It's hard to know how influential this mythology is.

Most Dominionists would recoil from this.

I have known lay people who believed it.  One member of a church that I once pastored in Texas told me that he found their literature on a table at a Christian Coalition conference and thought it was widely accepted.

by Mainstream Baptist on Fri May 26, 2006 at 12:49:41 PM EST

I go into this in some detail in my article Dominionism and Racism and Justice Sunday III, as well as my article on dominion theology in pente churches, actually.

If anything, "Christian Identity" may have originally started as a split from the pente flavours of dominion theology itself.  Some of the very earliest promoters of what would become known as dominion theology later--and which also formed the basis of "Name it and Claim it"--were racists; William Branham, known as the father of "name it and claim it", was a known Klansman and also promoted a specific idea known as the "Serpent Seed"--the idea that the actual fall of mankind was due to Eve having sexual intercourse with the Serpent, with Cain being the result of that particular mating.  (Christian Identity churches have really run with this, claiming that essentially all non-white people--and especially blacks and Jews--are descended from the "serpent seed".)

The links actually go back even further.  Pentecostalism and the Holiness Movement--and, more disturbingly, Christian Identity--are in large part descended from a movement called "British Israelism"--the idea that the people of Britain, and white people in general, are in fact the ten lost tribes of Israel.   An article discussing an early Assemblies-linked radio-preacher and proto-dominionist, Aimee Semple McPherson, discusses British Israelism in regards to the history of pentecostalism in general and the more dominionist sects (like the Assemblies and Foursquare) in particular:

This Mercaba symbol of the ox, man, lion and eagle are the same symbols used for British Israel, George Jeffrey's Elim Movement, and Aimee Semple Mcpherson's Foursquare.

"...British-Israelism is a religious doctrine first elaborated in 19th century England as a justification for British colonialism. It claimed that the English Anglo-Saxons were one of the so-called "ten lost tribes of Israel," and that the British monarch was the direct descendant of "the throne of King David." In short, the British were "God's Chosen People." The British-Israel movement spread to Canada and the US at the turn of the century.... The Canadian British-Israel Association (CBIA), through its Internet website, sells a wide variety of white racist and anti-Jewish religious propaganda. At least 40 of its books are by Howard Rand and Destiny Publishers. Rand was the major figure in establishing British-Israelism in the United States in the 1920s and 1930s..."

British Israelism spawned the Christian Identity movement, which was incorporated in Los Angeles in 1948. Spawned from it are the Posse Comitatus, Aryan Nations, The Christian Patriot branch, The Committee of the States, the Unorganized Militia and other white supremacy swill.

"...Wesley Swift's Church of Jesus Christ Christian was initially a racist sect which became Christian Identity. The central belief in Identity doctrine is the existence of two races on earth: a godly white race descended from Adam and a satanic race fathered by Satan. Swift, a Klan leader and preacher at Amy Semple McPherson's Foursquare Church in Los Angles, was never able to make much of a success out of his doctrine, but it attracted several people who became central to what was later named "Christian Identity": San Jacinto Capt, William Potter Gale and Richard Girnt Butler."

"Capt was a California Klan leader and a believer in British Israelism, a doctrine which holds that the Israelites of the Bible are not the Jews, but rather Aryan/Anglo-Saxons. Gale was a stock-broker and former Army officer who briefly served on Gen. MacArthur's staff in the Philippines. Gale in turn recruited Butler to Swift's church during the 1950's. In 1970, Swift died, triggering a dispute between Gale and Butler. Ultimately, Butler assumed control and moved the church to Idaho, where he renamed it Aryan Nations - Church of Jesus Christ Christian." 69.

Along with Charles Parham, William Branham, reportedly also KKK, taught the "two seed" theory.

    * "Now remember, Satan's son was Cain..."
    * "Now remember that Eve got pregnant by Satan, and in the same day..." 70.

The "two seed" theory can be found in a number of variations, however it, "...is the central tenet of Identity doctrine and the basic justification for Christian Patriots' racism and anti-Semitism. The essence of the "two seed" theory is that there are two races on earth: one godly and one satanic."

