John Cumming was a Scottish

Scottish people

The Scottish people , or Scots, are a nation and ethnic group native to Scotland. Historically they emerged from an amalgamation of the Picts and Gaels, incorporating neighbouring Britons to the south as well as invading Germanic peoples such as the Anglo-Saxons and the Norse.In modern use,...

 clergyman.

Life

In 1832, Cumming was appointed to the Crown Court Church

Crown Court Church

A Scottish Presbyterian congregation was first established in London during the reign of King James I of England and VI of Scots, following the Union of the Crowns in 1603...

 in Covent Garden

Covent Garden

Covent Garden is a district in London on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St. Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit and vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist site, and the Royal Opera House, which is also known as...

, London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, a Church of Scotland

Church of Scotland

The Church of Scotland, known informally by its Scots language name, the Kirk, is a Presbyterian church, decisively shaped by the Scottish Reformation....

 congregation that catered for Scots living in London. At the time, the congregation had approximately 80 members, but Cumming was able to grow his congregation to around 900, and he regularly preached to congregations of 500-600 on Sundays. He was a controversial figure in his day, with George Eliot

George Eliot

Mary Anne Evans , better known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist, journalist and translator, and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era...

 being the most prominent figure to have written denouncing Cumming's anti-Catholicism, obsession with the End Times

End times

The end time, end times, or end of days is a time period described in the eschatological writings in the three Abrahamic religions and in doomsday scenarios in various other non-Abrahamic religions...

, and perceived intellectual dishonesty

Intellectual dishonesty

Intellectual dishonesty is dishonesty in performing intellectual activities like thought or communication. Examples are:* the advocacy of a position which the advocate knows or believes to be false or misleading...

.

Cumming retired in 1879. In total, he published approximately 180 books during his lifetime.

Views

Cumming was one of the most virulently anti-Catholic

Anti-Catholicism

Anti-Catholicism is a generic term for discrimination, hostility or prejudice directed against Catholicism, and especially against the Catholic Church, its clergy or its adherents...

 preachers of his day. Several of his books attacked Catholicism

Catholicism

Catholicism is a broad term for the body of the Catholic faith, its theologies and doctrines, its liturgical, ethical, spiritual, and behavioral characteristics, as well as a religious people as a whole....

, including The Romish Church a Dumb Church (Arthur Hall, 1853) and Ritualism, the Highway to Rome (James Nisbet & Co., 1867). He gave public lectures denouncing Cardinals

Cardinal (Catholicism)

A cardinal is a senior ecclesiastical official, usually an ordained bishop, and ecclesiastical prince of the Catholic Church. They are collectively known as the College of Cardinals, which as a body elects a new pope. The duties of the cardinals include attending the meetings of the College and...

 Nicholas Wiseman and John Henry Newman. The Times

The Times

The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...

also frequently printed letters from Cumming in which he pointed to perceived misdeeds on the part of the Roman Catholic Church

Roman Catholic Church

The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...

.
Cumming also took a deep interest in Christian eschatology

Christian eschatology

Christian eschatology is a major branch of study within Christian theology. Eschatology, from two Greek words meaning last and study , is the study of the end of things, whether the end of an individual life, the end of the age, or the end of the world...

, adhering to the Historicist

Historicism (Christian eschatology)

Historicism is a method of interpretation, in Christian eschatology, by associating biblical prophecies with actual historical events as well as identifying symbolic beings with historical persons or societies. In prophetic theology, the main texts of interest are apocalyptic literature such as the...

 school of Christian eschatology. He believed that historical events such as the French Revolution

French Revolution

The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...

 and the Irish Potato Famine had fulfilled prophecies contained in the biblical

Bible

The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...

 Books of Daniel

Book of Daniel

The Book of Daniel is a book in the Hebrew Bible. The book tells of how Daniel, and his Judean companions, were inducted into Babylon during Jewish exile, and how their positions elevated in the court of Nebuchadnezzar. The court tales span events that occur during the reigns of Nebuchadnezzar,...

 and Revelation

Book of Revelation

The Book of Revelation is the final book of the New Testament. The title came into usage from the first word of the book in Koine Greek: apokalupsis, meaning "unveiling" or "revelation"...

. He preached that the sixth vial of judgment (discussed in Revelation 16) had been poured out in 1820. Cumming therefore taught that Judgment Day

Last Judgment

The Last Judgment, Final Judgment, Day of Judgment, Judgment Day, or The Day of the Lord in Christian theology, is the final and eternal judgment by God of every nation. The concept is found in all the Canonical gospels, particularly the Gospel of Matthew. It will purportedly take place after the...

would occur some time between 1848 and 1867.

Works

• Speech ... at the annual meeting of the Reformation society, 2d of May, 1839
• A short statement of the origin and nature of the present divisions in the Church of Scotland, 1840.
• A preservative against popery, Volume I, 1848.
• God in history, or, Facts illustrative of the presence & providence of God in the Affairs of Men, 1852.
• Apocalyptic Sketches: Lectures on the Book of Revelation, 1854.
• Sabbath evening readings on the New Testament, 1854.
• Voices of the Night, 1854.
• Lectures on Romanism: being illustrations and refutations of the errors of Romanism and Tractarianism, 1854.
• Prophetic studies: Lectures on the book of Daniel, 1854.
• Sabbath morning readings on the Old Testament: Book of Exodus, 1854.
• The church before the flood, 1854.
• Benedictions: or, The blessed life, 1854.
• The tent and the altar: or, Sketches from patriarchial life, 1854.
• Foreshadows: Lectures on our Lord's miracles, 1854.
• The comforter, or, Thoughts on the influence of the Holy Spirit, 1854.
• Voices of the dead, 1854
• The end: or, The proximate signs of the close of this dispensation, 1855.
• The daily life: or, Precepts and prescriptions for Christian living, 1855.
• Signs of the times: or, Present, past, and future, 1855.
• Twelve urgent questions: personal, practical, and pointed, 1855.
• Infant salvation: or, all saved that die in infancy, 1855.
• Foreshadows: Lecture's on Our Lord's Parables, 1856.
• The last of the patriarchs: or, Lessons chiefly from the life of Josep, 1856.
• Cumming's minor works, 1856.
• Apocalyptic sketches: Lectures on the seven churches of Asia Minor, 1858.
• Voices of the Day, 1858.
• Sabbath morning readings on the Old Testament. The first and second books of Samuel, 1859.
• Sabbath evening readings on the New Testament. Colossians and Thessalonians, 1859
• Sabbath morning readings on the Old Testament. The book of Daniel, 1860.
• The great tribulation: or, Things coming on the earth, Volume 1, 1860.
• Sabbath evening readings on the New Testament. Hebrews, 1861.
• Readings on the prophets. Isaiah, 1862.
• Moses Right and Bishop Colenso Wrong, 1863.
• Great tribulation: or, things coming on the earth, 1863.
• The great consummation: the millennial rest; or, The world as it will be, 1863.
• Driftwood, seaweed, and fallen leaves, Volume II, 1863.
• The Destiny of Nations as Indicated in Prophecy. London: Hurst & Blackett, 1864.
• The great preparation; or Redemption draweth nigh, 1864.
• The last warning cry: with reasons for the hope that is in me, 1867.
• Is Christianity from God? Or, A manual of Christian evidence, 1871.
• "Our Father", a manual of short family prayers, 1871.
• When shall these things be? Or, Signs of the last times, 1878.

External links

• Biography