Raymond Forrest Cottrell (April 21, 1911,

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– January 12, 2003,

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, California) was an

Adventist Adventism is a branch of Protestant Christianity that believes in the imminent Second Coming (or the "Second Advent") of Jesus Christ. It originated in the 1830s in the United States during the Second Great Awakening when Baptist preacher Willi ...

theologian Theology is the study of religious belief from a religious perspective, with a focus on the nature of divinity. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of ...

, missionary, teacher, writer and editor. He was an associate editor of both the ''

Adventist Review The Seventh-day Adventist Church (SDA) is an Adventist Protestant Christian denomination which is distinguished by its observance of Saturday, the seventh day of the week in the Christian (Gregorian) and the Hebrew calendar, as the Sabbat ...

'' (the church's official

news magazine A news magazine is a typed, printed, and published magazine, radio, or television program, usually published weekly, consisting of articles about current events. News magazines generally discuss stories in greater depth than newspapers or new ...

) and the ''

Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary The ''Seventh-day Adventist Commentary Reference Series'' is a set of volumes produced primarily by Seventh-day Adventist scholars, and designed for both scholarly and popular level use. It includes the seven-volume ''Seventh-day Adventist Bibl ...

''. Raymond Cottrell, is seen by some as a " progressive Adventist", as he disagreed with certain traditional positions of the church, including the

investigative judgment The investigative judgment, or pre-Advent Judgment (or, more precisely, the pre-Second Advent Judgment), is a unique Seventh-day Adventist Church, Seventh-day Adventist Seventh-day Adventist theology, doctrine which asserts that the divine judgmen ...

, and served in an editorial role for the independently owned and operated magazine ''Adventist Today''. He was a consulting editor to ''

Spectrum A spectrum (: spectra or spectrums) is a set of related ideas, objects, or properties whose features overlap such that they blend to form a continuum. The word ''spectrum'' was first used scientifically in optics to describe the rainbow of co ...

'' magazine, another independent Adventist paper, both which leaned to progressive Adventist viewpoints. He was the first Adventist to become a member of a scholarly theological society, and was instrumental in the founding of the

Biblical Research Institute The Seventh-day Adventist Church (SDA) is an Adventist Protestant Christian denomination which is distinguished by its observance of Saturday, the seventh day of the week in the Christian (Gregorian) and the Hebrew calendar, as the Sabbat ...

Personal life

Raymond Cottrell was born on April 21, 1911, in Los Angeles,"COTTRELL, Raymond Forrest". Obituary in "At Rest" section of the ''Adventist Review'' March 13, 2003, p. 30 (414) into a family which already had a long history within the Adventist church. His great-grandfather Roswell F. Cottrell was a

Seventh Day Baptist Seventh Day Baptists are Baptists who observe the Sabbath as the seventh day of the week, Saturday, as a holy day to God. They adopt a theology common to Baptists, profess the Bible as the only rule of faith and practice, perform the conscious b ...

who first listened to William Miller before 1844 and the

Great Disappointment The Great Disappointment in the Millerite movement was the reaction that followed Baptist preacher William Miller's proclamation that Jesus Christ would return to the Earth by 1844, which he called the Second Advent. His study of the Daniel 8 ...

, yet did not become a follower. He became a Seventh-day Adventist in 1851. Cottrell was married to Elizabeth (who was born May 20, 1912, in Phoenix,

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)."COTTRELL, Elizabeth" obituary in the "At Rest" section. ''Adventist Review'' October 24, 2002, p. 30 (1598)

Career

From 1930 to 1934 Cottrell worked as a church pastor in the Pacific Union Conference. From 1934 to 1941 he served in the China Division (which dissolved in 1952, now the Chinese Union Missio

of the church as an administrator and educator, assisted in missionary work by his wife. They left early because of the Second Sino-Japanese War, hostilities with

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, returning to America. Cottrell taught

biblical exegesis Biblical studies is the academic application of a set of diverse disciplines to the study of the Bible, with ''Bible'' referring to the books of the canonical Hebrew Bible in mainstream Jewish usage and the Christian Bible including the can ...

Pacific Union College Pacific Union College (PUC) is a private university, private Seventh-day Adventist Church, Seventh-day Adventist liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Angwin, California. It is the only four-year college in Napa Cou ...

for 10 or 11 years, while Elizabeth worked in the business office for several years. Following this appointment, Francis D. Nichol called him to the

Review and Herald Publishing Association The Review and Herald Publishing Association was the older of two Seventh-day Adventist publishing houses in North America. The organization published books, magazines, study guides, CDs, videos and games for Adventist churches, schools and ind ...

to commence work on the new ''Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary''.The Untold Story of the Bible Commentary
by Raymond Cottrell in ''Spectrum'' 16:3 (August 1985), p. 35–51 The pair arrived in

Takoma Park Takoma Park is a city in Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. It is a suburb of Washington, and part of the Washington metropolitan area. Founded in 1883 and incorporated in 1890, Takoma Park, informally called "Azalea City", is a Tree ...