"According to the racist and anti-Semitic "two seed" theory, the white "Adamic" peoples descended from the union of Adam and Eve. But there was also another race beginning with Cain whose father was not Adam, but Satan -- who mated with Eve in the guise of a serpent. The descendants of Cain became known as the Jews. The Adamic peoples became the Aryans or Anglo-Saxons. The Pre-Adamic (non-white) races were not human at all, but descendants of the "beasts of the fields" described in Genesis, without souls and no more than cattle in the eyes of their Aryan betters. All three races could interbreed, but the non-Adamic blood acted like a poison to exterminate the Aryan race. In the eyes of white supremacists, race-mixing became a Satanic plot to exterminate God's chosen people, the white race."

"By the "two seed" theory, Jesus was not a Jew, but an Aryan. The Adamic (Aryan) people were the lost tribes of Israel, fled to northern Europe and later became the Christian nations. There are many corollaries to the "two seed" theory which provide justification for racists to claim God's favor..."71

Charles Fox Parham (who, interestingly, has been the subject of quite a bit of revisionist press in the dominionist community) is often regarded as the father of pentecostalism in general, and was influential in the Assemblies in particular; Branham, as noted above, essentially invented "name it and claim it" and laid the initial basis for dominion theology.  Parham was also a particularly vicious racist; he condemned the Azusa Street Revival as a "darky" tent-meeting, among other things (although the theology he and Azusa preached were almost identical) and was also reportedly a Klan member (in fact, his Klan membership and his membership in the Freemasons are the two most common bits of his history in which "historical revisionism" occurs in dominionist circles).

In dominion theology circles, the "serpent seed" theory is used mostly to promote an odd form of predestination in that people who reject dominionism are seen as literal descendents of the devil.  (This is expressed more frankly in "spiritual warfare" movements, in which everyone outside the group is seen as Satanic.)

In the case of racist groups like Christian Identity, they've used the "Serpent Seed" theology to base their own racist beliefs on.

Also, the idea in "Christian Zionist" circles in dominionism--taken to its biggest extremes in "Third Wave" pentecostalism--that both the Jews and the dominionists are "God's chosen people" ultimately has its roots in British Israelism, though the roots are far back enough that most people don't realise that's where the concept of "two chosen peoples" comes from.  

So the actual family tree goes something like this:

British Israelism -> Holiness Movement -> Pentecostalism

Pentecostalism -> dominion theology and related movements ("Name it and claim it", "deliverance ministry", "spiritual warfare" movements)

Pentecostalism + known racists in movement (Klan, etc.) -> early Christian Identity movement

"Fundamentalist Baptist" groups -> Christian Reconstructionism (along similar evolutionary lines of dominion theology within pente groups)

Christian Reconstructionism + dominion theology (and in particular "spiritual warfare" theology) -> modern "Christian Nationalist" movement (actually two movements with fair amount of cross-fertilisation)

Early Christian Identity + crossfertilisation from "dominion theology" movement and especially Christian Reconstructionism -> modern Christian Identity (per Wikipedia article on dominion theology, this is explicitly acknowledged by Identity promoters)

It also is of note that proto-dominionist groups in the 1910's through 1940's were often not only racist but frankly anti-Semitic to boot.  This did specifically include people within the pente movement of the time, as well as "fundamentalist Baptist" groups springing up.  There always were a lot of racists in the movement; some just split to an explicitly racist theology later.

by dogemperor on Fri May 26, 2006 at 02:17:50 PM EST

Reverend Prescott,

Thank you for clearing that up. I was trying to figure out just where the Christian Identity movement fit into the Dominionist mainstream.

by Frank Frey on Fri May 26, 2006 at 01:19:51 PM EST

First of all, thanks to you both for the information. Knowledge is indeed power.
Anyway, thinking about the Dominionists reminded me of an encounter that I had several months ago.
I was criticizing Israeli foreign policy when I was informed by one of the Jewish people that I was talking with that I was an anti-semite. When I asked whatever gave him that idea, he told me that it was because I was critcizing Israel therefore I am anti-semitic. Needless to say I was astounded at this.
Later on another Jewish friend told me that this was typical of "Zionist BS tactics". Anyway, she gave me this url;
www.nkusa.org
Interesting site.

by Frank Frey on Fri May 26, 2006 at 03:23:08 PM EST

Thank you for this very informative post.

by Tenoch on Sat May 27, 2006 at 04:42:02 PM EST

I have a question that may seem a little shortsighted, so please forgive me.  If God created non-whites and then created whites, what color is God?

by optimistic on Sat May 27, 2006 at 10:22:08 PM EST