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  1. “What’s the real Holocaust?”: Steven Anderson’s Holocaust Denial

“What’s the real Holocaust?”: Steven Anderson’s Holocaust Denial

This final section presents the meat of my discussion on Anderson and how he frames the spiritual

65 Anderson, Did the Holocaust Really Happen?, 00:34:20.

66 Marrs, Texe Marrs Interviews Steven Anderson About ‘Marching to Zion’ Part 1, 00:44:07-00:44:27.

67 Marrs, Conspiracy of the Six-Pointed Star, loc. 457, 534, 706, 871, 1160, 1236, 1332, Kindle.

68 Ibid., loc. 460, 532, 906, 4938, Kindle; especially loc. 7787, 8524. Similarly, Barkun, A Culture of Conspiracy, 67.

69 Texe Marrs and Framing the World, “Texe Marrs Interviews Steven Anderson About ‘Marching to Zion’ Part 2,” YouTube video, 1:02:46, uploaded May 6, 2016, accessed July 30, 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HaBBRsHTOY, 00:05:32 and 00:06:28-00:06:38.

70 This is a theme in, for example, Marrs, Conspiracy of the Six-Pointed Star, loc. 3145, Kindle; also see Anderson, *Did the Holocaust Really Happen? *

71 American Jewish Committee,* The Working Definition of Anti-Semitism: What Does It Mean, Why Is It Important, and What Should We Do With It?* (New York: American Jewish Committee, n.d.), see page 6, accessed February 10, 2020, https:// www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/Religion/Submissions/JBI-Annex1.pdf.

72 Ibid., 7.

implications of the Holocaust. While I have been building to this point, the broader scope of his theological views, antisemitism, and similarities to other theocentric Christian conspiracists remains relevant. One could surmise that, in a sense, Anderson needs to deny the Holocaust. I do not suggest that it is a theological imperative. Instead, the Holocaust could represent the epitome of potential resistance to his religious aims. The Holocaust can be seen as a challenge to Christianity (because of the Christian history of anti-Judaism and antisemitism), as a force for cementing Jewish identity, and as generating sympathy for Jews, Judaism, and Israel. Denying the Holocaust wipes away these potential obstacles and others like them.

While Anderson has some different views than Marrs, they both draw on similar arguments for their Holocaust denial. In “Did the Holocaust Really Happen?,” Anderson exhibits some of core traits of Holocaust denial outlined by Allington (referencing the work of Michael Shermer and Alex Grobman): Anderson denies “any ‘Final Solution’ to exterminate the Jewish people,” denies “the existence of any extermination facilities,” especially the gas chambers, and denies “the accepted death toll of five to six million Jews.” He is ignorant, willfully or not, of the nuances of the Holocaust as “not a single event but rather a collective term describing a long series of events spread over many nations.”73

Apart from what he denies, the strategies Anderson uses for popularizing Holocaust denial among Christians need to be considered more thoroughly. Anderson begins his video by appealing to Christian viewers with biblical references. He first tells the viewer not to “get upset, and angry, and emotional”74 before hearing his case for Holocaust denial. Anderson quotes the Book of Proverbs as justification, “He that answereth a matter before he heareth it, it is folly and shame unto him.”75 In other words, or so the prooftext goes, the viewer needs to listen to Anderson before closing the video simply because he’s questioning whether the Holocaust happened. Anderson uses these prooftexts, and others like it, to try and keep the Christian viewer tuned in, even potentially guilting them into hearing his case. While such biblical prooftexting is certainly uncommon among most historic and contemporary Holocaust deniers, in light of his likely audience, the consistent use of biblical references helps Anderson construct his image as a religious authority figure with spiritual insights into the Holocaust.

