Shepherd's Chapel - My Story

Like I said in a previous post I use to be a student of Shepherd's Chapel. I figured if the people viewing my YouTube video stumble across this blog I wanted to show them and anybody else my testimony. It was commented on my video (and in the comments from this post) that I never was a student of Shepherd's Chapel and am a liar..

So here is my history:

My Grandfather stumbled across Shepherd's Chapel when I was about 11 or 12 years old (I'm 34 now). He started sending my parents some of Shepherd's Chapel's tapes and teachings. We started doing Bible studies at my Grandfather's house and his doctrines were heavily influenced by Arnold Murray's teachings. A couple of years later my Dad purchased a C-band Satellite (the big dish). I was able at that point to watch Pastor Murray anytime I wanted (they have a 24-7 channel on C-Band). I got one of my best friends and my brother involved with the group and we studied with Shepherd's Chapel. I have been to 3 Passover meetings (annual meetings they hold usually in Branson, MO). I studied and believed in the doctrines of Shepherd's Chapel until around February of 2011. That would put me at about 20 years knowledge of their doctrines and teachings. God opened my eyes to the false teachings of that group and I was convinced of Reformed Theology though my personal Bible studies. I attend a Reformed Church.

I renounce Shepherd's Chapel as a heretical cult that is outside the scope of Christianity!

Here is a list of some of the heretical and unorthodox teachings of Shepherd's Chapel:

• They teach we existed before we where born in the flesh and there was a first earth age that we all lived in. (Zechariah 12:1 and 1 Cor. 15:46 refutes preexistence and no scriptural support for a "first earth age". The 'gap theory' cannot be supported with sound Hebrew exegesis.)
• Satan rebelled in that first earth age and God destroyed it. (nowhere in scripture mentions this supposed satanic rebellion. They will misuse and strip out of context Jeremiah chapter 4 to try and prove it but it is exegetically and contextually impossible.)
• The elect where chosen because they stood against Satan in the first earth age. (Romans 8 and 9, Ephesians 1 and 2 refutes this claim. This is justification by works and is heresy. The elect where chosen not based on any works but on God's sovereign and free choice, Romans 9.)
• Satan had literal sex with Eve and Cain was the offspring of Satan and Eve. (Genesis 4:1 refutes this claim.)
• Cain's decedents are called Kenites and they are still alive today (claiming to be Jews) and controlling the world behind the scenes. (No scriptural support. This is a scare tactic and breeds racism.)
• Kenites wrote the book of Esther. (No scriptural or historical support and it blatant denial of Holy Scripture, Revelation 22:19.)
• Caucasians are the true descendants of the 10 lost tribes of Israel. (No scriptural or historical support. This doctrine stems from the British Israelism heresy which has close ties to racist groups.)
• Anybody that believes in the Rapture will be deceived by the Antichrist. (Revelation 13:8 and Matt. 24:22 and John 10:28-29 refutes that Christians can be deceived by Antichrist or his system.)
• The Antichrist is Satan himself and not a man. (2nd Thess. chapter 2 distinguishes between the man of sin and Satan.)
• They teach Annihilationism. (Matt. 25:46, Rev. 14:9-11 and many others refutes this.)
• They are unclear as to the Trinity and teach modalism (God uses three offices not that God is three persons). I've heard Pastor Murray say "a smart man doesn't discuss the Trinity". They leave it ambiguous, but Pastor Murray's teachings are clearly modalistic and thus heretical.
• Christians must uphold the kosher food laws (Romans 14:17, 1st Timothy 4:3-4, Mark 7:19 refutes this claim).
• We are in the end-times because in 1948 the good and bad figs returned and created the state of Israel. (This is dispensational stuff with a twist. They say the bad figs are Kenites. There is no scriptural support for this position. If one simply reads Jeremiah 24 you will see they are taking this way out of context. Scripture makes it clear that the 'last days' began in the first century. Hebrews 1:1-2, Acts 2:17 et. al.).
• If your church doesn't teach who the Kenites are they are not a true church. (They try to use Smyrna and Philadelphia from Revelation to try and prove that but there is no scriptural or exegetical support for their assertions. Romans 2:28-29 shows that a true Jew is a one that is inwardly a Jew, in other words a Christian).
• They teach there is a distinction between free will Christians and elect Christian. (absolutely no scriptural support for this position. Romans 8 and Ephesians 1 disproves this heresy. All Christians are elect and all elect are Christians. The Bible makes no difference between so-called free-will and elect Christians.)

Why is Shepherd's Chapel dangerous? Well as you can see there is no scriptural support for a first earth age that the elect where chosen in. To teach that you are elect because of something you did is heretical and against everything written in the New Testament. I have heard repeatedly Pastor Murray when teaching through Romans 8 say the elect where justified, elected and chosen because they stood with God in the first earth age. This is essentially justification by works which the Bible strongly condemns (Ephesians 2:8-10). There is no distinction anywhere in the Bible where there are special separate elect Christians apart from other Christians. All true Christians are elect! Once a person realizes that simple truth, the whole Shepherd's Chapel system of doctrine falls apart. That is what started my journey out of Shepherd's Chapel and I pray that if you are lost in this cult that you consider the ramifications of your doctrines.

Consider this: the doctrines they teach were not taught by Christ, Paul, or any of the Apostles. Their doctrines are not found in any early church writings and was never taught by the Christian church. Would God wait until some man in Arkansas almost 2000 years after Christ to reveal the truth (this is similar to what Mormons teach concerning Joseph Smith)? Again there is no scriptural support for their aberrant doctrines.

Arnold Murray denies the Trinity even though he may claim he doesn't (he simply redefines it to fit his heretical views). The simple fact is that Murray does not teach that the one God has eternally existed as three co-equal, co-eternal persons. Shepherd's Chapel teaches a false gospel and false gospels cannot save!

As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed. (Galatians 1:9 ESV)

Soli Deo Gloria!

*updated 3/08/2013