Christian Issues

----------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 1993 by the Christian Research Institute.
----------------------------------------------------------------
COPYRIGHT/REPRODUCTION LIMITATIONS:
This data file is the sole property of the Christian Research
Institute. It may not be altered or edited in any way. It may
be reproduced only in its entirety for circulation as "freeware,"
without charge. All reproductions of this data file must contain
the copyright notice (i.e., "Copyright 1993 by the Christian
Research Institute"). This data file may not be used without the
permission of the Christian Research Institute for resale or the
enhancement of any other product sold. This includes all of its
content with the exception of a few brief quotations not to
exceed more than 500 words.

If you desire to reproduce less than 500 words of this data file
for resale or the enhancement of any other product for resale,
please give the following source credit: Copyright 1993 by the
Christian Research Institute, P.O. Box 500, San Juan Capistrano,
CA 92693.
-----------------------------------------------------------------

"Identity: A 'Christian' Religion for White Racists" (an article
from the Christian Research Journal, Fall 1992, page 20) by Viola
Larson.
The Editor-in-Chief of the Christian Research Journal is
Elliot Miller.
-------------

Summary

"Christian Identity" is the name of a religious movement
uniting many of the white supremacist groups in the United States.
Identity's teachers promote racism and sometimes violence. Their
roots are deeply embedded in movements such as the Ku Klux Klan
and the Nazis. They consider themselves true Israel and view the
Jews as half-devils and arch enemies. They believe all but the
white race are inferior creations. Identity's religious views are
bizarre and occultic, and their view of history is often informed
by conspiracy theories. Identity's use of the name "Christian" to
promote racism and violence is blasphemous. Jesus Christ as
redeemer of all races is God's supreme answer to Identity's
outrageous claims.
-------------

The headline read "Separatist Surrenders in Idaho." The
story was about Randy Weaver, a man indicted for selling two
sawed-off shotguns to undercover federal agents. During the
FBI's attempt to force Weaver to leave his Idaho home and
return to court, three people were killed: a federal agent and
Weaver's wife and son. When the standoff was over, 15 handguns,
shotguns, and rifles were collected from his cabin.[1] Randy
Weaver is a member of a religious movement called "Christian
Identity." This "Christian" wing of the larger white
supremacist movement is composed of adherents who variously
give allegiance to the burning cross of the Ku Klux Klan and
the sun sign -- the twisted swastika -- of the Neo-Nazis.

The movement, also called "Israel Identity," has become the
uniting force among many white supremacist groups. Included in
most religious teaching produced by its leaders are racist
statements that echo the statements of other white
supremacists. The most moderate groups publish hate
literature; the more radical groups turn to violence, including
murder. Among those attracted to Identity in recent years are
racist and violent young "skinheads" -- some of whom were a
part of the crowd of three hundred people who chanted racial
slurs at federal marshals attempting to capture Weaver.

Although Identity groups are small in number and diverse,
their penchant for social agitation attracts widespread media
attention. The recent discovery that racist groups in the
United States are supplying both literature and organizational
help to racist groups in Germany is of concern to the whole
Western world. One article by the Associated Press states that
"violent acts perpetrated by far-right German extremists rose
from 270 in 1990 to 1,483 last year, mostly attacks on
foreigners."[2] The article goes on to say that "police
investigating KKK activities in Germany raided some 30
buildings in May."[3]

Not understanding the violent and racist nature of
Identity, Christians sometimes connect with this movement
because of Identity's espousal of issues such as right-to-life
and anti-Communism. Because of this vulnerability it is
important for Christians to know and understand Identity's
false and racist teachings. For the sake of non-Christians, it
is also important for Christians to differentiate between
biblical Christianity and Identity. Finally, it is the moral
duty of Christians to stand against the evil intent of this
form of white supremacist teaching. It is to further each of
these three purposes that this article has been written.

