Serpent seed

===Modern origins in British Israelism===
{{see also|British Israelism}}
[[File:Israelinbritainb00garn 0005.jpg|thumb|An 1890 book advocating British Israelism. According to the serpent seed doctrine, the [[Ten Lost Tribes]] of [[Israelites|Israel]] found their way to [[Western Europe]] and [[United Kingdom|Britain]], where they became the ancestors of the [[British people|British]] and [[Anglo-Saxons|related peoples]].]]

British Israelism reintroduced a version of serpent seed beginning in the mid-1800s.<ref name="adl">{{cite web|url=https://www.adl.org/resources/backgrounders/christian-identity|publisher=[[Anti-Defamation League]]|title=Christian Identity|access-date=2021-07-19}}</ref> A small circle of ministers in the United Kingdom first began to develop what they called "seedline" doctrine in the 1790s. The seedline teaching stated that two races of people lived upon the earth: a righteous pure seedline of people and an unrighteous impure seedline of people. The early teachings of the seedline doctrine did not offer an origin story for the two groups. The original form of British Israelism taught the belief that the Anglo-Saxons were descended from the lost tribes of Israel and were therefore part of the pure seedline.

British Israelism traces its roots to [[Richard Brothers]] (1759–1824) who was one of the earliest promoters of the theology and published a tract on the topic in 1794. [[John Wilson (historian)|John Wilson]] (1788–1870), and [[Edward Hine]] (1825–1891) followed Brothers in promoting the doctrine in the mid-1800s and each of them also published books on the topic and acquired a large following within various Christian denominations. Elements of their teachings gradually became popular among members of the [[Church of England]].<ref name="Schamber, p. 2">Schamber, p. 2</ref><ref name="Gardell, Mattias 2003 p. 372">Gardell, Mattias (2003). ''Gods of the Blood: The Pagan Revival and White Separatism''. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. p. 372.</ref> Each of them published books on the topic and they also acquired a growing number of followers within various Christian denominations.<ref name="Schamber, p. 2"/><ref name="Gardell, Mattias 2003 p. 372"/> According to the [[Anti-Defamation League]], the earliest versions of the teaching did not seem to be racially motivated, but that began to change as the theology was introduced in the United States.<ref name="adl"/> The theology arrived in the United States through British Israelite evangelists in the mid-19th century. Rev. Joseph Williams (1826–1882), who immigrated from the UK to the USA, was probably the first such evangelist. He lectured on the subject in [[Boston]] from 1874 until his death in 1882. His teachings on the subject were published in two periodicals, ''The Trio'' and ''The Trumpet of Israel''. Rev. Joseph Wild (1834–1908) immigrated from England to Brooklyn during the 1880s. He became the preeminent American promoter of British Israelism. He published multiple books on the subject and influence many white Americans with his teachings.<ref>Schamber, p. 3</ref>

[[File:DanielParker.jpg|right|thumb|Elder Daniel Parker]]

