Conrad Gaard
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Conrad Gaard (d. 1969) was an American minister and a key figure in the emergence of Christian Identity from British Israelism.[1] He was one of the first to incorporate the serpent seed doctrine into Christian Identity teaching.[2]
Background
Gaard was the pastor of the Christian Chapel Church in Tacoma, Washington,[3] an Identity congregation.[4] He broadcast over three radio stations, and published a newsletter titled The Broadcaster, formerly titled The Interpreter.[4] He headed the Destiny of America Foundation until his death in 1969.[5][6]
Gaard was a faculty member of the Dayton Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio, an Anglo-Israel training center.[7]
Being involved with the Anglo-Saxon Federation of America, Gaard traveled the United States and western Canada giving lectures on British Israelism[8][9] and pyramidology.[citation needed]
Gaard was one of the most influential theologians in the early formation of Christian Identity.[10] He was one of the four primary theologians responsible for the emergence of Christian Identity out of British Israelism, along with Wesley Swift, William Potter Gale, and Bertrand Comparet.[1]
In the 1940s, Gaard was among a number of British Israel organizers who were mentored by Gerald L. K. Smith, along with Bertrand Comparet and San Jacinto Capt.[11]
Beliefs
Conrad Gaard's origin teaching considered the serpent a pre-Adamite "beast of the field". Although the assumption is that the serpent fathered Cain through adultery with Eve, Gaard considered that made little difference since Cane married a pre-Adamite anyway, resulting in a "mongrel, hybrid race".[12] In Gaard's view, the original sin then was miscegenation.[13] This line was continued through Ham, allowing Cain's line to survive the flood. This continued when Judah had offspring with a Canaanite woman. This line was carried of into Babylonian exile where they joined with "the various Edomite-Amalekite Shelanite-Canaanite elements of the serpent race" which, "under Satanic inspiration they were united in one Conspiratorial group, which became known as the 'Diaspora,' or Dispersion, of the 'Jews'".[12] Gaard's teaching on serpent seed doctrine first appeared sometime in the 1960s,[14] in his book Spotlight on the Great Conspiracy.[3]
Gaard's teachings on eschatology rejected amillennialism and presented a combination of elements from postmillennialism and premillennialism.[10] He believed sin would continue until things were as in Noah's generation, and that Christ would return prior to a millennial reign on Earth under God's law.[15] Gaard rejected the idea of a secret rapture of the Church, teaching that the Church would be saved in the Great Tribulation, as opposed to being saved from it.[16]
Works
- God's Kingdom Plan Revealed in the Scriptures
- Spotlight on the Great Conspiracy (1955)
Footnotes
- ^ a b Davis 2010, p. 21.
- ^ Barkun 1997, p. 177.
- ^ a b Schamber & Stroud 2001, p. 188.
- ^ a b Roy 1953, p. 107.
- ^ Melton 1992, p. 70.
- ^ Pierard 1996, p. 50.
- ^ Roy 1953, p. 110.
- ^ Shreveport Times 1941.
- ^ Barkun 1997, p. 58.
- ^ a b Wexler 2015, p. 44.
- ^ Wexler 2015, p. 28.
- ^ a b Barkun 1997, p. 177-178.
- ^ Gardell 2003, p. 121.
- ^ Goodrick-Clarke 2002, p. 239.
- ^ Wexler 2015, p. 44-45.
- ^ Wexler 2015, p. 45.
References
- Barkun, Michael (1997). Religion and the Racist Right: the Origins of the Christian Identity Movement. University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 0-8078-2328-7.
- Davis, Danny W. (2010). The Phinehas Priesthood: Violent Vanguard of the Christian Identity Movement. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-Clio. ISBN 978-0-313-36536-2.
- Gardell, Mattias (2003). Gods of the Blood: The Pagan Revival and White Separatism. Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press. ISBN 9780822330714.
- Goodrick-Clarke, Nicholas (2002). Black Sun: Aryan Cults, Esoteric Nazism and the Politics of Identity. New York, New York: New York University Press. ISBN 0-8147-3124-4.
- Melton, J. Gordon (1992). Encyclopedic Handbook of Cults in America. New York, New York: Garland Publishing. ISBN 0-8153-0502-8.
- Pierard, Richard V. (1996). "The Contribution of British-Israelism to Antisemitism within Conservative Protestism". In Locke, Hubert G.; Sachs Littell, Marcia (eds.). Holocaust and Church Struggle: Religion, Power, and the Politics of Resistance. Lanham, Maryland: University Press of America. ISBN 0-7618-0375-0.
- "Prophetic Revelation", The San Juan Record, vol. 29, no. 12, Monticello, Utah, p. 4, December 9, 1943
- Roy, Ralph Lord (1953). Apostles of Discord: A Study of Organized Bigotry and Disruption on the Fringes of Protestantism. Boston: Beacon Press.
- Schamber, Jon F.; Stroud, Scott R. (September 2001). "Mystical Anti-Semitism and the Christian Identity Movement: A Narrative Criticism of Dan Cayman's "The Two Seeds of Genesis 3:15."". Journal of Communication & Religion. 24 (2): 175–201.
- "Tacoma Editor is Heard Here", The Shreveport Times, vol. 46, Shreveport, Louisiana, p. 2A, December 5, 1941
- Wexler, Stuart (2015). America's Secret Jihad: The Hidden History of Religious Terrorism in the United States. Berkeley, California: Counterpoint. ISBN 978-1-61902-558-5.