By: Matthew D. Dyer
(NOTE: The following article is an expansion on Appendix B in my book Anglo-Israel Messengers: A History of Those Who Have Believed And Taught That The Anglo-Saxon And Kindred People Are Israel. It will be published in the 2nd edition sometime in the future. I wrote this appendix not to not argue against what is known as the “serpent seed doctrine” theologically, rather just to share some of my research of the history of how this doctrine was introduced into Anglo-Israel groups.)
There has been a misunderstanding in recent years that those who adhere to the Anglo-Israel truth, which is the belief that the Anglo-Saxon, Celtic, Germanic, Scandinavian and kindred peoples are the true physical descendants of Israel, also universally believe in what is known as the “Serpent Seedline Doctrine.” Which is a doctrine that teaches that Eve had sexual relations with the serpent in the Garden and that the offspring of that sexual intercourse was Cain, and that Cain’s descendants live among us today as half man, half angelic beings. It is true that some that have taught the Anglo-Israel truth have adopted this doctrine, but it has been a minority rather than a majority. I do not adhere to this doctrine and has expressed his view of this doctrine in an April 14th, 2023, radio program which can be found at http://www.ChristianAmericaMinistries.org. From my research this doctrine became introduced into Anglo-Israel groups sometime in the early 1900s and became popular through the teachings of men such as Russell Kelso Carter (1849–1928) who wrote the book The Tree of Knowledge (1894). I theorize that men like Carter may have picked up this belief from the writings of Daniel Parker (1781–1844) who wasn’t an Anglo-Israel adherent but started a small denomination in the southern United States called Two-Seed-in-the-Spirit Predestinarian Baptists, and wrote a book titled View of the Two Seeds teaching a version of serpent seedline theology. This was one of the first cases of serpent seedline doctrine appearing in the United States.
No known material was produced concerning the serpent seedline after Carter’s book until 1928 when Philip E. J. Monson published a booklet titled Satan’s Seat: The Enemy of Our Race where he attempted to make a connection between Cains offspring and the Catholic Church. Monson started a Bible College in Los Angeles, California called Kingdom Bible College in the 1930s, and it is said that Wesley A. Swift (1913–1970) attend there. I have not been able to confirm this, although it is very possible since Swift was from the area. The doctrine was dormant from Carter’s writings, other than the booklet by Monson, until 1938 when Dr. John H. Dequer (1883-1945) who wrote New Light on the Plan of Ages. Dequer was an atheist, socialist, spiritualist medium, tarot cartomancer and student of the Kabbalah up until he found the Anglo-Israel truth, and then he converted to Christianity (I have written more on Dequers conversion on page 77 in my book). In 1909, Dequer participated in a public demonstration of his ability to channel spirits according to The Oregonian newspaper on January 31, 1909. It is believed that Dequer’s flavor of spiritualism was influenced by Elbert Benjamine (1882-1951) who went by the pen name C. C. Zain, who was a leader in the Church of Light, which was an occult spiritualist organization in Los Angeles, California. Before Dequer’s conversion he authored a book titled Arrows of Light from the Egyptian Tarot concerning tarot card reading, and copies of the book that were published after his conversion had a printed notice from the author/publisher advising the reader of a change in the author’s views. I am unsure why the book was still being published after his conversion, but it may have had something to do with contracts with the publisher. On page 12 of Dequer’s book he states this concerning the Kabbalah and the Bible:
“Two Keys are necessary to open the Sanctuary. They are the oral and the written law. The oral law is traditional knowledge such as the Tarot of Egypt, the Kabballa and the Bible. The written law is Astrology. Together they constitute the Claviculae Solomonis.”
The Kabbalah is a collection of esoteric Jewish mysticism lore and interpretation of the Bible that was developed between 550 A.D. to 1300 A.D. The Zohar, the foundational text of Kabbalah, was composed in the late 13th century, although some Kabbalists claim it to be a work authored in the 1st or 2nd century and teaches a version of serpent seedline doctrine. It states this concerning the seedline doctrine:
“After this, they gave birth to the first son. He was the son of THE SERPENT’S defilement, because two had intercourse with Eve, ADAM AND THE SERPENT, and she conceived from both and gave birth to two – CAIN AND ABEL. Each resembled his own father and their spirits were separated, one to the side OF IMPURITY and one to the side OF HOLINESS. Each was in the appearance of his own aspect, THE ASPECT FROM WHICH HE HAD COME.” [1]
A very similar teaching can be found in John Dequer’s book New Light on the Plan of Ages where he says on page 68 and 67 the following:
“Note that Eve ate (partook) first. She did eat with the Serpent. The result of this eating, or partaking, tainted her being with the vital magnetism of an alien breed and so corrupted her life fluids that when she had children the first one was the mental image of the Serpent. The water of life became the wine of death…. Stock breeders know that when a mare gives birth to a mule colt and thereafter gives birth to a horse colt, the horse colt will have decidedly mulish characteristics, showing that the carrying of the ass life affects the bloodstream of the horse. Thus we read that Eve ate with the Serpent. It is a euphemistic way of saying she had intercourse with the Serpent, and Cain may well have been his son.”[2]
I theorize that Dequer took his teachings from his Kabbalah background and repurposed it after his conversion into his writings. I’m not attacking Dequer’s personal character or questioning his Christianity by stating these facts, because I imagine he thought these things were true when he wrote them, but I write this because Dequer was a teacher that I believe influenced a movement of people into believing a non-biblical doctrine, and because of that it is subject to examination (James 3:1). In a publication titled The Interpreter New Light New World the editor, who is an admirer of John Dequer, said the following concerning Dequer’s serpent seedline doctrine:
