📡✞ Pre♾️Existence: In-Depth Bible Study

📡✞ Pre♾️Existence (Part 1 of 3): In-Depth Bible Study 🔗

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQy-_IFXCro&list=PLcK3ZkGY_ffr9lChfuvpT1uRyP5zSbiwJ

📖✨ Summary of Shepherd’s Chapel Network Family Bible Study with Pastor Arnold Murray on Pre-Existence and Wisdom ✨📖

Pastor Arnold Murray presents a deep biblical teaching centered on pre-existence, the true age of the Earth, and the role of divine wisdom. His study combines scripture with theological interpretation, challenging traditional views while urging believers to seek deeper understanding through God’s Word.

🔑🔥 Core Themes and Key Insights

🌍 Pre-Existence & Earth’s Age

🕰️ The Earth is far older than 6,000 years; natural evidence supports an ancient creation.
🌊 📖 2 Peter 3 suggests a previous Earth age destroyed before the current one.
📖 Genesis 1:1 describes original creation without a time limit.
🌌 Genesis 1:2 (“without form and void”) indicates a gap of ages, implying a ruined prior state after a catastrophe.

👤✨ Souls & Their Origin

🕊️ Souls existed before earthly life (📖 Ephesians 1:4).
⚖️ The soul is eternal, distinct from the body (📖 Ecclesiastes 12:7).
🚫 🔄 Reincarnation is rejected as deception.
😈 Satan also pre-existed and remains active.

⚖️🧠 Election, Free Will & Loyalty

👑 God chose certain souls before this Earth age based on prior loyalty.
⚔️ One-third followed Satan (📖 Revelation 12:4).
🧭 Free will applies especially to those not elected beforehand.
🙏 Emphasis on God’s justice and fairness in judgment.

📢💡 Wisdom in Scripture (Proverbs 8)

🧠 Wisdom is personified and existed before creation.
🛤️ It calls out, guiding people toward truth and blessing.
😊 God delights when His children walk in wisdom.
⚠️ Rejecting wisdom leads to harm and spiritual loss.

🌌⚡ Job 38 & God’s Sovereignty

❓ God challenges human understanding of creation.
🌍 The universe operates by God’s design and wisdom.
👥 “Sons of God” existed at Earth’s foundation.
😈 Satan is a fallen “son of God” who once walked the Earth.
📖 Emphasis: trust God’s Word over human tradition.

🛠️📘 Practical Application

👁️ Remove spiritual “blinders” and study deeply.
🔬 Faith and observable evidence can align.
🧠 Seek wisdom daily—it leads to blessing.
🗣️ Be prepared to explain biblical truth to others.

📚✨ Key Biblical References

📖 Genesis 1:1–2 — Creation & the “gap”
🌊 2 Peter 3 — Previous Earth age
🌍 Isaiah 45:18 — Earth made to be inhabited
🕊️ Ecclesiastes 12:7 — Soul returns to God
👑 Ephesians 1:4–5 — Election before foundation
🧠 Proverbs 8 — Wisdom before creation
👥 Job 1 & 38 — Sons of God & creation
⚔️ Revelation 12:4 — Satan’s rebellion
❤️ John 3:16 — Eternal life

🧾📊 Key Concepts Simplified

🕊️ Pre-existence → Souls lived before earthly life
👑 Election → God chose based on prior loyalty
🧠 Wisdom → Divine guidance present before creation
👥 Sons of God → Spiritual beings created early
🌌 Void (tohu va bohu) → Earth became desolate after destruction

⏳📖 Biblical Timeline Overview

🌟 Original Creation (Genesis 1:1)
🌊 Destruction / Gap Period (Genesis 1:2)
⚔️ Satan’s Rebellion
🌍 Current Earth Age Begins
👑 Election of Souls
👤 Human Life (Testing Period)
⚖️ End Times & Judgment

📝✨ Conclusion

This teaching presents a framework where:

🌍 The Earth is ancient, not young
🕊️ Souls are eternal and pre-existent
🧠 Wisdom is central to understanding God’s plan

📖 The message ultimately calls believers to grow in knowledge, seek truth, and walk in divine wisdom, recognizing God’s sovereignty across all ages. ✨

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Pre-Existence - Part 1:

**Welcome to the Shepherd's Chapel Network Family Bible Study Hour with Pastor Arnold Murray. Wisdom is understanding God's Word. Pastor Murray's unique teaching approach brings God's Word alive with meaning as he takes you on a chapter-by-chapter, verse-by-verse study of God's letter to you—the Bible. And now, here is Pastor Arnold Murray.**

**Pastor Murray:** All right, good day to you. God bless you. Say welcome to the Shepherd's Chapel. We've got a new subject today. We're going to look into a little bit of pre-existence, and I'll say a little more about that word as we move along here. But what does it mean, and did people really pre-exist? People seem to want to put blinders on themselves, and we've got a few Bible thumpers that want to say God created this Earth six thousand years ago, and anybody that says different, it just ain't so. Actually, they show their lack of knowledge. And I'm not talking down to them, nor am I insulting them; I'm stating a fact. They show their lack of knowledge of the manuscripts. They show their lack of knowledge of God's nature—the very nature in this world that we have before us daily.

Now, I don't know how many times I've shown you this little old thing that's about 10 million years old—this mammoth tooth. It's very natural. It's one of God's creatures. Rather, when did He create this creature? Well, it certainly wasn't 6,000 years ago because we have technology that will date it much, much older than that. So what does it mean? It means when a Christian begins to plant seeds of Christianity and he has the appearance to one that has a little technical knowledge of nature itself (of which God created), and the two cross like this, rather than jive, the non-believer is going to say, "This guy doesn't know what he's talking about." And the non-believer is exactly right: he doesn't know what he's talking about. It hurts Christianity when people will not remove the blinders to know that it's taught in many places in God's Word that there was an Earth age before this one. Second Peter, chapter 3—Peter goes into detail of what would happen in each one of those ages. Naturally, the first Earth age was ended with water, and I'm not talking about Noah's flood. It was when the firmament fell in at Satan's rebellion. Many people do not take into account those scriptures that absolutely record in God's Word those events that transpired there. So they leave themselves—I'm trying to find a kind word for it—in ignorance, to be quite frank about it. They simply have not the knowledge that God has in His Word, or the wisdom. Therefore, the many non-believers are driven away because of their inadequacy. I'll put it that way.

If you can't teach God's Word, if you can't understand it in its simplicity, and you listen to the traditions of men, you have a problem. Because anyone, anyone that uses common sense knows that this Earth is much older than 6,000 years. It's obvious that man in the flesh was placed here at that time, but let's take for a moment: what does God's Word say about the creation? Let's go to it, if we may. Genesis 1, verse 1. What does it say? It quite frankly says, "In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth"—the ettes period. Now, when did He do that? When was the beginning? It doesn't say. It certainly doesn't say 6,000 years ago, and anyone that tries to tell you that is adding to the Word of God, and that's a very dangerous thing.

We know, number one, from Isaiah chapter 45, verse 18, that in the beginning, God created it to be inhabited, and it was dry ground. But then what does it say in verse two? Let's read that: "And the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." What was the Spirit of God? The *Ruwach*—the Holy Spirit. Now this word "void"—what does it mean in the Hebrew? It's very important. It doesn't mean "void" as we say "void." It's, as a matter of fact, let's read it in Hebrew: *tohu va bohu*. The earth became void and without form; it wasn't created that way. So we have eons of time between verse one and verse two of this particular chapter. Therefore, something happened there. To not take that into consideration, to not consider it, to not understand it in the simplicity of nature itself—we being natural should have no trouble in understanding the natural. If we have fossils and we have signs of man's existence from his short stay here on Earth, and many of the deeper scholars might say, "Well, we have dated them back to 14..." Well, don't forget it took a week from chapter 1 to the end, and I would say seven days. How long is a day with the Lord? If you read Second Peter chapter 3, you know how long a day is with the Lord. It all fits.

