Monday, October 30, 2017

Steven Anderson Is a False Teacher Who Believes and Preaches a False Gospel

For various reasons, Steven Anderson has risen to national prominence over the last five or ten years from his home in Tempe, Arizona.  I understand his popularity.  He is very good at self-promotion and in these postmodern times, Anderson speaks with absolute certainty.  I am certain too, that Anderson is a false teacher who believes and preaches a false gospel.  He does not preach a biblical, true, or historical gospel.

Steven Anderson purports to be the pastor of the Faithful Word Baptist Church.  I give zero credence or recognition to that as a church.  It is not faithful word.  It isn't faithful, nor is it based upon the Word of God.  It is built upon a false gospel.  It can't be truly Baptist or a church, because historic Baptists have preached repentance as necessary for salvation and since the church is built upon the gospel, it can't be a church either.  I feel sorry for him and his adherents.

Whatever Anderson might be known for, his holocaust denial, the pre-wrath rapture doctrine, his King James Bible position, those cower in the face of the false gospel he preaches and he encourages others to preach.  He calls this preaching, soulwinning, which is also false.  Anderson also operates the repentance blacklist online, where he lists men he knows are preaching repentance as necessary for salvation, as part of the message of the gospel.  Anderson preaches against repentance for salvation; therefore, he leads people to hell, making them twice the children of hell they once were.  Let Steven Anderson be accursed.

I'm dealing with Steven Anderson here and now, because of his growing influence in the country.  I hear about him now all the time.  Many receive offers by email from the film business associated with him, Framing the World.  The films made by Paul Wittenberger have also advanced his false teaching everywhere.  There is a unique mix to his teaching that is attractive and possesses enough truth, that looks legitimate, so it works as a counterfeit.  He understands the power of film and especially for today's audience, which grew up on television and movies.

Anderson teaches that repentance is a work and is only for people after they are already saved.  He uses many of the same bad arguments that false teacher, Jack Hyles, did, and he uses Hyles extensively on his repentance blacklist website.  There were a lot of Hyles fans while Hyles was alive.  People who liked Hyles could also like Anderson.  The Hyles movement was huge in its day and still exists in many different factions.  The old Hyles supporters might embrace Anderson, because he takes many of the same positions that Hyles did before he died.

The false gospel of Anderson has been called different names through the years, since Jack Hyles perfected it -- easy believism, easy prayerism, or 1-2-3-pray-with-me.  Once someone has prayed the prayer, Anderson counts the person as saved, and then, even if the person never shows fruit of salvation, says he has eternal security -- once saved, always saved.  He is pushing the same methodology all over the country, continuing to scorch the earth for anyone who wishes to preach a true gospel.

The hermeneutic for Anderson's false gospel could be called, exegesis for morons.  He is depending on a certain amount of simpleness and superficiality and gullibility in his listeners to swallow his garbage.  When you open up his repentance blacklist website, it greets you with two minutes of a sermon, what he might consider to be his prize argument, his most devastating point in very succinct fashion, starting and really buttressing his teaching on Jonah 3:10:
And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.
Anderson says that God saw their works, and their works were that they turned from their evil way.  He says that turning from your evil way is works, and people are saved without works.  That's major for him.

If you were just even slightly curious, you could push back against Anderson's argument there, and ask, if that's so bad, then why is God happy about it?  What?  Why is God happy that the Ninevites turned from their evil way if God doesn't find that acceptable?  God repented of the evil that he said he would do unto them, when they turned from their evil way.  Shouldn't God have been angry over their self righteousness?  If they were really working to be saved, as Anderson is saying, then why would God have averted His destruction of them?

Anderson doesn't explore this any further in his little presentation.  He just pulls out this small disjointed observation to piece together with other verses to pound into people his false gospel that tries to rid the message of repentance.  He wants that.  He doesn't want people repenting.  If you follow him out further, no one needs to ever repent to be saved.  It just doesn't work if you care at all about what the Bible says.