[[Daniel Parker (Baptist)|Daniel Parker]] (1781–1844) was an early American leader of the [[Primitive Baptist Church]] in the Southern United States and founder of numerous churches in [[Virginia]], [[Kentucky]], [[Tennessee]], [[Illinois]], and [[Texas]]. As an [[Elder (Christianity)#Baptists|elder]], Parker led a group which separated from that [[Religious denomination|church]] and formed the [[Two-Seed-in-the-Spirit Predestinarian Baptists]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://primitivebaptist.info/mambo//content/view/843/36/ |title=Interpreting the Scriptures-The "Two Seed" Heresy |access-date=12 February 2008 |archive-date=1 July 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120701213535/http://primitivebaptist.info/mambo/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> Parker integrated the serpent seed doctrine into [[Predestination in Calvinism|Calvinist Predestination]]. He connected the elect with the pure seedline, and he connected the non-elect with the serpent seedline.<ref name="s12">Schamber, p. 12</ref> Parker published his beliefs in a tract which he entitled ''Views on the Two Seeds'' while he was living in [[Vincennes, Indiana]] in 1826.  Parker's seedline doctrine identified the serpent as the father of Cain and the originator of the wicked impure seedline. Parkers initially developed and promoted the serpent seedline doctrine as a key argument in his opposition to foreign [[Christian missionary|Christian missionaries]]. Parker believed that the non-white races who were the targets of foreign missions were people who were descended from the wicked seed of the serpent. He stated that since "God would save His own children, and since the children of Satan were predestined to eternal punishment, any kind of mission plan would seem ridiculous."<ref name = "parker">{{cite book|url=https://repository.sbts.edu/bitstream/handle/10392/5954/Lee-ThM-Daniel%20Parkers%20Doctrine%20of%20the%20Two%20Seeds-ocr.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y|title=Daniel Parker's Doctrine of the Two Seeds|author=Lee, O. Max|publisher=Southern Baptist Theological Seminary|location=Louisville, Kentucky|date=1962}}</ref> Parker was labeled a heretic for teaching the doctrine by mainstream Baptists.<ref>Lee, p. 25</ref> The influences on Parker's beliefs are unknown, so he may have arrived at his version of the serpent seedline doctrine independently, or he may have been influenced by early British Israel teachings. Parker's teachings coincided with the promotion of the earliest form of [[Polygenism]] in the United States by the Kentuckian [[Charles Caldwell (physician)|Charles Caldwell]], who believed non-white races could not have descended from Adam. Although it was not widely accepted, Parker's teaching became well known among Calvinistic Baptists in Kentucky.{{sfn|Weaver|2000|p=125}} "Two-Seed Predestinarian Baptists always remained a small group. The U.S. religious census of 1906 recorded 781 members. In 1938 there were 98 members."<ref>{{cite book|author=Albert W. Wardin Jr.|title=Tennessee Baptists: A Comprehensive History, 1779–1999|location=Brentwood, TN|publisher=Executive Board of the Tennessee Baptist Convention|pages= 110–11, 145–46. 458}}</ref>

In the 1890s, [[C. A. L. Totten]] (1851–1908), a former professor of [[military science]] at [[Yale University]], began to promote British Israelism. Totten began to promote the belief that Anglo-Saxons were destined by God to rule the world.<ref name = "s5">Schamber, p. 5</ref> Also during the 1890s, British Israelism began to develop into a formal organization which took on racial overtones. In 1886, the growing group formed the [[Anglo-Israel Association]] and in 1919, this group renamed itself the [[British-Israel-World Federation]]. The primary aim of this group was the promotion of archeological expeditions which it wished to undertake in order to discover pieces of evidence which would validate its beliefs. The group remained small, but it gained a broader base of international appeal when it began to accept all [[Germanic peoples|people of Germanic descent]] as part of the righteous seed-line of the lost tribes of Israel. By the 1930s, the movement had grown to include over 50 branches in the United States which were all under the leadership of [[William J. Cameron]], but the British Israel movement largely faded from view both during and after [[World War II]].<ref name = "s5"/>

Most modern versions of the serpent seed teaching can be traced to Totten and the seedline teachings which he promoted during the early 20th century. Totten published several books and integrated British Israel theology into [[Adventism|Adventist theology]]. According to Professor Jon F. Schamber, Totten's works "inspired dozens of evangelists and religious writers, including Rev. [[John H. Allen]], a founding minister in the [[Church of God (Holiness)]]; [[Charles Fox Parham]] (1873–1929), the founder of the [[Apostolic Pentecostal|Pentecostal Apostolic Faith Movement]]; [[Victor Morris Tyler]], a wealthy industrialist and an editor of the ''Our Race Quarterly''; Rev. [[Reuben H. Sawyer]], a clergyman in the Christian Church and a recruiter for the [[Ku Klux Klan]]; and [[Alan A. Beauchamp]], a publisher and an editor of the ''Watchman of Israel''."<ref>Schamber, p. 4</ref>