And to say "pre-exist," some would say, "Well, he's teaching evolution." No, no, no, no. To pre-exist, in as much as where do souls come from? Let me ask that question: where did your soul come from? I trust that your answer will be "from God." Well, you got it. You're on the right track. When did God create your soul? Your birth and the creation of your soul do not necessarily happen at the same time. As a matter of fact, the student of the manuscripts knows that that did not happen—that the soul was placed in that body the same as it is written in Ecclesiastes 12:7: it returns to the Father that gave it the moment that this flesh becomes deceased, dies. It's dead. It returns to the Father that gave it. So when we begin to take a realistic view of God's Word, we find that there are no surprises, and in its simplicity, it absolutely fits.

Now, back to the thought of *carnate* and *incarnate*. To incarnate is when the same soul would enter, after a period of time, a second body. Now we have people that claim this takes place, but it's simply demonic—that [a demon] possessed the earlier body and took over another later in life because time means very little to them. Now I am not digressing, but once it is given that every soul should come through this Earth age to document in the Book of Life whether or not they would love the Father, or Satan, or themselves. You know, an agnostic is a very interesting individual in as much as they must be shown everything before their eye before they believe it. This cuts faith away from the Word, in as much as you have to have faith in the scriptures to know that in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth, and then the earth became void and without form, and it was dark instead of light, and then God began to move upon it and bring it into this 6,000-year time-age dispensation of time. It does not take much to bolster that knowledge with fact. I held it in my hands just a moment ago, and one way of documentation is nature itself—the mammoth tooth. So remove blinders from your eyes and become a wise Christian that can handle questions and answers, whereby it makes an impression upon the non-believer that has driven through a riverbank and has seen evidence of the layers of time. And there you can properly answer him and bring more people into the truth. It's that simple. And again, I do not say this to put anyone down but to bring people into the Word.

Well, some might say, "Document where the New Testament would say that we pre-existed or that we were with God before." And what is amazing to me is that the same people that would ask this question admit that their soul and spirit—their intellect—came from God. Well, how would it possibly come from God if it was not with Him before the flesh body was entered? Now we're getting to the first step there. And they subconsciously... my point being this: if you're not careful, even as a Christian, if everything must be laid out before you before you will believe, then in a sense you become an agnostic yourself. In a sense, understand Ephesians 1:4. I want you to turn there with me. There is a great deal of knowledge and wisdom to be milked from this very verse if you understand the Greek word *katabole*, which means "before the foundations of this dispensation"—not *aionos* (this age), but *terra firma* in English or Latin—this age in which we live, the earth, the very soil itself in its present condition.

So with that thought, listen to this. Ephesians chapter one, and we're going to pick it up with verse four: "According as He hath chosen us in Him" — now that's God choosing us, that's election — "before" — now do you know what "before" means? Before choosing us, making a choice, having chosen an action that has already taken place — "before the foundation of the world" (let's just say *cosmos*, this world age) — "that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love." So you see, it would seem that oftentimes men will let traditions interfere with their own knowledge of what a simple little word like "before" means. "Before" chose you—an individual, your soul. Of course your flesh body did not exist before the foundation of this world age. Of course it didn't, because flesh is only, for the sake of time, about 6,000 years old. But the souls and the spiritual bodies existed before that. I could bring the angelic footprint into this, which we have documented, and it works very well with agnostics. But don't you be an agnostic. Believe the Word of God. You're either a believer or you're not. But it's easier to believe the truth as it is written: that He did choose His elect before the foundation of this earth.

As I started to explain the Greek word *katabole*, you that have Companion Bibles, your appendix 146 will go into detail explaining to you the usage in verbs, nouns, and so forth of this word. It meant the overthrow of Satan. After the overthrow of Satan, there was a great change, and I will document that in this series on pre-existence. So naturally, if God chose us before the foundation of this Earth age, your soul pre-existed this Earth age. I dislike quite frankly the word "pre-existence" in as far as souls is concerned because it's a misnomer. Satan himself pre-existed—this is easy to document—and his soul is still alive; it has not ceased existing. So to say that something pre-existed is a little awkward to a linguist, if you understand what I'm saying, because no soul has ever stopped existing. Now God does make the promise in the Great Book of Matthew, through the lips of Jesus Christ, to fear not those that can destroy this little chunk of meat, the flesh body, but rather fear Him who can cause your soul to perish—that means to stop existing.

It's real strange, the knowledge and the wisdom that is in words. God's Word, the simple little scripture John 3:16: "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever (whomsoever) should believe upon Him should not perish" — which means the soul — "but have eternal life, everlasting." The word in the Greek means "from the very foundation into infinity." It means more than "everlasting." It means more in the manuscripts than is translated into English. It means to have existed from the point of creation. That's what John 3:16 means when you break it back in the manuscripts as it should to the believer.

Now let's go on, if we may, to the fourth verse—the fifth verse rather—of this first chapter of Ephesians, verse five: "Having predestinated us" — do you understand that word? It pretty well carries the same in all languages — "having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will." The good pleasure of whose will? You mean He chose some and adopted them not because they were the prettiest or wisest, but because they loved Him. And at that *katabole*, before the foundations, they remained loyal to God. And it would be for that reason because they earned it. This is my opinion; call it an educated opinion or a guess if you choose, but I will document it also before we complete this series of lectures.

You must grow to understand along with pre-existence: election and free will. Because there are some people that have free will—why? Because they were not chosen before the foundation, which is simply to say they did not overcome when Satan rebelled; they went with him. Revelation chapter 12, verses down to about four, documents that Satan drew one third of the souls with him. So naturally, God's not going to choose one of those because if you know our Father, you know He is always fair in all things.

A great, great proverb to take up from this point about wisdom: It takes a little wisdom to understand God's Word. And what about this word "wisdom"? I'm going to begin reading, if I may, in Proverbs chapter 8. I'm going to read with verse one. Just listen to it here, if we may. "Does not wisdom cry?" — boy does she today — "and understanding put forth her voice?" To understand is to see and to have knowledge of what you're looking upon. Verse two: "She standeth in the top of high places, by the way in the places of the paths." Wisdom is everywhere if you'll take hold of it. Verse three: "She crieth at the gates" — that's where judgment is held — "at the entry of the city, at the coming in at the doors." Wisdom is there if you will listen, if you will use it. Verse four: "Unto you, O men, I call" — wisdom calls; the question is, do you listen? — "and my voice is to the sons of man." The sons of God, I call to you to understand.

Now, if we may, let's drop on down to the 22nd verse of this eighth chapter that basically tells you that wisdom was with God, naturally, because all wisdom comes from Him. Verse 22: "The Lord possessed me" — that's to say wisdom — "in the beginning of His way, before His works of old." Before we're going now, before the foundations even of the first Earth age, wisdom was with God. He had a plan, and that plan is right on schedule. Verse 23: "I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was." Can you read that with understanding? "Ever the earth was," wisdom was with God. Verse 24: "When there were no depths" — that's to say the abyss, the pit for Satan (didn't need one) — "I was brought forth; when there were no fountains abounding with water" — that's to say when it was the *terra* before the *terra firma*, ever the firmament existed. Verse 25: "Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth." In other words, beloved, it was with wisdom that God created the earth. Verse 26: "While as yet He had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust of the world" — that means even one atom of dust — wisdom was with Him. "When He prepared the heavens, I was there: when He set a compass upon the face of the depth" — do you know what a compass is? It's a little gadget that we have, a prick, a point, an A-frame with a pencil that you can draw a perfect circle. And this is the word that is utilized by Christ when He spoke to Paul: "Why do you kick against the pricks?" That is to say, the compass, God's knowledge, His wisdom—His perfect circle, the perfect orbit.

