The Magdeburg Confession
The Magdeburg Confession saved the Reformation, as other Lutherans cut and ran from the teaching of salvation by God's grace alone through faith in Jesus alone. So how come it's not taught? We aren't saying they were not real Lutherans, are we ? They put their own lives on the line in place of just mouth-service to the Augsburg Confession. So how come we're not teaching about these brave Lutherans?
Lutheran church history has not forgotten the Magdeburg Confession and the Lutherans who stood up to Emperor Charles V’s decree that they return to the fold of Roman Catholicism.
Here is one example of such remembrance. “The Historical Introductions to the Symbolical Books” in the Concordia Triglotta states: “In Southern Germany, Charles V and his Italian and Spanish troops, employing brute force, succeeded in rigidly enforcing the Interim outwardly and temporarily. Free cities rejecting it were deprived of their liberties and privileges…Magdeburg offered the longest resistance and was outlawed three times. Defiantly its citizens declared: ‘We are saved neither by an Interim nor by an Exterim, but by the Word of God alone.’”
“…Foremost among the champions of true Lutheranism over against the Interimists were…especially Matthias Flacius Illyricus….a member of the Wittenberg faculty.”
“In 1549, when he was no longer safe in Wittenberg, Flacius removed to Magdeburg, then the only safe asylum in all Germany for such as were persecuted on account of their Lutheran faith and loyalty, where he was joined by [other] ‘exiles of Christ’….Here they inaugurated a powerful propaganda by publishing broadsides of annihilating pamphlets against the Interim, as well as its authors, patrons, and abettors. They roused the Lutheran consciousness everywhere; and before long the great majority of Lutherans stood behind Flacius and the heroes of Magdeburg…Because of this able and staunch defense of Lutheranism and the determined opposition to any unionistic compromise, Magdeburg at that time was generally called ‘God’s chancellery.’” (pages 96, 100)
Lutheran Reformation history covers many personalities, events and writings. The Magdeburg Confession certainly has its place in that history—especially as it sought to outline biblical principles that addressed tyrannical governments that encroached on the mission and responsibilities of the church.