"I owe more, I think, to John Owen than to any other theologian, ancient or modern."
- J.I. Packer, Introduction to John Owen's The Mortification of Sin, pg 5
The
17th century Puritan John Owen is considered to be one of the most
brilliant and in-depth Christians in church history. Even among other
fiercely intelligent and strongly devoted Puritans, Owen was referred to
as the "Prince of the Puritans." My own exposure to Owen's writings is
by way of his book "The Mortification of Sin" which is a collection of
sermons Owen preached in the year 1656 concerning the killing or
"mortifying" of personal sins, as well as my current reading of his two
monumental works called "Pneumatologia" (which is completely devoted to
the person and work of the Holy Spirit), as well as Owen's large
theological volume entitled "Biblical Theology - The History of Theology
from Adam to Christ." I have myself only scratched the surface of the
wealth of biblical wisdom that Owen was gifted with, and yet I've
already been greatly blessed by his mind which was wholly devoted to
bringing glory to God.
What I would like to do in this
post is to link a video here that I have uploaded to my YouTube channel,
which is John Piper giving a biographical sketch of the "Life and
Thought of John Owen." Piper wrote a book entitled "Contending For Our
All" in which he wrote three mini-biographies on three men who fought
hard to maintain doctrinal integrity both within their lives as well as
in the church; one of the those theological warriors is John Owen. It
is my hope that this sermon/biography by Piper on Owen will birth a
strong interest in the writings of John Owen which I have no doubt God
will use to anoint the hearts and minds of modern-day Christians to seek
more hungrily after personal holiness and the glory of God.
"No teaching may truly
be called theology which does not rely on, and trust in, a revelation
from God by which the theologian may be pleasing to God and at last
enjoy Him forever."
- John Owen, Biblical Theology, Book 1, Chapter 3, pg 16
"There
is, if I may say, a secret instinct of faith, whereby it knows the
voice of Christ when he speaks indeed; as the baby leaped in the womb
when the blessed virgin came to Elisabeth, faith leaps in the heart when
Christ indeed draws nigh to it."
- John Owen, The Mortification of Sin, Chapter 13, pg 158