Steven Anderson says, as if his salvation teaching is some elevated position with the exclusion of repentance, that he sees it as faith alone and not works.  I say faith alone too, if it is in fact faith.  True faith would include repentance, which is not a work.  Faith means something, or, believe means something.  It is not mere acquiescence to facts, for instance.  It is more than just "trust" too, although trust is included.  As well, it must be faith in Christ, belief in Christ (Jn 20:30-31).  Christ is the Messiah, He is King, He is Lord, the Lord of Psalm 2.  Anderson removes that from the identity of Jesus so that Jesus is not Lord, and he replaces it with the strawman, "making Jesus Lord," as if he's quoting someone who thinks that, so that believing in Lordship is a work.  Jesus is Lord, but believing in Jesus Christ, must be Christ.  Anderson has a different Jesus, because He removes the Lordship (Messiahship) of Jesus so someone can have Jesus as Savior without His being Lord.  He will find a lot of sympathy unfortunately in that major omission and perversion among those who claim to be independent Baptist.  What I'm saying is that Anderson doesn't really actually preach belief in Jesus, because his Jesus is another Jesus and his belief isn't belief.

This post is not intended to deal with everything bad about what Anderson preaches on repentance.  There is plenty on that.  It's really to be clear about who this man is and what he teaches.  He is wrong and he should not be heeded or followed.  Run away from him as fast as possible.

30 comments:

robert p. said...

anderson teaches that Jesus did not pay out sin debt on the cross, but had to roast in hell to pay our sin debt.
he also teaches that the Word made flesh in John chapter one is the Bible and not Jesus, in one video he makes fun and mocks the idea of Word being a name for Jesus.

Jim Peet said...

We used this on Sharper Iron here

Thanks.

What's his background? Education? et cetera

Kent Brandenburg said...

Robert P,

I think someone could write a large volume on the Anderson errors. Thanks though. Good to be updated on these.

Kent Brandenburg said...

Jim,

He was trained in a Hyles church or self-trained, mostly the latter. His training reminds me of Harold Camping, who was, you know, more objective, because he studied it on his own.

Jim Peet said...

Thanks

Kent Brandenburg said...

Jim,

I saw your comment at SI, and what got my attention was seven things.
1. Someone my wife knows here in this area, not in our church, asked about Anderson, so his influence is widespread.
2. The film company sends me emails all the time -- pushing Anderson -- I'm guessing others get it.
3. His false gospel is still popular today, and our upcoming conference continues to be on the gospel. He is spreading a false gospel, and I want people to know that is most serious.
4. He is influencing through his eschatological position all over.
5. He is on West Coast, like us.
6. His wacky English translation position is connected to ours, and vastly different, just like you said.
7. My name should be on the repentance blacklist.

Tyler Robbins said...

The strange things is, Anderson is an intelligent man. See his 2.5 hr interview with James White on the KJV (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJrptikLjq8). Anderson is clearly not a fool. White stopped the interview abruptly after Anderson explained how Jesus descended to hell to become a burnt offering.

The interview is worth watching; you see Anderson as a normal, thinking man - not the caricature he deliberately projects in his preaching.

Kent Brandenburg said...

Tyler,

I would agree with you, but spiritually deceived. Smart enough though for sure. The exegesis is moronic though.

I did two parts on the James White interview, because I thought it did good at least at flushing out things that would not normally occur.

https://kentbrandenburg.blogspot.com/2014/09/commentary-on-steven-anderson-james.html

https://kentbrandenburg.blogspot.com/2014/09/commentary-on-steven-anderson-james_3.html

Anonymous said...

Brother Bradenburg,
I appreciate this warning. I have been aware of Steven Anderson for some time now. At first I was very intrigued by him, but once I heard his position on salvation, that was it for me. Brother Cloud has written a book about his many doctrinal heresies, so it is not surprising that Anderson did a youtube video slandering Brother Cloud and calling him a false teacher. Amazingly, he mocks Brother Cloud for preaching the truth about repentance and salvation.

I seriously doubt that he is saved in light of his hate filled rhetoric. Praying for the death of a past president, and that others would get brain cancer, and that all homosexuals would be destroyed from the earth. Yeah, that sounds very similar to the compassion and weeping for the lost that we see from Christ and his apostles. The scary thing is how popular he has become.

I sincerely pray for him. I used to think that he had an agenda in preaching his false gospel and salvation, but I now believe that he truly thinks that he is right, which might be even more dangerous. Think of the multitudes of people who are being deceived by him and his cohort of pastor friends around the country. Tragic indeed.

Jason

Terry Basham, II said...

anderson attended hyles anderson for a few years under the schaap regime. i think he said he completed 3 years of school there.



Anonymous said...

Not sure I want to be on a blacklist that includes Joel Osteen, Rick Warren, Mother Teresa, Billy Graham, Paul Washer, Joyce Meyers and Jack Schaap. That is quite the line up!

Justin

Unknown said...

