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....
Keep ReadingNovember 4, 2025 by John Fonville | Category: Reformation Theology | Tags: grace, law and gospel, faith, belgic confession, heidelberg catechism, justification, lordship salvation, sola fide, solus christus, sola gratia, Trinity, Holy Spirit, Christology, Reformation, Nicene Creed, Anglican, Thirty-Nine Articles, pneumatology, R. Scott Clark, Confessional Theology, Reformation Anglicanism, The Center for Reformation Anglicanism
The Nicene Creed confesses both the Son and the Holy Spirit as Lord. This article shows how Reformation Christianity upholds the one saving Lordship of the triune God, contrasting it with “Lordship Salvation,” which turns the confession “Jesus is Lord” from a declaration of Christ’s deity into a moral condition for salvation. True lordship is confessed in the gos...
Keep ReadingJuly 13, 2023 by John Fonville | Category: Means of Grace | Tags: gospel, means of grace, Holy Spirit, Word of God, reformed theology, special grace, preaching, reading of Scripture
April 4, 2022 by John Fonville | Category: Three Uses of the Law | Tags: grace, righteousness, john calvin, Holy Spirit, Mercy, conviction, normative use, pedagogical use, three uses of the law, civil use, mirror, restrain, guide
John Calvin discusses the three uses of the moral law....
Keep ReadingAugust 12, 2021 by John Fonville | Category: Covenant Theology | Tags: new covenant, old covenant, abrahamic covenant, mosaic covenant, mediator, promise, law, moses, nations, Christ, Holy Spirit, covenant curses, covenant blessings
In their book, Sacred Bond, Michael Brown and Zach Keele answer the question what is "new" about the new covenant?...
Keep ReadingMay 6, 2021 by John Fonville | Tags: law and gospel, heidelberg catechism, zacharias ursinus, Reformed confession, Holy Spirit
In his commentary on the Heidelberg Catechism, Zacharias Ursinus discusses four differences between the law and gospel....
Keep ReadingJune 23, 2020 by John Fonville | Tags: repentance, obedience, holiness, Holy Spirit, higher life, surrender, J.I. Packer, Keswick theology, pneumatology
J.I. Packer on Four Problems of Keswick Teaching ...
Keep ReadingFebruary 25, 2020 by John Fonville | Tags: sanctification, law and gospel, michael horton, justification, Holy Spirit, third use of the law, Jeremiah 31, new covenant obedience
Michael Horton on what the third use of the law can and cannot do....
Keep ReadingJanuary 21, 2020 by John Fonville | Tags: baptism, sacrament, means of grace, Visible Church, Holy Spirit, confirmation, infant baptism, public profession, adult baptism, Anglican basics
Confirmation cannot be a sacrament- a means of grace. Rather, confirmation is one's profession of faith- the believer's act, a response to the promise made in baptism....
Keep ReadingOctober 13, 2017 by John Fonville | Tags: sanctification, good works, assurance, moralism, inherent righteousness, covenant of grace, antinomianism, justification, Holy Spirit, Union with Christ, antecedent conditions, consequent conditions, duplex beneficium, substance of the covenant, imputed righteousness
Does placing primary emphasis upon justification for assurance understate the importance and necessity of good works (i.e., sanctification)? Does this emphasis dishonor the Holy Spirit’s indwelling work?...
Keep ReadingJuly 26, 2017 by John Fonville | Tags: gospel, sanctification, faith, good works, preaching, assurance, law, Holy Spirit, Total Depravity, Prayer, Union with Christ, Regeneration, new nature, curse of the Law, disposition
Theodore Beza on how the Gospel changes the effect of the preaching of the Law in believers....
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