Though much could be said about the errors of the New IFB Movement, many of the key things about this movement are things which are common to many Baptist churches overall and are rebuked in several of our other studies (things like easy-believe-ism, justification by faith alone, antinomianism, Once Saved Always Saved,  etc).  

This warning will be short and straight to the point.  

The specific focus of this rebuke is the leader of the New IFB (New Independent Fundamental Baptist) Movement Steve Anderson (who goes by the title “Pastor Steve Anderson”).  This guy has received a significant amount of media coverage and is followed by many on the internet who think of him as some sort of courageous, uncompromising preacher hero.  

Of the things which Anderson is right on, including his teachings that the natural Jews are not God’s chosen people and that the modern nation of Israel is not of God, it is sad that such unpopular yet true teachings are being touted by a man who has a false gospel as well as insanely out of control anger issues. 

Anderson is really giving the wicked ammunition and empowerment, even (and especially) in the things which he is right about.  

No person led by the Spirit of God could demonstrate such out of control anger, false bravado, craving for attention, and just overall lack of self-control as Anderson displays.  You just have to listen to him to be assured of this.  Independent Baptist preachers in general tend to be like this- yet Anderson takes it all to a whole other level which is particularly rare and abhorrent.  

Proverbs 29:22 says: “An angry man stirreth up strife, and a furious man aboundeth in transgression.”

It is worth considering that perhaps the main reason anyone would be drawn into admiring and following Anderson would be related to seeking to justify and/or find a voice for their own anger issues.

If otherwise, he will surely at least stumble a person who hears him regularly in the following manner.

Proverbs 22:24-25: “Make no friendship with an angry man; and with a furious man thou shalt not go: Lest thou learn his ways, and get a snare to thy soul.”

Anderson’s own adult children who have left home have spoken out about what they allege to be his ungodly, abusive behavior at home.  He calls their accusations “a Satanic conspiracy.”  Yet I think it is obvious to a reasonable person that Anderson’s already evident public behavior causes the most likely explanation to be that Steve Anderson himself is the primary agent of Satan in the whole mess.

It is no wonder that Anderson himself is an admirer of the deceased IFB preacher Jack Hyles.  Hyles is another Baptist Pastor whose own controlling antics from the pulpit and own mad scramble to defend himself from numerous accusations of his ill behavior in private are also documented for the public.  In my opinion, as with Anderson, the accusations against Hyles make too much sense to be discounted as “a Satanic conspiracy.”

And as with Hyles, here is the greatest irony and pathetic contradiction regarding Anderson (and I can’t believe that his followers don’t see it and that he is not called out for it constantly):

For all of Anderson’s rantings against sin, he blatantly teaches that you do not need to turn from your sins to be saved- and he says that anyone who says that you do is teaching a false gospel. 

So the next time you hear Anderson going into one of his rants about wicked people (which are obviously calculated to make him sound like a tough guy and someone who is more zealous for righteousness than other preachers) remember this is the very same guy says that the concept that you need to turn from your sins in order to be saved is a heretical concept.  

I recently saw a clip of Anderson rebuking lazy, able-bodied people who won’t work and rather seek to live by handouts.  He yelled at a young man sitting in his church in relation to his laziness and freeloading.  In hearing this, the obvious logical conclusion one must make is that this lazy, covetous young man would be a great fit to attend Steve Anderson’s church.  Steve Anderson preaches a gospel which says you can have salvation in Christ without turning from sin.  Why then would someone who is living in sin not feel comfortable attending his church or hearing him regularly online?

How do Anderson and his followers never put two and two together?  

Anderson’s apparent zeal for righteousness and holiness is not only a pathetic, ostentatious, and bombastic show- it is even contradictory to anyone who can think.  It also gives Anderson a justification in his own mind for his own unrepentant sin and hypocrisy.  

He tells others they’ll be damned for not doing what the Word of God commands- when it makes him sound good to whoever he is trying to impress.  In the next breath, he says you don’t need to do what is right at all to be saved- and he claims that anyone who says you have to is preaching a false gospel.  He seems to bank on no one pointing out his duplicity.  

That is the essence of Steve Anderson and the New IFB.  Avoid them like the plague (like old IFB churches ought to be avoided as well).  

Psalm 50:16-23: “But unto the wicked God saith, What hast thou to do to declare my statutes, or that thou shouldest take my covenant in thy mouth?  Seeing thou hatest instruction, and casteth my words behind thee.  When thou sawest a thief, then thou consentedst with him, and hast been partaker with adulterers.  Thou givest thy mouth to evil, and thy tongue frameth deceit.  Thou sittest and speakest against thy brother; thou slanderest thine own mother’s son.  These things hast thou done, and I kept silence; thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself: but I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes.  Now consider this, ye that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver.  Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me: and to him that ordereth his conversation aright will I shew the salvation of God.”

Also, see these other studies we’ve done which are particularly relevant with this one: “Twisting Paul: Key Strategy of the False Grace Preachers” and “Preachers Shouldn’t Be Regularly Screaming at Their Audience.”

Aaron’s email is: [email protected]

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