SUMMARY OF JACK COTTRELL’S “COLLECTED WRITINGS” SERIES:
VOLUME ONE: THE UNITY OF TRUTH, BY Jack Cottrell

INTRODUCTION

My 18-volume set of “Collected Writings” began in the following way. My lifelong work has centered around the idea of the reality of truth, or “sound doctrine.” This is based on the evidence for and conviction of the inerrancy and authority of the Bible.

Many Christians accept this view of the Bible, and the reality of its truth, but leave it up to each individual to place his or her own meaning upon specific Biblical teachings: “You interpret it your way; I’ll interpret it my way.” Thus we have classrooms, pulpits, and pews filled with Christians who hold to a broad spectrum of contradictory doctrines.

My understanding of the Bible (no irony here) is that this is a seriously wrong approach to Bible doctrine. I see it thus in view of the New Testament’s strong teaching on the requirement for all Christians to be UNIFIED in what they believe.

This understanding led me (around the beginning of 2018) to write a long essay that I called “The Unity of Truth.” It kept growing and growing in size until it got too big for a single journal or periodical article (even if divided into a few parts). It was also a bit small by itself for a book volume. Thus the idea arose: why not collect a few other things I have written on the same general subject, and have them printed together in a single volume? Voila! The Unity of Truth (Mason, OH: Christian Restoration Association [The CRA], 2018)!

PART ONE: THE OPENING ESSAY

I consider the long opening essay in this volume, also titled “The Unity of Truth” (pp. 1-78) to be one of the most important things I have written. Here I will just list the nine theses which I develop in detail through these pages, while backing each one up with a listing of solid Biblical passages (which I explain throughout the text of the essay), as taken from the book on pp. 9-10. These nine fundamental truths establish the validity of the concept that all Christians are obligated to seek to agree on the “one right meaning” of every Biblical teaching.

ONE. The Bible is the Word of God. 2 Sam. 23:2; Rom. 3:2; 1 Thess. 2:13; 2 Tim. 3:16.

TWO. Because the Bible is the Word of God, it is TRUE in every statement, assertion, or affirmation that it makes. Prov. 30:5; John 10:35; John 17:17; Titus 1:2; 1 John 3:20.

THREE. The Bible is God’s personal communication to His human creatures. 1 Cor. 10:11; 2 Tim. 3:16-17.

FOUR. When God communicates with us in the Bible in human language, He intends for everything He says to have one specific true and right meaning. Isaiah 55:11; 1 Cor. 14:9-10.

FIVE. God intends and expects us human beings to know and UNDERSTAND the one specific true and right meaning of Scripture. Matt. 22:37 (Mark 12:33); 2 Cor. 1:13-14; Col. 1:9-10; Heb. 4:12.

SIX. We CAN understand this one true and right meaning of Scripture, because we have been created in the image of God. Eph. 4:23-24; Col. 3:9-10.

SEVEN. We as human beings not only CAN understand the one true and right meaning of Scripture; we are under MORAL OBLIGATION to do so, i.e., NOT to understand the one true meaning of Scripture is a sin. Matt. 13:1-23; Matt. 15:10; Eph. 5:17; 2 Tim. 2:15; 2 Tim. 2:25-26.

EIGHT. We must not only understand and believe the one true and right meaning of Scripture; we must actually HOLD FAST to this understanding with full assurance, confidence, and conviction. 1 Cor. 11:2; Col. 2:2; Col. 4:12; 2 Thess. 2:15; 2 Tim. 3:14; Titus 1:9; Titus 3:8; Heb. 10:22-23.

NINE. If all the above are true, then we must conclude that it is God’s preceptive will that all Christians have a UNITY of belief and truth—that we all hold to the SAME UNDERSTANDING of the one true and right meaning of all Biblical teaching. 1 Cor. 1:10; 2 Cor. 13:11; Eph. 4:12-13; Phil. 1:27; Phil. 2:2; 1 Peter 3:8.

I know that the above project will sound radical and idealistic to many, but I cannot apologize for that because each of these items is clearly taught in the texts given above. I hereby boldly suggest that we accept the “ONE RIGHT MEANING” principle as one of the foundational principles of the Restoration Movement!

PART TWO: THE REST OF THIS VOLUME

In the rest of this first volume of my “Collected Writings,” I have added six other essays that emphasize the necessity of agreeing on the sound doctrines of the Bible. I will list each one and explain it briefly here.

A. “Christian Truth for a World in Decay” (pp. 81-103). Most of us agree that world cultures, especially in the Western world, are crumbling under the widespread rejection of the concept of truth. Since behavior follow belief, the motto “anything goes” is widely applied. All of this is the result of what I call “the big lie.” Here is how this is developed in this second Unity of Truth essay.

1. “The Big Lie” (pp. 82-85). For 150+ years (since Darwin) this widespread conviction has been becoming more and more dominant: there is no such thing as absolute truth. People are ruthless because they are truthless. See contemporary postmodernism, present even in the Restoration Movement.
2. “In Defense of Truth’ (pp. 85-87). Bible-believing Christians must stay committed to the reality of absolute truth. Christianity is not just about Jesus; it is a world view. It is like a jig-saw puzzle in which there is only one right way to put all the pieces together. The Bible presents us with the “complete picture” (as on the box cover), but its pieces must be analyzed and fitted. And to do this, we must start with the “four corner pieces.”
3. “The Four Foundational Facts That Make Truth Possible” (pp. 87-97), i.e., the four corner pieces of the Christian world view. (a) The fact of the existence of the God of the Bible. (b) The fact of God’s ex nihilo creation of all things that exist apart from God. Without God and His creatorship, there can be no absolute truth. (c) The omniscient God has spoken to us via the Bible in word-revelation and inspired messages from God-chosen prophets. (d) Human beings are made in God’s image, and thus are able to understand His revealed and inspired Word as given to us in human language.
4. “Practical Thoughts and Applications” (pp. 97-103). One, the Bible teaches much about truth. Two, we need to put more emphasis on the fact of creation. Three, we need to put more emphasis on the nature of the Bible. Four, you shall know the truth, and the truth will set you free.