Anderson mixes his biblical appeal with strategies other Holocaust deniers regularly employ to deflect immediate criticism. Throughout the video, he insists that viewers do the research for themselves, rather than follow intuition, popular opinion, or the research of reputable scholars. Presumably, the viewer will discover holes in what he calls the “official version” (described below) of the Holocaust by digging deeper into the so-called facts; at least as he defines what digging deeper entails.76 In another example of deflection, Anderson appears to plead ignorance, making claims like “it is impossible for me… you know, in 2015 America, to tell you exactly what happened over there on the other side of the world seventy years ago.”77 Still, he consistently doubles down on his denial because “the story doesn’t add up.”78 Whether consciously tapping into strategies employed by other Holocaust deniers or other conspiracists more broadly, these strategies allow Anderson to appear simply like an interested individual (though simultaneously a religious authority figure) who notices discrepancies and wants to explore them. In this way, Anderson self-fashions the image of a reasonable layman, signifying he will dispassionately dissect the facts for viewers. The “reasonable layman” image works in concert with the “religious authority figure” image, the latter of which recognizes the deeper impact of the Holocaust, its spiritual significance.

Anderson utilizes another strategy for diffusing criticism, one he shares with Marrs and similar antisemitic Christian conspiracists. As briefly alluded to above, Anderson seeks to distance himself from racists and neo-Nazis. Basically, from the start of “Did the Holocaust Really Happen?,”

73 Shermer and Grobman in Allington, Holocaust Denial Online, 35.

74 Anderson, Did the Holocaust Really Happen?, 00:01:45-00:02:40.

75 Ibid., 00:01:45-00:02:40; citing Proverbs 18:13, King James Version (KJV).

76 Ibid., 00:00:38-00:00:55.

77 Ibid., 00:15:45-00:16:07.

78 Ibid., 00:16:02-00:16:12.

Anderson ensures viewers, “I don’t have a racist bone in my body” and “I am not pro-Hitler or pro-Nazi or pro-National Socialist.”79 On other occasions, Anderson has shown an awareness of the fact that the Anti-Defamation League and Southern Poverty Law Center have labeled him a racist and an antisemite. Throughout his ministry, Anderson has been consistent in claiming he isn’t a racist or an antisemite.80 In fact, Anderson and theocentric Christian conspiracists in his circle are outspoken in denouncing racism and racist movements as wholly unbiblical. In an interview between Marrs and Anderson, for example, Anderson stated, “I am not going to glory in being a white person, the Bible says ‘God forbid that I should glory save for the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ’… The only thing that matters is: are you in Christ? If you’re not in Christ, I don’t care what your pedigree is you’re not one of the chosen.”81 Marrs and Anderson, as well as other Christians with similar views, often pat each other on the back for supposedly being against racism and antisemitism, which, in their eyes, are labels opponents use to silence biblical truth. As Christians who believe Jesus offers the only path to salvation, Marrs, Anderson, and their coterie are not afraid to state they are anti-Judaism, but they ardently reject being called racist or antisemitic, the latter of which they clearly understand to be exclusively race-based Jew hatred. As an example of their self-congratulatory language, in the same interview just mentioned Marrs commended Anderson for his anti-racism, saying “It seems to me… that you oppose racism. You’re sort of a civil rights leader, in a favorable way, biblically… You’re opposed to somebody that says this group or that group is, uh, God’s chosen because of the color of their skin or their race or whatever.”82 It is important to note, however, that in the context of the interview the hidden sentiment is that Jews who believe they are God’s chosen people are the true racists, also a common view held by likeminded, antisemitic theocentric Christian conspiracists.83

To explore the issue of race further, in Marching to Zion Anderson uses genetic testing to scientifically prove a spiritual claim attributed to the Apostle Paul in the Epistle to the Galatians, that “there is neither Jew nor Greek” in God’s kingdom.84 According to Anderson, genetic testing shows how every human has ties to a variety of ethnic groups. So, as the logic goes, genetic testing definitively proves there are no racial, ethnic, or genealogical barriers to all people becoming united in Jesus Christ. In other words, God gave Paul’s claim about spiritual unity a physical manifestation—the genetic code of every human. In one scene in Marching to Zion, Anderson and Wittenberger visit a laboratory to have their own DNA tested. Anderson celebrates his results, which apparently indicate African, Asian, and Jewish ancestry. As he interprets his results, modern genetic testing proves that Anderson himself is a kind of microcosm of scripture’s teachings.85 The fact that Anderson revels in being ethnically or racially mixed distinguishes his approach from that of Holocaust deniers with explicit neo-Nazi or white supremacist leanings.

