As you read the title of this article you might be thinking, “How does he know what those guys say in private?”. Further you might ask, “Who are these SGP Admins & why are you talking about them”?
To answer the questions in reverse, let me summarize that SGP stands for “Sovereign Grace Preterism” — it is a community website which was started after a mass exodus of hyperpreterists from the premier hyperpreterist website, Planet Preterist. The hyperpreterists, began leaving Planet Preterist after it became increasingly liberal. Yet, this will always be the course of ANY hyperpreterist site or group, since by its very design, hyperpreterism is individualistic & “liberal” in that it liberalizes texts & concepts via rabid speculation & disconnection.
SGP is led by hyperpreterist teacher, Samuel Frost & his two main followers — Jason Bradfield & Michael Bennett. Bradfield is known for his constant “apologetic” of Frost — any time & any place Frost is mentioned in a unflattering way, Bradfield will be there to speak on Frost’s behalf. Whereas Bennett is known for his proof-texting & perhaps 100% agreement with everything Frost has EVER said.
Frost himself boasts of his talent & his two published books, even arrogantly claiming about one that “No one to date has answered it” yet ignoring that 2000 years of Christianity has ALREADY answered before Frost even wrote the book.
Anyhow, after becoming popularized on Planet Preterist & via speaking every year at the Planet Preterist conferences, Frost at some point kicks his benefactor to the curb. This is evident from a recent announcement given by a group of more conservative hyperpreterists of which Frost joined to be part of a book project. The announcement relates why Frost left Planet Preterist:
Sam announced on one of his podcasts that a “break“ was coming between him and Planet Preterist. This break was impending, Sam said, because of all the disturbing doctrines that are promoted at Planet Preterist. Specifically: Emergent errors, “we can’t know absolute truth,” “God does not know all things at all times,” no creeds, no systematic theology, Universalism, attacks on the doctrine of scriptural inerrancy, free will, etc., etc. (source)
The irony is, nothing much changed between the time Frost joined Planet Preterist & the time Frost left — it was “promoting” all of those “disturbing doctrines” the day Frost joined up with Planet Preterist & still the day he left & even now. No, Frost left Planet Preterist because he felt he was now big enough to strike out on his own.
Now, that you have a little back ground on what SGP is & how it was started, let us move to the first question. How would I know what is said by the SGP Admins in private…& really why should you care? Because, as is typical with hyperpreterists, their public & private communications are often very, very inconsistent.
For example, Bennett recently sent an email to several people, including myself of a picture of Dee Dee Warren & a picture of a depiction of the whore of Babylon side-by-side. Now, without ANY other explanation, what do you think such a thing was trying to convey?
Here is where the knowing what the SGP Admins say in private comes in.
I received an email sent out by Bradfield on behalf of the SGP Admins to the SGP members. According to the email, MANY of the members of SGP had contacted Bradfield to ask him about what was going on with Bennett & the lurid email he sent out about Dee Dee. (you’ll see Bradfield’s full email to the SGP in a moment). Well, what was ACTUALLY going on is an outside party, a man named Phil from Theology Today, got wind of Bennett’s email & publicly called for Bennett to repent AND to be admonished by Frost. Frost REFUSED to publicly admonish Bennett for something Bennett had done publicly & as a matter of fact Bennett was indignant toward Phil’s request even at one point emailing Phil using “LOL” - lots of laughs” in the subject line in response to Phil’s request that Bennett repent.
But what did the SGP Admins tell their members in private??? See for yourself. Below is Bradfield’s complete email on the issue. The email is nothing but DAMAGE CONTROL. I will BOLD important points I want to address.
A message to all members of Sovereign Grace Preterism
In keeping with policy, i did not want to post this on the site, but i do feel a need to clarify something, especially considering the fact that many of you have contacted me asking what is going on about “the email.”
Dee posted a pic of herself on her site. She’s sitting on a sign with hair weaves and a leopard skin outfit (shoes and coat).
When Mike Bennett saw it, it reminded him of a drawing he had seen elsewhere of a woman sitting on a beast, crazy outfit, etc.
Mike took the two pics, posted them side by side with no comments, and emailed it .
Now, when i first saw the email, i chuckled a little and deleted it. That was that. I did not know exactly what Mike intended for me to get out of it, other than a comparison of two crazy ladies.
That’s where my “clarkianism” kicks in. What all can i infer from two pics? I would argue not much of anything.
Apparently, the pic of the woman on the beast was of the “whore of bablyon”. Ya’ll have seen these pics - Hagee, Larkin, and others draw these pics of biblical characters, etc.
Well, they took the email to mean that Mike was calling Dee a “whore”. And that is NOT what Mike meant. It can’t be inferred from the email and if one would just call Mike up and talk to him about it, as i did, you’ll know that is the case.
Now, did i think that was a smart move on Mike’s part? No, because this is exactly what happens.
Phil posted a rebuke of Mike on SGP and i deleted it for two reasons:
1. Site policy regarding Dee
2. I felt they exaggerated the whole thing
Plus, he accused the SGP crowd as a whole of “applauding” the email and most of you weren’t even aware of it.
So, that’s the story. I hope we’ll learn from this just how unsafe it is to give them ANYTHING, because Rod and Dee will exaggerate things well beyond the intended purpose. I encourage folks not to contact them in any form or fashion about anything. This is what happens.