“Writing for various socialist newspapers and communicating with these advanced kabalistic codes acquainted the ever-inquiring Dr. Dequer with the ancient DUALIST DOCTRINE OF THE SERPENT— part of the Jewish religion of many of his erstwhile comrades. Thus, when endeavoring to write his biblical commentaries in 1936–1937, Dequer began to appropriate from a Christian perspective the adversarial SEED OF THE SERPENT, advanced in the Kabbalah… from the Babylonian Talmud… ultimately originating with the Cainite author known to biblical scholarship as the JAHWIST (J).[3]
I believe John Dequer’s seedline belief was then picked up by an Anglo-Israel Pastor by the name of Conrad Gaard (1892-1969) and then was introduced to others through his national ministry and his teaching position at the Dayton Theological Seminary (1947-1954), which was an Anglo-Israel seminary operated by Pastor Michael Flenner. In 1945, Gaard wrote an article titled The Two Seed Lines, which taught a basic serpent seedline message. In Gaard’s 1955 book Spotlight on the Great Conspiracy under a section titled The Serpent Race Under Occult Control, he credits Dequer for leaving the occult religion and acknowledges his writings:
“However, many others, who delved even deeper than the writer, have made a clean break away from occult control, and have devoted their lives to exposing the whole diabolical mess. One such was the late Dr. John H. Dequer, who was an high initiate in the “Serpent Mysteries,” but who was able to throw off the Satanic yoke in the power of Christ.” [4]
Curtis Clair Ewing (1910-1991) in a sermon titled The Serpent Seed said the following concerning Conrad Gaard and his introduction of the serpent seedline doctrine to the students of Dayton Theological Seminary:
“I remember when this first broke lose at the Dayton Seminary down there, where your former Pastor went to school. And in the seminary there were two men, one named Dr. James S. McGaw. I will always thank the Lord until my dying day for the time I sat under his ministry. The other man was Conrad Gaard, and I knew both men, and I was friends with both of them. It was Conrad Gaard that begin to teach that the sin of Eden was that mother Eve was seduced by the devil and had a child by him, and it broke out in the seminary and I know at that time Dr. McGaw came back from seminary to preach in Chicago and was very perturbed, and they had a big argument, a big show down at the seminary over this. McGaw on one side and McGaw was a Hebrew Scholar, and on the other side Dr. Conrad Gaard, and he was a Lutheran preacher. Gaard held this position and had quiet a ruckus down there. Dr. McGaw came back and preached two sermons, and one of the sermons was published which I have, and the other never got published… I happened to hear both sermons and the 2nd one was a masterpiece. So, this has infiltrated what we call the Kingdom Movement and some of the great leaders have rejected it out and out like Howard B. Rand, your own former Pastor, Stadsklev, and brother Lovell has kind of straddled the fence and didn’t go either way.” [5]
If what Ewing says is true, then Gaard introduced this doctrine into the Anglo-Israel movement in the mid to late 1940s to early 1950s where it became popular among some Anglo-Israel ministers. After this point men such as Bertrand L. Comparet (1901-1983) who wrote The American Institute of Theology Bible Course taught it, Wesley A. Swift (1913–1970) who preached extensively on the subject in his audio sermons, Arnold Murray (1929–2014) who preached on it in his one-hour television programs, Dan Gayman (1937- ) who authored The Two Seeds of Genesis 3:15 (1977), and several other ministers promoted the doctrine. Pastor Roy Gillaspie was associated with the Dayton Theological Seminary through its president Millard Joseph, who spoke as a guest speaker at Gillaspie’s The First Christian Church of the Covenants in 1948[6] in Florida. Gillaspie is known for being the mentor of Arnold Murray. Conrad Gaard attended conferences with Flenner and Swift as early as 1948. [7] Please note that there are several variations and different points of view within this doctrine expressed by the men mentioned above, but the view of the serpent being the father of Cain stays the same. It is my opinion from some of the above research that this doctrine has its origins in John Dequer’s teachings left over from his Jewish Kabbalah mysticism background, and then passed on to Conrad Gaard, and then after that introduced to the Dayton Theological Seminary which spread it to other Anglo-Israel groups. With a possible other connection being through Carter and Monson, although it seems their viewpoints did not take off like Gaard’s did.
This doctrine has been opposed by many Anglo-Israel ministers such as Sheldon Emry who preached a series of sermons titled What Really Happened Between Eve And The Serpent In The Garden Of Eden?, Charles A. Weisman who wrote the book What About The Seedline Doctrine?, Ted R. Weiland who wrote the book Eve: Did She or Didn’t She: The Seedline Hypothesis Under Scrutiny, Curtis Clair Ewing in the forementioned sermon, and many others like Dr. James S. McGaw, Pastor C. O. Stadsklev, Pastor Earl Jones, Pastor Mark Downey, E. Raymond Capt, Pastor Peter J. Peters, and Pastor Dave Barley. Because of the disagreement on this doctrine there has been much division among Anglo-Israel groups, but in most cases, there is an agreement to disagree on the subject and not to break fellowship.
[1] The Zohar, Volume 1, Bereshit v. 455
[2] New Light on the Plan of Ages, 1938, p. 68-67
[3] The Interpreter New Light New World Spring, Spring 2019, Vol. 28, No. 1
[4] Spotlight on the Great Conspiracy, 1955, p. 29
[5] From a cassette sermon titled The Serpent Seed by Curtis Clair Ewing. Year unknown.
[6] Tampa Bay Times, St. Petersburg, Florida, Saturday, February 19, 1949
[7] The News Tribune Tacoma, Washington, Thursday, June 24, 1948
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