Verse 28: "When He established the clouds above, when He strengthened the fountains of the deep" — the very oceans themselves. Verse 29: "When He gave to the sea His decree, that the waters should not pass His commandment, when He appointed the foundations of the earth" — the very water itself that is very necessary for our existence — "then I was by Him, as one brought up with Him: and I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him." If you want to know one of the things that is one of the major delights with your Father (and you should try to know every emotion of your Father, if that's possible, because it helps you please Him), when you please Him, blessings flow to you. Always remember: wisdom delights God. It especially delights Him when He sees one of His offspring—you—using it.

Verse 31: "Rejoicing in the habitable part of this earth" — that means somebody's supposed to be there if there's habitation, right? — "and my delights were with the sons of men." So wisdom was with the sons of men. As a matter of fact, I hope you grasp that wisdom loves men. So if it waits by your paths, if you'll use it... In other words, we gain knowledge from experience. Hey, you can call it that, but at the same time, you can say wisdom was waiting by the path that you would learn. Even if there might have been a rock in the road and you stumped your big toe and it bled like sixty, what did you learn? Keep your eyes open, dummy, and watch what you kick. You know, that's true wisdom. That's experience. Wisdom's waiting there. Be careful.

Well, somebody says, "I don't know how God could work like that." Well, if you didn't watch where you stepped or what you kicked, the next time it may be dumb enough that you'd be on the edge of a cliff and kill yourself. God has to teach us lessons—not to say that He would cause it to come to pass, but wisdom waits there for you to learn from experience.

Verse 32: "Now therefore hearken unto me, O ye children: for blessed are they that keep my ways." Do you keep wisdom's ways? I know many times you think, "I knew I should not have done that." Every time you say, "I knew before I did it that I shouldn't have," you turned your back on wisdom because wisdom was in you. You had the knowledge to not do it, but you did it anyway. That's a good way to even learn lessons.

Verse 33: "Hear instruction" — a lot of people want to hear instruction — "and be wise, and refuse it not." Do not ever turn your back on wisdom.

Verse 34: "Blessed is the man that heareth me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors." Now here you have an absolute reverse of the actions of wisdom, because has not wisdom said within this chapter (this proverb), "I wait for you by the way, I wait for you by the gate"? Then blessed... Now, a lot of people—I'm not talking down to you, but I want to make certain you understand. I think probably the main desire of every individual is to be blessed by God. That's what you seek. So when you see the word "blessed" and the action that brings forth the blessing, hey, log it. Put it in your computer, your mind—the computer of your mind—because that's what brings forth the blessings of God. Otherwise, sucker, do without. All right, I just want to put that on there so that you understand. Read with understanding, log it away, and you'll be blessed. It's that simple.

Verse 35: "For whoso findeth me findeth life" — and that's eternal life. Do you want it? — "and shall obtain favor of the LORD." That's resurrected life from this flesh into the everlasting body. And who do you obtain favor from? Do you want God's favor? I trust your answer would be yes, because with that comes blessings, success, and pure pleasure in knowing you made His day. Think about it. "But he that sinneth against me" — that's to say, against wisdom — "wrongeth his own soul" — more than just your flesh — "all they that hate me love death," or at least they'd better, because they have kind of a one-way ticket, and it is to death. And that is to say, death of the very soul itself.

You know pre-existence? Let's go with Job for a moment. I want to talk about souls. I mentioned that Satan himself—Satan himself, his soul has not perished. He's going to be booted out on this earth, back into the abyss, and then released again a short season at the end of the Millennium. But where was he? Was he ever on this earth? Well, that was a supernatural entity. Well, that's like someone that would be like a Christian being surprised that Emmanuel, God With Us, walked on the earth. Open your eyes, get the blinders off.

Job, chapter 1, I want to go to verse 6: "Now there was a day when the sons of God" — who is that? The sons of God. This is to say those in spiritual bodies, souls — "came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan" — that's to say the adversary — "came also among them." Verse 7: "And the LORD said unto Satan, Whence camest thou? Where did you come from? Where you been?" Then Satan answered the LORD and said, "From going to and fro in the earth." I say again, let wisdom abound. And we're not talking about a demonic spirit here; we're talking about Satan, in as much as he was a son of God (Ezekiel 28 will document that, gone bad, you bet). But he walked—I repeat, walked. That's like having two legs and feet, and you walk upon the earth—from walking up and down in it. So he was here. And so, again, remove blinders whereby you know and understand some of the events that transpired before this Earth age, whereby when God states to this certain group of people, "I called you, I chose you," well, there's not much free will volunteered in "Oh God, I come just as I am." Paul was walking on the road to Damascus with a license in his pocket to kill and murder Christians and deliver them back to Jerusalem. He wasn't in any mood to have an altar call on the road to Damascus. He was zealous for what he felt was religion and had no intention of saying, "Oh God, just as I am, take me." Rather, God struck him down on that road, and as it is written in Acts chapter 9, verse 15, God said, "He is my chosen vessel" — chosen — meaning I chose him to take this truth even to my creation of the races, that's to say Gentiles. Well, how could God be fair if He would take one man and let him write most of the New Testament, and he was the biggest sinner there ever was, and his own free will was to sin and to take Christians captive? The answer is simple: it's what he accomplished in the first Earth age at that rebellion, you see.

So God's Word covers a great period of time when these sons of God came before Him. Let's go real quickly to the 38th chapter of the Book of Job. Let it be something as a foundation for you to place your mind in this position, that we may come to a joining with the wisdom of God to open our minds to God's Word and events and things such as the tooth we just saw—well over 10 million years old—that we wake up that God spoke of it long ago, and there is no confusion between science and the Word of God.

Job chapter 38. Understand this: Job means "persecuted," and it's how a man of God is persecuted on this earth when Satan walks to and fro. That is to say, since Christ's crucifixion, he has not walked on this earth. Why? He's behind Christ, and he's going to stay there until Michael lets him go and throws him out. But Job had three great friends that had all sorts of knowledge, and they just poured it out upon him, and Job listened. Job disregarded a great deal of their knowledge and wisdom, and basically that's what the Book of Job is about: to teach you to not listen to men, but go to the Word of God itself.

Let me document that. Job 38, verse 1: "Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said" — now that's a nice study: how would God be in a whirlwind? Well, you'll read of that in Ezekiel chapter 1. Verse 2: "Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?" Who are these three knuckleheads you've been listening to, Job? You're not going to gain any knowledge from idiots, self-righteous hypocrites. Put it in your mind, gain a little wisdom, and let it sink in. That's the words of God—not Job, not one of the three. And He's talking about Elihu there, basically the last one that had spoken to him, and God said that's absolutely the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. He says to old Job, "Then gird up thy loins like a man. Get up from there and stand up and act like a man, for I will demand of thee, and answer thou Me." That's the way God wants us to be. "Gird up" means prepare yourself for action.

