This is Viewpoints for Sunday, December 31, 2017

Cummings vs. Cummings

When irrationality repeatedly surfaces within a teacher’s lessons, listeners pause with concern. Men and women of sound mind — regardless of religious view — are skeptical when coherence is lacking. People who read Bill Cummings as a reputable source have a terrible time with his disunity.

Our columnist demonstrates this well on Dec. 17. Until that day, what had been his overall attitude toward Paul? In a word, negative. Consider the following synopsis from past columns.

Cummings has long portrayed the actual Paul as an apostate Jew and founder of the non-Jewish Christianity that has survived. As such, the apostle may have been complicit in developing the “disgusting” atonement doctrine. Regardless, this manipulative missionary to the Greeks declared their gods to be false and imposed his own narrow version of theistic belief.

Paul took advantage of their deep rooted mythology, introducing the idea of Jesus’ inherent divinity. He preached that God does not love all people. The theology of this impatient, uncompromising man ultimately found approval by the Nicean council in 325. Cummings’ animosity toward the Nicene Creed is understandable, given his theory of Paul.

Then comes Dec. 17, when readers go away scratching their heads. Here, our columnist endorses the theory of multiple “Pauls,” stating his preference to focus on the appealing Paul, not the appalling fakes. He defends the actual Paul against biblical phonies with no “decency or Christianity.” We see his reversal of attitude.

Furthermore, the 1 Cor. 14:34 passage he attributes to “a Paul” is the same he attributes to Paul himself on Aug. 20. Cummings’ self-defeating paradigm is like motor oil — slippery, and in periodic need of change.

We see the point has nothing to do with agreeing or disagreeing with Cummings (2 Tim. 2:23). Rather, the point is that Cummings disagrees with Cummings. Often he is his most worthy opponent. For many people, Christian or not, this reflects faulty presuppositions. Our God is not the author of confusion.

Harmon column

I always enjoy reading Sonny Harmon's columns. I especially enjoyed his column on December 20 when he was talking about the Annual Christmas Letter, I thought it was very humorous and a good way to look at Christmas letters.

I hope everyone reading this had a Merry Christmas and looking forward to a great 2018.

This story was originally published December 30, 2017 at 9:00 PM with the headline "This is Viewpoints for Sunday, December 31, 2017."