Ed Hassertt Comes Clean
Ed Hassertt Comes Clean
Recently, on Pret Cosmos, Ed Hassertt, has posted the following:
The only times I don’t like what I see in the mirror is when I am defending preterism, or talking with preterists. I wonder why that is?
Preterism tends to be filled with mavericks who do their own thing, walk away from any authority, and want to make their own permanent mark on the church. There is no real community, just a whole bunch of bandwagons that people are constantly jumping on and jumping off. The movement is in serious trouble. I have been a major contributor to that trouble over the years. I must ask God’s forgiveness for those I have led astray over the years.
I admit I am just as much to blame. In real life I work with disadvantaged youth, I tutor inner city families both parents and kids in their school subjects, I speak at local charities on the topic of disability, I am loved and respected. People often talk to me about how nice, caring and loving I am here in this community and other places I have lived. I am always described as a “nice guy.†But since I became involved in the online preterist community I have been sucked in by the poison of many in the environment and argue, curse, kick, scream, howl, just to try to make a few theological points. Is it really worth it.
That is why church is never meant to be an absent-focused endeavor. Most non-preterists who have an online presence are also very active in their local churches, local charities an community events. Most preterists who have an online presence have little spiritual exercise outside of that presence.
To me it seems preterism has become a convenient theology for those who want to have a “biblical†excuse to leave the oversight and authority of a local church, and want to be on their own. It also seems to be the attracting option for a lot of people with weird, crazy and novel theories about scripture that they just adapt to preterism to get their voice heard somewhere.
My focus on preterism has always been to see preterism as part of the Reformation tradition of Reformed and Lutheran theologies. The problem is I just can’t make that square peg fit into that round hole anymore. My efforts to do so make me a jerk. The harder I hammer my mind and scripture to make it fit, the worse it all became.
In the end, this week, my anger boiled over at people so willing to discuss the finer details of an imaginary resurrection theory, but critical of the actual ministry I have to real people, on the ground…not because tis unscriptural, but because it does not meet some am-made criteria they dreamed up. I always prided myself on being a preterist because preterists followed scripture. The past couple years of novel theories, strange books, and radical departures, as well as the condemnation of others with no scriptural backing, has made me question that tag line considerably.
But in the end, it is not because of anyone else that I can no longer be a preterist, it is because when I look at my character as a preterist, I am ashamed. Preterism has turned me from a loving, caring pastor of real churches just a few years ago, into a guy who defends imaginary internet theological territory with blood. We often defend the fiercest the theory we doubt he most.
There are so many great Christians in preterism, like Dave Green, Dorothy, Alan Bondar, Wanda Short, Larry Siegle etc., but I am not a good Christian as a preterist. Preterist theology cut me free from real fellowship, from real oversight, from real accountability. When everything is past, anything goes for the future.
Am I marching off to become an anti-preterist crusader? Absolutely not. I am marching off to be a minister to those in need and to stop quibbling over time texts in the New Testament. I am returning to the confessional church for my spiritual health and well-being, not to condemn others for their choices. In the end preterism rings as untrue for me because I cannot reconcile key scriptural concepts with preterism any longer. I always had my doubts but figured I would work them out eventually. After ten years I realize those doubts are gaping and no amount of study is going to close them for me. What started my doubts were my own behavior on preterism, and the real lack of real-world application in the preterist community. What led to my imminent departure was my being unable to answer questions about preterist theology I have had for a decade. I do not view other preterists as evil, I just no longer view myself as a preterist.
I love you guys dearly, I just cannot find the real-world application of scripture in the preterist community any more (with a few exceptions, Wanda does amazing charity work, etc.).
The final analysis is that I cannot reconcile scripture with the preterist views of the resurrection, or biblical hope, and I cannot reconcile preterist practice with the community scripture calls us to be.
God bless all of you my friends.
Phil 2:16
Dr. Edward J. Hassertt, Jr.
Ed Hassertt Comes Clean
Recently, on Pret Cosmos, Ed Hassertt, has posted the following:
The only times I don’t like what I see in the mirror is when I am defending preterism, or talking with preterists. I wonder why that is?
Preterism tends to be filled with mavericks who do their own thing, walk away from any authority, and want to make their own permanent mark on the church. There is no real community, just a whole bunch of bandwagons that people are constantly jumping on and jumping off. The movement is in serious trouble. I have been a major contributor to that trouble over the years. I must ask God’s forgiveness for those I have led astray over the years.
I admit I am just as much to blame. In real life I work with disadvantaged youth, I tutor inner city families both parents and kids in their school subjects, I speak at local charities on the topic of disability, I am loved and respected. People often talk to me about how nice, caring and loving I am here in this community and other places I have lived. I am always described as a “nice guy.†But since I became involved in the online preterist community I have been sucked in by the poison of many in the environment and argue, curse, kick, scream, howl, just to try to make a few theological points. Is it really worth it.
That is why church is never meant to be an absent-focused endeavor. Most non-preterists who have an online presence are also very active in their local churches, local charities an community events. Most preterists who have an online presence have little spiritual exercise outside of that presence.
To me it seems preterism has become a convenient theology for those who want to have a “biblical†excuse to leave the oversight and authority of a local church, and want to be on their own. It also seems to be the attracting option for a lot of people with weird, crazy and novel theories about scripture that they just adapt to preterism to get their voice heard somewhere.
My focus on preterism has always been to see preterism as part of the Reformation tradition of Reformed and Lutheran theologies. The problem is I just can’t make that square peg fit into that round hole anymore. My efforts to do so make me a jerk. The harder I hammer my mind and scripture to make it fit, the worse it all became.
In the end, this week, my anger boiled over at people so willing to discuss the finer details of an imaginary resurrection theory, but critical of the actual ministry I have to real people, on the ground…not because tis unscriptural, but because it does not meet some am-made criteria they dreamed up. I always prided myself on being a preterist because preterists followed scripture. The past couple years of novel theories, strange books, and radical departures, as well as the condemnation of others with no scriptural backing, has made me question that tag line considerably.
But in the end, it is not because of anyone else that I can no longer be a preterist, it is because when I look at my character as a preterist, I am ashamed. Preterism has turned me from a loving, caring pastor of real churches just a few years ago, into a guy who defends imaginary internet theological territory with blood. We often defend the fiercest the theory we doubt he most.
There are so many great Christians in preterism, like Dave Green, Dorothy, Alan Bondar, Wanda Short, Larry Siegle etc., but I am not a good Christian as a preterist. Preterist theology cut me free from real fellowship, from real oversight, from real accountability. When everything is past, anything goes for the future.
Am I marching off to become an anti-preterist crusader? Absolutely not. I am marching off to be a minister to those in need and to stop quibbling over time texts in the New Testament. I am returning to the confessional church for my spiritual health and well-being, not to condemn others for their choices. In the end preterism rings as untrue for me because I cannot reconcile key scriptural concepts with preterism any longer. I always had my doubts but figured I would work them out eventually. After ten years I realize those doubts are gaping and no amount of study is going to close them for me. What started my doubts were my own behavior on preterism, and the real lack of real-world application in the preterist community. What led to my imminent departure was my being unable to answer questions about preterist theology I have had for a decade. I do not view other preterists as evil, I just no longer view myself as a preterist.
I love you guys dearly, I just cannot find the real-world application of scripture in the preterist community any more (with a few exceptions, Wanda does amazing charity work, etc.).
The final analysis is that I cannot reconcile scripture with the preterist views of the resurrection, or biblical hope, and I cannot reconcile preterist practice with the community scripture calls us to be.
God bless all of you my friends.
Phil 2:16
Dr. Edward J. Hassertt, Jr.