Verse 4: "Where was thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare, if thou hast understanding." In other words, Job, you want to serve Me so bad and you have been so blessed, but where were you? I am your Father. I brought all this into being. I'm going to tell you something: if you don't know where you were, if you don't recognize the first Earth age, you're in this same condition. That was Job's downfall. But in his first persecution, he didn't take into consideration that the Word of God is complete within itself. And do you know something to document what I'm saying? I will dare say that most of you at one time in your life have had a sermon preached by somebody in this first 38 chapters that was a bunch of darkness. I mean, it says it right there in the Bible, yes, but God tells you it was idiots talking. And I'm not talking about Job; I'm talking about his good so-called friends that were so ready to point fingers at him and accuse him.

So He's saying, "Where were you, Job?" Verse 5: "Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest?" How do you know how large the world is, exactly how many grams the earth weighs, where every star is? Think about it, and then look at your Father. "Or who hath stretched the line upon it?" Who used that compass? Verse 6: "Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? Or who laid the corner stone thereof?" What keeps the sun from running into the moon or the earth jangling? I'm being ridiculous here, but you know, if God did not have a perfect plan, that is what would happen. But He has everything in perfect order. So the question to Job was: you took your eyes off Me and you began to listen to knuckleheads. So do take the blinders off. Look at your Father's plan.

Verse 7: "When the morning stars" — you listen carefully — "sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy." When was this? How many of the sons of God? All. Did He create anymore after that? No. It says "all." They were all created there at that time. Otherwise, you can say, "Well, I'm not a son of God," and then you might as well say, "I'm a toad frog, hippity-hoppity," all right, because you certainly were one of the sons of God. All were created at this time, at the foundation. In good old preacher style, I can say the Bible says it, all right. So don't ever let some preacher tell you different. All the sons were there.

Now, for the sake of time, let's skip on down to... well, let's not skip. This is just too good to skip. I may not even get into any questions today, but hey, I'm in the mood for teaching anyway. Been way too long here.

Verse 8: "Or who shut up the sea with doors, when it brake forth, as if it had issued out of the womb?" Think about that, beloved. Verse 9: "When I made the cloud the garment thereof, and thick darkness a swaddling band for it," night and day. I mean, put it together. "And brake up for it my decreed place, and set bars and doors." I mean, I control it, Joe. You're listening to fuzzy-wuzzies here, and I control these things. Why won't you listen to Me? Basically, that's what God is saying. Verse 11: "And said, Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further: and here shall thy proud waves be stayed." I put a beach there against that ocean current, and man, the boundary is set. There may be erosion, but God knows what He's doing.

What He's saying here in a way, Job, is "Can you do this?" Or I might say to you, can you do it? The answer is you can barely stop the erosion, much less create it. Verse 12: "Hast thou commanded the morning since thy days?" Do you get the sun to come up over there and cause the day spring to know his place? Every planet, every star in its proper place, whereby with the proper rotation, vegetation grows that sustains human life—the flesh bodies that are placed here. Think about it. Verse 13: "That it might take hold of the ends of the earth" (or you might say the wings of the earth, in the Hebrew) "that the wicked might be shaken out of it?" What God is saying: I've got this all fixed so that I can give it a real good shaking. And the *katabole*—the beauty of this, and almost humor on God's part—quite frankly, you can read of this again in the 12th chapter of Hebrews, where He said there's going to be a shaking, but this time not the earth only, but heaven also. He said, "I've got this fixed so that at the end I can just shake it and get rid of what I want to get rid of." And that means, naturally, those that do not overcome and the perishing of souls.

Verse 14: "It is turned as clay to the seal, and they stand as a garment." Now that takes a little help for the soul. He made a garment out of clay, and it stands there with mobility, and He's talking about these flesh bodies. God said, "I made these flesh bodies and placed the soul in them. I made it." I think this says there's a great deal more wisdom here than perhaps meets the eye on the surface, and that is that the flesh body was made, created, for the soul—not the other way around. Because the soul is eternal (if you allow it) and the flesh is very perishable and very temporal. But He's asking Job, could you do that? And the answer is, no, he couldn't create them; he could propagate but not create.

Verse 15: "And from the wicked their light is withholden, and the high arm shall be broken"—crushed. They're going when He shakes.

Verse 16: "Hast thou entered into the springs of the sea? Or hast thou walked in the search of the depth?" What you're saying is, go out here in the ocean and then come back up here and tell me who supplies all the water to do these things. "Well, I never thought of that." Well, the Bible does. God had to think of it. Who supplies all the water for that? That is to say, would it evaporate off into space and never be here again?

Verse 17: "Have the gates of death been opened unto thee?" Have you seen behind that veil, in other words? "Or hast thou seen the doors of the shadow of death?" Do you understand death, Job? Do you know what happens then? Well, he tells us in this book.

Verse 18: "Hast thou perceived the breadth of the earth? Declare if thou knowest it all." In his time, they certainly couldn't. You know, we can with technology come pretty close. We're able to use various satellites, and we can program them to have a missile strike within a 20-foot circle many, many miles away, and it's fantastic. We pilots navigate by that same system in this day. But we don't know exactly, and you're kidding yourself if you think you do.

Verse 19: "Where is the way where light dwelleth? And as for darkness, where is the place thereof?" Where does... what causes darkness and the light? Where did it spring from? Verse 20: "That thou shouldest take it to the bound thereof, and that thou shouldest know the paths to the house thereof?" Can you lead it home, Job? No. That would be like controlling the sun. That can't be done. But God placed it there.

Verse 21: "Knowest thou it, because thou wast then born?" Question. "Or because the number of thy days is great?" Question. Think about that. When was man actually born—of a soul rather than flesh? His flesh certainly wasn't. And that's what God wants you to draw from this: man is late. Flesh is a latecomer. Souls have all rejoiced with God at one time before the fall.

Verse 22: "Hast thou entered into the treasures of the snow? Or hast thou seen the treasures of the hail?" Have you ever actually looked at a snowflake under a microscope? All different, the same as the stars are all different, and the same as people are all different, and the same as souls are all different. And that hail—you get away from pea-size to softballs, up to a talent, which is 180 pounds. God saves the 180-pound hail, but only known to man maybe one or two. A talent is 100 to 180 pounds. But you know what He's done with the bigger ones? Listen: Verse 23: "Which I have reserved against the time of trouble, against the day of battle and war." In other words, I'm saving the big ones for the last shake. And of course, the simple truth in that, if you use a little wisdom, you can read of that in Ezekiel chapters 38 and 39, when God hails—brings down those hailstones of destruction against the enemies of His people.

Pre-existence? Really no such thing, because all the sons were created as it's written in Job, even Satan. If any one entity deserves to be put out of his misery—that's to say his soul and his spirit, his thought process—it would be Satan. But God still has a purpose for him, and that's to shape a few people up. Think about it. We'll pick it up in the next lecture. Interesting, you bet.

Well, how can we possibly understand? Because God has given you wisdom. When you accept wisdom, and wisdom waits by the path of your goings, reach out and shake hands with him. Meditate on what you think and read from your Father's Word, and great is the wisdom thereof, for all wisdom comes from God. Think about it. All right, bless your heart. You listen a moment, won't you please?

Dr. Pastor Arnold B. Murray

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**Announcer:** The Mark of the Beast on CD is our free introductory offer to you. What is the Mark of the Beast? Many false teachers would have you believe it will be a tattoo on your forehead or a computer chip implanted under your skin. It is getting late in the game. You need to know what the Mark of the Beast is as it's written in Revelation 13:8. Many will be deceived. There is no need for you to be deceived. Christ said in Mark 13:23, "Behold, I have foretold you all things." Jesus indeed told us how not to be deceived, and Pastor Arnold Murray takes you on a step-by-step study of God's Word concerning this critical subject, *The Mark of the Beast*. The telephone call is free. The CD is free. We don't even ask for the shipping and handling; it is free as well. All you need to do is call 800-643-4645 to request your one-time, one-per-household copy of *The Mark of the Beast*. You may also request your free CD by mailing your request to Shepherd's Chapel, Post Office Box 416, Gravette, Arkansas 72736. Don't be deceived by Satan.