Further in “Did the Holocaust Really Happen?,” Anderson states that he does not doubt Hitler

79 Ibid., 00:00:56-00:01:23.

80 For example, Marrs and Framing the World, Texe Marrs Interviews Steven Anderson About ‘Marching to Zion’ Part 1, 00:23:35-00:23:40; there, he says, “This has nothing to do with race, and they will try to play that race card, but I believe that God has made all nations of the earth of one blood.”

81 Ibid., 00:26:50-00:27:19.

82 Ibid., 00:22:28-00:22:58; also see Wittenberger, Marching to Zion, beginning at 00:58:18.

83 The notion that Jews are the real racists appears often in Marrs’ writing. Marrs, DNA Science and the Jewish Bloodline, loc. 471, Kindle; Marrs, Conspiracy of the Six-Pointed Star, loc. 6104, Kindle; Marrs, Blood Covenant With Destiny, loc. 1967, Kindle; also see Hoffman, *Judaism Discovered. *

84 Citing Galatians 3:28, KJV; Faithful Word Baptist Church, “‘Marching to Zion’ Full Movie Transcript,” Faithful Word Baptist Church, May 14, 2015, accessed August 1, 2019, https://www.faithfulwordbaptist.org/m2z_full_english.html.

85 Wittenberger, Marching to Zion, 01:13:16-01:30:48; also see Steven L. Anderson, “I’m North African!” Steven L. Anderson (blog), August 14, 2014, accessed July 30, 2019, https://sanderson1611.blogspot.com/2014/08/im-north-african. html; Steven L. Anderson, “I Have Jewish DNA!” Steven L. Anderson (blog), September 2, 2014, accessed July 30, 2019, https://sanderson1611.blogspot.com/2014/09/i-have-jewish-dna.html; Steven L. Anderson, “I’m Blacker than I Thought!” Steven L. Anderson (blog), September 3, 2014, accessed July 30, 2019, https://sanderson1611.blogspot. com/2014/09/im-blacker-than-i-thought.html; Steven L. Anderson, “My Mom is Part Asian!” Steven L. Anderson (blog), September 4, 2014, accessed July 30, 2019, https://sanderson1611.blogspot.com/2014/09/my-mom-is-part-asian.html; Steven L. Anderson, “My 92 Year-Old Grandma’s DNA Results,” Steven L. Anderson (blog), September 15, 2014, accessed July 30, 2019, https://sanderson1611.blogspot.com/2014/09/my-92-year-old-grandmas-dna-results.html.

hated Jews and was a racist; he also does not doubt that Jews died in WWII.86 Rather, he disputes that six million Jews died at the hand of the Nazis. In terms of evidence, he largely regurgitates the pseudoscientific arguments of organized Holocaust denial, the arguments marshaled to make Holocaust denial appear reasonable or rational. However, he occasionally imbues these more historically common pseudoscientific arguments with spiritual meaning. The most notable example emerges from his discussion of Auschwitz. Claiming that Auschwitz was a labor camp and not a death camp, his primary evidence rests on the memorial plaques various governments placed and replaced at Auschwitz after the war. A fairly common focal point for Holocaust deniers, when the plaques at Auschwitz were replaced or updated, the stated number of those murdered changed, from 4 million to 1.5 million to 1.1 million. Yet, Anderson finds, the overall figure of six million always stays the same in public discourse. How is that possible? Anderson’s understanding of the history and politics of these memorial plaques is superficial, and reputable scholars have already addressed seeming discrepancies.87 For Anderson, however, the six million total always remains unchanged because the number was “foreordained.” By “foreordained,” Anderson hints at two levels of numerical significance, one historical and one spiritual. First, Anderson’s use of “foreordained” relies on a dubious interpretation of newspaper reports from before WWII, which reportedly hinted at six million Jews eventually dying in massive European conflict. In other words, Jews had already arrived at the six million figure long before Hitler ever came to power. Again, this so-called historical evidence harkens to the work of a generation of Holocaust deniers obsessed with using “rational” or “reasonable” arguments in their denial.