My conclusion is this. When we as the church contemplate what we have to offer this fallen and corrupt world, we must indeed continue to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ as the only way of salvation from sin. But we must also proclaim the entire Biblical world view as a system of absolute truth, giving special attention to the four corner pieces of the puzzle as named above. We cannot expect the world to get better unless more people return to the basic truths of the Christian world view.

B. “ ‘In Matters of Faith, Unity . . .’ ” (pp. 105-127). I am not a fan of this slogan, since its main terms are so ambiguous and are often wrongly defined. E.g., “matters of faith” are often wrongly limited just to what are considered to be “essential” to believe for salvation. The term actually applies, however, to every affirmation in the Bible, front to back.

Also, “matters of opinion” are then applied to all non-salvation Biblical teachings, and everyone is allowed to have his own opinions (judgments, decisions, conclusions) as to what they mean, whatever that may be. The fact, though, is that “matters of opinion” include ONLY issues about which the Bible has no teachings. We cannot presume to refer to anything about which God has spoken as an opinion.

C. “ ‘Hold On!’ The Tyranny of Change” (pp. 129-140). The past 100 or so years have witnessed one of the most radical changes in our history—from a time when Christians were more like heroes to a time when Christians are the villains. How can we explain this development of opposition to Christianity?

1. “The Tyranny of Change,” i.e., the acceptance of the fundamental assumption that everything changes, indeed, must change. This, of course, entails the denial of absolute, eternal truth. Today we are bombarded by “the gospel of change.”
2. “Our Response to this Challenge.” The bad news is that many young Christians (and some older ones, too) have bowed down to the idol of change, for example, on matters of baptism, gender roles, and sexual identity. They have been lured into a cesspool of deceit and destruction by this tyrant of change.
The good news is that, despite these lies, change cannot apply to the Creator God and to the truth that HE has revealed to us in His Word, the Bible. The Christian world view does not change! Thus, “You got to when to hold ’em, know when to fold ’em” (thanks, Kenny!).

D. “The Peter Pan Syndrome: Churches and Christians Who Won’t Grow Up” (pp. 141-159). This is another one of my essays that I consider to be among my most important. It is an exposition of Ephesians 4:11-16. It shows that church growth is not measured in terms of megachurches but in terms of becoming more and more mature and unified in what we believe.

First, in vv. 11-12 we find the church’s job description: body-building! “Building up the body of Christ”! This task is led by first-century apostles and prophets, and by continuing evangelists, elders, and teachers.

Second, vv. 13-14 show us the goal of our body-building task, i.e., to become mature or full-grown—to “grow up.” Contrary to Peter Pan, we cannot stay spiritually adolescent forever; we cannot say, “I don’t want to grow up!” And Paul makes it clear that he is talking not about numbers or feelings or community service (which are all important), but about what we teach and what we believe! We grow up by feeding on truth and sound doctrine.

Such maturity is specifically said to include unity of the faith, i.e., unity of what we believe. This maturity is also specifically said to include the ability to distinguish true doctrine from false doctrine. It is the job of contemporary evangelists, elders, and teachers to lead their congregations to such maturity. Leave Peter Pan behind!

Third, vv. 15-16 show the means of achieving this goal, summed up as “speaking the truth with love.” Here the Greek verb alētheuō can be translated as “truthify” (a word I made up!), i.e., teach sound doctrine and expose false doctrine. See Titus 1:9. Truthify in love! Doctrinal relativism is for babies! Grow up!

E. “Is the Restoration Movement Still Relevant?” (pp. 161-175). Answer: YES!

F. “The Nature of Biblical Authority: A Conservative Perspective” (pp. 177-199). This is a scholarly paper written for and presented at a 1989 conference called “Conservative, Moderate, Liberal: The Biblical Authority Debate,” sponsored by the Disciples of Christ school in Indianapolis called Christian Theological Seminary. Representatives from each view presented a paper like this one, which was then critiqued by scholars from the other two perspectives. When I got the invitation to speak at this conference, I was surprised and a bit nervous. But I decided to accept, knowing I would be in the minority. However, I pulled no punches and laid out in clear terms why conservative Christians accept the full authority of the Bible.

I define authority as the right to compel belief and action, i.e., to establish norms for belief and conduct. And I state that the Bible has such authority for a very simple reason, i.e., because it is TRUE, with truth being understood as correspondence with reality.

I go on to explain that the Bible is true because it is the Word of God, and cite the basic apologetic reasons for accepting this divine authorship. I affirm the inerrancy of Scripture and the reality of word revelation. Much of the Bible’s teaching can be proved by external evidence, but most of it—mainly the essential theological teachings—cannot be verified in this way. So why do we accept them as true? Because they are the testimony or words of Someone we have reason to trust, namely, GOD HIMSELF. I.e., the Bible’s authority is determined by its origin or source or cause. To the conservative mind, unless the Bible is true, it has no authority, no right to compel belief and action, and no ability to produce valid religious experience.

All of this, of course, is anathema to those from the other two positions (moderate and liberal), as they made clear in their critiques of my presentation. (The entire content of this conference was made available in a book also called Conservative, Moderate, Liberal: The Biblical Authority Debate (St. Louis: CBP Press, 1990), edited by Charles R. Blaisdell.)