Unity and Diversity by Roswell F. Cottrell

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Oct 22, 1872

Unity and Diversity.

By Roswell F. Cottrell

THERE are many who look upon the almost endless diversity of faith among the professed believers of the Bible as a necessity, arising from want of clearness in the language of revelation. Even professed Christians have compared the Bible to a musical instrument on which any tune can be played. If this is so, it must be by forcing an interpretation contrary to the tenor of revelation, or else the blame is justly chargeable to the Bible and its Author. We might as well deny that the Bible is a revelation of the will of God. It is evident that if it is such a revelation, it is consistent and harmonious in all its parts. The difficulty, we conclude, is in the errors of early education, and in the obdurate perversity of the human will. The Scriptures teach us that believers should be in “unity of faith;” that they should be of “one mind;” that they should “all speak the same thing;” and that there should be “no divisions among them;” but that they should be “perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.”

To say that God requires us to be perfectly united, without giving us the means, is to impeach his character. Therefore, the Bible being true and, consequently God such a being as is therein described, the blame of diversity, instead of unity, of faith, rests with men, and not with God and his word.

· But it is obvious that in order to have unity of faith, there must be unity in interpretation; and unity in any mystical or fanciful interpretation can never be hoped for. Therefore, the most obvious interpretation is always the true one. The Bible must be interpreted just like any other book. R. F. COTTRELL.