Jason
Notice that he “feels the need to clarify” yet neither he nor Frost “felt the need” to call Bennett to repentance over this issue. This is just more outcropping of the hyperpreterist antinomian/anti-authoritarian mindset. They can’t “feel the need” to correct anything since they are sooooo much in error about their basic theology. Notice once again as I already mentioned, the SGP members were obviously wondering what was going on, but Bradfield was going to spin it for them.
Next, Bradfield pretends Bennett just happened to see a picture that reminded him of Dee Dee’s picture. No — the picture was CLEARLY a depiction of the Whore of Babylon of Revelation 17-18. If Bennett didn’t know this, it is MORE the reason he should not be teaching anyone anything about theology.
The comment about Bennett posting the pictures without comment is a outright LIE!!!!! — Bennett wrote in the email: “Sorry - couldn’t resist =)” If there was nothing wrong with what Bennett was doing, why should he be concerned whether he could or couldn’t resist doing it???
How does Bradfield claim he understood the pictures? First he shows us just how numbed he has become to these types of things, by saying he “chuckled a little bit & then deleted it & that was that”, no big deal I guess? — But then again, Bradfield himself goes around calling people “clowns” & “boobs” & even in this email says Bennett’s pictures were of “two crazy ladies”. I’m sure Bradfield didn’t bat an eye when he wrote that. But for Bradfield to claim he saw the pictures as “two crazy ladies” shows that he is either dishonest OR he also has such little theological knowledge that he didn’t initially realize the one picture was a depiction of the Whore of Babylon — again, another guy who should not be teaching anyone theology — “clarkian” or otherwise.
But then let’s see Bradfield’s logic in action. He claims that he couldn’t really infer anything from the side-by-side pictures right after he told us he DID infer that it was a “comparison of two crazy ladies”. See how dishonest these guys are when they get people in private — even dishonest with their OWN members. Amazing!
Then Bradfield plays off like he didn’t realize the picture was of the Whore of Babylon - - again, why is this guy trying to teach people theology OR logic???
The next bit by Bradfield is astounding. He implies that we were wrong to conclude Bennett was comparing Dee Dee to a whore, YET Bradfield admits he didn’t know what the picture was AND yet he “concluded” that it was a “comparison of two crazy ladies” (like that makes it better). But then Bradfield expects us to call up Bennett & ask him what he meant by it. Sheesh! But hey, Bradfield said he called up Bennett & Bennett told him he didn’t mean to compare Dee Dee to a whore — case closed, now don’t you feel so much better? Frost used to play this game when Virgil Vaduva of Planet Preterist was caught red-handed doing things like sending vampire scripts against other people’s websites — Frost told me that he had called up Vaduva & had these private conversations with Vaduva & all was well. No public admission, no repentance.
But Bradfield does seem to regret what Bennett did…but not because Bennett was comparing another man’s wife to a whore..or even to a “crazy lady” if we buy Bradfield’s cover story, but Bradfield thought it wasn’t a “smart move” because Bennett was called out publicly on it & Bradfield can’t have people making SGP & the hyperpreterism movement as a whole look bad.
Bradfield then gives a lame excuse as to why he deleted from SGP a public call for Bennett’s repentance. What??? Is that hitting too close to home?? Was it showing the SGP Admins in a bad, athough truthful light??? Nope, can’t have that.
After feeding that bull-story to SGP members, what was Bradfield’s conclusion? Not that Bennett did anything wrong, but that he & his SGP members “learn how unsafe it is to….” What? Get caught doing some unsavory thing? Learn that they should be more careful & perhaps not send emails to people who will ACTUALLY call them on it??? I do hope some of the SGP wise up to what is going on with their little group. It should give some person there with a conscience reason to question being led by guys like Frost, Bradfield, & Bennett — guys who write this kind of explanation to their members & hope they buy it.
To conclude, a little background info on the actual picture of Dee Dee — She is a big Apple/Macintosh fan & a once in a life time opportunity came up where she was able to go to “Mac World”. This involved flying, which was a great hurdle for her but with the Lord’s help, she got over her fear & got on that plane & went to Mac World. To add to the excitement & being who she is, Dee Dee decided to have fun & play on the fact that Apple released a new operating system called, guess what?? OS X LEOPARD. Hey, if Bennett & company got a little more creative, they could have zoomed in & seen that Dee Dee was even wearing Apple-shaped earrings.
So, here we have it. A couple of thuggish little punks, took another man’s wife moment of following a life’s dream & they marred it with childish & crude humor that we somehow aren’t suppose to “infer” anything from (what do I mean by that??? Maybe Bradfield’s “clarkian” mind will kick in & figure it out but I doubt since he couldn’t figure out the picture was of the Whore of Babylon).
Look you SGP members, I don’t care if you hate my guts, but if any of you have an ounce of decency, I would think you would be outraged by these guys. Chuck Coty???? You’re always soooo quick to depict your little group as soooo loving. What about it??? David Lee??? Kelly Birks??? Any of the women on SGP do you think this was appropriate?? Anyone?? Will anyone stand up to Frost & his little thugs???
P.S. SGP members, Bradfield “encourages you not to contact [us] in any form or fashion about anything” — nothing cultish there. Maybe he doesn’t want you to possibly learn the TRUTH about them.
