Arnold Murray
Arnold Benjamin Murray was ordained to the Office of Minister ‘agreeable to the laws governing ordination in the Soldiers of the Cross..’ by Roy E. Gillaspie, D.Th. of Bellflower, California on April 30th, 1958. Assisting were John Alvin Lovell, D.D. of Dallas, Texas and Oliver Kenneth Goff, D.D. of Soldiers of the Cross, Englewood, Colorado.
Murray established the Church of Jesus Christ in Gravette, Arkansas, one of the independent churches of this name also pastored by Swift, Gillaspie, Smith, Butler, Robb and Jandebeur. Goff became the national chairman for the Church of Jesus Christ group in the 1960’s. In 1991 Murray changed the name of his church to Shepherd’s Chapel, but has to date retained the corporate identity of Soldiers of the Cross.
In 1978 Murray and Leeland Jandebeur collaborated to write the Shepherd’s Bible, a Kingdom Identity edition of the King James with commentary by Murray. It was in the form of loose leaf pages contained in a binder whereby the reader could add additional books of the bible as they were completed. It never was.
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Examining the teaching of Hellfire
Is hellfire as a punishment for the wicked compatible with God’s personality? Would a loving God really torment people in a hell of fire for all eternity? Can you picture people roasting in fire for a million, a billion, a trillion, a quadrillion …years and many more, actually never ending? Would a loving God do such thing? The obvious answer is NO. Our Loving Almighty God will NEVER do a wicked thing. (Job 34:10, 12; 1 John 4:8) God will punish the wicked, but not in a hellfire. How was Adam, a once perfect man who sinned, punished? At Genesis 2:16,17, God stated that Adam’s punishment for disobedience would be death. What did death mean for Adam after he sinned? Genesis 3:19 shows that he returned to the dust from which he came. Before Adam was created, he was mere dust, lifeless, out of existence. Hence, when God says that Adam will return to dust, it meant that Adam was once again becoming lifeless, out of existence. Thus, Adam could not feel torment after he died as shown clearly at Genesis 3:19. Ecclesisastes 9:5,6 points out plainly that the dead are unconscious. They cannot feel pain or torment. God’s choice to mankind is either life or death. (Deuteronomy 30:19) NOT life or hellfire.
Actually, the thought of burning live humans in fire never came up into God’s mind. (Jeremiah 7:31; 32:35) Even in cases where the Scriptures speak of punishing disobedient ones by burning, such ones were not burned alive but were put to death first by stoning, then their dead bodies burned. (Joshua 7:15, 25)
What of “hellfire” mentioned in some translations, as the King James version, at Matthew 5:22 etc.? The Greek word translated “hellfire” is Gehenna. But the fact is Gehenna NEVER meant hellfire. Please consider the following information on Gehenna:
The Valley of Hinnom (Gehenna) was outside the walls of Jerusalem. In the first century Gehenna was being used as the incinerator for the filth of Jerusalem. Bodies of dead animals were thrown into the valley to be consumed in the fires, to which sulfur, or brimstone, was added to assist the burning. Also, bodies of executed criminals, who were considered undeserving of burial in a memorial tomb, were thrown into Gehenna. Thus, at Matthew 5:29, 30, Jesus spoke of the casting of one’s “whole body” into Gehenna. If the body fell into the constantly burning fire it was consumed, but if it landed on a ledge of the deep ravine its decaying flesh became infested with the ever-present worms. (Mark 9:47, 48) Living humans were not pitched into Gehenna; so it was not a place of conscious torment.
From the foregoing, it can be seen that Gehenna is used as a fitting symbol of complete, everlasting destruction or everlasting death for those whom God judges as wicked. So Gehenna does NOT mean hellfire. Hence, there really is NO Hellfire.
Best wishes,
Lorna