Conrad Gaard (d. 1969) was an Anglo-Israel minister and a key figure in the emergence of Christian Identity from British Israelism.[1] He was one of the first to incorporate the serpent seed doctrine into Christian Identity teaching.[2]
Gaard was the pastor of the Christian Chapel Church in Tacoma, Washington,[3] an Identity congregation.[4] He broadcast over three radio stations, and published a newsletter titled The Broadcaster, formerly titled The Interpreter.[4] He headed the Destiny of America Foundation until his death in 1969.[5][6]
Gaard was a faculty member of the Dayton Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio, an Anglo-Israel training center.[7]
Gaard was one of the most influential theologians in the early formation of Christian Identity.[10] He was one of the four primary theologians responsible for the emergence of Christian Identity out of British Israelism, along with Wesley Swift, William Potter Gale, and Bertrand Comparet.[1]
In the 1940s, Gaard was among a number of British Israel organizers who were mentored by Gerald L. K. Smith, along with Bertrand Comparet and San Jacinto Capt.[11]
Conrad Gaard's origin teaching considered the serpent a pre-Adamite "beast of the field". Although the assumption is that the serpent fathered Cain through adultery with Eve, Gaard considered that made little difference since Cane married a pre-Adamite anyway, resulting in a "mongrel, hybrid race".[12] In Gaard's view, the original sin then was miscegenation.[13] This line was continued through Ham, allowing Cain's line to survive the flood. This continued when Judah had offspring with a Canaanite woman. This line was carried of into Babylonian exile where they joined with "the various Edomite-Amalekite Shelanite-Canaanite elements of the serpent race" which, "under Satanic inspiration they were united in one Conspiratorial group, which became known as the 'Diaspora,' or Dispersion, of the 'Jews'".[12] Gaard's teaching on serpent seed doctrine first appeared sometime in the 1960s,[14] in his book Spotlight on the Great Conspiracy.[3]
Gaard's teachings on eschatology rejected amillennialism and presented a combination of elements from postmillennialism and premillennialism.[10] He believed sin would continue until things were as in Noah's generation, and that Christ would return prior to a millennial reign on Earth under God's law.[15] Gaard rejected the idea of a secret rapture of the Church, teaching that the Church would be saved in the Great Tribulation, as opposed to being saved from it.[16]