You probably believe that Billy Graham was a good Christian with all his false doctrine. All religions lead to God right. You were wrong about Anderson's education so you aren't concerned with facts obviously. So you do not know of David's prayer where he asks God to break out the teeth of his enemies? Also Elisha was a party to the death of forty children for calling him names.Obama is a foe of God and I believe that is true of you too.

Anonymous said...

All religions lead to the antichrist.

Biblical faith is not a religion

KJB1611 said...

James 1:27 Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.

Kent Brandenburg said...

Unknown,

I'll print your comment if you tell us your real name.

Unknown said...

You really think Anderson is intelligent? lol. The KJV bible says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

me said...

Mr. Brandenburg, you wrote in a comment that someone could write a large volume on the errors of Steven Anderson. I did exactly that. I have a 15 part series of articles (a precursor to a larger work still in progress) on Steven Anderson and his New IFB movement. Here is a link to those articles if you are interested:
https://reasonfiles.weebly.com/blog/steven-anderson-and-the-new-ifb-article-index-with-links

Yours in Christ,
Robert Tuttle

Unknown said...

I Don't know a lot about Steven Anderson But the Gospel that He Preaches is Accurate!!! To Repent or feel Sorry for or Give Pentance for Salvation is a FALSE GOSPEL!!

John 3:16
For God so Loved the World that He Gave His Only Begotten Son that Whosoever Believes in Him should not Perish but Have Everlasting Life.

Acts 16:31
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be Saved and thy house.

Ephesians 2:8-9
For by Grace are you saved through Faith and not of yourselves it's the Gift of God not of works lest anyone should boast.

Unknown said...

On my Previous Post in the Verses Posted God Does Not say that a Person Has to Repent for Salvation but to Just Believe!!! You Have turned Repentance into a WORK!! The Word Repent Comes from the Greek Word METANOIA Which Means CHANGE OF Mind like From Not Trusting Jesus Christ as Your Personal Savior to Trusting Him as Your Personal Savior!!

Ephesians 2:8-9
For by Grace are you saved through Faith and not of yourselves it's the Gift of God not of works lest anyone should boast.

Titus 3:5
Not By Works Of Righteousness which we have Done but By His Mercy He Saved Us.

If You are Adding Repentance to the Gospel you are Adding Works to the Gospel and Declaring a False Damming Works Based Gospel!!

Kent Brandenburg said...

Unknown,

I don't like printing anonymous comments, but I am, because I want people to see what you are writing as a typical support of what Anderson is teaching. Look at doctrinal statements of "Baptist" churches all over the country that leave out repentance. The proper understanding of "believe" includes repentance. You can't actually believe in Jesus Christ without repenting. In the only place where Jesus gives the content of the Great Commission, the actual message, he says "repentance," doesn't even use the word believe in Luke 24. Repentance is not a work, even as Acts 11 says that we are granted repentance, anymore than faith is not a work. Faith is also a gift and not a work. Repentance and faith both are not works.

Jesus said that except you repent, you will perish. The Greek word is a compound word that has "change" and "mind" in it, but we don't define words by their etymology, but by the way they are used. You don't believe in Jesus Christ if He is not Lord. You can't go your way if He is Lord. You are saying that someone can be saved and deny Jesus is Lord. John says believe Jesus is the Christ, which is that He is the Messiah. You are preaching a false gospel, unknown, that is damning thousands, probably millions to Hell, and making them twice the children of Hell they once were. Shame on you!

What you and Steven Anderson are propagating is worse than I'm describing.

me said...

Mr. Brandenburg,
In your last comment to me you wrote that someone should write something that exposes all that Anderson believes. I have. I wrote a 15 article series on Steven Anderson and his New IFB movement. While researching these articles I uncovered so much information that I finally stopped writing articles and I am putting it into a book that I am currently writing. Here is a link to the articles in case you are interested: https://reasonfiles.weebly.com/blog/steven-anderson-and-the-new-ifb-article-index-with-links

Andrew Tollefson said...

What I believe we do have to acknowledge is that many false prophets, working in similar mode to Billy Graham, have brought in secretly a false gospel, under false pretences of pseudo-conservatism and pseudo-evangelicalism. Their false gospel states that one requires works for justification before God, and denies that Christ has allowed to impute his own righteousness to those that believe. It's basically crypto-catholicism rehashed and is truly a works salvation. This is what is probably behind the charge, that some have redefined the term "repentance" into a work, because said false gospel basically insists that unless the priest or spiritual authority declares that he has seen you "repent of your sins" then you aren't justified, it turns that fallible person into the final authority on who is supposedly saved.

