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....
July 27, 2022 by John Fonville
Infant baptism sets Christian discipleship from birth within a covenant context, which means means to understand discipleship as something connected to the ordinary means of God’s grace and the routine work of the church....
June 27, 2021 by John Fonville
Richard Sibbes discussing the Christ-centered focus of all the Scriptures....
February 28, 2020 by John Fonville
Richard Sibbes: The Glory of God is Greatest in the Gospel...
February 25, 2020 by John Fonville
Michael Horton on what the third use of the law can and cannot do....
February 25, 2020 by John Fonville
Gerald Bray: "'What would Jesus do?’ seems like an innocent question to ask, but it is impossible to answer literally and does not reflect the teaching of the New Testament. ...
February 24, 2020 by John Fonville
The late 16th century Anglican pastor/theologian, William Perkins, on seven differences between the law and gospel....
February 21, 2020 by John Fonville
No Creed But The Bible?- Carl Trueman on the unbiblical creedal statement, "The bible is our only creed and our only confession."...
February 20, 2020 by John Fonville
Philip Schaff: The 39 Articles are found in every collection of Reformed confessions....
November 19, 2015 by John Fonville
A review of David Platt's book, Radical: Taking Back Your Faith From The American Dream....
November 10, 2015 by John Fonville
George Hunsinger shows how Jonathan Edwards crosses the fine line laid down by the Reformation concerning justification sola fide. Edwards taught that works are not simply external evidence that faith exists. Rather, works are necessary to the efficacy of faith. Works, as the external expression of faith, play a role in justification....
March 31, 2023 by John Fonville | Category: Holy Week | Tags: 1662 BCP, 1662 BCP IE, Holy Week, 1662 BCP Lectionary, Good Friday, Holy Saturday, Easter Even, Easter Day, Reformation Anglicanism
Henry Jansma has written a helpful, succinct explanation of the 1662 BCP Holy Week Lectionary. Jansma writes, "If you've never followed holy week in the 1662 BCP, you are in for an incredible experience--so many different angles from which to see our Savior's death for us." The whole week is focused on the cross culminating in the resurrection....
Keep ReadingMarch 31, 2023 by John Fonville | Category: 1662 BCP | Tags: sacraments, Sacrifice, Holy Communion, altar, table, Mass, sacerdotalism, 1662 BCP, Reformation Anglicanism, Anglican Foundations
Instead of using the word "altar," the 1662 BCP uses the word, "Table." The word, "sacrifice" is used carefully....
Keep ReadingMarch 31, 2023 by John Fonville | Category: Morning and Evening Prayer | Tags: Morning Prayer, Evening Prayer, 1662 Book of Common Prayer, Family Worship, An English Prayer Book, Daily Office, Reformation Anglicanism
An abbreviated version of Family Morning and Evening Prayer adapted from An English Prayer Book (The Church Society, 1994) and The 1662 Book of Common Prayer: International Edition (IVP Academic 2021)....
Keep ReadingMarch 31, 2023 by John Fonville | Category: Anglicanism | Tags: sacraments, Liturgy, Book of Common Prayer, Anglican Formularies, Protestant Reformation, Richard Hooker, Oxford movement, GAFCON Australasia 2022, Mark Earngey, Moore Theological College, Anglican identity, Via Media, Three-legged Stool, Canterbury Tales, Thirty-nine Articles of Religion, Book of Homilies, Ordinal, John Keble, Edward Pusey, John Henry Newman, Tracts for the Times, Lambeth Conference, Reformation Anglicanism
Dr. Mark Earngey, head of Church History and Christian Doctrine at Moore Theological College, recently spoke at GAFCON Australasia 2022 answering the question, "What is an authentic approach to Anglican identity?"...
Keep ReadingMarch 31, 2023 by John Fonville | Category: Creeds and Confessions | Tags: christian life, Anglican Formularies, Reformed confession, J.I. Packer, Thirty-Nine Articles (1571), Reformation confessions, Anglican confession of faith, Reformation Anglicanism
J.I. Packer on the Thirty-Nine Articles for the living of your life as a Christian....
Keep ReadingMarch 31, 2023 by John Fonville | Category: A Commination | Tags: Book of Common Prayer, Commination, Lent, Ash Wednesday, judgment, Wrath, repentance, law, confession of sin, Mercy, forgiveness, Reformation Anglicanism
A Commination or denouncing of God’s anger and judgements against sinners with certain prayers to be used on the first day of Lent and at other times as the ordinary shall appoint....
Keep ReadingJuly 26, 2022 by John Fonville | Category: Idolatry | Tags: Idolatry, Anglican Formularies, Reformation Anglicanism, The Book of Homilies, images, Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion (1571), Article 22 Of Purgatory
The homily, 'Against Peril of Idolatry,' in the Second Book of Homilies, makes four key points against the use of images, which, it says, are idols under another name. ...
Keep ReadingApril 11, 2022 by John Fonville | Category: 1662 BCP | Tags: Anglican Formularies, Palm Sunday, 1662 BCP, The Sunday Next Before Easter, Reformation Anglicanism
Why does the 1662 BCP have "The Sunday Next Before Easter" rather than "Palm Sunday?"...
Keep ReadingJanuary 12, 2022 by John Fonville | Category: Preaching | Tags: preaching, Salvation, Lord's Day, Ecclesiology, Reformation Anglicanism, Hugh Latimer, office of preaching, administration of the gospel
The Office of Salvation- Hugh Latimer on the importance of the office of preaching....
Keep ReadingJanuary 11, 2022 by John Fonville | Category: Forgiveness | Tags: grace, forgiveness, comfort, consolation, Reformation Anglicanism, Oxford Martyrs, Hugh Latimer
Hugh Latimer on the most comfortable thing in the world....
Keep ReadingNovember 5, 2021 by John Fonville | Category: Reformation Anglicanism | Tags: justification, sola fide, solus christus, sola gratia, Reformation Anglicanism, Katherine Parr, good works
In her book, The Lamentation of a Sinner, Katherine Parr recounts her conversion to the truth of the gospel of justification by grace, through faith, in Christ alone....
Keep ReadingOctober 25, 2021 by John Fonville | Category: Liturgy | Tags: Holy Communion, confession of sin, confession of sins, general confession, Reformation Anglicanism, 1552 Book of Common Prayer, 1662 Book of Common Prayer, Morning & Evening Prayer, divine service, auricular confession, priestly absolution, Liturgy
From 1552 onward, the striking thing about the daily services [in the Book of Common Prayer) was the prominent place given to the general confession of sins in corporate worship....
Keep ReadingOctober 11, 2021 by John Fonville | Category: Confessional Anglicanism | Tags: Anglicanism, Oxford movement, Reformation Anglicanism, Protestant Reformation, Mark Chapman, Michael Jensen, 19th Century
Mark Chapman writes about the historical distortion of history made by the 19th century Oxford movement. ...
Keep ReadingOctober 5, 2021 by John Fonville | Category: Liturgy | Tags: Liturgist, Liturgy, Reformation Anglicanism, Protestant Reformation, Thomas Cranmer, public reading of Scripture, Protestant Reformers, English Reformation, Reformation Sunday
A distinctive feature of Thomas Cranmer's reforms of the worship of the English church was the prominent place he gave to the extensive reading of Scripture. ...
Keep ReadingMay 1, 2020 by John Fonville | Tags: graeme goldsworthy, Reformation, faith alone, grace alone, Christ alone, Five Solas, Scripture alone, Reformation solas, Reformation Anglicanism, hermeneutics
Graeme Goldsworthy on the Four Reformation Solas: Grace alone, Christ alone, Scripture alone, Faith alone....
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