Refusing to speak specifically against a false religious leader is selfish and irresponsible. Not noble or righteous.

----- Original Message -----

From: Paul Stringini

To: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Sent: Friday, January 21, 2011 1:09 PM

Subject: Re: discouraging studying God's Word

XXXXX,

Thanks for taking the time to write.

Pastor Murray will not speak specifically against nor take questions condemning other religions or religious leaders. That alone puts him way above you.

Above ME? Dr. Murray places himself above the Apostle Paul and Christ when he teaches that it is wrong to declare false religions and teachers to be what they are, and to do it specifically, by name. It is very convenient for him to make criticizing people a sin, but it is not a biblical doctrine.

You demonstrate clearly that you are not a student of the bible. You are a student of the wisdom and personal opinions and feelings of Dr. Arnold Murray (and of your own opinions and feelings). If you were able to "study for yourself" and making a practice of that, you would have realized that Dr. Murray is making up his own rules. Refusing to speak specifically against a false religious leader is selfish and irresponsible. Not noble or righteous. You have been duped.

2 Timothy 2:15 Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
16 But shun profane and vain babblings: for they will increase unto more ungodliness.
17 And their word will eat as doth a canker: of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus;
18 Who concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is past already; and overthrow the faith of some.

The Apostle Paul certainly had no problem speaking specifically against false teachers. If you were a student of the bible instead of a student of Dr. Murray, you might realize that. But you interpret the bible in light of what Arnold Murray says instead of checking what Arnold Murray says by the light of the bible. It is amazing that Dr. Murray is guilty of the same heresy as these two, teaching that the dead are already risen.

2Timothy 4:14 Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil: the Lord reward him according to his works:
15 Of whom be thou ware also; for he hath greatly withstood our words.
16 At my first answer no man stood with me, but all men forsook me: I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge.

Aside from these, the bible is filled with the specific names of people whose ideas or actions were worthy of condemnation, such as, Simon (Acts 8), and Elymas the Sorcerer (Acts 13).

The bible teaches that it is proper to label false teachers.

Romans 16:17 Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them.
18 For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple.

Mark them, that means that you need to let others know who they are. I am following the teachings of the Apostrles of Jesus Christ, you are following the traditions of Arnold Murray.

Heresy is sin and when you see someone sinning it is HATRED to say nothing.

Leviticus 19:17 Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart: thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour, and not suffer sin upon him.

Rebuke thy neighbor. You like to practice that on me. And that is the right thing to do, so I commend you for standing up for what you believe in and rebuking me.

Why would "a little ant like" you think yourself so worthy to condemn the teaching of one who goes thru the Bible passage by passage, word by word?

Well, what I meant is that to Dr. Murray I am no more than a little ant, but this was in reference to his worldly power and stature among men. He has that great big satellite dish and tens of thousands of followers, all I have is this little old webpage, I am nothing to him. The point was that if he paid attention to me, it would be making more of me, and he wouldn't want to do that. That wouldn't be prudent.

But to answer your question, what makes me worthy to condemn Arnold Murray's teachings? (and I thank you for not saying I condemn him personally, because I do not)

I go through the bible passage by passage, word by word and I discovered something that irresponsible and lazy students have missed. Pastor Murray does not teach the bible, he teaches an interpretation of the bible that is not based on sound doctrine. His method is to seduce the hearts of simple folks that have no biblical training.

He flatters them and tells them they are special because they accept his strange teachings. He substitutes the wisdom of men (common sense) for the wisdom taught by the bible. He teaches the traditions of men (Satan had intercourse with eve) instead of the traditions taught by the bible (the fruit was good to eat, the tree grew from the ground, etc.)

Through a variety of practices and techniques, Dr. Murray conditions the minds of those that hear him to believe doctrines that are not taught by the bible, but are the traditions of men. He masks this with flattery, voluntary humility, and thinly veiled self-promotion. "Don't listen to this man or any other man" is truly a good idea, (when practiced) but it really serves more to increase the amount of trust people place in Arnold Murray. I checked out Dr. Murray and found him to be a false teacher, that is what he told me to do, so why are his student angry at me, yet unable to defend their doctrines or the teacher that gave them to them?

2 Corinthians 2:17 For we are not as many, which corrupt the word of God: but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God speak we in Christ.

Do you not think that those who listen to Pastor Murray can discern for themselves whether his interpretation is correct?

No. They cannot. If they could then they would. I have people write me and say "thank you, keep up the good work." They also write "I almost made a colossal mistake." People who are new to the bible are not equipped to judge a false teacher, the false teacher is holding all the cards.

When a false teacher is teaching you how to recognize a false teacher, your ability to recognize false teachings is SEVERLY handicapped. Because the false teacher indoctrinates you in false teachings and those false teachings become your baseline on which you judge the truth.

