50. “A Church in Crisis”, 1977

Item — Box: 2, Folder: 10, Call No.: 024052

Staff Only

Content Description

From the Collection: This is a very extensive collection of well over 250 scholarly papers, the vast majority of them written by Cottrell. There are papers covering the topics of hermeneutics, exegesis, church polity, governance, and history, Daniel, Revelation, Ellen White, science, plus many others. Cottrell surely had a wide range of interests and seemingly an input on almost every subject which became current in the second half of the 20th century. Nearly all of the papers are unpublished meaning they were designed for limited circulation. Many of the papers were prepared for distribution to a church sponsored study group or committee such as the Bible Research Fellowship or the Biblical Research Institute.

Perhaps one of Cottrell’s greatest contributions to the Adventist Church was his work on the authoritative Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary series. As mentioned above he served as the associate editor of the series along with editor Francis D. Nichol. Besides editing many thousands of pages of other peoples work he wrote about 2,000 pages. The Commentary articles are not signed. Cottrell provides a list of the various authors and what books of the Bible they contributed to on the project.

A significant work of Cottrell’s which is not well known is his Eschatology of Daniel. It is at number 222 in the inventory. It was never formally published. Cottrell says the manuscript awaits a climate of openness and objectivity in the church, which is essential to a fair examination of the facts.”

Dates

1977

Extent

74 Pages

Language of Materials

From the Collection: English

Additional Description

Materials Specific Details

45. A Series of six articles in the Adventist Review in January and February 1977. A detailed account and evaluation the doctrinal crisis that split the Lutheran Church— Missouri Synod in December1976. The series was based on several years of daily reports in Religious News Service, on extensive literature provided by the Synod, and personal interviews with David Preus, president of the Synod, and Dr.John Tietjen, president of Concordia Theological Seminary and leader of the schismatic group. I invited both to read and criticize each article prior to publication. The Evangelican Lutheran periodical Perspective reprinted the first five articles in a special edition with the comment that it was the best evaluation of the crisis to appear in print. (The sixth article focused on lessons Adventists could learn from the Missouri Synod experience.) My interest in the LCMS crisis was motivated by the fact that the same factors were at work in our church, but that the SDA theological climate did not permit open discussion of them. Article 6 of the series attempted, tactfully, to draw lessons for us Many thinking Adventists have told me that they got the point.