How to Identify the Andersonites

KJV Churches has been taken to task and occasionally attacked in the past for including churches that certain people would prefer not to have included in a list of churches. We’ve attempted to explain in detail how important it is to have a complete dataset in order to filter out and find the right churches, but not everyone agrees with this reasoning.

Since KJV Churches is a different platform from other “walled garden” approaches, which often set stringent requirements for inclusion, it is understandable that people will fail to understand the reasoning behind our inclusion of Baptist and even non-Baptist churches that don’t meet everyone’s stringent expectations.

To be honest, there is one group of churches that we have considered removing entirely, and not because they’re not “KJV only” (they profess to be) or because they aren’t “independent” (they claim to be so also), but because they are cultists following a lunatic who has introduced vile heresies into Baptist churches and who has attempted to undermine the doctrinal soundness of many believers through his vicious, ungodly, antichrist screeds online.

Who are the Andersonites?

Of course we’re talking about Steven Anderson, an unordained, foul-mouthed, wife- and child-beating muckraker and internet troll, and the “New IFB” churches who follow him, including many of those churches who have separated themselves from his personality but have maintained his pernicious doctrines. While these churches profess to be independent in polity, fundamental in doctrine, and Baptist in practice, they are a danger to the body of Christ and as such, are listed here on KJV Churches only as a way to warn people away from visiting them. It’s definitely been a hard decision, since not everyone will recognize the danger and may visit them anyway, but presenting complete and accurate data has been our main motive ever since launching back in 2014, so the heretic in Tempe and his lackeys aren’t going to change our purpose.

This article is intended to be a warning for faithful Baptist churches both against Anderson’s practice and doctrine, as well as a “how-to” guide for identifying the churches that openly or secretly associate with Anderson directly or at least maintain his doctrinal positions. We will expose their practices and tendencies so pastors and other believers can be aware of these heretical, false “churches” and avoid them.

The Doctrine and Practice of the Andersonites

A quick run-down of the specific egregious doctrinal errors espoused by the Andersonite cult would include the following:

• A hyper-grace, empty-prayerism, easy-believism emphasis on “soul winning” without any real discipleship or follow-up
• A hatred of “repentance” in any context, especially with regard to salvation (and hence the reason for so much unregenerate behavior in their ranks)
• An open espousal of Reformed “Replacement theology”, teaching that the church is now Israel, and all the promises made to Jacob’s offspring now apply to the church
• Hatred of Jews and modern Israel, a vicious “anti-Zionism” position
• A sort of “limited atonement” in that homosexuals cannot be saved (so-called “reprobate” doctrine)
• A laughable and ignorant rejection of “Dispensationalism” while still professing belief in a pre-millennial rapture and the millennial reign of Christ
• A hard-line “Post-Tribulation, Pre-Wrath” rapture that has the church going through the Tribulation up until the very end

Their practice as churches varies, but is often similar and whose hallmarks are typically:

• Unique church names: “Verity”, “Faithful Word”, “Sure Foundation”, “Strong Hold”, “Stedfast”, “Word of Truth” are some that appear in a list of their associated congregations; obviously the intent is to give off a more “biblical” feel to their names, but thankfully they are helpful in identifying the heretical assemblies; the exception is when a church is converted and maintains its original name, so this isn’t an absolute
• Family integrated: while including children is certainly not an error, their focus on this practice is one of the tells that you may be dealing with an Andersonite cult assembly
• “Hard preaching” against their pet issues: exclusively topical in nature, their incoherent and scripturally threadbare screeds are directed against whatever topic of the day they think will get YouTube views and social media recognition; it wouldn’t be surprising if this website becomes a sermon topic thanks to this article
• Pyramid-scheme “church” planting: since they teach that to be a pastor, a man must have at least two children (based on a private interpretation of the word “children” in 1 Timothy 3:4), they will frequently establish satellite assemblies through their YouTube channels, with a “pastor” in one State “pastoring” one or more “church plants” in other States or even internationally, until they decide that the local puppet meets their requirements for ordination
• Foul and abusive language: using euphemisms and crude or abusive language is the norm for this group; they do not shy away from slurs and “almost cussing” in the pulpit or out of it, and testimonies from former participants indicates that their “pastors” use vulgarity off camera
• Calling for violence and death: frequent “sermons” against homosexuals calling for self-harm and legalizing their execution
• Hyper-patriarchal family structure: according to several ex-Andersonites, wife beating is common among adherents, and their speakers have described abusive behavior toward children; Steven Anderson’s four adult children have either fled, cut their parents off, or have distanced themselves from Anderson, and have consistently described abusive practices against both the children and Anderson’s wife
• International “Soul-winning” trips: given the movement’s focus on “1, 2, 3, repeat after me” quick sales tactics, it’s not surprising that they routinely take group trips to countries with receptive cultures and boast of hundreds of “conversions” which are then abandoned without any sort of discipleship or training, typical of this extreme version of the Jack Hyles/Carl Hatch approach to supposed “evangelism”

