John MacArthur on Authority of Scripture

1939 – 2025 · REFORMED BAPTIST / DISPENSATIONAL

READ IN A PRIMARY SOURCEAFFIRMS°

STANCE

Scripture alone is the final, only infallible authority

"We teach that the Bible constitutes the only infallible rule of faith and practice and is true and reliable in all the matters it addresses."

Grace Community Church Doctrinal Statement, "The Holy Scriptures"

THE POSITION

Plenary verbal inspiration, inerrancy in the original documents, and a literal-grammatical-historical hermeneutic, argued as necessarily following from inspiration itself.

SCRIPTURE

2 TIMOTHY 3:16 · BSB

16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for instruction, for conviction, for correction, and for training in righteousness,

18 OTHERS HOLD THIS

Jacobus Arminius Voddie Baucham Calvin Jonathan Edwards The Church of Eleven22 Statement of Faith M. Heiser Josh Howerton Second London Baptist Confession Luther Philip Melanchthon Gavin Ortlund John Owen Justin Peters John Piper R.C. Sproul Wesley Westminster Confession Zwingli

Scripture with tradition and church teaching officeAQUINAS · BASIL THE GREAT · CHALCEDON · CHRYSOSTOM · CONSTANTINOPLE I · EPHESUS · NICAEA I

Scripture supreme, recognized and interpreted through the churchATHANASIUS · AUGUSTINE · IRENAEUS

See all 29 figures on authority of scripture →

ABOUT THIS FIGURE

Pastor of Grace Community Church, Sun Valley, from 1969 until his death in July 2025. Expositional preaching, hard cessationism, dispensational premillennialism. Researched from the church's own Doctrinal Statement, covering all 15 loci in one document.

15 OF 16 POSITIONS QUOTED

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Cite this page

"John MacArthur on Authority of Scripture", Examined Doctrine, July 2026 edition, https://examineddoctrine.com/position/macarthur/scripture-authority (archived at https://examineddoctrine.com/editions/2026-07/position/macarthur/scripture-authority).

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