The second sense of “foreordained” adds a spiritual dimension to the six million number. Citing the Kabbalah and gematria as examples, Anderson claims that “the Jews love numbers” and the number six is of particular importance—“that number is like a magic number to them… it’s not really based on real history or science.”88 Anderson then cites the Six-Day War, the six-pointed Star of David (a satanic symbol according to Anderson), and the six main death camps of the “Holocaust myth,” to show how Jews are obsessed with the number six.89 Although Anderson does not reference other theocentric Christian conspiracists who write about Jews and the numerological meaning of “six,” it lies in the backdrop of his analysis. Other theocentric Christian conspiracists who are Holocaust deniers discuss the supposed Jewish obsession with the number six, which they associate with Satan and carnality.90 The interpretation of hidden signs and symbols, especially satanic signs and symbols, forms a key part of many of Anderson’s sermons and films on the end times. The idea of six being “like a magic number”91 rests on Anderson’s persona as a religious authority; he appears to be unmasking hidden spiritual knowledge directly connected to definitive historical and scientific “evidence.” Since, in his mind at least, “six million” is not based on “real history or science,” Anderson emerges as the authority on the real history and real science behind the number’s meaning. By injecting a deeper spiritual or prophetic meaning into “six million,” Anderson asserts his interpretive authority over and above other Holocaust deniers. There is a sense in which “rationalist” Holocaust deniers found the evidence of “Jewish lies,” yet they apparently do not realize the deeper spiritual dimensions of the “Holocaust myth.”

The majority of the middle section of “Did the Holocaust Really Happen?” primarily raises easy to debunk pseudoscience and a profound misunderstanding of the Holocaust and WWII history.

86 Anderson, Did the Holocaust Really Happen?, 00:02:40-00:03:05; juxtaposed to Holocaust deniers with neo-Nazi inclinations, Anderson has denigrated Hitler on several occasions, see Steven L. Anderson, “Hitler was NOT a Christian!,” YouTube video, 14:04, uploaded December 28, 2017, accessed July 30, 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjfoFRB-qWw.

87 James E. Young, The Texture of Memory: Holocaust Memorials and Meaning (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993), 141.

88 Anderson, Did the Holocaust Really Happen?, 00:05:40-00:06:50.

89 Ibid., 00:06:02-00:06:27.

90 Marrs emphasizes the spiritual significance of six as well, see Conspiracy of the Six-Pointed Star, loc. 313, 588, Kindle; also see recording of Texe Marrs’ radio show, Power of Prophecy, where he discusses the Holocaust: Texe Marrs, “Texe Marrs—Holocaust Dogma Unmasked,” Archive.org audio, 59:31, uploaded December 14, 2011, accessed February 15, 2020, https://archive.org/details/TexeMarrs-HolocaustDogmaUnmasked_979/TexeMarrs-HolocaustDogmaUnmaskedPart3.flv.mp3. On the Star of David as a satanic symbol, see Wittenberger, Marching to Zion, 00:41:30-00:43:47.