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**Pastor Murray:** All right, bless your hearts. There we are, back again. Let's have the 800 number, please: 1-800-643-4645. That number is good from Puerto Rico throughout the U.S., Alaska, Hawaii, all over Canada. If the spirit moves and you have a question, share it. Those of you that listen by shortwave around the world at this time, it's always a pleasure hearing from you. Your announcer at the end of the hour will give you our mailing address. You've got a prayer request? You don't need numbers for that. He's your Father. We're made in His image, so He has emotions like we do (or we have them like Him). Talk to Him. It makes His day.

Father, around the globe we come. We ask that You lead, guide, touch, heal in Yeshua's precious name. Okay.

Questionsm & Answers:

This would be Gisla (or Gisla), I'll say, from Florida: "What are evil rudiments? Could you please give us one or more examples?" That's interesting that this question would pop right up there. The word "rudiments" is listed in that chapter of Second Peter I was speaking of, chapter 3, and what is it about verse 10? Somewhere along there, it says that all the rudiments or elements will be destroyed by fire. It's important that you know what this means. It is that God is that consuming fire that will destroy all things that have an end at the end of this Earth age. Some might say, "Well, what would that be?" Number one, Satan, of course. All wickedness will be taken away. And think what a wonderful place this will be if you remove everything that offends. You know, in God's perfect creation, it's a very simple thing when you give it thought. When you amplify that by realizing that at the seventh trump, all flesh bodies are turned into spiritual bodies, you must think in the spiritual realm to totally understand.

Naomi from New Jersey: "The Lord says He punishes His own children. If we do something wrong and something bad happens, is that His punishment?" Most likely not. Unfortunately, man is clumsy and awkward and does not use that commodity that we were speaking of—that wonderful thing called "wisdom." And many of our accidents are brought on by that. That is not to say that God Himself... let's say that God wanted some person (and I'm saying this because it has happened many times)—did God cause it? I don't know; God knows. But let's say I know of many cases where a wife studied with us here at the chapel by television, and a husband didn't have time for God. And he broke his leg. I mean, he was laid up, and he listened from the other room while his wife listened. Then after about a week being laid up like that, he would come into the room where she was listening. And about a month after the leg healed, he called me. He said they were working on a fence, and he said, "Hey, it's time for the chief. Let's go to the house." I think it was "chief"—I don't know, I'm not a chief. But anyway, that caused him to be fastened in one place that he had to study God's Word because of his little woman. That can happen, and I use that as an example. But no, God doesn't punish normally those that follow Him. He will punish those that touch His anointed.

Tona from Virginia: "Will Paul have to face the souls of all those Christians that he murdered? How will God deal with him on this matter? Was his murdering Christians a sin committed in ignorance?" No. Now, perhaps I'm as guilty as anyone else in saying Paul had this license in his pocket to murder Christians. Did he actually fulfill that? The answer, of course, is no. And then there's the Great Book of Acts, chapter 7, where Stephen was murdered, killed, murdered. And Paul was there, but what did Paul do? Paul did not cast one stone. Paul rather helped with the coats of those that did cast stones, which, using wisdom, tells you what? As zealous as Paul was, if his heart had been in it, he would have cast the first stone, because Paul didn't mess around with what he believed at the time. He believed 100%. But Paul did not cast a stone, and Paul did not commit murder. I know that many people think he did just because he said he had the license and was a party to some that did. But think about it and reread that Book of Acts, chapter 7 (is it seven? I think it is). I would check myself out. I made a mistake four years ago? No, I don't have to check myself; I'm sure it's seven.

Lynn from Florida: "Pastor Murray, would you please tell me what you eat for breakfast?" Food. All right. I usually have special eggs that are from poultry that just tastes wonderful. I usually have one or two of those, and then I have either beef sausage or beef bacon. I make my own beef bacon at times, and there's an old boy up in Minnesota that makes some fantastic beef bacon. Or there, I may have grain cereals, and I've loved corn flakes ever since I was a child, and they still taste good. I don't own any stock in any of these Postos bunch, but just like anyone else would, only I eat it from the foods. I have a real special breakfast every morning before I go before a congregation. It's a ritual almost with me because it's a breakfast that I can really put out and my blood sugar doesn't quit me in the middle of a sermon and I just go "whoosh," out of gas, you know. And that is about three scrambled eggs, and they've got to be scrambled just right—don't put any of that milk in there where they're milky or anything like that, you know, whipped up just real good. But first, I take about three sausages (beef sausages) and I cut them up in bite-size, and I put my scrambled eggs over that. And then special-made gravy, which is kind of a no-no, you know, but good gravy made from the sausage grease (beef sausage grease), and just cover it. I mean, have it hot and just cover that whole pile, you know. And then a couple of biscuits, buttered nicely with real butter. Not some fake thing. I don't like fake things. I'm not a fake, so I don't want to eat fake stuff. If you can't give me real butter, hey, forget it. I don't need it. I like real butter. Well, that's a little expensive. Hey, it doesn't cost any more to go first class; just don't stay as long. It doesn't cost any more to eat real butter; just don't eat as much of it, necessarily. That's a breakfast that'll just sweep you right on through to victory, gives you energy. Is it healthy? I don't know. I'm still alive. But a lot of people really talk bad against gravy, but hey, one day a week, I'm having my gravy.

M from California: You know, used to back home we had streaky gravy. I don't probably nobody out there knows what streaky gravy is. Boy, it was good on biscuits. That was where you took the grease from sausage and poured a little coffee on it, you know, and kind of wed her around. Woo.

M from California: "When you repent of your sins, should you repent of them individually, or can you just ask that all your sins be forgiven?" Well, either way, whichever you feel comfortable with. He's your Father, and you always want to treat Him as He is.

I had to make a quick trip to John Wayne Airport, Orange County, California, Los Angeles area, this last two days because of my last living uncle passed away. And I got to spend some time in Bellflower and Lakewood and Downey. I appreciate your patience very much. He was a special person; loved him very much. But we're back, and we're going strong.

Pastor: All right, we're brought to you by your tithes and offerings. If we've helped you, you help us keep coming to you. Once you do that, hey, I love you all a bunch for a real special reason: that you enjoy God's Word. And what's more important, it causes Him to love you. Okay. Every day in the Lord is a good day. You know why? The Lord is the Living Word. Hearing God's Word with understanding will change your life.

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**Announcer:** We hope you have enjoyed studying God's Word here on the Shepherd's Chapel Family Bible Study Hour with Pastor Arnold Murray. If you would like to receive more information concerning Shepherd's Chapel, you may request our free introductory offer. Our introductory offer contains *The Mark of the Beast* audio tape, our monthly newsletter with a written Bible study, a tape catalog, and a list of written reference works available through Shepherd's Chapel. To request our free introductory offer by telephone, call 800-643-4645, 24 hours a day. You may also request our introductory offer by writing to Shepherd's Chapel, Post Office Box 416, Gravette, Arkansas 72736. Once again, that's Shepherd's Chapel, Post Office Box 416, Gravette, Arkansas 72736. We invite you to join us for the next in-depth Bible study each weekday at the same time. Thank you for watching today's program, and God bless you.

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📖✨ Summary of Shepherd’s Chapel Family Bible Study Hour with Pastor Arnold Murray ✨📖

Overview:
This teaching by Pastor Arnold Murray presents a detailed biblical study on pre-existence, the three Earth and Heaven ages, and God’s plan of creation → destruction → restoration. The message emphasizes a literal, scripture-based understanding drawn from books like Genesis, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Psalms, 2 Peter, and Revelation.

