Back on Track: Shepherd's Chapel Defender

Now that FactNet.org host to probably the largest collection of Shepherd's Chapel pro and con arguments has been exposed as the far left nest of vipers they are, it's time to give you a streamlined version of just what the fuss is about when it comes to the SC. 

Generally, there are two major issues that critics and detractors point to. One is their charge that the SC's Serpent Seed (SS) teachings automatically aligns the SC  with white supremacist groups within the Christian Identity (CI) movement. Christian Identity maintains that the tribes of Israel populated the British Isles, many becoming Christianized, and the term "British (or Anglo)-Israelism is used to describe adherents.  The charge is strengthened by the fact there are quite a few CI groups that do teach a version of the Serpent's Seed. Please note the word 'version' here.

But the fact is even the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) recognizes there are Churches that teach the SS but without the component of accusing modern ethnic jewry of being the direct descendants of Cain. This except from the ADL's website explains:

" Once on American shores, British-Israelism began to evolve. Originally, believers viewed contemporary Jews as descendants of those ancient Israelites who had never been "lost." They might be seen critically but, given their significant role in the British-Israel genealogical scheme, not usually with animosity. By the 1930s, however, in the U.S., a strain of anti-Semitism started to permeate the movement (though some maintained traditional beliefs - and a small number of traditionalists still exist in the U.S.)."

Among that "small number of traditionalists" is the Shepherd's Chapel. This explains why the SC is neither mentioned in the list of hate groups published by the ADL or the Southern Poverty Law Center,  the later  even has a reputation of being overzealous when it comes to defining hate groups. This is due to their far-left agenda which attacks Christianity, even eschewing our national security by labeling anti-illegal immigration Christian groups as hate groups.

One fact regarding the SS teaching is that even ancient Jewish writings make mention of the Serpent's Seed.
This is one issue that was routinely ignored by the detractors during arguments documented on the SC threads at FactNet. And on the few occasions they were badgered into responding, they did so by summarily dismissing those writings as merely myth, or even by claiming the ancient Rabbinical school of simply "not knowing what they are talking about."

 Ancient Jewish texts such as the Targums do well in explaining that the line of Cain, and his nature and destiny is summed up by the Jewish Encyclopedia (JE):

"Cain was also viewed as a type of utter perverseness, an offspring of Satan (Pirḳe R. El. xxi.), "a son of wrath" (Apoc. Mosis, 3), a lawless rebel who said, "There is neither a divine judgment nor a judge" (Midr. Leḳaḥ Ṭob and Targ. Yer. to Gen. iv. 8), whose words of repentance were insincere (Sanh. 101b; Tan.), whose fleeing from God was a denial of His omnipresence (Gen. R. xxii.), and whose punishment was of an extraordinary character: for every hundred years of the seven hundred years he was to live was to inflict another punishment upon him; and all his generations must be exterminated (Test. Patr., Benjamin, 7, according to Gen. iv. 24; Enoch, xxii, 7). For him and his race shall ever be "the desire of the spirit of sin" (Gen. R. xx., after Gen. iv. 7). He is the first of those who have no share in the world to come (Ab. R. N. xli., ed. Schechter, p. 133)."

http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/3904-cain

While the JE argues all descendants of Cain died in the flood, I suspect this is only due to the majority believing that the flood of Noah was worldwide, a point hotly debated among many. The term for these sons of Cain used by most SS believers is 'Kenite' i.e. son of Cain also spelled 'Cainites'. In the Old Testament, this tribe of Kenites is mentioned in several places post-flood and in present tense, which is puzzling in the face of the Targums claiming all had perished in the Flood. Be that as it may, St. Ireneaus spoke of the 'Cainites' a Gnostic sect judged heretical by the Catholic Church  claiming they could trace their lineage back to Cain. Why they would be proud to do so points in the direction of the being a thread of truth to the SS, as the Cainites by strong consensus among scholars were a very wicked bunch.

Finally, if one spends the tome to research the SS teaching in the form taught by the SC, one would have to conclude that the SC is just what the ADL claims. That it is one of the smaller group of Churches that teach a traditional version of the Serpent's Seed, one that is not antisemitic.