91 Anderson, Did the Holocaust Really Happen?, 00:06:38-00:06:50.

To reiterate, most of Anderson’s “evidence” is primarily taken directly from the arguments of a prior generation of organized Holocaust deniers, and he does not necessarily illuminate spiritual truths at every turn. For example, he claims other death camps besides Auschwitz were simply labor camps, the gas chambers are fake, the number of bodies cremated was impossible, Zionists collaborated with the Nazis, survivors and eyewitnesses lie for monetary gain, etc.92 But, it should be noted that according to Anderson the “official version” of the Holocaust is as follows: “[the] story of the Holocaust is that the Jews were just rounded up and brought straight to a death camp and straight to their death.” As evidence against the “official version,” Anderson cites photos of the emaciated survivors, inquiring, “why would they look skinny and emaciated? It takes months to get that skinny and emaciated. You know, you don’t get that way overnight.”93 In Anderson’s mind, since survivors were so emaciated they clearly were not rounded up and sent straight to the death camps, as the “official version” maintains. Like other Holocaust deniers, Anderson shows “a deep and abiding ignorance of the overwhelming majority of recent Holocaust research” and fights against “hallucinated debate partners.”94

After this middle section that centers on fairly standard pseudoscience in Holocaust denial, Anderson’s video concludes by circling back to the spiritual implications of the “Holocaust hoax.” The mass extermination of Jews in WWII is a lie “they” or “these people” tell. “They” or “these people” is intentionally vague, but Anderson is signaling “Jews,” the synagogue of Satan and the ultimate liars in human history. According to Anderson, people should not be surprised that Jews would lie. He asserts this claim with another biblical prooftext, “the Bible says who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ,”95 and then elaborates, “why would it surprise you that the people who deny the Christ, they deny that Jesus is the Messiah, would lie to you about something else?”96 Anderson and similar theocentric Christian conspiracists who are Holocaust deniers often cite 1 John 2:22 when claiming that Jews are chief among liars.97 Engaging in the ultimate lie, i.e. denying Jesus as messiah, it is self-evident to Anderson that Jews would invent the Holocaust as well.

Like *Marching to Zion, *“Did the Holocaust Really Happen?” is not really intended for nonChristians or Jews. Once again, Anderson ultimately wants to convince Christian Zionists, who he often equates with dispensationalists, that they are theologically misguided and should oppose the State of Israel. Conversion is central to Anderson’s attempt to debunk Christian Zionism.98 Because some Christian Zionists, most notably dispensationalist Christian Zionists, believe that Jews have a unique and ongoing relationship with God, they are sometimes hesitant to share the Christian message with Jews, which would, as Anderson understands it, save Jews from eternal damnation. In not sharing the Christian message of universal redemption exclusively through Jesus, such Christian Zionists have crossed a boundary into non-Christian territory.

Anderson did not invent the fear of Christian Zionism’s boundary crossing out of thin air, and he is not alone in this fear. On the boundaries between Judaism and Christianity, Daniel Boyarin has noted, “the borders between Christianity and Judaism are as constructed and imposed, as artificial and political as any of the borders of the earth.”99 Though Boyarin was referring primarily to the

92 Anderson reveals one of his direct influences when he tells viewers to read Victor L. Thorn, The Holocaust Hoax Exposed: Debunking the 20th Century’s Biggest Lie (Independent Publisher, 2012).

93 Anderson, Did the Holocaust Really Happen?, 00:24:22-00:25:02.

94 Terry, Holocaust Denial in the Age of Web 2.0, 43.

95 Anderson, Did the Holocaust Really Happen?, 00:26:27-00:27:00; citing 1 John 2:22, KJV.

96 Ibid., 00:26:27-00:27:00.

97 Examples include Marrs, Conspiracy of the Six-Pointed Star, loc. 719, Kindle; Hendrie, Bloody Zion, loc. 259, Kindle; Hendrie, Solving the Mystery of Babylon the Great, loc. 4779, Kindle.

98 Anti-dispensationalism and anti-Zionism are key components of the New IFB, see “What is the New IFB Movement?” As stated above, the New IFB appears to have fallen on hard times. The New IFB website disappeared in February 2020. My citation in the works cited includes a screen capture of the website dated December 11, 2019. Again, see Hatewatch Staff, In the Midst of Infighting, Anti-LGBTQ Church Network’s Website and Social Media Disappear.

