John Owen on Authority of Scripture
Scripture alone is the final, only infallible authority
Q. Whence is it to be learned? A. From the holy Scripture only.
THE POSITION
Scripture alone, and Owen makes the point twice over: it is the only place the Christian religion is to be learned, and its authority does not rest on the church's. He is equally clear about how it is known to be God's word — by the Spirit's inward testimony rather than by the church's verdict — while listing external arguments (antiquity, preservation, prophecy, the holiness of the doctrine, miracles, the testimony of the church of all ages, the blood of the martyrs) as real but secondary motives.
20 To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, they have no light of dawn.
18 OTHERS HOLD THIS
ABOUT THIS FIGURE
The most formidable English Puritan theologian: Dean of Christ Church and Vice-Chancellor of Oxford under Cromwell, later a nonconformist pastor in London. This entry rests on The Death of Death in the Death of Christ (1647), The Doctrine of Justification by Faith (1677), Pneumatologia and the Discourse of Spiritual Gifts (1674), and the Two Short Catechisms (1645), read in the Goold edition of the Works.
Cite this page
"John Owen on Authority of Scripture", Examined Doctrine, July 2026 edition, https://examineddoctrine.com/position/owen/scripture-authority (archived at https://examineddoctrine.com/editions/2026-07/position/owen/scripture-authority).