SUMMARY OF JACK COTTRELL’S “COLLECTED WRITINGS” SERIES:
VOLUME THREE: THE GOD OF THE BIBLE, by Jack Cottrell

INTRODUCTION

The third volume in my “Collected Writings” series is all about God, and is titled The God of the Bible. It contains 30 rather brief studies of various aspects of God’s NATURE (part one) and God’s WORKS (part two). It is impossible for me to summarize all of the essays here. I will select a few for this purpose, and just basically list the others that appear in the two sections.

PART ONE

A. “Describing God” (pp. 3-9). Here I give very brief definitions of the 24 (twenty-four) main attributes of God. I stress 24, because in the book I miscounted them and said there are 25! Here are those 24, in their four categories:

1. God’s nonrelational attributes (His essence as He exists in Himself, apart from any relations with created beings): God is spirit, self-existent, one, three, infinite, eternal, righteous, and immutable.
2. God’s attributes as seen in His relations with created beings as such: God is transcendent, sovereign, omnipotent, wise, good, omniscient, omnipresent, immanent, and glorious.
3. God’s attributes as expressed in His relations with free-will creatures (and not just creatures as such): God is holy and loving.
4. God’s attributes as manifested in His relations to sinners: God is jealous, wrathful, merciful, patient, and gracious.

B. “ ‘YAHWEH Is His Name’ – Exodus 15:3” (pp. 11-22). This is one of my more recent works, and one that I strongly recommend that you read carefully!

Part One of this lesson focuses on God’s revelation of Himself as Yahweh in Exodus 3. What does the name “Yahweh” mean? In revealing the answer, God calls attention to two new things. First, He provides us with a new revelation of the meaning of this name, Yahweh. He tells us that it means “I AM WHO I AM,” or more succinctly: “I AM.” His main point is that He alone is the ONLY TRUE GOD, the only one who really and truly exists! His basic attribute is His existence, His “I AMness” [an attribute not included in the 24 named in point A. above!]. Thus the name Yahweh calls attention to the UNIQUENESS of God’s existence. Other so-called deities exist only in the imaginations of idolators; YAHWEH really and truly exists.

Second, the other new thing God performs in connection with the new revelation of His name is His first great work of redemption – a redemptive work, a saving work, the EXODUS! The crucial thing here is that God’s method of delivering His people from Egyptian bondage was chosen specifically to drive home the point of His name Yahweh—His unique existence as the only God who really exists! Yahweh’s application of His power in the ten plagues leading up to the Exodus was intended to show that He alone is the one and only true and existing God! He is demonstrating that the so-called gods of the Egyptians (and indirectly, of everyone else) are non-existent, fraudulent phonies!

We should note that Yahweh was impressing the fact of His unique existence not only on the pagan Egyptians, but also on the Israelites themselves. Throughout the OT, to its very end, the people of Israel knew the one true eternally self-existing God as YAHWEH. The OT ends with a prophecy of “the coming of the great and terrible day of YAHWEH” (Malachi 4:5-6).

Part Two of this lesson focuses on this question: “If the name ‘Yahweh’ is so important, why do we not use it today?” Here is where the record of God’s magnificence becomes infinitely multiplied! The fact is this: at the beginning of the New Covenant era (with the first coming of Christ), the two-new-things pattern of God’s splendid works IS REPEATED! At this point in history, God performs another NEW REDEMPTIVE WORK, and along with it He gives a NEW REVELATION OF WHO HE IS!

The new redemptive work is the combination of (1) what Jesus did through His death, resurrection, ascension, and enthronement; and (2) what the Holy Spirit began to do when He was poured out upon the church as recorded in Acts 2. As great as the Exodus miracles were, these new redemptive works of Christ and the Spirit were infinitely greater—saving us from slavery to sin and giving us eternal fellowship with God.

So what is the new revelation of God’s identity – which goes beyond even the majesty of the name Yahweh? It is the revelation that Yahweh—the true God of the OT—is actually a TRINITY of persons! Yahweh is not just one person, but THREE persons! He is ONE GOD, with three centers of personhood, three centers of consciousness, three centers of activity. He is three divine persons who are doing divine things, performing different tasks in the new redemptive activity of God.

This is why we have “moved beyond” the Yahweh era, and think of the One True God as God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit – the TRINITY. But we should never forget that all three of these divine persons are Yahweh. God the Father is Yahweh; God the Son is Yahweh; God the Holy Spirit is Yahweh. And together, they are the One True God, the Existing One, the I AM.

