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In His Own Words: Examining the Teachings of Arnold Murray
"Current Events 2014" CD #31394 - Arnold Murray is Losing Touch With Reality
January, 22, 2014
It seems that Dennis Murray is doing most of the teachings at the Shepherd's Chapel these days, in spite of lacking any of his father's broadcasting talent. I was pleased to catch a word from Pastor Dennis last week mentioning that Pastor Arnold Murray would be doing some teaching soon. So I've been keeping my eye out for him. And this week they put him on the broadcast, howbeit not in the normal format. Monday seemed to be a taped event that was not dated, but Tuesday, January 21, 2014 was Current Events 2014. Based on the title (and other news items mentioned in the program) I could tell that this was made very recently, I'm guessing, over the weekend.
I was a bit taken at how much Dr. Murray has aged. But what really got me was how that they actually allowed such demonstrably, and embarrassingly, false claims to be broadcast. What do I mean? Well, here are some clips I gleaned from his bizarre little lecture.
Listen to Clip 1 Murray's Words Transcribed Below in RED
Dr. Arnold Murray: Last year, there was an asteroid or a comet broke up and destroyed most of a Russian city. I mean, it just wiped 'er out. Now...did man do that? No, man didn't. God did it. It was a natural event and He is supernatural. And certainly, that should bring some bible prophecies to your mind. And knowing that ...God's not happy with Russia, Why? They're atheist! Basically, not all the people... we won't... but the nation itself is socialistic, communism.
The asteroid he is talking about was the Chelyabinsk Meteor which exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia February 15, 2013. You can read about the Chelyabinsk Meteor on Wikipedia and you can see all kinds of video of the event on YouTube. Murray's assertion that the city was "wiped out" is a gross and ridiculous exaggeration. Most of the damage was broken glass. Let me put it this way. In a city of over one million people, only 112 people were hospitalized, and only 2 were in serious condition. I could not find any reports of deaths.
Not only that, but Pastor Murray still seems to be living in the 80's. He is still talking about Russians being "atheists." Most Russians are not atheists today. And the Russian Government is no more atheist than our government. According to Wikipedia, Religion in Russia, only 13% of Russians Identify themselves as atheists, a significant, but small minority. 41% identify themselves as Orthodox Christians (with a total self-identified Christian population somewhere around 46% and a 25% "spiritual but not religious" category which might include some Christians). Pastor Murray needs to stop ignorantly slamming our Russian Brethren. Christians make up the largest religious ideological group in Russia. But Murray is either unacquainted with the facts, or unwilling to face them.
Communism? Russia still has a significant communist faction, but they are essentially economic communists. Russia is a complicated country, but the Russia of today is much different than the Russia of Murray's fantasy world. The greatest objection to communism from a Christian standpoint is state enforced atheism. That aspect of Communism is totally dead in Russia. The Russian communist Party is mostly interested in protecting Russian industry from private ownership. Not in taking away people's religious freedom. I'm not an expert, but Murray is really living in the past here.
Ok aside from those political points. The point I want to really focus on is the fact that Murray claims that Chelyabinsk was actually destroyed. "Wiped out" and "Wiped off," in his own words:
Dr. Arnold Murray: Now, Why would God send an asteroid to destroy a Russian city?
Dr. Arnold Murray: So we're talking definitely about Russia, where a city was 'bout wiped off.
The term "wiped off" is part of an English figure of speech: "Wiped off the map." That is what we usually say, and that is what Murray meant by that comment. That is what he wants to be true. Even though it isn't.
Dr. Arnold Murray: "For thou hast made of a city, an heap, of a defenced city, a ruin, a palace of strangers to be no city. It shall never be built." Remember he notched one on his belt last year. He destroyed one of their cities.
How absolutely enthralled do you have to be to a man, that you would allow him to go out on the public airwaves and make such plainly false statements? I can see intelligent Chapel students cringing, but putting up with it...why? They KNOW he is not telling an accurate story! Does this man have absolutely no check on his authority? No one is willing to help him get his facts straight? Murray is engaging in wishful thinking here, He wants a Russian city wiped out? Well! Name it and claim it, son! What a breathtaking example of the cult-like way in which Arnold Murray dominates the Shepherd's Chapel.
He reminds me of a dictator or cult leader who has lost touch with reality, but whose subjects are still too afraid of him to say, "Excuse me, sir, what you said is not accurate." Are the students of the Shepherd's Chapel so powerless? And so spineless? Are the students of the Chapel so void of any sense of right and wrong that they cannot tell their teacher that he is making a fool of himself, and of their church, by going on the air spouting such easily refuted nonsense?
This teaching sort of makes Arnold Murray look like a senile imbecile who does not know "from come sic 'em." But I know that is not the case. He has obviously not lost his mind. He has lost touch with reality due to prolonged exposure to flatterers and yes-men. And it has less to do with his age as it has to do with being in a position of absolute authority over that church for so many years that people are afraid to point out when he is making obviously false statements.
Chelyabinsk stands. We have a few injured people in a city of over a million. And this is not 1989 anymore! We have all the information at our fingertips. He can't get away with this nonsense. There is no reason that Arnold Murray should be getting away with this. The Chapel should be flooded with letters from it's "sharp" students informing their teacher that he has got his facts wrong.
Murray, once again, is trying to read prophecy into the news, something he has been doing for decades. And, in all that time, he has never once read any prophecy into the news and has had his interpretation vindicated. All the "current events" lectures over his entire career have been utterly meaningless because none of the current events he reported on have been proven to have had anything to do with biblical prophecy. Later, in this lecture, he states "something is definitely happening." Murray has been claiming the same thing for over a quarter of a century. He is a false prophet and a fountain of misinformation.
Paul Stringini, January 22, 2014 - oraclesofgod.org
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