Unless these are strongly enough denounced and separated from, you will end up with watered down modernists relying on the same old man-pleasing outward show for their justification and ignoring worshipping God in spirit and truth.

It's perhaps a too strong overreaction to allow the modernists to redefine what repentance at its core is and thus make ourselves denounce it outright, which, is as Pastor Brandenburg explained, is not a work. We should rather explain to them that they have taken up a false definition, which it does seem like our anonymous poster tried at one point to do. But until I see them actually using it in that false definition, I assume the most charitable interpretation of someone preaching repentance, which is that they mean it Biblically.

It's absolutely true that one must accept Christ Jesus as Lord, look at what he said in John 8:24, "if ye believe not that I AM, ye shall die in your sins."

Kent Brandenburg said...

Andrew,

I don't know of "works salvation" creeping into evangelicalism. I haven't seen that. Maybe I'm missing something. Generally, if they wanted that, they would move over into a Protestant denomination that already teaches that, teaches that you could lose your salvation if you're not doing good works, conditional security people, or Catholics, Lutherans, and others. I don't see an evangelical movement toward works salvation. That's not the biggest threat. The one who might say that it is would be someone like Anderson himself, who says that if you believe in biblical repentance, you are adding something to the gospel and nullifying it.

The bigger issue today and now is excluding repentance, redefining it to after salvation as a part of sanctification, or leaving out lordship. 1-2-3 pray with me method. A worldly, lascivious other Jesus where grace is a get-out-of-jail-free card.

Kent Brandenburg said...

I look into your link there, me, with your expose of Anderson.

Andrew said...

To Pastor Brandenburg,

Alright. I'm just giving you my impressions then.

Andrew said...

Just so you know, that means I'm fallible.

KJB1611 said...

Hi Andrew, true faith includes repentance and while salvation is not by works, it always results in works. Please see:

https://faithsaves.net/repentance/

https://faithsaves.net/just-faith/

Thanks.

Andrew said...

Hi Dr Ross,

You say in your article we should "Passionately treasure the Word. Read it, study it ... discuss it with others." I agree.

Regarding your primary point, this we agree on as the apostle Paul says, "he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ" and in the subsequent passage which you mentioned, "to work in you both to will and do of His good pleasure."
After all, we have in Acts 13 that as many as were ordained to eternal life believed. Which is in keeping with Ephesians 2:8-10, John 11:25-26.

Furthermore, it does turn on very sound logic that if to "believe" really means to obey the truth, the contrapositive states that to not obey the truth is to not believe! And we see this usage in the examples of the word used in John 3:36, Romans 15:31, Acts 14:2 and 19:9 where the A.V. uses the word "believe." I understand that you made this point in footnotes 282-286.

With regards to your statement "a natural man can have a kind of unspiritual pleasure through an intellectual apprehension of the theological system of Scripture—a system that he, nevertheless, refuses to practice."

I would weigh that against the statement that Paul puts in 1 Corinthians 2:14, which says that "But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned."

Now my question on your article then is this: You wrote a sentence as follows—

"Those descendents of Jacob who believe in Jehovah, those who believe and consequently become the faithful, of whom Abraham is the paradigm,[22] are those who are redeemed and counted as righteous[23] and will in the last days receive the Promised Land,[24] along with believing Gentiles (Jonah 3:5, 10) who will similarly inherit the Millennial earth and the eternal kingdom."

I would like it if you could fully elaborate on this sentence in its entirety please. Especially, with an eye on what footnote 26 says.

Curtis said...

Repentance from sins is NOT a condition of salvation. faith alone is. 1 Cor. 15-1-4 graceinsightandart.wordpress.com repentance from unbelief is necessary.

Kent Brandenburg said...

Curtis,

I agree that salvation comes by faith alone. But faith includes repentance. That is clear. When Jesus gave the Great Commission, He included repentance, Luke 24:47. He preached repentance for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Peter preached it on the Day of Pentecost. Scripture says nothing about repentance from unbelief. That is a human invention. It's like playing a word game. And if it is faith, what or who is the faith in? You believe what or who? What is believing in Jesus Christ? He must be the Jesus of the Bible, not one we make up in our own mind. What I've found is that the no-repentance people, such as yourself, purposefully leave out that Jesus is Lord. They teach that a person can remain in rebellion against Jesus Christ and be saved. That is not belief and that is not Jesus. If you believe in the Jesus of the Bible, you are repenting. This is clear. To take it out is to change the gospel to something closer if not actually only intellectual assent, like demon faith, which does not save.