It took me ten years to fully get Dr. Murrays teachings out of my mind. Once false doctrine takes hold, the victim may not even know that they are captive to it (that would be you) They can't free themselves, only God can help them, and that is why he sends men of God like me to stand against false teachers like Dr. Murray. I make no apologies for what I do, people THANK ME for doing it, why would I listen to someone who cannot discern false teachings?

He not only reads the Bible and gives the meaning of words in Hebrew and Greek (which one can check out for themselves) but he points out, in God's Word, the meaning of what he is teaching.

He actually uses your ignorance of Hebrew and Greek to corrupt the meaning of scripture. I have run into plenty of Chapel student who misunderstand how Strong's Concordance works (that is Murray's doing), but of course, like you, they think they know what they are doing, and a few have made fools of themselves on that one.

If you are confident of yourself on that account, then I'd like offer you a challenge to prove whether or not Shepherd's Chapel students have learned to study for themselves, or have actually been crippled in their studies from being taught how to use tools the wrong way.

If you look at all my emails you will notice something. God has given me the victory every time. There is none among the student of Dr. Murray with "a mouth and wisdom" that can stand against me. Again and again, Shepherd's Chapel Students are better at insults and accusations than at showing themselves approved, workmen that need not to be ashamed.

There are no emails that I refuse to publish, but I have had embarrassed Chapel Students demand that their embarrassing failures not be posted to my website. That says a lot, and as a testimony to my sincerity, I always abide by their wishes, even though I may have spent hours writing them. Because Even if it is just for the student, and even if they are a coward whose foolish talk cannot stand the light of day, I still took the time, even if it ended up doing nothing but rebuking one person.

He has brought the Bible to life for me and I'll be eternally grateful.

He brought it to life, but by a strange spirit. There are all kinds of people out there bringing the bible to life in one way or the other, but maybe it did not need to be "brought to life." The bible has a life of its own, people read the bible for themselves and are confused or unable to understand, but that is because God has closed their eyes. I remember when God finally opened my eyes. I see how that I couldn't understand the bible because I had all this false doctrine that I was trying to make fit in to the bible.

False teachers are experts at making false doctrine fit into the bible and they animate the bible with their corrupt ideas, but if you could have read the bible for yourself at the beginning, you wouldn't have needed Murray to be a puppeteer for God's word, and the reason you cannot read it for yourself even now is that you cannot comprehend the bible outside of the template of false doctrine Dr. Murray has given you and your mind has been conditioned to accept.

You judge every idea in the bible by the doctrine you have received from Dr. Murray, his ideas color you every interpretation, because he is your teacher, but he has not taught you the bible, rather he has taught you his particular way of interpreting the bible (which happens to be highly corrupt) The actual teachings of the bible are still strange to you. I can tell because you repeat his philosophy and wisdom and it is solidly wedged in you mind.

Before I found Shepherd's Chapel, I was so confused that I almost gave up on "religion".

These two sentences are very interesting.

Never did I give up on God, just man made religion.

I know this is not what you meant to say but what you have said it this: "The Shepherd's Chapel restored my faith in man-made religion." And that is the TRUTH. That is what it did.

Your confusion then, and now, results from your preference for relying on men to teach you. Even when you would try to read the bible you were relying on the teachings you received from men to make sense of what you read.

I don't take every word Pastor Murray says as gospel..... I think for myself and do my homework.

That is what they all say, but he is your teacher and he assigns the homework. How about doing independent study? Or why don't you try my bible studies? I teach the bible line by line too, http://oraclesofgod.org/studies/studies.html

If you had really been studying the bible you never would have wrote me telling me how wrong I was for criticizing Dr. Murray. You didn't learn that doctrine from the bible. I proved that. So you either got it from Pastor Murray and accepted it based on his word, or, more likely, you accepted it because he said so AND it "seemed right to you." But certainly not because the bible said so, and certainly not because you "check him out in God's word and "did your homework."

You ought to be ashamed. You have not done your homework for God, you did the work Arnold Murray assigned you, you looked up the words he told you to look up, you proved the doctrines he gave you the proof for. You followed the bread crumb trail he left for you, is there any wonder you reached the same conclusions he did???? You are the blind lead by the blind, so I say open your eyes and look where you are going.

Shame on you, Paul. God forgive you for trying to turn away people who are studying God's Word and seeking the Truth.

God forgive you for trying to turn me from my duty, God forgive you for neglecting his word, God forgive you for believing and defending a false teacher.

P.S. Bet this message won't make your webpage.
　
What makes you think I wouldn't want to publish this letter? This letter will definitely be published. Your letter represents another example the kind of Biblical scholarship practiced by students of Arnold Murray and the Shepherd's Chapel. This was a great letter. Thanks for this letter. Please send me another letter.

Sincerely,

Paul Stringini