THE JEW AS THE GREAT ENEMY

Identity adherents believe they are the only descendants of
Adam and the only chosen descendants of Abraham. This is the
reason for the name Identity -- they are convinced they know
their true identity. They believe they are members of the
supposed ten lost tribes of Israel. Identity adherents of today
would include the British, Germanic, and Scandinavian peoples
as those comprising the tribes of lost Israel. On the other
hand, the Jew has for them become the great enemy. This
insistence on singling out Jewish people as the enemy of the
white race is the Identity movement's most clear link to Adolf
Hitler and his Nazi ideas. The more extreme groups believe in
what is referred to as the "serpent seed" teaching that Eve and
Satan had sexual intercourse and produced Cain, starting a line
of half-devil people. For many Identity groups this imagined
half-devil line of Cain is the Jewish race.

Pastor Arnold Murray, an Identity preacher from Gravette,
Arkansas, calls them "Kenites" (an Old Testament people he
identifies as "Cainites") and believes they were associated
with Judah until they took over leadership of that tribe. These
"Jews" were the people who killed Christ. Pastor Murray teaches
that calling the Jews the chosen people of God is the gravest
of sins. He says, "Bless your heart if you have ever been
deceived by the Kenite, and I am speaking now on the spiritual
level, if you have ever really believed that group was the
chosen of God you were deceived by Satan. Repent of that even
more so than your personal sins in the personal sense."[4]

Some other Identity teachers believe the Jews are children
of Satan only in a figurative sense. But this really does not
change their attitude toward Jewish people -- their statements
about the Jews still reflect a deep hatred. One writes about
the Jew: "We know that as a race, they have the sly
characteristics of the serpent...We know they have intimidated
and imposed their will on our own government and every
government in the nations of Christendom, through their
dominance of finance, government, church, education, and the
media."[5]

In this scenario, a political position begins to emerge: the
Jews are placed in a position of conspirators with Satan to take
dominion over the world. In an awful reversal of their biblical
role, the true Jewish people are now cast as the archenemy of God
and humanity. Claiming the sacred history and the sacred Book for
themselves, Identity teachers remove all that is a part of the
Jew's humanity.

RACISM: THE BASIS OF IDENTITY TEACHING

Racial bigotry extends far beyond the Jews in Identity
teaching. Since the white race alone has descended from Adam,
the other races are viewed as a _prior_ creation. They insist
that Genesis 1:24, which describes the creation of animals and
is prior to the creation of Adam, includes a description of all
nonwhite races. In that list of created beings -- "cattle and
creeping things and beasts of the earth" -- they single out the
word _beast_ as a description of other races. This of course
means they believe the other races are inferior. All Identity
teachers refer to the word _beast_ to explain how other races
escaped the flood; they were included among the creatures that
Noah and his sons rounded up for the ark.

Because Identity teachers hold that the other races are of a
different creation, they consider interracial marriage a sin.
Identity teachers insist that interracial marriage was the
cause of God's judgment on the people of Noah's time.
Consistent with this twisted view of Scripture, they believe
that to marry someone of another race is treason to one's own
race. Pastor Pete Peters of La Porte, Colorado informs us that
he teaches his children to never marry a person of another
race. He adds: "I teach them also that if they ever did such a
thing -- never to come around my house with their mate or their
half-breed children because they've been traitors to their own
sires."[6]

Some teachers -- such as Richard Butler and his Aryan
Nations, and Dan Gayman and his Church of Israel -- see the
black race as aliens and cohorts with Satan, and all other
races as creatures who, like animals, have no spirits. In the
fantasy world of extreme Identity, when Lucifer rebels he uses
spacecraft and fights battles against God with the help of
beings from other planets. The alien beings are forced to earth
according to one tape: "For the fleet...came to earth like
crumpled birds and...some survived and...some were wiped
out....the dark and curly-headed ones never before seen upon
the earth, the coming of the Negroid race."[7]

Although Arnold Murray affirms that all the other races are
good, he offers the public, without apology, the book _Tracing
Our Ancestors_ by Frederick Haberman. Haberman writes: "It must
be noticed that there is a great difference between the three
principal races of mankind...and there exists little
relationship between the three. The white race were
unquestionably the last comers, being in every way superior to
the other two and constituting their leaders and teachers."[8]
Pastor Murray also teaches that even among Christians the
different races should have no fellowship.[9] All Identity
groups certainly see the white race ruling over the other
races.

