Anyone familiar with Hank Hanegraaff and the Bible Answer Man radio program is also familiar with Hanegraaff’s dry and even sanctimonious voice that usually remains stable and clam; except when he is provoked into launching a defense of Preterism. On such occasions, the contortions he must go through in wresting the scriptures and bending hermeneutics to give the appearance of a straight line of reasoning gives the listener the impression he is actually in a wrestling match on his side of the microphone. It’s a match he inevitably losses every time, but of course the host of the program never calls it that way.
Fortunately, there are other forums where officiating is more objective.
In “Cracking ‘The Code’ of Preterism: a Review of Hank Hanegraaff’s ‘The Apocalypse Code’ and a Refutation of Preterism” by Ryan Habbena, the tortured exegesis of Hanegraaff, along with the contorted eschatology of Preterism, are given a sound rebuttal. Although the treatment must be cogent, as Habbena’s essay demonstrates, the fact that Preterism is is vulnerable from many points of attack only makes the task of assailing it more difficult from a selective standpoint. Apporaching it is like standing in line at an ice cream counter looking through the display case hoping to narrow your choice before being called on to order.
For instance, the subtitle of Hanegraaff’s book is “Find Out What The Bible Really Says About The End Times And Why It Matters Today,” but if Preterism were true: it wouldn’t matter today. That’s really the test for any eschatology; if there are no end time events, there is no end time study because there is no end times. Habbena points out nearly as much in his essay. In the two practical concerns Habbena voices over the theory of Presterism, where nearly everything connected to end time prophecy is supposed to have happened in A.D. 70, he finds: “It minimizes out future hope and removes a prime source of motivation for godly living.”
It could be added that, thirdly, Preterism entirely removes Israel and the Jew from eschatology; thus removing eschatology from the Bible. The twofold problems derived from this error are applying to the Church what is exclusively Israel’s (which misconstrues what the Church is, and is to do), and portraying the Jews as irrevocably castoff by God leaves them meet for scorn and disdain. For a clear example of the ensuing apostasy where Preterism is practiced, see the Roman Catholic Church. They claim that the promises and blessings regarding Israel have been conferred upon them, they imitate the Levitical priesthood and the mediatorial power of the High Priests, and they have been both complacent and complicit in infamous anti-Semitic atrocities.
Habbena’s essay can be found in Critical Issues Commentary, May/June 2007, at www.cicministry.org.
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August 1st, 2007 at 5:56 pm
Catholics have been MORE than complacent and complicit. They have authored some of the most significant pogroms against Jews in history.
http://www.sullivan-county.com/news/mine/timeline.htm
August 1st, 2007 at 8:13 pm
VcdeChagn,
You are absolutely right about the RRC’s authorship of pogroms, and furthermore the Spanish expulsion of 1492, and their active role in planning and participating with the Nazis in the killing fields of Croatia and elsewhere during WWII, to name a few of their atrocities. My omission of RCC authorship was in part due to the brevity and subject of this News item, but it was nonetheless an oversight and I am grateful for you calling it to my attention (and thank you for the link).
For more on this subject:
The Spanish Expulsion
The Jewish Ghetto