🔑🔥 Key Themes and Concepts

🌍🕰️ Pre-Existence & Three World Ages

🌌 There are three Earth ages and three Heaven ages, happening one after another.
💥 The first Earth age ended in total destruction, leaving the Earth “without form and void” (Genesis 1:2).
🌱 The current (second) Earth age is temporary and reserved for judgment.
✨ A third eternal age is yet to come.

🌊📖 Explanation of 2 Peter 3

📜 The “old heavens and earth” refer to a very ancient world (Greek: ep’ = from long ago).
🌊 The world “that then was” perished completely by water—not just Noah’s flood.
🔥 The present world is reserved “unto fire” for final judgment.

⏳👑 The Lord’s Day = Millennium

🕊️ “A day with the Lord is as a thousand years” (2 Peter 3:8).
👑 The Day of the Lord is a 1,000-year Millennium reign.
⚖️ This period is central to prophecy and judgment.

🌱📜 Genesis & Isaiah on Creation

🌍 God did not create the Earth in vain (tohu) (Isaiah 45:18).
⚠️ The Earth became desolate after destruction, not at creation.
🏔️ Early Earth geography differed—mountains stood above waters.

🌪️📖 Jeremiah & the First Destruction

⚡ Jeremiah 4 describes a global cataclysm—Earth became void and empty.
🌍 Massive upheaval changed the planet (even magnetic shifts are suggested).
🦕 Extinctions (dinosaurs, mammoths) are linked to this event—not Noah’s flood.

👥✨ Spiritual Beings & Souls

🕊️ Souls existed before physical life (pre-existence).
👼 Angels and spiritual beings lived in the first Earth age.
⚔️ Some rebelled with Satan (📖 Revelation 12).
✝️ Salvation through Yeshua (Jesus Christ) offers redemption to all.

🔥🎺 Psalms 104 & God’s Ministers

🔥 God’s servants are described as “flaming fire” (spiritual beings).
🌩️ They carry out His will in both spiritual and natural realms.

⚠️📚 Clarifying Misunderstandings

🌊 Noah’s flood ≠ first destruction (it was later and more limited).
👤 Different peoples existed before Cain, explaining his wife.
💧 Baptism is about the heart and faith, not exact wording.
🧠 Ignorance of scripture leads to confusion about prophecy.

📘📊 Important Biblical Terms

📜 ep’ (ἐπ᾿) → “from the beginning / long ago”
🌍 tohu (תֹהוּ) → desolate, waste, without form
⏳ Lord’s Day → 1,000-year Millennium
🕊️ Pre-existence → souls lived before earthly life
💥 Perished (apollymi) → complete destruction
🔥 Flaming fire → God’s spiritual ministers

⏳📖 Timeline of Events

🌟 First Creation — Earth created perfect (Genesis 1:1)
💥 First Destruction — Earth becomes void (Genesis 1:2, Jeremiah 4)
🌍 Second Age Begins — Present world restored (2 Peter 3:7)
👑 Millennium — 1,000-year reign of Christ
✨ Eternal Age — Final, everlasting kingdom

🧠✨ Key Insights

🌍 The Bible describes multiple Earth ages, not just one continuous timeline.
🌊 The first destruction was total, unlike Noah’s flood.
⏳ The Millennium is a literal 1,000-year period.
🕊️ Souls are eternal and existed before birth.
🔥 God’s power is shown through both natural forces and spiritual beings.
📖 Deep, personal study is essential to avoid misunderstanding.

📝✨ Conclusion

This teaching emphasizes that:

🌌 God’s plan spans multiple ages and vast time
🕊️ Humanity has an eternal spiritual origin
📖 Truth is revealed through careful study of scripture

🙏 The message ultimately calls believers to seek understanding, stay grounded in God’s Word, and prepare for the fulfillment of His divine plan. ✨

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Pre-Existence - Part 2:

**Pastor Murray:** Good day to you. God bless you. Say welcome to the Shepherd's Chapel. Welcome to this family Bible study hour. It's time to get back into His Word again. Remember, we started the lecture on pre-existence. Don't forget that, as it is written in Ephesians chapter 1, verse 4: "I chose you before the foundations of this world." And we looked at an old mammoth tooth that was 10 million years old and realized through various scriptures that there was a first Earth age, and then this world became void and without form. In fact, there are three world ages and three heaven ages. Naturally, the first heaven age and Earth age were consecutively or together, as well as the second and as well as the eternity to come.

I always like to go to Second Peter chapter 3, where Peter himself teaches concerning the three world ages. He makes it very plain, makes it very clear, whereby anyone can understand. So, he was writing concerning the end times, and in verse one, he documents that both the Old and the New Testament are gospels—that's where the truth is. But for the sake of time, we're going to pick it up with verse 4 of Second Peter chapter 3. Let's go with it.

This is what they would come saying in the last days: "Where is the promise of His coming?" I mean, you know, day in and day out, sun comes up, sun goes down, over and over. "Do I believe it or don't I?" People would be doubters in a sense. "For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation." Well, they've got one thing going for them, at least: they say "creation" and not "evolution." That's about all the good I can say for them.

Verse 5: For this they are *willingly* — I want to emphasize *willingly* — ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old (and here we're talking *old*, old—not just old, and I'll come back to that in a moment) and the earth standing out of the water and in the water. In other words, God created the earth out of the water—water to be inhabited. He didn't create it void; it became void after the first destruction.

Now, what about this word "old"? How old are we talking about? Let's call up, if we may, the Greek word that was translated "old" here. It is *ekpalai*, and it comes from 1537 and 3819, and it means in this sense "long ago," "for a long while." And then the King James gives it this and that. Let's break it back, though, all the way to the prime. Let's have the first prime, which was *ek*—it's a primary preposition denoting origin, the point from which action or motion proceeds, out of place, time, or cause, literally or figuratively, direct or remote. And what does it mean? "From the origin." Well, when was the origin? Well, that's why we put in this study: "In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth." Now, let's go to the last part of the word, which is *palai*. What does *palai* mean? Probably another form of 3825 through the idea of retrocession, adverbially, formally or relatively in some sense. So we see that it is an adverb: "a great while ago," "old in the past," and so forth.

All right, so what do we have? All the way back to the origin. That's what this word "old" means. And let me tell you something: it's the only place this word is used in the New Testament in this sense. Only place that it's used in this sense in the New Testament. Why? Because it's not talking about 6,000 years ago; it's talking about the origin, the beginning, the beginning of time. And people are willingly ignorant of the fact why? Because they won't take the blinders off and realize that there was an Earth age before this. Intelligent people with the field of science progressed to the point that it has—let's just take carbon dating alone—they'll argue with it rather than... why not stop being ignorant? This is Peter's word, not mine, from the Father. Learn the truth, to look it in the face and to understand: yes, there was a first Earth age, and that was the beginning. "In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth" (Genesis 1:1). Verse 2 of Genesis: "and the earth became void and without form," ending the first Earth age.

Okay, let's go on with verse 6: "Whereby the world that then was" — have you got that? There *was* a world then — "being overflowed with water, perished." And this word "perished" means totally, completely. Not eight souls, not a bunch of animals on an ark. All perished. And I'll document that before this lecture is over.

Verse 7: "But the heavens and the earth which are now" — this is to say the second heaven and the second earth (Earth age) — "by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men." That's the day that the ungodly (and "perdition" means to perish) shall perish off the face of the earth and heaven. Well, when will that happen? Well, there's reserved fire. Who is that fire? Hebrews chapter 12: God is a consuming fire.

