A Laymen’s Confession, the Church’s Confession – Celebrating the Augsburg Confession

Today (at least out here in the Mountain Time Zone) it is still June 25th, the 481st anniversary of the Augsburg Confession.

Some thoughts on Augsburg:  (please add your own)

It is a testament to God using all people to confess the truth.

It is a testament to lay-theologians (compiled/edited/written by the layman Phillip Melancthon)

It is a testament to laymen in general (the confessors at Augsburg were laymen)

It is a testament to the Lutheran civil authorities (who confessed the faith courageously)

It is a testament to the power of the Gospel [or maybe the fear of God as in Acts 4] (the Emperor did not punish/imprison/execute the rebelling princes)

The movement and order of the articles is beautiful to study on its own.

 

Here is a good questions for discussion:  What does the fact that our foundational confession was confessed by princes/mayors mean for church and state relationships? Have we missed something in our teaching on this that our fathers in the faith understood?

 

If you haven’t in a while, go back and re-read the Augsburg Confession.  If you have never read it, get a copy and read it (or go to the Book of Concord website and read it there).

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