Heroes We Can Learn From — Magdeburg Confession

We are desperately in need of righteous people who will lead us toward God’s blessings and away from His cursings.

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There is a wonderful story of Christian courage that teaches us badly needed lessons and inspires our hearts like little else could. Read here what was done in the German city of Magdeburg. Enjoy with me this historic glimpse into the Reformation.

I love stories of the great Christian heroes; their courage, their struggles through high danger and the low lows of seeming defeat. I think a lot of us secretly wish we could play the hero’s part some day. We imagine we would do the noble thing under pressure, when all the surrounding world told us we were wrong or crazy. We suppose that if the moment came to be honorable or risk death that we would defend the bulwarks back to back with the last man. If the soldiers of the tyrant came to our door we would defy their every demand. Threatened with the gallows we would bravely traverse those eerie steps alone.

As inspiring as those thoughts may be, we know enough about history to understand that human nature precludes such bravery a goodly part of the time. So it was in Germany in the year 1550. Emperor Charles V, high ruler of the Holy Roman Empire demanded that every city in the Empire swear allegiance to the Roman Catholic faith or face the wrath of the imperial army. Every city in Germany had given deference to the Emperor; every city except one, the city of Magdeburg. It was the pastors of that city who taught their churches Biblical ideas about resisting tyrants. Those Lutheran pastors explained the Biblical doctrine of the Lesser Magistrate in terms every man could understand was right. Magdeburg was prepared to resist. They were the only city ready to accept siege and warfare in defending what has proven to be a most important Biblical idea.

Ideas Drove European Wars

Certainly, it was ideas that drove many of the European wars. It was not simple avarice that drove armies to encircle cities. Christian ethics had knocked off a few of the rough edges of callous human grasping by the time of the sixteenth century. This is not to say that everything was all doves and sugar, far from that. However, societies were not as bad as they had been before the advent of Biblical faith in the land. Yet, the perceived defense of Christian civilization often led kings and high rulers in Europe to war over issues difficult to comprehend from our historical plateau. In the case of Magdeburg however, battle was waged over a principle eventually established but now again lost. We have forgotten the great ideas that drove those pastors to preach resistance unto death.

Charles V was the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. That term is a little mysterious to us as the Roman Empire is known to have been overthrown in 476 AD by the ferocious Odoacre. Christian influence and morality combined with historical forces of the time had rendered old Rome obsolete in many ways. A new Christian order was forming what would become the seemingly impossible patchwork of medieval Europe. People of the time though, did not see this larger picture as we might. To them, the Roman Empire was still an active idea. Nations continued to be understood as a part of that old order in a tangible way. Charles V was viewed as the successor to authority ranging back 1,000 years. That power was operating within a now Christianized framework, but the framework itself was not new. So, it really meant something when a city in Germany refused to conform to the stated demands of the emperor. This was no tiny challenge to his regal prerogative.

Pastors Taught the City

It is useful to understand that it was the application of Biblical thought that changed Magdeburg into such a prominent object of 16^th century attention. The pastors at Magdeburg taught their people that all relationships, including those of civil government, are essentially covenantal. This means that we all are answerable to someone. God has established authority to which every person must answer, including those who inhabit the highest offices of governance. According to this concept not even the king or emperor is without someone who may call him to account. Account to what we might ask? The idea is that every ruler is held to the standards of God’s law, to the values of Scripture. After all, the Bible does self-identify as the Book of the Covenant.

It has always been natural for men to assume that the highest ruler in civil government is essentially unquestionable. There is a feeling that whatever the king decides is the last and final answer. That assumption however, is not Biblical, nor moral. It fails to recognize the almighty rule of God over every man, including the king. Under Biblical example responsibility to rule comes with the requirement to be held to account by both the higher and the lower office holders. No ruler is unaccountable. Therefore, when a man of high office acts immorally it is the duty of the men in lower office to call him back to right behavior. This was called the doctrine of Interposition or the doctrine of the Lower Magistrate. If a king became abusive in his rule the Nobles or other officers were to restrain him, deposing a wicked king if necessary. The doctrine of the Lower Magistrate did not only apply to kings. It was recognized as a broad principle that should be observed in every form or level of civil government. Many would say it applies to church government and family government as well. If a husband wants to spend all the family wealth on drinking, his wife ought to resist.

Examples from the Bible

The Bible carries a number of examples of this doctrine in practice. Several were mentioned by the Magdeburg pastors as evidence for their teachings. The story of Queen Athaliah in 1 Kings 11 tells the story of this wicked queen who illegally seized the throne. The hero of this narrative is the good priest Jehoiada. He gathered the military and without queen Athaliah’s knowledge, crowned the rightful heir, Joash, king. When Athaliah ran in screaming, “Treason, Treason” she was taken out of the temple and killed with the sword. This is how the doctrine of Interposition is supposed to work. It is used to return righteousness to civil government. It is a principle that recognizes that God’s law stands above every person. High morals are more important than high office.

Many examples of Interposition are found including King Asa who, “…removed Maacah his mother from being queen mother, because she had made a horrid image as an Asherah…” (1 Kings 15:13). Jehu, one of the military leaders of king Joram, took up arms against his own king in order to bring punishment for him and for the whole house of Ahab, because of the persecution of the true worship and the pious people that they had committed (2 Kings 9 Magdeburg Confession page 71). The people defended Jonathan from king Saul saying, “As the Lord lives, not a hair from his head shall fall to the ground, since he worked with God today” (1 Samuel 14). The New Testament apostles declared that they would obey God rather than men, an example often used by Christians under persecution for their faith.

Though the practice of Interposition had been a part of our faith for thousands of years, no one is known to ever put together a document explaining in detail these ideas until 1550 AD at Magdeburg. These brave pastors led the city in resistance to the formidable army led by Charles V. Every other, so called, protestant city in Germany had acquiesced to Charles’ demands. Only Magdeburg decided that the emperor had surpassed his rights and had to be resisted.

Heroes Fight

As Charles’ army approached Magdeburg the people gathered from miles around taking with them everything they could transport into the city. Then, they burned everything outside the city, leaving nothing Charles could use to support his troops. The siege lasted 13 long months during which the city lost less than 500 killed while Charles lost around 4,000. He finally marched away in defeat. The city had held. They had set an example that other reformers used as they wrote about the proper function of civil government. Their courage and practice of sound doctrine inspired Calvin, Beza, and Knox. Though the story of Magdeburg has not been told much in recent years the legacy of courage and freedom has worked its way into western society over the centuries.

Now, we live in an era when central government seems to be both autocratic and unanswerable to anyone. High crimes are committed and no one attempts serious help for the people. The courts diddle. Lies abound and excesses of power invade the news weekly. We spend tens of thousands of dollars to fly the presidents’ dog to Hawaii. An American pastor rots in an Iranian prison and our highest office-holders are content to say nothing. Counties virtually sell babies to the highest bidder in what we call adoption, and every day, thousands of children are brought to their end through legalized abortion. We have become a wicked and lawless people. Everyone throws up their hands saying there is nothing they can do. I am telling you, it is time now for the lower magistrates, to confront the higher office holders in a contest for righteousness. It is time for Christian people to demand and vote for representatives of unwavering moral character. We are desperately in need of righteous people who will lead us toward God’s blessings and away from His cursings. Once again, pastors are called to their prophetic duty to lead. May they preach and may we listen.

For Christian Culture,

Don Schanzenbach 1-5-14

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