IDENTITY'S RACIST HISTORY

*Racism as Science and History.* Many of Identity's racist
ideas can be traced to the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
Esoteric sounding theories, propagated by intellectuals and
college professors of the day, were used to prove the
inferiority of some races. These theories have been disproved
by modern scholarship but are kept alive by the racist of
today. One of the terms common to such theories was
_physiognomy,_ an ancient method for determining human
character by the study of facial features. This included
comparing those features to animal ones.[10] Also, many
historians of the time were highly nationalistic and,
therefore, prone to write with a high regard for the white
race.

*Religious Racism.* Another form of racism developed along
religious and nationalistic lines. The growing concern of the
peoples in the West (including the United States) with their
own national interest led to some strange ideas about national
identity. In the United States a theory called "Manifest
Destiny" evolved. That view included the understanding that it
was the nation's God-given destiny to expand from the east
coast to the west coast, and perhaps even to the southern end
of Mexico. In England another movement began that would later
blend well with the Manifest Destiny ideas held by some in the
United States. This religious movement was nationalistic,
assigning religious worth more to race than to righteousness.

The movement, Anglo-Israelism, began in 1870. It was founded
by the Rev. John Wilson, a nonconformist minister who expounded
the idea that the Anglo-Saxons were the supposed ten lost
tribes of Israel. Believing the nations of western Europe and
the United States to be God's chosen people, they expected them
to receive all the promises God gave to Israel in the Old
Testament.

Mr. Edward Hine brought the Anglo-Israelism movement to the
United States in 1870, the same year the movement began in
England. His efforts were mostly unfruitful, but his book,
_Identification of the British Nation with Lost Israel,_ is
still used by adherents of Identity in the United States.
Hine's book was first among a spate of Anglo-Israel literature
published in the U. S. -- including a periodical published by
Yale Professor Charles A. L. Totten called, _Our Race, Its
Origins and Its Destiny._[11] Today, with few exceptions (the
Worldwide Church of God being one), most adherents of
Anglo-Israelism are in the Identity movement.

*The Turn toward Violence.* Extreme racism entered
Anglo-Israelism because some of its most prominent adherents
were also connected to the Ku Klux Klan, and the Klan in turn
had become interested in the Nazis. The KKK was born, without
overt racist intentions, in 1867. Thomas F. Gossett, author of
_Race: The History of an Idea in America,_ notes that "the Klan
originated as a lark among young men in southern Tennessee who
-- so the story goes -- chose this method of visiting their
sweethearts attired in their version of the costume of Knights
of old and discovered accidentally that they were terrifying
the Negroes."12 The Klan grew in its attempt to control black
people during the Reconstruction period. The methods included
"assassination, whipping, tarring and feathering."[13] The Klan
during the 1920s added the Jew and Catholic to their list of
enemies in an attempt to attract more members. By 1923
membership had reached between three and six million people.
Decline came with the depression of the 1930s and also with the
Ku Klux Klan's overtures to the American arm of the Nazi party
before the Second World War.[14]

The merging of Klan and Nazi extremism into the
Anglo-Israelism movement -- which then produced the Identity
movement -- can largely be traced to one man: Wesley Swift.
However, it was not Swift but Howard B. Rand (whose writings
are published by Destiny Publishers) who first coined the term
_Identity._ According to James Coates, Rand's intention was "to
describe Hine's concept of Anglo-Israelism, in which Jesus was
not a Jew of the tribe of Judah but an Aryan of the ten lost
tribes of Israel and an ancestor of the present British,
Germanic and Scandinavian people."[15]

