Don Preston Resigns Because Hyperpreterism Fails to Grow

What follows is a transcript & the actual audio of Don Preston’s resignation speech given at his hyperpreterist church in Ardmore OK. The church had existed for over 16 years but as Preston himself says, the “failure to grow” was his motivation for resigning. This is very significant because not only was this one of the longest established hyperpreterist congregations but it was headed by the hyperpreterist movement’s most esteemed speaker. Now folks, if hyperpreterism isn’t going to grow under the guidance of a guy like Preston, then maybe these people need to ask why.

 

Um — the quickest way to do this is just to simply say, I am resigning as the minister of this congregation. We started out — we started out some 16 years ago with great hopes & dreams. And we have — we’ve accomplished some great things. But all you have to do is look around this morning — we haven’t grown. Many of our younger couples have abandoned us. We had discussed the goal of one day — of one day reaching the point where we’d be able to hire another man & I would be able to go into full time — in full time seminar debate & book writing work. Our failure to grow obviously does not make it possible. So, uh so I am resigning — in order to give the oper–give the congregation the opportunity to hire someone — that will — that will be more focused — and successful with the local evangelist work.

Hey, you hyperpreterists — don’t get angry with me over this — these are Preston’s own words here. He is the one who said his long time hyperpreterist congregation failed to grow & that young people abandoned the congregation. Perhaps a clue as to why is found in the last sentence. Perhaps had he been focused on evangelism, the GOSPEL instead of propagating the heresy of hyperpreterism things would have been different. Not only that, but it seems Preston is more upset that the failure means he wouldn’t have a financial arm to fund his plan to propagate hyperpreterism even more.

This isn’t the first time a hyperpreterist congregation has failed. Samuel Frost also had a hyperpreterist congregation that failed. Terry Hall, father-in-law to Virgil Vaduva also “ministered” to a hyperpreterist congregation. It is so secretive that it doesn’t even have a web presence so we have no idea how it is doing.

Folks, hyperpreterism is just a movement full of disenfranchised ex-church goers that pool around some hyperpreterist “hero”. After a while, the followers get bored with all the hype, all the egos. For some followers, they drop out altogether, maybe even becoming atheists like Jared Coleman (a former admin of PlanetPreterist — the most popular hyperpreterist site). For other followers, they drop from the scene never to be heard from again. Sure, new “adherents” are always coming on board, but they too will end up like the rest — “failure to grow”. They may think that their new “paradigm” has finally opened up their faith — but faith in what??? Hyperpreterism is NOT Christianity. It is historically UNLIKE anything ever in Christianity. Even an atheist who becomes a Mormon or a JW, or a Muslim may think their life is now “alive” — but it is really just another entanglement until they become disillusioned & drop out. Until they become atheist, until they leave their wives or husbands, until they are abandoned by friends & family who could no longer wait for them to come to their senses.

I’m not saying this to be mean. I know some hyperpreterists reading this will see the light & wake up. Don’t worry about writing me or even publicly announcing your rejection of hyperpreterism — just go back to being with REAL Christians where there is NOT “failure to grow” — to grow in numbers & quality of faith. Hyperpreterism ISN’T really growing if you compare the growth during the Reformation, or even the growth of dispensationalism. Hyperpreterism really is just a blip, a novelty stop off point for people on their way to some other place…hopefully to some place away from the heresy of hyperpreterism & back to the historic Christian faith.

The audio is found here: http://thekingdomcome.com/060820_Don_Resigns2.mp3