My last significant mention of the hapless perpetual victim, Jason Bradfield was in January 2014 when he was creepishly stalking on the announcement of my daughter's wedding. I really haven't given much thought about him since. But he apparently is STILL stalking me. On Facebook, someone asked what I thought about a post Bradfield posted on October 5, 2015.
After reading the pretentious first few paragraphs I finally got to the incredible false tales of Bradfield. He says:
"During my time in the hyper-preterist movement, I met Roderick who was a seasoned adherent at that point. Over the years, attempts were made to work with him on various projects but things never panned out. Roderick would always ruin it by writing personal hit-pieces against those with whom he disagreed. He spent more time slandering people than he did actually teaching what he believed. I wanted nothing to do with him and neither did the vast majority of hyper-preterists."
Actually no, the bone of contention came in that as a hyper-preterist I was VERY opposed to re-establishing a "pastor" structure. I mean, according to preterists, it was the leaders; the pastors and elders and "church fathers" who either lied or misled people all these years. But then here along comes so-called "preterist pastors" like David Curtis, Sam Frost and others. The Preterist Movement was always about individuals looking at the Bible for themselves, unhindered by the pompous diatribes of wanna-be leaders. So, when I first encountered Sam Frost on the then premiere preterist website; Planet Preterist, his "look-at-me-I'm-a-preterist-pastor-expert" really made me cringe and I made it obvious that I opposed this new boss structure. (see context)
Well, unbeknown to me, Frost was Bradfield's hero; his spiritual "daddy". My opposition to Frost really made Bradfield angry. AND THAT is the REAL reason Jason has never wanted anything to do with me. Further, I didn't realize until later what a follower and pathetic case Bradfield actually was. He once told the story how he met Frost. Apparently Bradfield was at his local church playing basketball and crashed through a glass door and hurt himself. According to him, the church didn't help him out much because he was an evvvvvvvvvvil preterist. He eventually reached out to Frost who told Bradfield to come to Florida where he'd kiss his boo-boos and find him a job. So, Jason packed up his entire family and moved to Florida to be with Sam. Yeah, that's not weird. And since then, the bromance between the two has been very close. And my criticism of Jason's boyfriend has made me his target ever since.
Oddly enough, this infatuation from follower to leader extends further than just Jason-Sam, in later years I found out that Sam had the same type of relationship with a man named Kenneth Talbot. Talbot fancies himself as some re-incarnation of John Calvin or some 1800s theologian with a ridiculously long beard (see picture above). Anyhow, anyone who listens to an audio or watches a video of Talbot can clearly tell the man is full of himself. This is important to note as you can see from the picture above, Bradfield apparently wants to be a mini-Talbot; even growing his beard to match and wearing similar clothing. Yeah, very cultic indeed.
You might be asking; "Roderick, what does all this have to do with what Bradfield wrote about you?"
Well, it's important to understand the CHARACTER OF A PERSON. The Bible says:
Do not be misled: “Bad company corrupts good character.” -- 1 Cor 15:33
The characters of these men are corrupt and they corrupt other men that they influence. All of this before we even get to the theology. The question you should be asking is WHY IS JASON BRADFIELD STILL STALKING RODERICK EDWARDS YEARS AFTER I'VE REMOVED MYSELF FROM THE MOVEMENT? What axe-grinding is causing Jason to do this?
Jason has never recovered from that FACT that Sam fell into obscurity. He never recovered from the FACT that Talbot single-handedly destroyed the ministry of "Dee Dee Warren" -- who used to be the main "anti-preterist". He never recovered from the FACT that his own fellow preterists saw him as a sell-out. So I guess Jason must continue to stalk me, and even my family. Jason even once called my house asking for my wife by name on our voice mail so he could tell her how evvvvvvil I am. How did he find out my wife's name? The guy is corrupt.