Wesley Swift was a prolific speaker and his tapes and
written messages are frequently used by Identity speakers. His
connections to the Nazism of Hitler's Germany are
unquestionable. Swift was at one time both a friend and
advance man for Gerald L. K. Smith, a racist whose radical
career began when he joined the "Silver Shirts," an American
Nazi group formed by Willam Pelley. James Ridgeway, author of
_Blood in the Face_ (a "who's-who of hate"), notes that "with
Pelley as their 'Chief,' the Silver Shirts openly supported
Hitler, cooperated with the pro-Nazi German-American Bund, and
embarked on a program of vicious anti-Semitism."[16]

Swift was also a member of the Ku Klux Klan when he founded
the Identity Church of Jesus Christ Christian in 1946. Richard
Butler, who was led into the Identity movement by Wesley Swift,
inherited Swift's church and founded an Identity compound
called the Aryan Nations, located near Hayden Lake, Idaho.
Butler is an advocate of Nazism, and his yearly Aryan Nations
meetings attract Klan members, Nazi groups, and skinheads.

Some Identity teachers, although racist, reject Nazism in
name, attributing its cause to the Jews. This trend has started
a new controversy within the ranks of Identity. The Identity
groups who reject Nazism also do so because they are perceptive
enough to recognize Nazism's ingrained hatred of true
Christianity.

IDENTITY'S SPIRITUAL HISTORY

The list of spiritual influences touching Identity resembles
a religious vanity fair. The Neo-Nazi movement embraces the
zodiac of astrology as easily as it does the teaching of the
quietest mystic Madame Guyon. Its teachers write against the
New Age movement while embracing occultist Edgar Cayce. They
also welcome the deliverance ministries (those ministries that
specialize in the controversial practice of casting demons out
of Christians) while embracing the world of the occult.

*Occult Influence.* Some of the groups that reject Nazism
seem to feature less occult teaching within their published
material. However, except for racist literature, occult
teachings have probably had the greatest influence on most
Identity groups and individuals. This may have partly developed
from prewar occultic German groups that were also anti-Semitic.
German cults such as the Alder and Falken and the Geusen
worshiped the sun. And one influence on Hitler was a group
whose emphasis on German nationality was connected to their
interest in the Druids -- an ancient pagan people many Identity
groups also embrace.[17]

Wesley Swift used occult legends as "truths" in his sermons.
His bizarre teachings included stories about Atlantis and
Lemuria, fictional civilizations included in most occult
philosophy. Identity teachers of today such as Pastor Arnold
Murray maintain that the great Pyramid was built by the
Israelites and is a second revelation of God. The idea that the
measurements of the pyramid are encoded with a revealed message
is occultic, since the message is both supernaturally given and
esoteric, known only by those initiated into that knowledge.
Identity also embraces astrology and occultic tales of Jesus
visiting Britain.

*Other Streams of Religious Influence.* Because many
Identity adherents are people with a history of looking for
"new truths," they often come to Identity from other religious
movements, bringing some of their unique doctrines with them.
Thus the teachings of several smaller religious groups have
been added to the racist teachings of Identity. These include
the Sacred Name movement (using only _Yahweh_ for God and
_Yehoshua_ or some equivalent for Jesus); Jesus Only teaching
(the belief that there are not three persons in the Godhead,
only three offices); and the fringe teachings of the "manifest
sons of God" (the expectation that an elite group of the church
will deliver creation, overcome death, and help God bring in
the kingdom). A few people came out of the restoration and
charismatic movements and added their unique doctrines to
Identity. The restoration movement teaches that God is
restoring lost doctrines to the church. Utilizing this
framework, the Identity teachers include Identity as one of the
lost doctrines. (It is important to point out that although
Identity teachers variously link Identity to the above
movements and teachings, properly speaking these movements have
nothing to do with Identity.)

