Huldrych Zwingli on Authority of Scripture
Scripture alone is the final, only infallible authority
All who say that the gospel is nothing without the approbation of the Church, err and cast reproach upon God.
THE POSITION
Scripture alone, and applied more stringently than Luther applied it: what lacks positive scriptural warrant is removed rather than tolerated. Zwingli put this first in his system where Luther put justification — Article 1 attacks the claim that the gospel needs the church's endorsement, and the closing paragraph of the disputation refuses any argument not brought from Scripture. He offers in the preamble to be corrected, but only by Scripture.
16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for instruction, for conviction, for correction, and for training in righteousness,
18 OTHERS HOLD THIS
ABOUT THIS FIGURE
Reformer of Zurich and the first Reformed theologian to leave a confession — the Sixty-Seven Articles of 1523 predate Augsburg by seven years. He pushed further than Luther on the Supper, which split the early Reformation at Marburg in 1529, further than anyone on the reach of election, and further than any other Reformer on who might finally be saved. This entry rests on the Sixty-Seven Articles (1523), the Declaration Regarding Original Sin (1526), the Fidei Ratio sent to Charles V (1530) and the Exposition of the Christian Faith written weeks before he died in battle — the last of these read only in its chapter on eternal life.
Cite this page
"Huldrych Zwingli on Authority of Scripture", Examined Doctrine, July 2026 edition, https://examineddoctrine.com/position/zwingli/scripture-authority (archived at https://examineddoctrine.com/editions/2026-07/position/zwingli/scripture-authority).