The General Confession of Sins
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 ReadingJune 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....
October 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 24, 2021 by John Fonville | Category: Lordship Salvation | Tags: good works, faith, repentance, Reformation, King, Rod Rosenbladt, lordship salvation, justification, michael horton, assurance, faith alone, grace alone, Christ alone, prophet, priest, W. Robert Godfrey, Kim Riddlebarger
Ten propositions in response to Lordship Salvation....
Keep ReadingOctober 14, 2021 by John Fonville | Category: Justification | Tags: inherent righteousness, Salvation, sola fide, justification, Reformation Sunday, Roman Catholicism, Thirty Nine Articles, imputed righteousness, Council of Trent, Reformation
Two Radically Different Views of Salvation: Thirty Nine Articles, Articles 11-13 & The Council of Trent: Chapter 7: The Causes of this justification are; Session 6, Canons 9, 11-12...
Keep ReadingOctober 14, 2021 by John Fonville | Category: Law and Gospel | Tags: Anglicanism, law and gospel, Nowell's Catechism, Alexander Nowell, Catechizing, scripture, Word of God
Nowell's Catechism on the Chief Parts of the Word of God...
Keep ReadingOctober 13, 2021 by John Fonville | Category: Ecclesiology | Tags: sacraments, preaching, Thirty Nine Articles, means of grace, Ecclesiology, Marks of the Church , gospel
How do the marks of the church point to the gospel?...
Keep ReadingOctober 12, 2021 by John Fonville | Category: Justification | Tags: faith alone, sola fide, justification, 5 Solas, English Reformers, Thomas Cranmer, Thirty Nine Articles of Religion, The Book of Homilies, catholic faith
According to the Thirty-nine Articles, the Homily of Salvation or Homily of Justification outlines “a most wholesome doctrine”, that “we are justified by Faith only”. Lee Gatiss...
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 6, 2021 by John Fonville | Category: Ecclesiology | Tags: Church office, Ecclesiology, minister, Elder, Shepherd, Thirty Nine Articles, Anglican church, Bishops, Church of England, presbyter, W.H. Griffith Thomas, Deacons, Priests
Why do Anglicans refer to their ordained ministers as priest?...
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 ReadingSeptember 16, 2021 by John Fonville | Category: Liturgy | Tags: Thomas Cranmer, Reformation, Liturgy, lex orandi lex credendi, Reformation Anglican Worship, Reformation Anglican, lex credendi lex orandi
Thomas Cranmer was a theological liturgist, which means the Reformer possessed a set of theological convictions that he hoped to express through his liturgy. These theological convictions were a clear step away from the worship of the medieval Catholic Church and the theological convictions that it represented....
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