When Logic Slams The Door

    Last week, I wrote a brief article detailing Bryan Lewis’s journey into liberal agnosticism.  It now appears that his blog has sparked quite a bit of controversy within the Hyper-Preterist community.  But while remarks have been bandied about by those wishing to know more about his current views, and perhaps convince him that he is headed in the wrong direction, what no one seems to have observed, is that Lewis’s downfall was not sudden, but gradual and insidious.  Just last year (February 2009) he affirmed that Christendom was now ripe ‘n’ ready to learn about the truths of covenant eschatology (source).  To this end, Lewis launched a church called “Fulfilled Life Bible Fellowship,” which met on April 4th, at the Ramada Inn Conference Center in Lebanon, TN.  Despite its lofty pretensions, though, the project never amounted to anything, but fizzled out, nothing more being heard from Bryan, until around September he announced on a now-defunct Ning site, that there will never be any compatability between Hyper-Preterism and orthodoxy, since the two are like oil and water, which never do mix..

The Downfall Of Bryan Lewis

    I was just informed this morning that Bryan Lewis has become agnostic toward Christianity:

http://orthodoxwars.blogspot.com/

http://podcasts.odiogo.com/orthodox-wars/podcasts-html.php

From his articles, it would appear that he now doubts the preservation of Scripture and the historicity of Christ. 

“As a result, after evaluating the data present by the world’s most credible scholars, I have followed along the lines of Dr. Daniel B Wallace, Dr. Bruce Metzger, Dr. David Parker, and Dr. Bart Ehrman, in that I NO LONGER believe in the Doctrine of the Preservation of Scripture. As Dr. Wallace has said, “I believe it has a poor biblical basis and is not defensible – exegetically or empirically.” Certainly, the data currently available to us, does NOT support it.”

 

“So am I a Christian or would I consider myself a Christian? The answer is not easy, so I guess it is up to you. I am certainly not within the bounds of accepted Christian Orthodoxy. Although, I do agree with many Christian beliefs, I am not in agreement with many of those considered to be critical to the Christian faith. As a result, I am certainly considered to be a heretic and unbeliever by many of Christianity’s Laity, Pastors, and some Christian Theologians. Do I Believe in God? Yes and pray to him too! Do I believe that Jesus was the Messiah, Prophesied in the Hebrew Bible, sent from God who died for my sins?  I have believed it all my life without much struggle until recently, because of my Academic commitments. With this in mind, at this time, the honest answer is: If I were to die today, given the Bible story is true, I believe, my sins are forgiven and my eternal future is secure. Of course, many will disagree, because of differing views of theology, that is fine. I can’t control who sends me to hell with their mind.”

  This is indeed saddening.  I remember corresponding with Lewis back in 2008, after I did a controversial 2-hour podcast with Jason Bradfield of RCM.  Lewis told me that if enough exegetical evidence was adduced against Hyper-Preterism, he might be persauded to leave. Well, we were supposed to talk about Hyper-Preterism, but we never did.  Bryan never gave orthodoxy a chance.  He continued, over the next 2 years, to go farther and farther afield in his views. I plan on contacting him again.  However, in the meantime I trust everyone will acknowledge that this is where Hyper-Preterism “logically” leads: D-O-U-B-T.

Bryan Lewis — A Startling Revelation

Bryan Lewis is a Hyper-Preterist whose teachings have become more and more divergent over the past two years.,  At one point he proudly called himself a “Reformed” Christian.  But that is not now the case.  He recently let his guard down, and wrote:

“Systematic Theology seeks to organize theology and doctrine around fairly disconnected standard categories. It is my opinion, that this practice alienates doctrines that are otherwise joined at the hip and often causes the Biblical writers original point to be missed; especially soteriological points. In other words, we must not separate our eschatology and soteriology.”

Wow.  Since according to Hyper-Preterists, ‘salvation’ only pertained to people living under the Old Covenant, and since the Old Covenant was completely dissolved in A.D. 70, it appears that salvation must now be a retro-active which is applicable to all mankind.  At least ‘damnation’ is no longer possible, for (by H.P. admission) there is nothing left to save anybody from!  If Lewis would follow out his own suggestion, he would have to become an inconsistent universalist!