 1770, and he and his family tried to find a livelihood by spinning . Six years later he died impoverished in Ronsdorf.

Works

• The spiritual shepherd's staff, or bundle of various farewell, inaugural elections, New Years, Passions, Ascension and other sermons. Held and brought to light on various odd occasions. Dusseldorf 1735
• Ronsdorff's Divine ABC, or Güldener Hauß-Taffel. Ronsdorf around 1750
• Ronsdorf catechism, for the service of the youth there. Düsseldorf 1756
• Pro memoria. Ronsdorff 1756
• The jubilant Ronsdorff, When one of its silver trumpets, or church book, composed by Petrus Wülffing, preachers of the community reformed according to God's word there, as well as Königl. Prussian Consistorial-Rath, in the year 1761, the 13th September, introduced all there under a vocal and instrumental music for public use. Muelheim 1761
• When The Most Serene Prince and Lord, Mr Carolus Theodorus, The Most Serene Princess and women, women Mariae Elisabeth Augustae, Highest-Deroselbe, Highly esteemed wife, Highly blessed pregnancy, graciously announced, Is in the city of Ronsdorf a happy Danck festival, under the bells of those Bells, parade of common citizenship and young journeymen, as well as the firing of the gun, along with arranged illumination, vocal and instrumental music, on April 12th, 1761, captured. Ronsdorf 1761

Literature (selection)

• Bolckhauß, Johann (ed.): Ronsdorfs just cause, against the general synod of the four united duchies Jülich, Cleve, Berg and Marck, and other defamatory tongues. Shown in different pieces. Düsseldorf 1757
• Krug, Friedrich Wilhelm: Critical history of the Protestant-religious enthusiasm, sectarianism and the entire un- and anti-church innovation in the Grand Duchy of Berg, especially in the Wupperthale. Lectures. Elberfeld 1851
• Goebel, Max: The Lower Rhine Reformed Church and Separatism in Wittgenstein and on the Lower Rhine in the 18th century. Coblenz 1860. ND Basel 1992 (History of Christian Life in the Rhenish-Westphalian Evangelical Church, III)
• Koerner, Bernhard (Ed.): Bergisches Geschlechtbuch, 1913, 482–483 (German Sex Book. Genealogical Handbook of Bürgerlicher Familien, XXIV, 1)
• Goebel, Klaus (Ed.): From Eller to Dürselen. New contributions to the church and town history of Wuppertal-Ronsdorf. Bonn 1981 (series of publications by the Association for Rhenish Church History, LXIV)
• Monhof, Gerson: On the theology of Petrus Wülfing. Depicted in the Ronsdorf catechism from 1756 and based on the federal theology of Johannes Coccejus. In: Goebel, Klaus (ed.): From Eller to Dürselen. New contributions to the church and town history of Wuppertal-Ronsdorf. Bonn 1981 (series of publications by the Association for Rhenish Church History, LXIV), 147–159
• Claus Bernet :  Peter Wülffing. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 22, Bautz, Nordhausen 2003, ISBN 3-88309-133-2 , Sp. 1573-1575.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ cf. Gen 9,8-17  EU , Gen 15,17-18  EU , Ex 19,5  EU , Jer 31,31-34  EU