How Hyperpreterism Affects the Atonement

Hyperpreterists are fond of making it look like their view barely affects historic Christian doctrines.  For example they will often say something to the effect, “That they don’t deny the resurrection of the believers…they merely place it in the past”.  This attempt to minimize hyperpreterism’s actual chasm of departure from historic Christianity is a frequent plot of hyperpreterists all the while in the next breath hyperpreterists will ridicule the Church as having supposedly been in gross error for 2000 years.

Recently, someone wrote me asking how hyperpreterism affects the Atonement.  Now, if a hyperpreterist were to answer this, they might claim there is no affect but that just isn’t true.  Let’s explore.

Death Of Death In The Death Of Hyper-Preterism

     The glorious truth that Christ’s substitutionary death on the cross satisified the penalty of sin, which is physical death (Romans 6: 23), is a truth most hotly contested by Hyper-Preterists.  The H.P.’s reason that if these things are so, then there must be a future physical resurrection of the dead, else salvation would be incomplete.  Since Christ underwent death on our behalf, there is no need for Christians to die.  Therefore, we are to “expect” His second advent.  If we should fall asleep in Christ before He returns, we shall be physically raised from the dead; for this is a provision of the “everlasting covenant” (Acts 13: 34; cf. Isaiah 55: 3).  Due to their aversion to the basic Gospel, H.P.’s invent all kinds of weird ploys to get around these truths, even arguing that the “real man” does not include the body (see below for refutation).  When  it comes to the doctrine of the second advent, Hyper-Preterists spiritualize the plain language of Scripture, denying there will be any future physical return of Christ, since according to their minds Christ divested Himself of His body (the same body that bore our sins on the cross) when He ascended on high (source).  But is all this enough heresy for Hyper-Preterists?  No, not by a long shot!

Giving Hymeneans Something To Cry About

     As one whose ministry deals mainly in refuting preterist theology, I often receive emails from people who have questions regarding Preterism or Hyper-Preterism.  Of course, I also get a deal of hate-mail, which I generally ignore.  But occasionally I receive an email asking for my “prognosis” regarding a case of hardboiled H.P.   Just yesterday, a guy wrote me to say that his friend of 16 years has ventured down the path of Hyper-Preterism, and now refuses to listen to reason, or the the plain unvarnished testimony of Scripture.  His question was whether there are any arguments that could convince his pal that Hyper-Preterism is wrong.

  I wrote back to say that although I didn’t want to be a harbinger of despair, it is a fact that once someone embraces H.P. the chances of his snapping out of it are slim indeed.  If ever someone walks away from Hyper-Preterism, it will be the grace of God that changes his heart  —   and not any mere polemical argument.  However, for the record I stated what I felt to be the single most impressive argument against Hyper-Preterist theology.  That argument is one I have fielded several times in the past, and is so is important that it impacts the very meaning of the Gospel message..

Hyper-Preterism: More Creedal Contradictions

   One of the chief studies I’ve been engaged in of late is that of patrology.  This involves the study of the early church fathers, who have given us what we know as “orthodoxy.”  Although patrology (also known as patristics) does not necessarily include study of the creeds and confessions of Christendom, these creeds do nevertheless function as a backdrop to the teachings of those men who defended the faith, and whose writings have been preserved by the church.  The creeds will often be found, in their minutest particulars, to codify what the fathers believed regarding matters of Christian theology..

Great Gonzos, Emma, The Doctor Is Back!

     As some of you may remember, this blog recently criticized the theology of Kelly Nelson Birks, pastor of Messiah Reformed Church in Omaha, Nebraska, regarding his views of the resurrection.  Birks holds what is sometimes known as the “Immortal Body At Death” view, which claims that when a believer dies, his/her soul is clothed with a Christlike body and he/she ascends to heaven to be with Christ.  Although Birks doesn’t like to admit it, his view is actually fully compatible with the theology of Hyper-Preterism, which teaches that all New Testament eschatology was fulfilled at the destruction of Jerusalem.  For some months now, Birks has remained silent on issues impacting eschatology.  However, his Hyper-Preterist leanings were recently brought to light in a dispute at Dee Dee Warren’s Preterist Blog, where Birks attempted to promote the IBD view over against the orthodox doctrine of the resurrection..

RCM Censors The Anti-Preterist

In another attempt to suppress information relative to the heresy of Hyper-Preterism, anti-Christian thug Jason Bradfield censored a brief comment left by a Christian poster.  Thankfully, we grabbed a screen shot of the comment before it was deleted.