June 12, 2024 by John Fonville
Carl Trueman clarifies a common misconception that is popular among Evangelicals concerning the Protestant Reformation doctrine of sola scriptura....
July 26, 2023 by John Fonville
J.C. Ryle answers the common arguments in favor of “Baptismal Regeneration,” which are based on the Baptismal Service of the Prayer-book. ...
July 14, 2023 by John Fonville
J.V. Fesko on the sacraments as visible words- a visible proclamation of the gospel....
July 13, 2023 by John Fonville
J.V. Fesko on the Word of God as the chief means of grace. ...
July 7, 2023 by John Fonville
Martin Davie explains from the homily, ‘Of Prayer’ in the Second Book of Homilies, how the English Reformers taught that the only true purgatory is the death of Christ and no other purgation is either necessary or possible....
May 15, 2023 by John Fonville
Why Use Written Prayers?- Why does your church use prewritten prayers in your service? Isn't this a dry, rote, unthinking, way for the church to pray and worship? Don't pre-written prayers stifle the Spirit and hinder freedom and promote mechanical, vain repetition? Aren't spontaneous prayers more genuine and heartfelt than prewritten prayers? ...
May 5, 2023 by John Fonville
This writing of Martin Luther is from the introduction to his “Postils” (a group of model sermons which he wrote while at the Wartburg Castle). This brief foreword is full of comfort and good news. In it, Luther sets forth insightful instruction on how to read the Gospels (and the entirety of Scripture- the OT and NT)....
August 25, 2022 by John Fonville
My argument is this: By the year 1700, Protestant Christianity had begun developing significantly new practices and understandings of the Christian faith that focused upon Christian renewal, conversion, new birth and the coming millennial kingdom. These new practices and understandings were a dramatic departure not only from Roman Catholic Christianity, but also from the original Reformation convictions of Martin Luther and John Calvin some one hundred and fifty years earlier. Evangelical Christianity, of the free church variety especially, is the contemporary expression of this third form of Christianity. Probably most Evangelicals are unaware that their Christian experience and piety are far removed from Reformation Protestant beginnings. Evangelicals would do well to recover their lost heritage....
August 20, 2022 by John Fonville
Martin Luther's primary concern when constructing the German mass and order of the liturgy in 1526 was that the gospel be proclaimed for the people in their context....
July 28, 2022 by John Fonville
Martin Luther on the worthy reception of the Lord's Supper....
May 28, 2026 by John Fonville | Category: Holy Spirit and the Means of Grace | Tags: gospel, Pentecost, preaching, evangelicalism, martin luther, baptism, means of grace, Holy Spirit, Word and Sacrament, Reformation Anglicanism, Reformation theology, Lord’s Supper, Acts 2, Church History, Confessional Theology, Enthusiasm, Charismatic Movement, Lutheran Theology, Ordinary Means of Grace, Pentecost Sunday
A Pentecost reflection on Martin Luther’s critique of “Enthusiasm”—the attempt to seek the Holy Spirit apart from the outward means of grace Christ instituted. The Reformation was not against the Holy Spirit, but against separating the Spirit from the preached Word, baptism, and the Lord’s Supper where Christ has promised to be found....
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