Philip E. J. Monson
Philip E. J. Monson was a British Israelite organizer, founder of Covenant Evangelistic Association, Kingdom Bible College, and Zion Press, and a key West Coast promoter of Anglo-Israelism through Howard Rand's Anglo-Saxon Federation of America, using Bible classes, publishing, and institutional networks to spread racialized prophecy teaching; his 1928 "two-seed" thesis, which linked Cain to Satan and Abel to a supposedly pure bloodline, became an important precursor to later Christian Identity and Serpent's Seed doctrine, influencing figures such as Wesley Swift and forming part of the ideological stream that later overlapped with William Branham's Latter Rain-era Serpent's Seed teaching.
Philip E. J. Monson was the President and founder of the Covenant Evangelistic Association, the Kingdom Bible College, and the Zion Press, evangelical organizations devoted to spreading British Israelism.[1] He was the great-great-grandson of the second Baron Monson and related to the ninth Baron Augustus Debonnaire John Monson and Sir Edmund John Monson, British minister to Mexico. His grandfather and great-grandfather were Episcopal ministers, and his great-uncle was a chaplain to Queen Victoria.[2]
From 1890 to 1907, Totten published nearly two dozen books and hundreds of articles on AngloIsraelism, prophecy, biblical chronology, and other related topics. His works inspired dozens of evangelists and religious writers, including Rev. John H. 4 Allen, a founding minister of the Church of God (Holiness); Charles Parham, the founder of the Apostolic Faith Movement; Victor Morris Tyler, a wealthy industrialist and editor of the Our Race Quarterly; Rev. Reuben H. Sawyer, a clergyman of the Christian Church and recruiter for the Ku Klux Klan; and Alan A. Beauchamp, a publisher and editor of the Watchman of Israel.'[3]
- Mystical Anti-Semitism and the Christian Identity Movement: A Narrative Criticism of Dan Gayman's The Two Seeds of Genesis 3:15
When Howard Rand's Anglo-Saxon Federation of America organized a branch in California in 1930,[4] Philip Monson was appointed the California State Secretary.[5] That same year, Monson established his Kingdom Bible College in Los Angeles.[6] He frequently held free "Bible classes" promoting British Israelism under the auspices of the Anglo-Saxon Federation of America.[7] Key figures in the British Israelism/Christian Identity movements, such as Wesley A. Swift,[8] attended Monson's school and lectures. By the end of 1930, Monson was the Federation's district superintendent for the Pacific Coast, with authority over California, Nevada, Utah, Oregon, Washington, and Idaho.[9]
In 1928, Philip Monson introduced the "two-seed" doctrine in the form of a thesis, which would later develop into Christian Identity/Serpent's Seed doctrine and movement. It was later republished in 1936 and again at the end of the 1930s.[10] According to Monson, the Biblical Cain and his lineage descended from Satan, while Abel and his lineage descended from the "pure blood stream."[11] Wesley Swift would later popularize this doctrine in the Christian Identity movement, about the same time or shortly before William Branham popularized it in the Latter Rain Healing Revivals as his "Serpent's Seed Doctrine".[12]