TO THE THEOLOGY
First, I've always been clear WHY I LEFT FULL PRETERISM -- It is NOT CHRISTIAN. My tongue in cheek ribbing of the title of Frost's book was beyond angry Jason because...well, Jason never was too bright unless his daddys' told him what to believe. I left in 2008. Why did Jason and Sam leave? And actually I was in process of leaving since 2000, THIS is the reason many hyperpreterists were at odds with me; I was at odds with the "leadership". They were lying frauds. Sam and company would talk with me in private and say one thing and then another in public. It got so bad, that Frost began putting a disclaimer at the end of his emails saying he could sue people if they quoted anything in the email without his permission. This fallout between me and movement was not "sudden". Jason knows this. I've been at odds with him since our first meeting.So why is Jason trying to portray my theology as wrong? Well, what can he say about my character? I didn't used to go on PalTalk like Sam, admittedly drunk yet claiming to be a "pastor". I didn't let out tirades of profanities. I didn't call people's homes asking for their wives or scaring their kids like Jason and Sam have done. So let's see what Jason says about my theology.
There are 4 things I have come to repeat that show that Full Preterism is not Christian:
There are 4 things all historic Christians hold, no matter whatever differences or denomination —Now, Jason doesn't like this because it is so direct. He thinks I should be more like his heroes and blather on and on for hours and hours quoting this or that theologian. He claims this is too vague. He especially takes issue with my phrase; "collective resurrection". He says:
1) Jesus is yet to return/come back.
2) The collective resurrection is yet to be.
3) The collective Judgment of the wicked and righteous is yet to be.
4) The end of sin/culmination of God’s plan is yet to be.
"Your first clue that something is up is when [Roderick] describes the resurrection as the “collective resurrection.” What happened to the word “body”?"I specifically use the word COLLECTIVE because most Full Preterists define resurrection as 1) individual only. 2) As collective (typically of the Abrahamic people) but limited to the past. I am addressing Full Preterism after all. But Jason's seething, stalker hatred blinds him.
All of the Christian creeds mention the BODILY resurrection. I am of course supportive of that since I am constantly saying how we should be in line with historical Christianity as a whole. But sometimes "body" is used in reference to the specific body of Christ. There are some who claim Jesus' physical body was not raised. Thus when the Bible talks about "If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised" -- 1 Cor 15:12-14. There are people, especially among the preterists who believe Jesus didn't rise in His physical body and that it did not ascend to Heaven. My point of addressing the collective resurrection is about participation in Christ's Resurrection. We as a collective, not merely at the moment of our individual regeneration (a type of "birth"/rising from our deadness), but a collective rising in the yet future. Jason is too angry to see this or hasn't been told yet what to believe from Talbot.
Next, angry Jason is upset because I will not say our future, collective resurrection is these exact same bodies rather than transformed bodies. I certainly do not deny a BODILY RESURRECTION, but in 1 Cor 15:35-44 Paul talks at length about different kinds of "bodies", even talking about heaven and the skies as "bodies" as we even say today a "body of water". Paul's explanation ends with the sentences:
So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.All I'm doing is agreeing with Paul's distinction that there is a natural body and a spiritual body and admitting I have no idea what exactly the spiritual body entails. Perhaps angry Jason and Teacher Talbot have secret Gnostic information beyond what the Bible actually says?
Lastly, angry Jason steps in it when he tries to take me to task for pointing out that the human being is made up of body, soul and spirit. Apparently Teacher Talbot has told angry Jason that the spirit and soul are one in the same. There are many, many sites that understand soul and spirit are NOT the same thing:
- http://www.gotquestions.org/soul-spirit.html
- https://bible.org/seriespage/2-man-trinity-spirit-soul-body
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tripartite_(theology)
May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. -- 1 Thes 5:23
For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. -- Heb 4:12This is called the Tripatite view of the nature of man; that man is body, soul and spirit. Among it's advocates are:
- Justin Martyr
- Irenaeus
- Martin Luther
- Adam Clarke
- Lewis Sperry Chafer
- Arthur W. Pink
- Gleason Archer
- Roderick Edwards ;-)
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