Today’s Heretic Du Jour is Pastor Steven L. Anderson of Faithful Word Baptist Church in Tempe, AZ. Pastor Steven Anderson holds to several heresies, but we’ll stick to the most notable.
1. Pastor Steven L. Anderson believes that the King James Bible is JESUS CHRIST.
Pastor Anderson has been an occasional poster on a Christian message board that I frequent. When he does post, it is usually some sort of heretical nonsense, and about forty-five percent of the time it’s about his unusual love for the King James Bible. Pastor Anderson goes far beyond the average King James Onlyist, he believes that the King James Version is in fact God/Jesus Christ, and worthy of worship. Allow me to quote Pastor Anderson himself.
And by the way, yes, I do worship the King James BIble
I will worship my King James Bible till I die.
The Bible is God. (I John 1:1)
When I was a kid everyone used to believe that the Word was God.
Why doesn’t anyone believe that anymore? I guess they are trying to demote God’s word.
By the way, the original manuscripts DON’T EXIST. I hate to break it to you, but they’ve been gone for a long time. God has preserved his word in this generation through the King James Bible. So it’s not an issue of which one corrects the other – we only have one – the KJV. The so-called “original Greek” is bogus. How exactly did he preserve it before 1611? I don’t know I wasn’t there, but neither were you.
Sincerely,
Pastor Steven L Anderson
Faithful Word Baptist Church
To support his unusual position, Pastor Anderson mainly relies on John 1:1. He insists that when John refers to “The Word”, he is talking about both Jesus Christ and the Bible. He also relies on 1 John 1:1, in both cases ignoring any historical application of these verses, instead relying on his own interpretation to settle the matter.
Pastor Anderson relies solely on the English translation when interpreting Scripture. He believes that to study the Greek and Hebrew or to use original language reference tools is wrong. He is of the school of thought that the King James Translation is superior to the original languages, even correcting the original languages. Therefore, any discussion concerning the original languages is useless with such a fellow.
Pastor Anderson’s belief is obviously a novel concept, and to my knowledge non-existent in any form prior to the King James Only movement of the 20th century. John 1 and 1 John 1 are both talking about and referring to Jesus Christ as being the medium by which the Father brought the world into existence. These verses do not refer to the Scriptures in any form.
2. Pastor Anderson believes that repentance of sin for salvation is “works salvation.” Unfortunately for Pastor Anderson, the totality of Scripture is against him on this. Over and over in the New Testament, unbelievers are told to repent and believe. They are also told to bring forth evidence of their repentance.
Now, because there are so many references to repentance in the Scriptures, men such as Pastor Anderson must devise a way to explain these Scriptures. So what they have set out to do, is to correct Scripture by saying that when the New Testament speaks of repentance that it simply means that someone is changing their mind about what gets them to heaven. For example, a Muslim who repents and turns to Christ is simply changing his mind about needing to work to satisfy Allah in order to reach heaven, and turning to Christ as the means of getting to heaven.
There’s a couple of problems with this idea, first and foremost being that idolatry is sin. Therefore, anybody who repents of any form of idol worship is repenting of sin, and therefore, according to Anderson’s own definition, is engaged in “works salvation.”
Can Anderson’s idea of repentance be considered Biblical? Not at all. Let’s look at some Scriptures on repentance.
But ye denied the Holy One and the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you; And killed the Prince of life, whom God hath raised from the dead; whereof we are witnesses. And his name through faith in his name hath made this man strong, whom ye see and know: yea, the faith which is by him hath given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all. And now, brethren, I wot that through ignorance ye did it, as did also your rulers. But those things, which God before had shewed by the mouth of all his prophets, that Christ should suffer, he hath so fulfilled. Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord;
(Act 3:14-19 KJV)
Question, Pastor Anderson, and those others of you who believe that repentance of sin is not necessary in the salvation process. Why does Peter here tell people to repent? First, we see “Repent ye therefore.” What is the “therefore” there for? They are to repent because they slew Jesus Christ(murder). They are to repent so their sins may be blotted out. Is this not a clear indication that repentance of sin is meant in Scripture?
And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent: Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.
(Act 17:30-31 KJV)
There were present at that season some that told him of the Galilaeans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And Jesus answering said unto them, Suppose ye that these Galilaeans were sinners above all the Galilaeans, because they suffered such things? I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. Or those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.