THE BONDING LINK OF CONSPIRACY

The Identity stand against the Jews as a people without
value who are enemies of the white race aligns the movement
with other groups that feed constantly on conspiracy theories,
including ones that are Nazi without teaching Anglo-Israelism.
This taste for anti-Semitism is most responsible for the
intermingling of Identity, Neo-Nazi, and other racist groups.
Different groups will often use the same speakers at their
various churches and survivalist camps. And individual members
of different groups will order the same books from racist
publishers.

For instance, many Identity groups offer books by E. Raymond
Capt and also use him as a speaker, since his specialty is
supposedly archaeology and history. Capt's writing includes
such books as _Stonehenge and Druidism_ and _The Traditions of
Glastonbury: The Silent Years of Jesus between 12 and 30._
Another speaker used by most groups is Lt. Col. Jack Mohr,
whose specialty is anti-Communism. Mohr offers such tapes as
"Background to Betrayal: How America Has Been Betrayed by
Zionists Both Jewish and Christian." Many racist groups,
including Identity groups, sell or refer to the book,
_Protocols of the Elders of Zion._ This fraudulent book is
supposedly a document of conspiracy by Jewish leaders to take
over the world.

Most conspiracy theories have developed from a particular
fear -- and the need to master that fear, by identifying a
cause and then supposedly gaining control of the situation. For
instance, the cause of the Black Plague in the Middle Ages was
attributed to the Jew. The solution espoused was to kill or
remove the Jews. Then the plague would supposedly end. The
disastrous condition of Germany after the First World War was
attributed to the Jew by some fearful Germans. Eventually their
evil solution brought about the Holocaust. And while the John
Birch Society changed most of the leading players in their
conspiracy theory to what they call the "insiders" rather than
Jews, many others still see the Jew as the monster controlling
world events. For these anti-Semites the Jew is often referred
to as the "International Banker."

All of these groups together, both Identity and non-Identity
white supremacist, hold a dangerous sociopolitical view. Their
mutual solution to this supposed "Jewish control" is a race
war. This war is considered by many Identity teachers to be
the last great battle, Armageddon.

According to these teachers, at the head of this conspiracy
that leads to the final battle is ZOG: Zionist Occupation
Government. Zionist Occupation Government simply means to
Identity adherents that the Jewish conspiracy has taken over
the government of the United States. Since they also believe
that Jewish leaders are using other races to destroy the white
race, the final battle pits the white race against virtually
all others. And, because they constantly feed on conspiracy
theories that involve those whose beliefs or politics oppose
their own, Identity's political and religious opposites are
also considered their enemies. Furthermore, they do not have
to love their enemies because they consider most of them
subhuman.

THE PARASITIC EXISTENCE OF IDENTITY

The farm crisis is an important source for Identity
propaganda. Using such tapes as "A Biblical Look at the Farm
Problem," they prey on farmers who are losing their farms.[18]
Some Identity teachers are suggesting that ZOG or the Jews are
behind the loss of the farms. They have managed to pull a few
farmers into the movement through these tactics. This kind of
parasitic existence is typical of Identity extremism. They
appeal to other conservatives concerning such issues as AIDS,
abortion, and prison reform. _This is where some Christians
have been pulled into the circle of Identity._

Many Christians find they are facing a bewildering morass of
social problems. For some this has led to a deeper understanding
of God's sovereignty, and a greater dependence on His grace and
mercy to sinners. For others there is the enticing reach for
the quick answer. And this has meant a return to philosophies
that are _void_ of grace. At this point it is possible for the
bits and pieces of Identity to seep in. Christians who are far
from Identity's blatant racism nonetheless allow Identity's
attitudes and world view -- including conspiracy theories -- to
touch the core of their faith. Turning to ideas, news sources,
and leaders who lack an understanding of the true gospel, these
Christians accept into their beliefs and their publications
concepts that are not biblical.

GOD'S ANSWER TO RACISM

The psalmist wrote, "Thy word I have treasured in my heart,
that I may not sin against thee" (Ps. 119:11). A lack of
biblical teaching in differing ages has often opened the door
for both heresy and sin within the Christian community.

