What does the Shepherd's Chapel Teach?

CARM

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So, what is the Shepherd's Chapel? The Shepherd's Chapel is, at the very best, a controversial church with many unorthodox doctrines.

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At the worst, it is a non -Christian cult. The following list of teachings from the Shepherd's Chapel is derived from scouring the internet, from checking out chat rooms where his followers are, from checking out bulletin boards where they post, by asking them what

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Arnold Murray teaches, by looking at the Shepherd's Chapel website, and by watching his

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TV show. Now, many people, many Christian apologists, consider the

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Shepherd's Chapel organization to be a non -Christian cult, and the reason they do is because of the various unorthodox doctrines that the

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Shepherd's Chapel teaches. For example, the Shepherd's Chapel Arnold Murray denies the doctrine of the

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Trinity, and he teaches instead what's called modalism. Now, the Trinity is that there's one

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God who exists in three eternal, co -powerful persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

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Modalism is the teaching that God is one person, and He exists either in three forms or three offices.

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This is what Arnold Murray is teaching, and that is outside of orthodoxy. Now, on the

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Shepherd's Chapel website, at shepherdschapel .com, we find this statement regarding God.

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We believe in the God of the Bible. Exodus 3, verses 6 -14.

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Well, unfortunately, this is completely insufficient as an explanation of what the

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Godhead really is. It does not cover the doctrine of the Trinity. It doesn't affirm or deny modalism, or polytheism for that matter.

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Just to say, we believe in the God of the Bible doesn't do anything, because Mormons say that, Jehovah's Witnesses say that, and various cult groups say the same thing.

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It's just not enough, and He should know better. It should be more descriptive than that. Also, He denies, and the

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Shepherd's Chapel teaches, the denial of the existence of eternal hell. This clearly contradicts the

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Bible's teachings. Take, for example, Revelation 20, verse 10, where it says, "...and the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are also, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever."

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Also, Jesus said, in Matthew 25, verse 46, Another doctrine that the

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Shepherd's Chapel denies is the doctrine of the Rapture. You don't have to believe in the Rapture in order to be a

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Christian, but it's just another one of those things that's clearly taught in Scripture that He denies. If we go to 1

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Thessalonians 4, verse 15, it says this, "...for the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God.

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And the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the

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Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore, comfort one another with these words."

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That's 1 Thessalonians 4, verses 15 -18. Another doctrine that He denies is the physical resurrection of the believers.

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Instead, He says, we are going to be raised spiritually. This is a serious problem. We are going to follow in Christ's footsteps.

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He was physically raised. We are going to be physically raised. He also denies the doctrine of eternal punishment and teaches instead what's called annihilationism, that after judgment the sinner, the unredeemed, simply move out of existence, don't exist anymore.

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He also teaches that there are certain Old Testament kosher laws regarding meat that need to be followed. There is another teaching that is most controversial called the

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Serpent Seed Doctrine. This is a teaching that Eve had literal sexual intercourse with the devil and produced the offspring known as Cain.

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So Cain was Satan's offspring. The descendants of Cain are called the

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Cainites. The Cainites are the tares, according to Arnold Murray, of the parable of Matthew 13 with the wheat and the tares.

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Now, the problem here is that who are the Cainites? Who are the descendants of Cain and so on in the world?

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So we have a problem here with who he describes as Cainites and who are really followers of the devil versus followers of what he truly teaches as being right.

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Also, he teaches that Satan's fallen angels impregnated women around the time of Noah. Now, there is some debate on that within Christian circles, but that's just one of the things he teaches.

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He also denies interracial marriage. He also says being born again is to enter into this body from a spiritual body of another age.

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Arnold Murray teaches America and Britain are the lost tribes of Israel. He teaches that people were alive in a pre -existence.

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He says that the earth age prior to Adam is where the people lived prior to this time.

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Of course, I've already said he denies the rapture. But he does, at least, believe and teach that Satan is a literal being, that Jesus will return and that Jesus will set up a future millennial kingdom.

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He teaches that the Bible is also the inerrant word of God. He says that the earth is millions of years old.

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And of course, Arnold Murray is one of God's true teachers on earth today. Now, Carm very strongly recommends that everyone stay away from the

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Shepherd's Chapel due to its unorthodox and aberrant teachings that contradict the clear word of God.