99 Faydra L. Shapiro, “The Messiah and Rabbi Jesus: Policing the Jewish–Christian border in Christian Zionism,” Culture and Religion 12, no. 4 (2011), 464, accessed July 10, 2019, doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/14755610.2011.633537. For the quote from Boyarin, see Daniel Boyarin, Border Lines: The Partition of Judaeo-Christianity(Philadelphia: University

boundaries between Christianity and Judaism in antiquity, notable Christian communities and Christian movements in modern history occasionally challenge what appear to be rigid boundaries between Christianity and Judaism. Religious studies scholar Faydra L. Shapiro recently extended Boyarin’s work to the contemporary relationship between Jews and Christians, suggesting that the boundaries between the two might be more flexible than most people assume, academics and nonacademics. Shapiro states that the “Jewish-Christian border—fence, if you prefer—is both still alive and still being undermined: scaled, dug under, peered through, gaped at and crossed over.”100 A key example is the prominent dispensationalist and Christian Zionist John Hagee. Shapiro shows how Hagee was criticized by many evangelical Christians for apparently claiming that “Jews are saved through their own covenant with God,” which signified he was possibly “denying the universal Messiahship of Jesus Christ.”101 In the eyes of these evangelical Christians, Hagee had transgressed a boundary dividing Christianity from Judaism. Anderson, a strong critic of Hagee, tends to depict all dispensationalist Christian Zionists as following in the footsteps of Hagee. In reality, not all dispensationalists align with Hagee’s view.

Anderson takes the notion of boundary crossing a step beyond most Christian critics of Hagee. According to Anderson, dispensationalist Christian Zionists have drifted toward a bastardization of Christianity that mirrors Judaism itself in seeking to establish a kingdom on earth, the State of Israel. In light of the cosmic dichotomy between Jews (carnal) and Christians (spiritual), Christians who support Israel are deviants from the true Christian path. While dispensationalist Christian Zionists might be to blame for boundary crossing, it was prominent Jews who supposedly realized that dispensationalism was advantageous to achieving their earthly kingdom. Anderson and Marrs believe a secret society filled with wealthy American Jews backed the modern popularizer of dispensationalism, Cyrus I. Scofield, underwriting the publication of his Scofield Reference Bible, which had a major impact on the growth of dispensationalism in the United States.102 Jews might not have necessarily invented dispensationalism, but Jews supposedly recognized that this theological view could secure their new material kingdom in Palestine. In other words, Jews used their conspiratorial machinations to “Judaize” Christianity through dispensationalism.103 Dispensationalist Christian Zionists in particular, therefore, need a course correction from a material focus to a spiritual one, which would sever their relationship with the State of Israel.

To convince fellow Christians of his position, Anderson attempts to put the Holocaust in an eternal perspective, very crassly one might add. Jews, he says, should fear, “The real Holocaust… the real burnt offering is going to be when all of these Jews who don’t believe in Jesus Christ go to hell for eternity. That’s the oven that they ought to be worried about.”104 In seeking to convert Jews to Christianity, and thereby save them from damnation, Anderson claims he is actually loving Jews—“I don’t hate Jews at all, I want them to be saved.”105 In Anderson’s mind, if certain Christian Zionists believe God has a special relationship with Jews, whereby Jews do not need Jesus, then those Christian Zionists are the real antisemites. They hate Jews by allowing Jews to go to hell without hearing the Christian gospel. If a Christian really wants to hate a Jew, they should remain quiet when they have an opportunity to save a Jew’s soul from hell. In “Did the Holocaust Really Happen?,” Anderson emphasizes his “love” for Jews in contrast to his theological opponents: “If

of Pennsylvania Press, 2004), 1; also see Faydra L. Shapiro, Christian Zionism: Navigating the Jewish-Christian Border (Eugene: Cascade Books, 2015).