(Luk 13:1-5 KJV)
Notice that in this passage in Luke, Jesus twice refers to groups of people, asking if they must indeed be extremely horrible sinners that such calamity befell them? Then, He told the listeners that these groups of people were no worse than them, and that unless those listening repented, they would likewise perish. Clearly, sin is in mind in this passage, and repentance of sin is indicated.
Whereupon, O king Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision: But shewed first unto them of Damascus, and at Jerusalem, and throughout all the coasts of Judaea, and then to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, and do works meet for repentance. For these causes the Jews caught me in the temple, and went about to kill me.
(Act 26:19-21 KJV)
Why, if repentance is not repentance from sin, does Paul say that he told the Jews and Gentiles to repent, and do works that demonstrate their repentance? The answer is simple, that if a person truly repents, there must be a changed life.
And here, I think we have hit upon the root of the problem of the anti-repentance crowd–at least for the majority of them. Pastor Anderson did not come up with this on his own, he learned it at the feet of Dr Jack Hyles, former pastor of First Baptist Church of Hammond, IN. The church that Dr Hyles pastored had many alleged conversions every year, but few of those who were “converted” ever became a member of the church. Few had evidence of changed lives. Few became solid Christians. Why? Because a shallow method of salvation was presented to the lost. This resulted in great numbers that men such as Anderson and Hyles have boasted in, but the question ultimately came forward, “where are your converts?” And so this new concept of repentance began to truly take shape.
Repentance of sin for salvation is always what is had in mind in the Scriptures. This is why evidence of repentance was demanded by John the Baptist, Christ, and the Apostles.
Pastor Steve Anderson has twisted some basic Bible doctrines, perverting the truth of Scripture. What is truly sad is that he teaches his wife, children, and church his doctrines. Pastor Anderson rarely spends time anymore discussing Scripture, preferring instead to provoke fights with police officers, dragging the name of Christ through the mud as he attacks the United States government, praying that Obama will be killed and his wife and children left widowed and fatherless. One must pray for his salvation.
Have you taken these concerns up with the man himself?
Quick answer: Yes.
Now a question: Why does it matter? Heretics and blasphemers are to be reproved publicly, especially if they are elders in a church.
Rev 19:13 …..and his name is called The Word of God,
Mal 3:16 Then they that feared the LORD spake often one to another: and the LORD hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the LORD, and that thought upon his name
Proverbs 13:13 Whoso despiseth the word shall be destroyed: but he that feareth the commandment shall be rewarded.
John 17:17 Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.
THINK! THE GOD OF ALL CREATION WHO CAN SAVE our
souls from hell, who can be and is involved in our lives he numbers the very hair on our head, That same God and Lord of all…CANNOT keep or preserve his word to us. OK, get about 10 different versions of the “BIBLE” so called and see if there is unity there. Your putting down Anderson because he trusts what Gods word says. HIS WORD, not mans idea of his word…and you can’t copyright GODS WORD, but these new versions tell you that you can use 500 some words and then you need their permission. You should search this out. The joke is on you, you who mock those who LOVE GOD, HIS WORD. God is true let every man be a LIAR.
When you talked to Anderson, how did he respond? Is he a lunatic?
I send him an kind EMail suggesting in light of Luke 9 51-56 that he should rethink his hatred of people. I have gotten no responce and will leave it there. I guestion his sanity. Leave sleeping dogs lay as my dad would say.
When anyone has tried to engage anderson and his followers on thier doctrinal errors, unless it is a snide one or two line insult reply from them, they will not engage or answer anyone about thier beliefs.
they are true hit and run posters, they will post, and then hide when confronted.
your thread is so dead on about him, he is a lost man running a cult, and he needs salvation in the Lord.
I am a born again child of God of late I have been feeling like having sex and find myself immediately masturbating. I need prayer of deliverance because as much as I love God I can’t sin and ask for forgiveness only to sin again this has to stop. I think the cause is that I am in a relationship with a born again man but because we want to do things right we are not sexually active, we are waiting to get married first. But whilest waiting I fantasise about him making love to me or imargining that first day we do it. Mark 9 vs 43-50 talks about if a particular part of ones body makes them sin its better to cut it off and go to heaven when dead in my case does it mean I must cut off my boyfriend in my life because he causes me to sin. I cant force him to marry me now.
