The Preterist Blog ~ 100% Hyperpreterist Free|we can haz rezurekshun?

Just a quick thought - I have often said with these heady new movements that think that they have discovered some basic of the faith that has eluded the Church for two thousand years and rails against “tradition” that they have simply replaced the Pope in Rome for the Pope in the Mirror. As Gentry noted, once loosed from historical mourings even more heresy creeps in such as the trend in some hyper-preterists (modern Hymenaeanism) to deny the physical resurrection of Christ.

I am reading a work called Scripture Twisting: 20 Ways the Cults Nisread the Bible by James W. Sire (and make no mistake, hyper-preterism is cultic and on its way to becoming a cult, it simply needs a dynamic organizing head). The book itself is very basic and a good primer for beginners in dealing with Biblical interpretation and dealing with cults. There is an excellent treatment of how the Mormons misuse James 1:5 in dealing with “wisdom.”

There is a small quote I wish to preserve here:

Tradition does have an important place in propery interpretation of Scripture. The way in which people in the past as well as other today read and understand the Bible acts as both a source of insight into scriptural teaching and as a guard to keep us from strange and eccentric readings.

or profane and idle babblings for that matter

This is similar to the principle of “intersubjective confirmation” in science where a right idea can be seen by more than one researcher. Without such a guard, we as Bible readers may become victims of our own private, and thus esoteric interpretation. In such a case we do not need a guru to mislead us; we are misleading ourselves.

Originally posted May 7, 2005