In the Nazi era a great deal of Old Testament Scripture had
already been rejected by many liberal scholars, mainly in
Germany. Unlike the Identity movement of today, which accepts
all of the Bible as inspired, the Nazis who considered
themselves "Christian" were able to divorce the Jewish
foundation of Christianity by simply disconnecting Christianity
from both the Old Testament and Paul. Most of the "German
Christians" -- those loyal to Hitler -- based their religious
views on a kind of nationalistic nonsectarian ethic.

Franklin Littell, Professor of Religion at Temple
University, points out that this German understanding of
Christianity was not unlike John Birch Society founder Robert
Welch's "ecstatic affirmation of non-sectarian religion," found
in Welch's _The Blue Book._ Littell writes: "The 'German
Christians' were at least logical enough to press the religion
of the ethnic base, infused with spirituality, to its logical
conclusion: antisemitism."[19] The point is: without a biblical
basis, without Jesus Christ as Lord, any religion, even one
named Christian -- _especially_ one named Christian, can
produce gross evil.

Although the religious teachers of "Christian Identity" do
not reject the Old Testament or Paul, they distort and twist
Scripture until little is left of God's revelation of good
news. The Identity teachers' conclusion that the British,
Scandinavian, and Germanic peoples are the lost tribes of
Israel is a case in point. _None of the tribes of Israel have
been lost._ While many of the northern tribes of Israel --
carried into exile by Assyria -- intermarried with the peoples
they lived among, there is no biblical reference that would
encourage this teaching of lost tribes.

Christ's statement that He "was sent only to the lost sheep
of the house of Israel" (Matt. 15:24) is not a reference to
tribes that had physically disappeared, but to a people who
were lost _in sin._ Earlier in the text Jesus had sent His
twelve disciples "to the lost sheep of the house of Israel"
(Matt. 10:6), and the disciples did not need to search for the
people they were sent to help. After the captivity of the
Northern Kingdom of Israel and the Babylonian captivity of the
Southern Kingdom of Judah, all twelve tribes -- whether living
outside of the homeland or within the homeland -- were referred
to as _both_ Jews _and_ Israel. Both the Book of Ezra and the
Book of Nehemiah, books about the return of God's people to
Jerusalem after their captivity, use the two terms, _Jews_ and
_Israel,_ to refer to the same people (e.g., Ezra 2:26; 4:12;
Neh. 1:6; 4:1-2).

Paul refers to himself as both a Jew and an Israelite.
Writing of God's enduring of the "vessels of wrath" for the
sake of those He would show mercy to, he notes: "And He did so
in order that He might make known the riches of His glory upon
the vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory,
even us, whom He also called, not from among Jews only, but
also from among Gentiles" (Rom. 9:23-24). In the same chapter
he writes: "For I could wish that I myself were accursed,
separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen
according to the flesh, who are Israelites" (Rom. 9:3-4). Luke
in the second chapter of Acts records the fact that Jerusalem
was filled at Pentecost with Jews from many lands, and when
Peter addresses them he refers to them as "men of Israel."
Jesus explained to the Samaritan woman that "we worship that
which we know, for salvation is from the Jews" (John 4:22), not
only calling Himself a Jew but pointing her toward the Jewish
people, whom God had chosen to bless the world through the
promised Messiah.[20]

Once the error of Anglo-Israelism is exposed it leaves the
Identity believer in a very damning position -- Identity
adherents are not the chosen people, rather they are the ones
_attacking_ the chosen people, the Jews. And they are also the
ones ranting against the true church of Christ. They are, in
fact, attacking God, for their attempt to relegate other races
to an earlier and inferior creation is an attack on the love of
God, as well as the image of God in all humanity. It is the
image of God in humans that sets them apart from all other
creatures and prepares the way for Christ to take unto Himself
human flesh and redeem people of all races. The biblical themes
of redemption, the Incarnation, and the unity of humanity
("every nation and race") are constantly blended together in
Scripture.