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, in late September 1952, and Cottrell began work on the Commentary on October 1. (Elizabeth worked in the Review Book Billing Department until her retirement in 1977.) During the next five years, Cottrell reported he spent over 15,000 hours studying the Bible, covering every verse. As well as holding the position of associate editor, Cottrell also contributed 2,000 pages to the series,"Raymond Cottrell", an obituary in "Newsbreak" section. ''Adventist Review'' February 13, 2003, p. 21 (261) the third largest number of manuscript pages of any author.Cottrell, "The Untold Story of the Bible Commentary" Yet including his editorial work he probably had more input than any other writer into the ''Commentary''. Articles written by Cottrell for the commentary included "The Role of Israel in Old Testament Prophecy" and others. In this article he wrote that the original subject of the Old Testament predictive prophecies was the nation of Israel, their fulfillment being conditional on the response of the Jewish people to the covenant and on accepting the Messiah.Cottrell, "The Untold Story of the Bible Commentary", 42 However, due to the "overriding pastoral concern" of Nichol, the editor-in-chief overruled the consensus of the other editors – one of only two or three occasions when he did so. He also wrote numerous articles for the ''Seventh-day Adventist Bible Dictionary'' and ''Encyclopedia'' on topics in Bible and theology. Cottrell's critiques of the manuscript of ''

Questions on Doctrine ''Seventh-day Adventists Answer Questions on Doctrine'' (generally known by the shortened title ''Questions on Doctrine'', abbreviated ''QOD'') is a book published by the Seventh-day Adventist Church in 1957 to help explain Adventism to conserv ...

'' (published in 1957), were "mostly unheeded" by its authors and "might have prevented much of the upheaval that followed the publication of the book", according to Julius Nam. In 1957 Nichol invited him to be an associate editor of the ''Adventist Review'', a position he held for 7 years. He worked for another 7 years as a book editor. Cottrell also served as a member of the Biblical Research Committee (now the

). He retired in 1977, to

Calimesa, California Calimesa (portmanteau of ''California'' and ''Mesa'', Spanish for " table") is a city in Riverside County, California, United States. Located in the Greater Los Angeles area, the population was 10,026 at the 2020 census, up from 7,879 at the ...

. There he served at

Loma Linda University Loma Linda University (LLU) is a private Seventh-day Adventist health sciences university in Loma Linda, California. , the university comprises eight schools and a Faculty of Graduate Studies. It is a part of the Seventh-day Adventist educatio ...

as an adjunct faculty member of the religion department. He also worked for the General Conference and for the Southeastern California Conference on various commissions and projects. Then Cottrell founded ''Adventist Today'', an independent progressive Adventist magazine first published in 1993. He and others at Loma Linda had conceived of the idea for a new magazine in the autumn of the previous year. As well as contributing articles, he was editor and had the title of editor

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for the remainder of his life. On February 6, 2002, Cottrell's paper "" was presented by Larry Christoffel at the

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, California Adventist Forum in the

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Adventist church. His paper deals with the history of the Adventist sanctuary doctrine and argues against William Miller's Biblical interpretation of the "2,300 evenings and mornings" of Daniel 8:14. Miller believed these were literal years, ending in 1844. The Adventist church adopted Miller's view and today forms part of its official beliefs. Cottrell's exegesis of Daniel contends that the historical Adventist sanctuary doctrine can not be sustained using any part of the book of Daniel; specifically Daniel 8:14. As such, this paper is as significant as the one presented by Dr. Desmond Ford at Glacier View; a paper which cost Dr. Ford his ministerial credentials. Christoffel in his own paper. His wife Elizabeth died on August 2, 2002, in Calimesa. Raymond died the following year on January 12, 2003, also in Calimesa. He was survived by three adopted children – Ric W. Cottrell, Richard E Cottrell and Peggy J Tomat, his brother Leland Horton Cottrell, four grandsons, sixteen great-grandchildren.

Theology

Cottrell described the theological climate of the church as open, favourable and honest during the 1950s when the ''Seventh-day Adventist Encyclopedia'' was published. Nearly all of Cottrell's papers in hi
Manuscript Collection
were unpublished. He said of his "significant work" ''Eschatology of Daniel'' which was never formally published, "the manuscript awaits a climate of openness and objectivity in the church, which is essential to a fair examination of the facts."Manuscript Collection
of Raymond Cottrell Cottrell has been said to have taken a few progressive positions. It has been argued that Cottrell's began to take more progressive viewpoints after retirement.http://www.atoday.com/files/Vol%2011%20No%201.pdf Contrell changing views after retirement towards progressive positions is also brought out here "After formal retirement, in his 70s, Ray advocated the need for a judicial branch of church governance. In his 80s he argued for relative autonomy for the General Conference Divisions in our increasingly diverse world church. And then, just last year, he courageously called for progress beyond our dated sanctuary doctrine. Was Ray right in all these progressive positions?"

References

External links

Articles by Cottrell. He was a prolific author, although he chose not to publish many of his articles: * Adventist Today version

The Ethos of Adventism
in ''Adventist Today'' March/April 1999 extras *
The Untold Story of the Bible Commentary
in ''Spectrum'' 16:3 (August 1985), p. 35–51

Spectrum magazine, 11:2 (November 1980), p. 2–26
Exegesis of Daniel (chapters 22 and 23 about Desmond Ford and Glacier View)
of the unpublished manuscript by Cottrell
Raymond F. Cottrell Collection
an index of published and unpublished papers from th

also containing a brief biography
Articles by Cottrell
as cataloged in the Seventh-day Adventist Periodical Index (SDAPI) Tributes:
Raymond Cottrell, A Historical Biography
by Douglas Hackleman in ''Adventist Today'' January/February 2003
Raymond F. Cottrell: A Tribute
by Jim Walters in ''Adventist Today'' January/February 2003 * , opening remarks at the memorial service held for Dr. Raymond Cottrell at the Yucaipa Seventh-day Adventist Church, by Dr. C. Norman Farley {{DEFAULTSORT:Cottrell, Raymond F. 1911 births 2003 deaths American Seventh-day Adventist missionaries Pacific Union College faculty People from Calimesa, California Seventh-day Adventist missionaries in China Seventh-day Adventist religious workers Seventh-day Adventist theologians Seventh-day Adventist writers Writers from Los Angeles