Verse 8: "But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day." Now let me ask you a point-blank question: what is the Lord's day then? The Lord's day is a thousand years. I don't know how anyone could be ignorant about that. That's a millennium. The Millennium is a Lord's day. Now many people are going to say, "Well, this covered by water was Noah's flood." In Noah's flood, you had a dove that went forth and brought back an olive branch. Do you know how long it takes an olive tree to grow? Not in five months, my friend, do you get an olive branch. No way. It wasn't destroyed. That's my point. But in the shaking when Satan fell in the first Earth age (*cosmos*), certainly everything perished. He started all over. The earth was void and without form after Satan rebelled.

So, how long is the Lord's day? A thousand years, a millennium. Verse 9: "The Lord is not slack concerning His promise"—He won't change it, as some men count slackness—but His longsuffering toward us (meaning He's very patient with us), not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. And that is what God would like, because after all, they're His children. God did not want to destroy the third of His children that followed Satan in the first Earth age, which is well documented in Revelation chapter 12, verse 4. So He rather destroyed that Earth age and caused each soul to be born innocent of woman, hopefully — His will — that they would repent, not be ignorant of the fact of the first Earth age, but realize what true salvation, being born from above (that's what the Greek is in John chapter 3 — "born again"), means. Some say, "Are you born again?" Well, you wouldn't be walking around in the flesh if you weren't born from above. Some chose not to be born from above, and they stay locked in chains, in the Book of Jude, for utter destruction, because rather than to be born of woman (in Genesis 6), they came and seduced woman, took them to wife, and there were gibborim (giants) in those days. Thus, the flood of Noah. God would like it if all His children would come to repentance, thus salvation.

Verse 10: "But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in the which the heavens shall pass away" — that's this heaven, the second — "with a great noise, and the elements" (that's to say the rudiments, that's the evil men that shall perish, or anything bad) "shall melt with fervent heat, and the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up." That is to say the negative or the bad part. Why? That's the second death. God has promised He's going to shake this earth again. He shook it to end the first Earth age, and He'll shake it again, but not only the earth as it is written in Hebrews chapter 12, but the heavens also. I don't know what kind of platform you are standing on when the shaking comes, but it better be the rock that is Christ.

So Peter makes it very clear that there are three Earth ages — not three separate earths, not three separate heavens, but eons — and time means a great deal. Incidentally, when would that happen? "But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night." What is the day of the Lord? How long is the day of the Lord to us when He comes as a thief for that day? How long is that day? It's a thousand years. He told us: don't be ignorant of the fact. So then we have that day of the Lord which is the entire Millennium, from beginning to end — 1,000 years. How fascinating the Word of God is when you listen to it rather than man (this man or any other man). How fascinating, how wonderful. God did not keep this in secret; He made it very clear in His Word. It's real sad that His Word is not taught.

All right, we want to go at this time to Isaiah chapter 45. Turn there with me if you will. Isaiah 45. And I made the statement that that first flood was pretty bad, but you know, you shouldn't just say something without being able to document it. So go with me to Isaiah chapter 45 and verse 18. That 18th verse reads: "For thus saith the Lord" — now who's speaking? The Lord in the Hebrew, *Yah* — that created the heavens; He did what? He created the heavens. God Himself that formed (I repeat, *formed*) the earth and made it; He hath established it, He created it not in vain. Do you remember Genesis 1 verses 1 and 2, and I mentioned that Hebrew word *tohu*? What do you think this word "vain" means? I'll show you in a moment. He did not create it in vain; He formed it to be inhabited. "I am the Lord, and there is none else."

One more verse, 19: "I have not spoken in secret, in a dark place of the earth." I mean, you're reading it for yourself, aren't you? There's no big secret, but people would make it a big secret. "An earth age before this one? Whoever heard of it?" Well, somebody stupid enough to not read God's Word or study it — that's who would not have heard of it. I'm being a little firm, but then hey, if you've got it coming, friend, put it on and wear it. He didn't tell it in a secret place of the earth. "I said not unto the seed of Jacob, Seek ye me in vain" — there's that word "vain" again; I'm going to check it out for you in Hebrew in a moment. "I the Lord speak righteousness" — that means I'm right and I'm fair. I'm fair. I put it right here before you to read; you can read it for yourself. I declare things that are right. I'm not going to lie to you. I'm not going to mislead you. And I do not want you to be ignorant of God's Word. That's what your Father is saying.

Now what does He mean? "He created it not in vain." I want to call this word in the Hebrew. The Hebrew word is *tohu* — as I foretold you, it's from an unused root meaning to lie waste, a desolate or desert surface, figuratively a worthless thing, adverbially "in vain." And thus, the word "vain" here: God says, "I did not... do not try to seek Me in emptiness." Don't be empty-headed when you try to seek God. Don't have your brain like a waste desert when you seek Him. Have it fertile and have the blinders off. God did not create the earth desolate; He created it to be inhabited. The mountains actually stood above the water, and the sons of God ran to and fro as Satan walked with them. Unfortunately, we documented that in Job chapter 1, verses 6 and 7. How fantastic when we listen — God declaring to you, "There's no secret; I put it here for you to understand." And as in the last lecture, that great Proverbs number 8, wisdom speaks. Do you listen? Do you listen to the wisdom of God? For all wisdom comes from Him. How precious His Word.

Now, I promised you that I was going to document that when Peter wrote in Second Peter chapter 3 that everything perished in that first Earth age, it is written, and it is real easy to document. We'll find it in Jeremiah chapter 4. Let's go there now. To set the stage for you in this Jeremiah chapter 4, God is speaking to His children and He's basically threatening them. They're being unruly — what's new under the sun? They always have been. Won't listen to Him, won't read the letter that He has written to them, are ignorant concerning His truths, basically because they listen to the traditions of men and the yak-yak of people, Bible thumpers claiming to be teachers of God's Word. They just never quite get around to teaching the Word of God; they have their own word to teach of their system. In many cases, if you've got one different, you better treasure that house of God, for that's what it is. If God's Word is taught there, if God's Word isn't taught there, it's not a house of God; it's a circus. All right, that's quite true. Many carnival acts and great moments of excitement, but never teaching God's Word — that's not a house of God.

Now, not to digress, but to document the fact: God stating, "I shook this earth once, and I shook it good. And if you don't think I'm going to do it again, you're kidding yourself, and you better get your act together" — that's what He's basically stipulating here — "or I'm going to shake it a lot quicker than you might imagine." So we document that the earth in the first Earth age — this is why we have no dinosaurs. This ended the dinosaur age. This ended the mammoth age. They were no longer with us. This answers the question for one and all times. It's no secret. It's written. Listen to it.

Jeremiah chapter 4, let's begin with verse 22 to catch God's emotions here: "For my people is foolish, they have not known me; they are silly children, and they have none — I repeat, *none* — understanding. They are wise to do evil" — well, they can do that quick enough, lie in bed and find out and figure out how to rip their neighbor off before he gets up in the morning, possibly — "but to do good they have no knowledge." Now I like this word "silly." It's an old Celtic word — *sot* or *sod* — it means "stupid." The Hebrew word translated here is "silly in a stupid way," but I would rather have the Celtic word *sod*. Have you ever heard of a *sot* or a *sod*? Well, it means "stupid." What did God say? They are "stupid children." Why? They won't listen to their Father, God wanting to give them the riches of the world, and it seems they can never listen. That's why He makes the threat that follows, looking back to the completion and that act that concluded the first Earth age.