When Paul preached to the Athenians on Mars Hill he appealed
to their common humanity as creations of the true God when he
stated: "And He made from one, every nation of mankind to live
on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed
times, and the boundaries of their habitation, that they should
seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him,
though He is not far from each one of us" (Acts 17:26-27).
Genesis 10:1-32 names most of the nations that developed from
the three sons of Noah. Derek Kidner, author of _Genesis_ in
the Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries, writes: "Not every
nation known to the Old Testament is enrolled here, but enough
are present to make the point that mankind is one, for all its
diversity, under the one creator. Possibly the seventy names
(Lxx 72) influenced our Lord's choice of this apparently
symbolic number of emissaries in Luke 10:1."[21]

Jesus Christ is God's answer to racism. Paul admonishes the
Galatians that they are to make no distinctions among those
belonging to Christ; they are to be _as one:_ "For all of you
who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with
Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave
nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all
one in Christ Jesus" (Gal. 3:27-28). In the Book of Revelation,
where Christ is pictured as both "the Lion that is from the
tribe of Judah" _and_ "a Lamb standing, as if slain," the 24
Elders sing to His glory: "For Thou wast slain, and didst
purchase for God with Thy blood men from _every tribe and
tongue and people and nation._ And thou hast made them to be a
kingdom and priests to our God; and they will reign upon the
earth" (Rev. 5:9-10).

The church, those redeemed not by race but by the blood of
Christ the Lamb, understand Christ as both lion and lamb, both
sacrifice and King. Wilhelm Niemoller, one of the members of
the Confessing Church in Germany during the time of Hitler,
wrote of what it meant to confess Christ as the only Lord under
that regime: "One of my friends concluded a sermon of his in
1934 or 1935 by saying: 'O Lord, Thou alone art our hope, apart
from Thee, I know none!' He was arrested, put on trial, and
later released. The enemies that listened to him had noticed
that the Third Reich was put in a difficult position wherever
the 'One Word of God' made its appearance."[22]

The Neo-Nazi groups and those who feed on their hate
literature are simply a part of the rising paganism in America.
They are also an extreme example of groups who like to use
Christian terminology while laying foundations on extrabiblical
revelation. The need for present security, elitism, power, and
a revelation not anchored in Christ and the Word of God is the
mark of anti-Christian religion.

The believer's only haven is Christ. This means there is no
present worldly security -- the believer is not an elite person.
Instead, members of Christ's church are often the ones hated and
despised by the nations. The only power given is that which
_Christ_ gives, so that His followers may be able to faithfully
love, serve, and suffer in this present world. Finally, the
believer finds racial pride to be sin, because the only
exaltation a Christian knows is God's unmerited grace, freely
offered to _all_ in Jesus Christ.

-------------
Previously the director of Apologetics Resource Center,
Sacramento, California, *Viola Larson* is a graduate student in
history at California State University, Sacramento.
-------------

