Arnold Murray, Shepherds chapel, False teaching, False prophet, serpent seed, Kenites, modalism
“What about teaching Serpent Seed? I make no apology for teaching the Word of God.â€
The quote above is taken directly from Arnold B. Murray’s Answer to Critcs.
http://www.shepherdschapel.com/critics.htmGen 3:15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
Murray teaches that “thy seed†refers to Cain (as the son of Satan) and “her seed†is Abel. The New Testament teaches that Christ is the fulfillment of this verse (Romans16:20, Hebrews2:14, and 1John3:8 ) In addition we must also consider that this occurred before Adam and Eve were kicked out of the Garden (see Gen3:24). So Murray’s timing is off, Eve did not conceive until after they left the Garden.
Gen4:1 And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD.
As the verse above shows it was Adam that knew his wife, not Satan. And let’s not forget the verse tells us the man was from the Lord not Satan.
Nowhere in Scripture does it state that Satan had relations with Eve. Murray perverts Scripture by saying that in 2Cor11:3 beguile means that Satan seduced Eve sexually.
2Cor11:3 But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
The Greek word translated as beguile is exapatao.
G1818 ἐξαπαταÌω exapataoÌ„ ex-ap-at-ah'-o
From G1537 and G538; to seduce wholly: - beguile, deceive.
From Merriam Webster
Definition of BEGUILE\ transitive verb
1: to lead by deception
2: hood wink
3: to while away especially by some agreeable occupation; also: divert 2
4: to engage the interest of by guile
intransitive verb:
to deceive by wiles
But as we can clearly see the intent of the verse was to state that Eve was deceived.
So as we can clearly see Arnold Murray leans on private interpretation of the verse to justify perversion of truth.
Murray teaches John8:44 that we should interpret father in the biological sense. But is he correct?
John8:44 Joh 8:44 Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.
So let’s put it in it’s proper context and show the fallacy of Murray’s teaching. Who was Jesus talking to?
John8:33-34 They answered him, We be Abraham's seed, and were never in bondage
to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free? Jesus answered them, Verily, verily,
I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin
John8:33-34 makes it clear that Jesus recognized biologically (physical seed) they were the descendents of Abraham (not Satan). It is not about the flesh (physical seed) but about the heart (spiritual seed).
Rom2:28-29 For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision,
which is outward in the flesh: But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.
Clearly from Romans we can see that it is not about the flesh, the physical seed but about the spiritual seed. It is the circumcision of the heart that matters not our genealogy.
As for as Murrays view on Kenites goes there are only 12 verses in Scripture that use the term Kenite or Kenites , not once in any of those verses does it say they or descendants of Cain or Satan. (Kenite Num24:22, Jdg1:16, Jdg4:11 Jdg4:17 and Jdg5:24, Kenites Gen15:19, Num24:21,Jdg4:11, 1Sam15:6, 1Sam27:10, 1sam30:29 and1Ch2:55). After the flood which killed all, but the eight righteous people on the ark eliminating the possibility that any of Cains or Satan’s descendents could have survived.
Gen 6:18 But with thee will I establish my covenant; and thou shalt come into the ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons' wives with thee.
So hypothetically speaking even if Cain was the offspring of Satan they (Kenites) would have all been eliminated by the flood.
Referring to Christ, Arnold Murray says “His spirit is holy and he is the holy spirit†(Shepherds Chapel Q&A period aired 6/4/91) The roots of this belief can be traced to Gnostics. Murray is a Modalist one can read more about modalism at
http://carm.org/modalismArnold MurRAy the false prophet. Information on Murrays failed prophecies can be found on numerous videos such as this one with a recording from 1980 about 4 things that would supposedly happen in 1981
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xBPsL5ELoU Needless to say from our vantage point in 2012 we can see these predictions failed. Interestingly in this video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gbr8cds48kk&feature=related from 1988 says the one world system has not come to pass. Wait a minute Mr Murray didn’t you say back in 1980 thar would happen in 80 or 81? Now you contradict yourself 7 or 8 years later by saying it is still future?
I’ve only touched briefly on some of the fallacies being promoted by Arnold Murray, most of these subjects plus a few more should be addressed in greater detail. But even with this brief overview of the fallacies being taught coupled with his failed predicitions should be enough for anyone to see that those who follow his teachings are being misled.