Having struggled with repentance myself for a long time, not knowing whether I had “done it right” let me share with you some thoughts.
Firstly, let me say I think Steven Anderson is a cult leader. I do not follow him, nor have I ever listened to an entire sermon.
However, I do believe that repentance in relation to salvation is a change of mind. The word repent, at it’s core, simply means a change of mind. We tend to add “of sin” to the end of it. While one could argue the hebrew and the greek here, in the OT, God is the one who repents most of the time, and we know God is without sin. God changes His mind.
One can not only repent from evil to do good, but one can repent from good as well.
“If it do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them.” Jer 18:10
Seeing as God has not actually done anything yet, He is changing His mind about something He had said He would do, based on Israel’s obedience in this verse.
Another interesting verse is here
“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.” Jonah 3:10
Firstly, God saw their works, they they turned from evil ways. Unfortunately, many people define repenting as “turning from your sins”. And the Bible does clearly say here that turning from wickedness is works. And then it says God repented of the evil he said He would do.
So the only definition that fits every use of the word is a change of mind. Change your mind about what??
Well, the context gives the terms.
I’ll use your verses above. You may not agree with my understanding, but that’s okay
I love you anyway.
Acts 3 is Peter preaching to Israel. I dare you to find forgiveness of sins through the blood of Jesus Christ here. In fact, the opposite is taught. He rebukes them for crucifying Jesus Christ, and tells them to repent of this fact (change their minds about what they did), and accept Jesus as Lord, their Messiah – THEN – God will forgive their sins. There is no mention of the blood of Christ washing their sins here. That was first revealed to Paul. What we have here is Peter preaching the gospel of the Kingdom to Jews. The times of refreshing have not yet come. Check the next verse – verse 20, where Peter promises if they repent of crucifying their messiah, then God will send Jesus, which was preached unto them. It is not talking about “sending Jesus into their hearts” because Peter then says Jesus must stay in heaven until the restitution of all things. This is not a salvation message for today. But their repentance is from a sin, one sin in particular – Israel crucifying Christ.
Acts 17 also does not mention “of sins”, so the same “change of mind” about Christ, who is in context (being raised from the dead and giving us assurance), fits here too.
Luke 13 is an interesting one.
Look at the language Jesus used – “suppose ye” in verse 3, “think ye” in verse 5. The problem these people are having is that they are thinking wrongly. They think the people who were sacrificied or that the tower fell on were more wicked then them.. Jesus tells them to repent – think again – or they will perish. Is he asking them to stop sinning? Of course not. He is asking them to admit they are sinners.
So maybe this all comes down to semantics between you and me. While Sanderson (and Hyles) seems to say that repentance is changing your mind about who Jesus is, I disagree with that.
I like the way Harry Ironside put it:
“Repentance is the recognition of my sinnership — the owning before God that I am as vile as He has declared me to be in His holy Word.”
There is no self effort or promise to change here. It is an absolute admission of guilt. Faith in Jesus Christ and His life in us produces the change, not our repentance.
And this is the crux of the problem as I see it.
Too many evangelists today put the emphasis on self – even the calvinist ones who have for years placed the emphasis totally on Christ. Instead of look to Jesus, it becomes, examine your works. People are repenting of sins (what they do) to be saved, instead of repenting of being a sinner (what they are).
So, if you would like to go back and forth over other verses on repentance in the Bible, you have my email address, but I don’t want to argue
Another great quote by Ironside
“The Gospel is not a call to repentance, or to amendment of our ways, to make restitution for past sins, or to promise to do better in the future. These things are proper in their place, but they do not constitute the Gospel; for the Gospel is not good advice to be obeyed, it is good news to be believed. Do not make the mistake then of thinking that the Gospel is a call to duty or a call to reformation, a call to better your condition, to behave yourself in a more perfect way than you have been doing in the past …
Nor is the Gospel a demand that you give up the world, that you give up your sins, that you break off bad habits, and try to cultivate good ones. You may do all these things, and yet never believe the Gospel and consequently never be saved at all.”
God bless
Luke
OBAMA’S PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
(non-copyrighted)
I pledge allegiance to the fag of the Benighted States of
America and to the repugnance for its one-night stands, one
abomination (under the god of lust), invisible (before it comes out of the closet), with libertines and Judgment Day for all.
Is the name of Stephen’s wife Debra by any chance?