NOTES

1 John E. Yang, "Separatist Surrenders in Idaho," _Sacramento
Bee,_ 1 September 1992, part A.
2 "U.S. Hate Groups Spread Their Venom to Germany," _Sacramento
Bee,_ 14 August 1992, part A.
3 _Ibid._
4 Arnold Murray, _Grace: Baptism_ (cassette #406) (Gravette, AR:
Shepherd's Chapel, n.d.).
5 Jack Mohr, "Seed of Satan: Literal or Figurative?" (Louis, MI:
n.p., n.d.) 26.
6 Pete Peters, _Inter-Racial Marriage,_ part l (cassette 170) (La
Porte, CO: Scriptures for America, n.d.).
7 Wesley Swift, _Dwellers in the Deep_ (cassette 350)
(Waynesville, NC: New Beginnings, 1964).
8 Federick Haberman, _Tracing Our Ancestors_ (n.p., n.d.), 10.
Reference is made within the book to Hitler in Germany, dating
the book sometime before World War II.
9 Murray, _Grace: Baptism._
10 Thomas F. Gossett, _Race: The History of an Idea in America_
(New York: Schocken Books, 1965), 71.
11 James Coates (New York: Hill and Wang, Farrar, Straus, and
Giroux, 1987), 181; Gossett, 192.
12 Gossett, 259-60.
13 _Ibid.,_ 260.
14 Coates, 33-36.
15 _Ibid.,_ 93.
16 James Ridgeway, _Blood in the Face: The Ku Klux Klan, Aryan
Nations, Skinheads, and the Rise of a New White Culture_ (New
York: Thunder's Mouth Press, 1990), 45.
17 George L. Mosse, _The Crisis of German Ideology: Intellectual
Origins of the Third Reich_ (New York: Schocken Books, 1981),
75, 116, 277.
18 Pete Peters, _A Biblical Look at the Farm Problems_ (cassette
161) (La Porte, CO: Scriptures for America, n.d.).
19 Frank H. Littell, "Church Struggle and the Holocaust," in _The
German Church Struggle and the Holocaust,_ ed. Frank H. Littell
and Hubert G. Locke (Detroit: Wayne State University Press,
1974), 25-26.
20 One excellent reference for the subject of Anglo-Israelism is
Walter R. Martin's _The Kingdom of the Cults,_ ch. 12 (Bethany,
revised and expanded edition, 1985). Also see, J.K. Van Baalen,
_The Chaos of Cults: A Study in Present-Day Isms,_ ch. 9
(Eerdmans, 1967), and Anton Darms, _The Delusion of
British-Israelism_ (Loizeaux Brothers, Bible Truth Depot, n.d.),
written before the establishment of the State of Israel. This
latter book is written from a dispensational view.
21 Derek Kidner, _Genesis: An Introduction and Commentary,_ Old
Testament Commentaries, ed. D.J. Wisemam (Downer Grove, IL:
InterVarsity Press, 1989), 104-5.
22 Wilhelm Niemller, "The Niemller Archives," in Littell and
Locke, 55.

End of document, CR002J11.TXT (original CRI file name),
"Identity: A 'Christian' Religion for White Racists"
release 1.1, February 19, 1993
R. Poll, CRI

(A special note of thanks to Bob and Pat Hunter for their help in
the preparation of this ASCII file for BBS circulation.)
-----------------------------------------------------------------

YOURS FOR THE ASKING

The Christian Research Institute (CRI) -- founded in 1960 by the
late Dr. Walter R. Martin -- is a clearing house for current, in-
depth information on new religious movements and aberrant
Christian teachings. We provide well-reasoned, carefully-
researched answers to concepts and ideas that challenge orthodox
Christianity.

Did you know that CRI has a wealth of information on various
topics that is yours for the asking? We offer a wide variety of
articles and fact sheets free of charge. Write us today for
information on these or other topics. Our first-rate research
staff will do everything possible to help you.

Christian Research Institute
P.O. Box 500
San Juan Capistrano, CA 92693

(714) 855-9926

Download the CRI FYI database from:

ÉÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍµ CHRISTIAN BBS ABBA II ÆÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ»
º º
º Where Christians find Fellowship, Information and Resources, º
º and where non-Christians find honest, reasonable answers to º
º their questions about what (and why) Christians believe. º
º º
º ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ Providing High-Quality, Christian Files ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ º
º º
º þ Up-To-Date Christian News þ Bible Studies & Discussions º
º þ Abba II's Christian Magazine þ Ministry Newsletters º
º þ Active Message Area þ On-Line Christian Directory º
º þ Specializing in Apologetics þ Christian Events Calendar º
º º
º ³ Immediate Access - No Ratios ³ º
ÈÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍµ 619-487-7746 - up to 14,400 baud ÆÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ¼
³ 619-487-6391 - up to 2,400 baud ³

../