C. The rest of Part One. Here I will simply (or mostly) just list the other fifteen lessons in Part One on “The Nature of God.”

1. “Who Is Yahweh (Jehovah) in the Old Testament?”
2. “The True God and False Gods.”
3. “Do Muslims and Christians Worship the Same God?” The answer is NO! Allah is a false deity who exists only in the imagination of Muslims.
4. “What Is the Trinity?”
5. “Is God More Than Three Persons?” The answer is NO.
6. “Is Modalism a Serious Heresy?” The answer is YES. It denies that God is a Trinity of three persons.
7. “In the Atonement, Did God the Father Suffer Along with the Son?” The answer is YES, but it was not the same kind of suffering.
8. “God in the OT and God in the NT: Why Are They So Different?” The answer is that they really are NOT different; they are the same God, with different attributes being emphasized in the two testamental eras.
9. “Did Moses Actually See God?” The answer is NO, not in his true essence (1 Tim. 6:16).
10. “The Righteousness of God.”
11. “How Can a God of Love Be a Jealous God?”
12. “The Grace of God.”
13. “Does God ‘Hate the Sin and Love the Sinner’? The answer is NO! He hates BOTH the sin AND the sinner; but He also LOVES the sinner! He can and does do both at the same time.
14. “Does God Have a Sense of Humor?” Depending on what you mean, the answer can be NO, PROBABLY, or YES.
15. “The Shack: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.” A review of the popular book.

PART TWO

A. “God’s Eternal Purpose” (pp. 101-113). In Ephesians 1:4-11, Paul uses SIX different Greek words meaning “to purpose, to plan, to counsel, to will.” (See also Eph. 3:9-11.) This shows that God has an ETERNAL PURPOSE. In this essay I answer three questions:

1. WHAT IS GOD’S ETERNAL PURPOSE? Calvinists say that God’s eternal purpose must be understood as all-inclusive causation. I.e., everything—EVERYTHING—that happens in our created world happens because God wants it that way and from all eternity planned it that way and predestined it all in one “eternal decree.” No exceptions! Calvinist John Piper, on an internet video that I watched, was asked this question: “Has God pre-determined every tiny detail in the universe, such as dust particles in the air and including all our sins?” Piper paused for a few seconds and then solemnly said: “Yes.” (In this essay I quote four other Calvinists who basically say the same thing.)

The serious error here is interpreting Paul in Ephesians 1 as including EVERYTHING in God’s eternal purpose, but the fact is that the Apostle is focusing on just ONE SPECIFIC PURPOSE of God. The point of Paul’s teaching here in Ephesians is that God governs and controls all things that are necessary to bring about this specific plan. God will do whatever it takes to fulfill this specific purpose.

What is this specific purpose? In a nutshell (or, as looked at through a rifle scope rather that over a Calvinist shotgun sight), God’s eternal purpose is to prepare for Himself a FAMILY of personal, free-will beings who will relate to Him in a fellowship of love as His own sons and daughters. His plan is to love them and bestow upon them untold riches and blessings, and to receive in return their love and devotion. Recognizing this focus of God’s eternal purpose is crucial for understanding everything else in the Bible.

2. BY WHAT MEANS DOES GOD EXPECT to achieve this eternal purpose? His first choice was to achieve it by means of CREATION (Genesis 1 – 2), but Adam and Eve’s free-will choice to sin (Genesis 3)—which God already foreknew—moved Him to instigate the prepared back-up plan for achieving His purpose, namely, REDEMPTION. Most of the Bible (Genesis 12ff.) focuses on this.

This redemptive plan was accomplished mainly by the saving work of Jesus Christ. Israel’s sole role in this plan was to PREPARE for the first coming of Jesus (see Genesis 12 through Malachi). The Gospels record the basic historical works which Jesus performed, and the rest of the NT contains the explanation of how these works achieved God’s purpose. Thus Ephesians 3:11 refers to “the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

3. THE ACTUAL FULFILLMENT OF GOD’S ETERNAL PURPOSE is in the Church. God was saving OT believers; but they were not given the fullness of salvation, and they were not the ultimate family which God had purposed. Their blessings were mainly on the physical level; but now, since Pentecost (Acts 2), God “has blessed us in Christ with every SPIRITUAL blessing in the HEAVENLY places” (Eph. 1:3). This includes especially the new gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit.

