The Teachings of Jack Cottrell
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Errors in Doctrine: The Teachings of Jack Cottrell Chapter 163 Errors in Doctrine: The Teachings of Jack Cottrell © 2018 Richard O’Decatur, All Rights Reserved While attending a local congregation of the Christian Church denomination for several months, I had the opportunity to talk with the pastor several times to learn about what that church believes, teaches, and practices. In one of our get togethers, the pastor gave me a copy of a book that he said was written by the most authoritative expert in theology that he knew and who taught several of the religious classes at the Cincinnati Christian University in Cincinnati, OH. This pastor often quoted this man and it was easy to tell that he was a ‘devout’ follower of all this man taught. The pastor even said that if I wanted to know the truth, then all I had to do was read and follow his book. The book is entitled “The Faith Once for All” is authored by Jack Cottrell, the man who had taught the pastor mentioned above. This book is the source book for many classes Cottrell has taught at Cincinnati Christian University for individuals who seek to become ministers in the “churches of Christ, which are part of the Restoration Movement which also includes the Disciples of Christ and the Churches of Christ. He was a professor of theology at Cincinnati Christian University from 1967 to 2015”. Wikipedia. As I am a seeker of truth, I decided to read and study this book to see if there were truths that I was not acquainted with presented within its pages. So, in earnest I began. Let me say that my hope was like that of the Berean community mentioned in the Bible. It was my intent to search this book ‘with all readiness, and search the Scriptures to find out whether these things were so.’ The key is for one to try to prove things are true first of all rather than just try to prove things are not true first of all. There is a major difference in what you find depending on which approach you take, as I learned when researching the Holy Spirit in the Bible. Acts 17:10 - 11 (NKJV) 10Then the brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea. When they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews. 11These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so. Unhappily in my quest, I ran into difficulties on the third page of introductory text two-thirds of the way down page 11 where he presents a question that was asked by Pilate, “What is truth” (John 18: 38). At this point, Cottrell began discussing philosophy mentioning Pragmatism’s definition of truth and then the correspondence concept of truth. He then quotes Richard Bowman, who is a conservative Disciples of Christ minister and co-founder of Disciple Renewal who tells of his experience with liberal seminary professors. Bowman states that these professors tell their students, “Thus 1 Errors in Doctrine: The Teachings of Jack Cottrell ministers may confidently affirm that the doctrine of the virgin birth and the resurrection, for example are true, while denying in their own hearts that they actually happened!” Cottrell continues in his book in like manner, not affirming exactly what is truth but rather what others say about it and then gets into a discussion of the denial of truth for a couple of pages. He quotes William James, one of the founders of pragmatism philosophy. Next, he quotes Kenneson who promotes postmodernism. Then he quotes William Baird, a Disciple of Christ scholar. He quoted Fred P. Thompson, a champion of the Campbellian movement that espouses openness and generosity toward all. I searched page after page in vain to find Cottrell presenting the scriptural answer to Pilates question about truth. I wondered, why is Cottrell talking about everything else and quoting others and what they believe when the real Truth is so simply and directly found in a couple of verses in the Bible. It was like the Bible was the last place he wanted to go to in his discussions. As I went through this book, I found that this was Cottrell’s standard for presenting Biblical subjects and concepts. He would exhaust what other nonbelievers said to a great extent and then hardly mention what the Bible presents. Why go to such trouble presenting error? Why not shout the Jesus Christ is the living Word of God? There is no need or reason to be apologetic when presenting the truth of God. John 14:6 (NKJV) 6Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. John 17:17 (NKJV) 17Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth. It is as if Cottrell is trying to put the wrong ideas into the minds of his students and readers of his book. Why else would he print such as the following statements from page 14, supposedly of others; but, perhaps himself as well. “Thus, what exists in our minds as ‘knowledge’ is only our own perception of things, not the things themselves. This means we can never really know to what degree our perceptions actually correspond to others’ perceptions of the same things…Given this ‘predicament’,” it is literally impossible for finite beings to know all there is to know about any specific thing, much less to have a complete knowledge of the whole picture…Thus, it would seem impossible for anyone to have absolute, 100% certainty about any matter of fact, including the facts of theology…This skepticism is applied even to any attempts that God may make to communicate with us in our own language, i.e. through word revelation.” I cannot help but believe that such statements made by a professor to an impressionable class of students may well leave them with a frustrated sense that it is impossible for them to know the truth or that the truth cannot be found with certainty. I was almost ready to toss this book into the trash can, but I read a few more pages. Finally, on page 16, Cottrell gets to the truth. He states that “God, and God alone is the 2 Errors in Doctrine: The Teachings of Jack Cottrell source of absolute truth.” He goes further, “But God has spoken truth to us, in language we can understand, in the words of the Bible-the Word of God. I again had hope that this book might have relevance even though Cottrell goes an incredibly long way around before getting to presenting his opinion as to what subject matter is true. I hardly care what others think and believe, I want to know what God thinks and has to say about any topic. I skimmed over the next few pages as Cottrell presents ‘Possible Sources of Theology’. He discusses 1. Revelation from God; then 2. Experience; then 3. Reason; and finally, 4. Tradition. Cottrell sums this up on page 23, “In a sense, all the theological thinking throughout Christian history, as it is passed along to us through the study of the history of the church and the history of doctrine, can be considered as a general kind of tradition that may help us to shape our theology today.” I like his conclusion to what is the ‘normative’ or valid source that is the basis for theology. “Our conclusion is that, because of its very nature as the revealed and inspired Word of God, the Bible is this normative source.” Cottrell then discusses revelation from God. He states categorically that any revelation must come from outside ourselves rather than from within. Anything from within ourselves is “subjective and inherently ambiguous with regard to its origin and its meaning, especially in a fallen world.” He says, “We can never be sure that our inner feelings, experiences, or ‘voices’ are from God, from Satan, or from our own subconscious; and we can never be sure that we have interpreted or even remembered them correctly. He stated that the Bible warns us about such ambiguities inherent in all personal experiences (Matthew 7: 21-23; Luke 13: 25-27), and this especially applies to subjective ones. Thus, anything subjective, including subjective general revelation (Romans 2:15), is ruled out as a normative source of theology. In the previous statements Cottrell presented some scriptures that are supposed to ‘backup’ what he says. Those scriptures are printed below. Please read both passages and try to find anything that has anything to do with subjective revelation or “inner feelings, experiences, or ‘voices’ from God, from Satan, or from our own subconscious.” Matthew 7:21 - 23 (NKJV) 21“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ 23And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’ Luke 13:23 - Luke 13:27 (NKJV) And He said to them, 24“Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I say to you, will seek to enter and will not be able. 25When once the Master of the house has risen up and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open for us,’ and He will answer and say to you, ‘I do not know you, where you are from,’ 26then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets.’ 3 Errors in Doctrine: The Teachings of Jack Cottrell 27But He will say, ‘I tell you I do not know you, where you are from.