Another Hyperpreterist’s “Journey” Ends at Atheism

Hyperpreterism is the teaching that against all of historic Christian interpretation, that the Second coming of Jesus, the general resurrection of the believers, & the Judgment all occurred in AD70.  Hyperpreterism is often that last stop before the person finally takes the leap of unfaith into atheism.  I know at least 6-7 former hyperpreterists who have become functional atheists & now yet another man has come out & admitted he no longer believes in God.

 Jared Coleman, who was a former administrator of the most vocal hyperpreterist website; “Planet Preterist” has come out & revealed:

  I seemingly woke up one morning and realized that my life would be no different, practically, without God. I made all of my decisions based on the assumption that the universe operates by simple cause-and-effect. My hopes did not involve God’s intervention. My sense of “right and wrong” did not come directly from the Bible or any other Christian source. In fact, as I’ve said since then, the word ‘God’ had become meaningless to me. I had no idea what it even meant. (source)

But did he really just “wake up one morning” & realize this or were there observable events & processes that would consequentially lead him to this point of disbelief?

I submit, knowing the environment of Jared’s “Christianity” reveals that his “journey” (a term often employed by hyperpreterists) would inevitably lead to his atheism…if followed consistently.  This is where I want to commend Jared for being one of the most honest hyperpreterists I know.  You see, hyperpreterism MUST see historic Christianity as a failure – I mean think about it.  Hyperpreterism claims that the sovereign God of the universe somehow could not or would not “permit” His followers to understand a very significant element of His plan…that for over 2000 years the various theologians were in constant contradiction with one another…that the various confessions of the Church have merely been propagating a misunderstanding of the nature of Jesus’ coming, the resurrection of the believers, & of the Judgment.  Who in the world should believe in a faith like that?  The New Testament is supposed to be the revelation & fulfillment of the Old yet hyperpreterism along with every other cultic belief wants us to believe in an “unfinished Christianity” where they daily add new once hidden or unknown belief to the mix — be it Joseph Smith jr of the Mormons or Muhammad of the Muslims or Max King of the hyperpreterists — they all have introduced something completely foreign to historic Christianity & expect us to just accept it.

The hyperpreterists that still maintain a semblance of “orthodox” Christianity are the bigger contradiction.  For there is no reason for them to pick & choose what “traditional” beliefs to keep & what to jettison.  I am perplexed that any hyperpreterist is still a Trinitarian or believes in the deity of Jesus, or the Virgin birth or anything that once the hyperpreterist method of “exegesis” – which is really a form of textual deconstructionism is applied, leaves nothing remaining of what we know as historic, apostolic Christianity.

All hyperpreterists are really just one step away from atheism whether they admit it or not.  Their only hope is to revision Christianity into their heretical form by distorting history to support their view, by getting respected “orthodox” Christians to say they aren’t heretics (this is a tactic especially used by the quasi-conservative faction of hyperpreterism), or by just ignoring the facts & evidence against their beliefs.

My goal with hyperpreterism is to either hurry them along into atheism or to cause them to repent & renounce their heresy.  The longer hyperpreterists are wink-winked at as being within the realm of REAL Christianity, the more confusing it becomes for young & new Christians.  It would be better if they just get on with their eventual disbelief.

Jared’s “journey” ended in atheism quicker than other hyperpreterists because he actually tried to employ his theology into his life.  He didn’t keep two kinds of Christianity – one theoretical & one practical.  Jared also was introduced to postmodernism/Emergent thinking (not coincidently by the owner of that hyperpreterist website), & coupling the voracious models of deconstructionism of hyperpreterism & postmodernism would inevitably have this atheistic outcome.  Amazingly enough, Jared STILL leads an Emergent “cohort” (study group) & they KNOW he is an atheist.  This is an admitted atheist leading what is supposed to be a “Christian” study group.  This is just another example of the complete relativity of the postmodernist mindset…which is pawned off as “loving tolerance”.

Any hyperpreterist thinking that I am operating from logical fallacy by connecting Jared’s hyperprterism with his eventual atheism better think again.  Your hyperpreterism MUST deny historic Christian faith as a prerequisite.  The best you can do to defend against admitting you are not really a representative of historic Christianity is to insert doubt into the validity of theologians throughout history.  Even now, leaders of the quasi-conservative faction write articles trying to show how early theologians disagreed with one another.  They do this to try to show how the hyperpreterist “disagreement” with historic Christianity should be considered no worse than those “disagreements”.  But what they are really doing is undermining faith because an honest man would look at all of this & think; “God has failed & cannot sustain truth among His Church”.  And let me make this clear, I am a strong adherent of the TRUE depiction of Sola Scriptura – but if the Bible & God’s expressed working in the Church cannot sustain truth within the Church – then who would not begin to question the validity of faith?

All honest hyperpreterists will eventually become atheists or they will renounce hyperpreterism as a lie.  Only those hyperpreterists who try to hold to the lie & ignore the overarching premise of faith will be able to maintain the lie.  They delude themselves just as much as a Mormon or a JW in thinking they are anything but a complete disconnect from anything that has ever been defined as historically Christian.  I don’t say this to be mean to hyperpreterists anymore than it is meant to be mean to Mormons or JWs — it is just a fact…a fact they keep on trying to deny, either by trying to point to “disagreements” within historical Christianity or by actually revisionism of history.