100 Shapiro, The Messiah and Rabbi Jesus, 464.

101 Ibid., 467.

102 In Marching to Zion, Marrs said of Cyrus I. Scofield: “He had Jewish retainers who made him a member of the Lotus club—sort of a secret society—and suddenly he had plenty of money… With that amount of money, the [Scofield] Bible took off, and it basically sealed the deal for the Jews.” From Faithful Word Baptist Church, *Marching to Zion Full Movie Transcript. *

103 Marrs, Blood Covenant With Destiny, loc. 2296, Kindle; also see Anderson, *Israel Moments 11-20. *

104 Anderson, Did the Holocaust Really Happen?, 00:28:20-00:28:45; also see Steven L. Anderson, “How to Hate a Jew,” YouTube video, 4:04, uploaded October 2, 2017, accessed July 30, 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyOhrl_lrIA. [Removed from YouTube as of August 2019]; Marrs and Framing the World, Texe Marrs Interviews Steven Anderson About ‘Marching to Zion’ Part 1, 00:18:49-00:19:08.

105 Marrs and Framing the World, Texe Marrs Interviews Steven Anderson About ‘Marching to Zion’ Part 1, 00:18:49-00:19:08.

you really love Jews, instead of talking about this myth of six million… why don’t you worry about the real oven, which is the oven that God made—hell, and warn these Jews before they go to the burnt offering, before they go to hell… let’s warn them about the satanic religion that they are wrapped up in, Judaism.”106

In the backdrop of this statement is Anderson’s emphasis on “soul-winning,” a preoccupation shared by other New IFB pastors. The New IFB is a movement within the IFB that is explicitly anti-Zionist and anti-dispensationalist. For all intents and purposes, Anderson is the head of this movement. As Anderson describes soul-winning, it is a belief and a practice. It is a belief in the immediate necessity to save as many people from hell as possible, which in turn drives soul-winning practices, like soul-winning marathons, i.e. going door-to-door to bring lost souls to Christ. Anderson and other New IFB pastors travel around the United States to help one another’s churches run soul-winning marathons.107 For Anderson, true love means being willing to win any and all souls.

In Anderson’s eyes, the Holocaust is a myth that has collective or global impacts on soulwinning. That is, the impacts go beyond potentially stifling the individual Christian’s willingness to convert Jews.

This lie of the Holocaust does a lot of damage to a lot of people, and let me tell you why, because Jewish children are brainwashed with this thing and they are taught this is what the Christians, even though Christianity obviously had nothing to do with it in the Third Reich, but that’s what they will say… you know, Christianity has done this to you and they teach their children that Christians have murdered their ancestors and they’ve always hated and killed you and it culminated in the Holocaust and so they basically demonize Christians to these Jewish children.108

Here, Anderson states that the Holocaust keeps Jewish children at a distance from Christianity because Jews teach their children that Christians and Christianity were to blame for the Holocaust. Scholars who study the Holocaust have long noted historic connections between the genocide and the actions and inactions of Christian denominations, Christian laymen and laywomen, and Christian leaders, not to mention the role Christians played in fostering anti-Judaism and antisemitism more broadly. As quoted, Anderson says in the video that “Christianity obviously had nothing to do with it in the Third Reich.”109 Thus, though the Holocaust was a myth, Christianity is even further exonerated from anything and everything associated with Hitler and the Nazis. With this in mind, there is a sense in which the “Holocaust myth” is normal in history. Even though he denies the Holocaust took place, it functions as a means for Jews to frame Christianity as destructive. Elsewhere in films and sermons, Anderson subtly, though sometimes not so subtly, draws attention away from the historic role Christians have played in fostering anti-Judaism and antisemitism. For example, in Marching to Zion, Anderson never blames Christians for violence against Jews during the Middle Ages since, in his view, Jews were to blame for their blasphemy and “predatory lending practices.”110 The “Holocaust hoax,” akin to other ways Jews appear to demonize Christianity, must be reexamined and demolished for future generations of Jews to find their way to Jesus.

