John Owen

John Owen (1616 – 24 August 1683) was an English Puritan Nonconformist church leader, theologian, and vice-chancellor of the University of Oxford. One of the most prominent theologians in England during his lifetime, Owen was a prolific author who wrote articles, treatises, Biblical commentaries, poetry, children's catechisms, and other works.

Owen was educated at Queen's College, Oxford (B.A. 1632, M.A. 1635).  A Puritan by upbringing, in 1637 Owen was driven from Oxford by Laud's new statutes, and became chaplain and tutor in the family of Sir Robert Dormer and then in that of Lord Lovelace. At the outbreak of the English Civil War he sided with the parliament, and thereby lost the prospects of succeeding to his Welsh Royalist uncle's fortune.

He became pastor at Coggeshall in Essex. His adoption of Congregational principles did not affect his theological position, and in 1647 he again argued against Arminianism in The Death of Death in the Death of Christ. He was chosen to preach to parliament on the day after the execution of King Charles I, and succeeded in fulfilling his task without directly mentioning that event. Another sermon preached on 29 April, a plea for sincerity of religion in high places, won not only the thanks of parliament but the friendship of Oliver Cromwell, who took Owen to Ireland as his chaplain.

The theology of justification as taught by John Owen stresses the point that before God gives faith to the sinner, He looks to the merits of Christ. It is because of the merits of Christ that the sinner receives the gift of faith to believe in Christ for salvation.