A main characteristic of this New Covenant church family was regarded as a MYSTERY element of God’s purpose until it was revealed in New Covenant revelation. This “mystery of his will” (Eph. 1:9) was that God’s eternal purpose was to combine all believing Gentiles and all believing Jews together into His one eternal church family (see Eph. 2:11 – 3:13). As Ephesians 2:19 and 3:6 say, “This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs,” and are “members of the household of God”!

The bottom line is that the NT Church is God’s eternal purpose accomplished! This is His NEW creation (Eph. 2:10, 15), the beloved family that will inherit God’s eternal heavenly home.

B. Two Essays on Predestination. One work of God often ignored is the predestination of believers to receive this eternal heavenly redemption. I discuss this in two essays. One is “Conditional Election’ (pp. 115-123), which refutes the Calvinist notion of UNconditional election. (In this context “election” = “predestination.”) This essay shows that Biblical predestination is based on God’s foreknowledge of who will meet His revealed conditions for receiving salvation.

The other essay is “The Predestination of Individuals” (pp. 125-133), which refutes the frequent erroneous Arminian explanation of predestination as merely God’s predetermination that WHOEVER becomes a part of the GROUP of believers will be saved. I show that the fact that predestination is based on divine foreknowledge (Romans 8:29) indicates that God predestines individuals (not just an indefinite group) to receive salvation. (See also the next essay, “God’s Foreknowledge: Why Is It Important?” [pp. 135-142].)

C. “Is Everything ‘God’s Will’?” (pp.143-147). This and the following essay explain the concept of “the will of God,” or “how God works in the world.” Calvinists say that everything that happens in God’s creation is God’s will in one sense only: He PREDETERMINES and CAUSES it all to happen the way it does. This is serious false doctrine.

It is in fact true that EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENS IS THE WILL OF GOD – but not in the same sense! The fact is that God WILLS things in two different ways. These two main kinds of “will of God” are (1) His purposive will, which includes all things that God does indeed cause; and (2) His permissive will, which includes things that He permits or allows to happen through the relatively-independent created causal powers of free will and natural law. Calvinists basically redefine “permissive will” so that it no longer exists. It is crucial to maintain a clear concept of God’s permissive will.

The Bible actually uses the terminology of “God’s will” in a third sense, which I call His preceptive will. This refers not to things that actually happen, but to what God wants to happen as He sets it forth in His law and gospel commandments. Law commands are His teaching about ethics and morality (i.e., holiness); gospel commands are His stated conditions for becoming saved.

Some of this is discussed in the essay, “Does God Have a Plan for Every Person’s Life?” (pp. 149-152). The answer is YES – but not in the way many think. I.e., many Christians believe that God has prepared an individual plan specifically for each person’s individual life. Our job is to seek it out and follow it. THIS IS FALSE! God does have a plan for everyone’s life, but for the most part it is the same plan, i.e., to become holy as God is holy (1 Peter 1:15-16). This is God’s preceptive will; He has revealed the commands or precepts that He desires and expects all people to follow.

D. “What Is God Doing in the World?” (pp. 153-166). This lesson explains the four ways in which God is working in the world. Many assume that, since (they believe) God causes everything, whatever happens is something God is doing or has done. (This is the influence of Calvinism.) It is important to see that this is NOT the case. Without explaining them here, I will list the four ways in which God IS related to things that are happening in His world, i.e., four kinds of divine activity.

1. GENERAL PROVIDENCE, i.e., the use of His permissive will to allow things to happen (which He could prevent if He were to so choose).
2. SPECIAL PROVIDENCE, i.e., God’s intervention into the world to influence events without violating either natural laws or free will. (This and the next two are God’s purposive will.)
3. MIRACLES, i.e., causing things to happen in the physical world that are deliberate and visible violations of natural law.
4. SUPERNATURAL SPIRITUAL EVENTS, i.e., God’s intervention into history on the invisible, spiritual level (e.g., inspiring the writers of Scripture, the Logos becoming incarnate in Jesus, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in Christians).

E. The Rest of Part Two. Here are the few more essays that fill out part two. Several originated as sermons.

1. “Did God Rig the Election” [in 2016]?” (pp. 167-170). Answer: NO.
2. “Does God Care How We Vote?” (pp. 171-179). Answer: YES. See Rom. 13:1ff.; 1 Tim. 2:1-4.
3. “A World Like This” (pp. 181-184).
4. “Children of God – Romans 8:14-25” (pp. 185-195).
5. “The Paradox of Prayer – James 5:12-18” (pp. 197-202).
6. “Doxology – Psalms 19:1-6)” (pp. 203-210).