Of course the incidence of these various practices and behaviors will vary from place to place, with some leaders being less irrational than others, but pretty much all of those who have been influenced by Steven Anderson will exhibit at least some of the ungodly and abusive practices described here.

Bad Root, Bad Fruit

Christ Himself said “by their fruits ye shall know them.” (Matthew 7:16-20). And yes, it applies: the Andersonites are false prophets.

As of the publication of this article, Steven Anderson’s FOUR oldest children have not only abandoned their father’s church system completely, but one (Solomon) is an open cross-dresser, another (Isaac) is an open Nazi sympathizer and white supremacist, another has denied any belief in God whatsoever (John), and his oldest daughter (Miriam) had to flee her home and hide out on the other side of the country for fear of violent retribution. Is that a man that rules his house well (1 Timothy 3:4)? Or is that rotten fruit demonstrating the wicked root of Anderson’s doctrine and practice?

The current “churches” (cults) currently associated with Steven Anderson, or at least listed on a website that promotes his insane movement, are as follows:

• Faithful Word Baptist Church – Phoenix, AZ (Steven Anderson)
• Straight Paths Baptist Church – Tucson, AZ (Corbin Ressl)
• First Works Baptist Church – Anaheim, CA (Bruce Mejia)
• Verity Baptist Church – Sacramento, CA (Roger Jimenez – currently in a messy breakup with Anderson)
• Stedfast Baptist Church – Cedar Hill, TX (Jonathan Shelley)
• Stedfast Baptist Church – Oklahoma City, OK (Jonathan Shelley)
• Sure Foundation Baptist Church – Vancouver, WA (Aaron Thompson)
• Sure Foundation Baptist Church – Spokane, WA (Aaron Thompson)
• Sure Foundation Baptist Church – Renton, WA (Aaron Thompson)
• Bible Believers Baptist Church – Union Gap, WA (Aaron Thompson)
• Sure Foundation Baptist Church – Surrey, BC (Aaron Thompson)
• New Life Baptist Church – Little Mountain, QLD (Kevin Sepulveda)
• Verity Baptist Church – Manila, Philippines (Matthew Stucky)
• Strong Tower Baptist Church – Westcliff-on-sea, UK (Ian Taverner)
• Fortress Baptist Church – Winnipeg, MB (Jim Wiebe)

There are several other “formerly Andersonite” churches across the country, from Florida to Ohio to Texas, but all it usually takes is a glance at their statement of faith to find the clues mentioned above, even if they have split with Steven Anderson himself.

The Andersonites are OUR Problem

Every time some wigged-out Andersonite sycophant calls for homosexuals to commit suicide or Anderson himself gets on the news for his ungodly behavior, the new media lumps us all together under the same Baptist fundamentalist umbrella. Of course it doesn’t help that Anderson makes a big deal about the King James Bible as well, so it’s even harder for us to distance our selves from him.

But that makes it all the more important that every Bible believing Baptist church and preacher make a permanent, public denouncement of Steven Anderson and his cult. His words and actions are a disgrace to our Saviour, and it is high time that we took a stand against him and his actions.

This author has already been publicly attacked by Steven Anderson; years ago I was the target of a smear article that actually caused me to lose a certain amount of monthly support. I do not shy away from or hesitate to use this platform to publicly denounce Anderson, his doctrine, and his followers, and I call on every other church and believer with any sort of platform to do so as well. Even a sentence on your church’s Statement of Faith page would be sufficient to indicate that you do not hold with Anderson and may help to separate his cult from normal Baptist churches in the public eye.