It is not only Jews who are negatively impacted by the “Holocaust myth” in Anderson’s estimation. The Holocaust enabled Jews to acquire land in Palestine and became a factor in Christian

106 Anderson, Did the Holocaust Really Happen?, 00:30:21-00:30:53; also see Anderson, Israel Moments 11-20.

107 One just need search “soul-winning” on Anderson’s blog: sanderson1611, Steven L. Anderson (blog), July 30, 2019, https://sanderson1611.blogspot.com/search/label/soul-winning; also see Steven L. Anderson, “A Strategy to Evangelize the Entire World 1: Exponential Soul-winning,” Steven L. Anderson (blog), April 5, 2017, accessed July 30, 2019, https:// sanderson1611.blogspot.com/2017/04/but-he-that-received-seed-into-good.html.

108 Anderson, Did the Holocaust Really Happen?, 00:33:21-00:33:53.

109 Ibid., 00:33:29.

110 Wittenberger, Marching to Zion, 00:32:18.

Zionist support for Israel.111 Christian Zionists, influenced by international Jewry, continue to support an Israeli government that oppresses Palestinians. Because the American government has historically supported Israel, which is at odds with majority Muslim countries in the Middle East, geopolitical entanglements lead Muslims to associate Israel with the United States, which in turn causes them to conceptually link Isreal with its American Christian supporters. Therefore, Muslim hearts become hardened toward faith in Jesus by associating Christianity in general with Israel. Said more succinctly, Christian Zionists, influenced by Jews, stifle soul-winning among Muslims. Or, as Anderson summarizes, “fourteen million Jews and one billion Muslims are affected by this Holocaust hoax, and basically it affects how they view Christianity.”112 In other words, a significant portion of the world presently rejects Jesus because they have been presented a supposedly false image of Jesus, one influenced by Jewish leaders and supported, knowingly or unknowingly, by everyday Jews and Christian Zionists. According to Anderson, Jews—deniers of Jesus Christ and the ultimate liars in history—are responsible behind the scenes for the demonization of Christianity on a global scale.113

There is another layer to how supposed Jewish lies about the Holocaust negatively impact non-Jews. This time, the impact is felt at the societal or national level. It is certainly the case that a number of Christian Zionists affirm the idea that political support for Israel is pleasing to God and God will bless them in return. Such Christian Zionists often cite Genesis 12:1-3 as scriptural proof for the promise of God’s return blessing when one blesses Israel, a passage in which God tells Abram (later, Abraham), “And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.”114 This approach to Israel taken by some American Christian Zionists has prompted one scholar to suggest that “Israel becomes a symbol of assent, a redemptive totem that provides a vicarious source of American redemption.”115 Anderson and his coterie assert the direct opposite of Christian Zionists on this point, which they address more thoroughly in Marching to Zion. The fact that America has been apparently sliding into greater moral decay is a sign God hasn’t blessed America or American Christians for their ardent love of Israel.116 The extended implication is that Jews are perhaps one of the primary causes, if not the primary cause, of declining Christian morality in the United States. The “Holocaust myth,” a tactic for garnering support for Israel, is a vital factor in the diminishing influence of Christianity in America. Christian Zionism, a form of “Judaized” Christianity, curses and condemns the very nation (America) it purports to bless.117

With this last point in mind, it is helpful to consider Gregory H. Stanton’s understanding of denial in his now famous “Stages of Genocide.” Stanton notes how genocide denial often involves both denying a genocide took place and blaming victims for whatever did occur (though not claimed to be a genocide).118 As a form of genocide denial, Holocaust denial commonly involves both tactics as well. Holocaust deniers will state that there was no genocide and then claim that whatever occurred was understandable or justified because Jews were traitors, Bolsheviks, internationalists, etc. Anderson, however, takes his denial into spiritual dimensions—supposed Jewish lies have eternal reverberations.

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