What is a Hyper Preterist?
No it’s not a Preterist with ADD. First let’s define what a Preterist is. The first three letters in Preterist is a clue. “Pre” meaning “Before” or “Past”.
Anyway, we all have Google and that is mainly where I get my sources outside of those I already know. Websites, YouTube, Rumble, and a few on Facebook Those are where my sources are located. So let me get back to it and begin by defining Preterist.
Webster’s defines Preterist like this, NOUN Definition of preterist
(Entry 1 of 2)
in Christianity : one who holds that the prophecies in the Bible about the End Times have already been fulfilled
That is the overall standard secular definition of a Preterist. However, if you look further into Preterism you’ll find there is much more to Preterism. A more theological definition of Preterism defines it as this;
Preterism - Theopedia.com
https://www.theopedia.com/preterism
Preterism is a view in Christian eschatology which holds that some or all of the biblical prophecies concerning the Last Days refer to events which took place in the first century after Christ's birth, especially associated with the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD.
So you see Preterism may cover some or all of Bible prophecy and so from that we have many other pronouns that will be placed in front of “Preterist” Myself, if I am going to be labeled, I’d be called a “Partial” Preterist because my belief is Most of the book of Revelation, “The Apocalypse Of John” has already happened. And it would also mean I believe Matthew 24, Luke 21, and Mark 13 has happened and what is left to look forward to is Christ’s return, the resurrection of all the dead, the judgment of all people, the destruction of all creation, and the spiritual eternity with either God or Hell. Sounds like almost a Full Preterists until you learn what a full preterist believes.
There are Partial Preterists, Full Preterists and then there are what many have begun calling Hyper Preterists. Hyper pronoun because of their dogmatic and stiff necked and stubborn attitude I guess. I didn’t invent the label, I just use it because in my YouTube and Web travels I have become well acquainted with the pomp and arrogance and absolute vainglory from most of these guys. The Full, or Hyper Preterists believe there is nothing left to be fulfilled. Everything was fulfilled in AD70. The Kingdom, the wedding, the resurrection, the judgment, the Church of today is now in Heaven. All who are Christian alive on earth are in Heaven, with no sin, no temptation, no tears no sorrow, ALL is fulfilled.
The modern Hyper Preterists like Max King, Don K Preston among others aren’t just teaching another doctrine, they insist they have a more enlightened interpretation of scripture and are leading Christians to the real truth and all of Christendom has been wrong about the second coming of Christ for the last 2000 years. And I am not exaggerating. When I first discovered these men on the internet and You Tube one of the first question In had was how could they be so nonchalant about a new doctrine that challenges the resurrection, the judgment of all men, and the eternal home for all of humankind in one place or the other? And consider most of the Hyper Preterists were Church of Christ preachers for many years. Max King preached for 40 years, and all of a sudden claims to have “seen the light” so to speak and now teaches All things are fulfilled and the earth as it is now is literally Heaven as Revelation 21-22, it will last for eternity, and the resurrection Jesus talked about was fulfilled in 70ad.
The Resurrection
In John 5:25 Jesus says; ““Most assuredly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear will live.” Then He goes on in verses 28-29 ““Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice “and come forth—those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation.”
Now the Hyper Preterists claim verse 25 and verses 28-29 are the same time and same event. And they use all kinds of mental gymnastics and so called hermeneutics to show why the two are the same. And they will also use bullying, intimidation, and their “scholarship” to claim if you don’t agree it’s because you cannot comprehend or you’ve been listening to your preacher and not the scriptures and all kinds of new definitions of words etc.
Look at verse 25. Jesus says “the hour is coming and now is”. The dead are listening to Him right at that time. Those who hear Him will live. It’s obvious they are spiritually dead. The hour, “Now Is”. We go then to verses 28-29 Jesus says the “hour is coming” when those in the graves will hear Him. That hour obviously is not the same hour as those who were part of “now is”.
See folks, with a simple personal short Bible study on our own we can see clearly Jesus is pointing out All people, living and dead, will one day be raised for judgment. That did not occur in 70ad. There was definitely a day of the Lord in 70ad when the Old Covenant Temple was destroyed, but it was definitely NOT the day of judgment that all in the graves gave up the dead and were resurrected and judged whether good or bad Jesus is referring to in John 5:28-29.
If you try to pin down what these Hyper Preterists actually claim THE resurrection is, good luck. They will claim it occurred in 70AD but not that the graves gave up the dead. No it was simply a shedding of the Old Covenant Person and bringing in the New Covenant Person. And those in the realm of the dead were moved to a new place. The Bible simply doesn’t teach that. 1 Corinthians 15 is the best chapter I know of to use to explain The Resurrection. I encourage you to read it and study it before ever listening to one of these Hyper Know-it-all Preterists. When they asked Paul "How are the dead raised?" He explains that what is buried is not what is raised. A physical body is buried and a spiritual body is raised. To view chapter 15 as the Hyper Preterists do, then Paul wasted a lot of time reminding the Church there is a physical death. If it is all simply a move from one covenant to the next and the resurrection is a state of a spiritual condition then why even use language of a resurrection body at all?
John told us in 1 John 3:2 that it has not yet been revealed what we will be but we know that when He is revealed we will see Him as He is and be like Him. John was an Apostle of Jesus and He knew what Jesus physical body looked like. If 70ad was the resurrection John was referring to and the appearance of Jesus was apparent, then it was revealed what we shall be even before 70ad because the claim is the resurrection is simply the New Covenant replacing the Old. Folks, Hyper Preterism is simply put, stupid.
The Gospel of the New Covenant was being preached and spread all over for almost 40 years before 70ad. The New Covenant was revealed by the Apostles. The Kingdom of Christ was here before 70ad. We understand His Kingdom is within us. But that is not saying there is no resurrection of the dead and what we will be has not been revealed. We just know by His word we will be like Him. Hyper Preterists will look at this and tell me I need to read their books in order to be enlightened and more educated in their “true” doctrine. Folks, it’s not hard. God knew what He was doing by keeping the Bible within intellectual reach of all of us. Some of us need help, such as preachers and teachers to help us. But the fundamentals of the doctrine of eternal salvation, the resurrection of the dead is not hard to understand. The Hyper Preterists will spend hours and hours of time on video, write book after book, find unbelieving “scholars” to change Greek definitions to convince you the resurrection is not what Jesus or Paul or John said it would be, but don’t believe them They are false teachers.