Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Hyperpreterists Then and Now

In December 2007 I went on the radio/podcast show called The Narrow Mind (TNM) with Gene Cook jr and publicly renounced hyperpreterism. After that program, hyperpreterist Jason Bradfield aka "kingneb", protege of hyperpreterist leader Sam Frost made several comments on the program.  Bradfield tried to at first claim I was simply trying to "get attention", but when it was shown that I specifically didn't even mention my website, Bradfield attempted several other things, including claiming I was simply trying to bash my former "full preterist" fellows.

FASTFORWARD July/Aug 2010

In 2010 Bradfield posted a scathing "apology" against the hyperpreterist movement, claiming MANY of the same things I claimed in 2007.  Here are a few quotes from Bradfield, all from the same article.  Read them and then listen to the TNM podcast I did in 2007 and see if Bradfield sounds like he is where I was in 2007.

BRADFIELD'S COMMENTS
  1. The online Preterist community is an embarrassment on many levels. And by "preterism", i am referring to full preterism.
  2. Let me be real frank: the online preterist community, by and large, is playing games with the Bible.
  3. If you've been paying any attention at all to the discussion forums involving preterists, you will see nothing but one crazy disjointed claim after another.
  4. And what has really got my attention as of late is that this irrational mindset is not only present among the "liberals" of preterism, but is prevalent among the so-called "conservatives" as well.
  5. Now, i am perfectly aware that irrationalists exist in every camp. I'm not going to get away from them by leaving preterism. However, it is so prevalent among preterists that it has seriously caused me to pause for a second and question why that is.
  6. However, this is prevalent among those regarded as "leaders" and if it isn't enough to make me rethink the foundations of preterism, it at least makes me want to disassociate myself from it. But again, because it is so prevalent, i am open to the possibility that preterism itself is the problem.
  7. Now, here is why i really have a problem with this. We, as the preterist community, are telling the world that the church has missed the boat on so much over the past 2,ooo years. Ok...fine. But what do we replace it with?
  8. About the only thing preterists are dogmatic on is that "Jesus already came." Ok...fine. But what about the rest of it? I have noticed more and more a tendency to entertain things that are just flat out ridiculous from the start, all in some effort to preserve a "new reformation". Everything else seems to be up for grabs; we just need to get people believing that Jesus already came back.
  9. In fact, stuff that is just about universal among Christians is now being toppled over by preterists.
  10. Oh, we're "reforming" alright. Reforming the WHOLE kit and caboodle! Heck, we have practically toppled the whole of Christianity and are playing with a different set of blocks!
  11. Just what exactly are we putting in its place? Right now, it looks like a bunch of nonsense. And it is a bunch of nonsense by AMATEURS! And yes, i include MYSELF in that!
  12. With preterists? Everyone thinks they're a teacher. And what they teach one week totally contradicts what they're teaching now.
  13. What is wrong with just sitting down and listening for awhile? Did you ever stop to think that maybe, just maybe, in 2,ooo+ years of theological history, someone has already addressed your so-called huge discovery?
  14. Who are we kidding? The preterist community is largely made up of bunch of ignoramuses. And YES, MYSELF INCLUDED.
  15. Did it really get that bad? Did God really let the church go that far into darkness, up until a few ignorant systematic haters showed up on the scene to straighten us all out with irreconcilable paradoxes?
  16. But up until recently, what i thought might have been just some quirks with a few preterists is turning out to be indicative of the whole. And that concerns me. It raises some flags. It makes me stop and think, "dang, maybe this is the result of an error that is toppling everything else."
  17. And i apologize if my own writings misled you into thinking that preterism is a lot more solid than it really is.
  18. Reality is, we have offered very little. And what little we have offered has been, by and large, nonsense and has created more problems than it has solved. Preterism seems to be more about bullying you into it than it is about presenting a coherent worldview. And bullying is, most of the time, a sign of ignorance.
  19. Before you sign on with this "movement", you might want to think twice about how just about everything we have known as "christianity" is getting toppled over. There is nothing wrong with exercising caution. And don't let these bullies tell you otherwise.  (source)

Bradfield's "real frank" comments are perhaps some of the most sincere comments I've seen from him or any hyperpreterist.  Remember who Bradfield is; he started or backed many of the present online hyperpreterist websites/forums.  He is Sam Frost's defender.  If hyperpreterists don't want to listen to me, let them listen to one of their own.

Pastor Gene Cook, Jr. - Leaving Full Preterism TNM #897 .mp3
Found at bee mp3 search engine

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