Verse 23: "I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form and void; and the heavens, and they had no light." I destroyed it, that's what He's saying. "I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and all the hills moved lightly." He moved them enough that the firmament fell from the sky. He moved it enough that true north now is 90 miles off center. Magnetic north is 90 miles off center of true north. We're not in a perfect state, and we now have a jet stream and we have storms, when in the first Earth age the dew watered the land each night. It is for this reason that in a barren desert in New Mexico on the top of a mountain, we find petrified palm trees. That was a lush green pasture at one time before the shaking. It's going to go back to that, praise God. You've seen it in a documentary that we have done — beautiful palm stumps this tall, palm trees that big around, moved slightly. Hey, "lightly" — moving the whole earth "lightly" is a great shaking, all right. And it's going to happen again.

Verse 25: "I beheld, and, lo, there was no man" — there was no Adam there, none of his sons, none of his wives, not one soul in this first shaking. Thus, do not confuse this with Noah's flood. "And all the birds of the heavens were fled." I mean, there wasn't one left. I killed them all. That's why all species found from the first Earth age are now extinct. It doesn't take a great wisdom to understand that it's written, it's recorded. In other words, if I may, one more time: you're not going to find this creature running around with this grinder tooth (10 million years old) grinding that lush foliage in Texas. He's gone. God destroyed them. And all spiritual bodies that were present at that time — yes, there were spiritual bodies here, not flesh bodies of man, but there were the animals were flesh. Thus, as it is written for the deeper student in Revelation... Genesis chapter 6, verse what is it, three or four? It grieved God that He had now in this Earth age created man in the flesh also; flesh has some pretty bad habits. In other words, there were no birds, there was no dove to send out, there was no raven to send out, and there was no man on an ark in this one.

Verse 26: "I beheld, and, lo, the fruitful place was a wilderness, and all the cities thereof were broken down at the presence of the Lord, and by His fierce anger." So therefore, don't find it some great mystery that we find an angel footprint — an angelic footprint in New Mexico that is 10 to 50 million years old, and it looks exactly like a human footprint, because we are made in the image of God and the angels. You've seen that documentary as well. This is the reason we make documentaries — to document that God's Word is true. And then you'll have some Bible thumper coming along, "This earth's only 6,000 years old." It's no wonder so many unbelievers are driven away from the Word of God, the most intelligent letter ever written to mankind. And we have such inadequacy of understanding because the blinders go on in place, and somebody can't see from the beginning to the end of this one little dispensation, even though it's written. Why? Well, if they just read the Bible... Well, they don't have time to read the Bible; they've got their own program.

Verse 27: "For thus hath the Lord said, The whole land shall be desolate; yet will I not make a full end." No, He won't. That's a promise also, because if you are standing when this last shaking comes, if you are standing on that which is unmovable (which is to say Christ), you don't have anything to worry about. I don't care if you're in the very middle of it; you don't have to hunt a hole to hide in somewhere. God is quite capable of taking care of His own, even as He took care of the Hebrew children in the fiery furnace. He walked in it with them, smiling and teaching all the time. The furnace roars? Why, God is supernatural, meaning He knows more about nature than anyone. He controls it. He can turn the damper down, friend, for whatever He so sees. And quite frankly, for the deeper student, a spiritual body feels no heat from a flame.

So there you have it: absolute documentation of the first Earth age, not only in Second Peter chapter 3, but He said in verse one of that chapter, "Go back to the Old Testament among the prophets." Do you consider Jeremiah to be a prophet? Jeremiah was in the first Earth age; it's declared. I'm not going to go to it in this lecture — we will in the next — but here you have documentation. That's why I wanted you to learn the one Hebrew word *tohu* — it wasn't created that way. "I did not create it that way; I created it wonderful and gave My children a home, and all I wanted was their love, which gives Me pleasure." The last verse of Revelation chapter 4 documents that God created us for that reason, for His pleasure. After all, isn't that what every father or parent wants from a child — the pleasure of being a parent? Well, His emotions are as ours, only more so, I'm afraid.

Verse 22 pretty well sets it up: "For my people (or my children) is foolish, silly; they have not known me; they are stupid children." And anyone... I don't want to offend in a sense that someone thinks I'm using the word "stupid." I didn't use it; God did, okay? For the just the joy of using "stupid," but quite frankly, if you're biblically illiterate, you are. Don't try to make excuses for it. If you haven't studied it, it's just automatic that you're biblically illiterate. Whose fault is it? Preachers, teachers, men as myself that purport and claim to teach the Word of God but never quite get around to it — that's whose fault it is in part. But with the education that we have in these end times, everyone is able to partake of the Word. So you can blame them, yes, and that's where judgment starts — at the top. Those that claim to be men of God, women of God — God, they'll get theirs, you bet. But you will too, for you are not ignorant in as much as you do know how to read, and the tools are available that you yourself can check out. For example, the word "vain" from a simple Strong's Concordance — it's not expensive — and study your Father's letter to you for yourself. No, He didn't speak it in secret that there was an Earth age before this and that all the souls were there, as it was written in the 38th chapter of Job — not part of His sons. And for the sake of time, I'm going to say there is no gender in this; they were all — I repeat, *all* — do you know what "all" in English means? All were there. So there's no denying.

Utilizing the word "pre-existence" is a misnomer in as much as they have always, always existed. Our souls come from God. Every Christian, I think, will agree to that. Where they stop short is they don't realize how long they were with God before they came here. That is *not* reincarnation, and you're sadly in error if you think that's what I'm saying. There's only one time through each Earth age and heaven age. We're about to have it for this one, so let there be no mystery. No one comes through this Earth age (that is to say, the flesh body) but one time. Everyone — it's given once to die — and then back to heaven with the Father for judgment. Now, what will happen at that judgment? You'll either go to hell or you'll remain in the third eon of time and happiness and wonder and be with your Father forever. That's your choice. It is His will that you do come to repentance, and He sent the leverage through the Savior, Jesus — that is to say, that makes it possible for anyone, even if you have low esteem and low willpower, to believe and repent and stand on that rock.

Well, what about the Psalms? I want to go there real quickly before we close this particular lecture. Psalms 104. God Himself speaks again of the first Earth age, and He speaks of His ministers that were already there in the first Earth age. I'm going to begin with Psalms 104. You will certainly, as an example... I'll read the 20th verse of 103: "Bless the Lord, ye His angels" — that's in spiritual body — "that excel in strength, that do His commandments, hearkening unto the voice of His word. Bless ye the Lord, all ye His hosts; ye ministers of His that do His pleasure." Again, that's why He created. "Bless the Lord, all His works in all places of His dominion: bless the Lord, O my soul."

Now Psalms 104, quickly. Verse 1: "Bless the Lord, O my soul." Do you know what your soul is? It's not your flesh. Your soul is yourself, and your spirit is the intellect of that self. And regardless of whether you're in a flesh body or a spiritual body, you still have the same soul. What I'm emphasizing here is get your mind off angels as Jesus would be asked. The old little lady that had lived with seven men and done them all in — I mean, she just outlasted them (women are tougher than men, we all know that) — and she put them all six feet under. And the Sadducees came up and said, "Which one is she going to live with in heaven, be married to?" And He said, "You don't understand what you're talking about, for we are as an angel," meaning we *are* angels when we're out of the flesh body. "Angel" simply means "messenger." People, rather than reading God's Word, look at so many commercials and so many artist drawings that they've got a little fat baby with wings flapping around — that little angel — and that's as far as their little brains can reach out, when angels many of them are mighty men of war. Wake up to God's truth, all right. And His ministers, as ministers of fire, they bring fire. It starts fire in the minds of people. They were with Him before the foundations of this earth. If you want to call that pre-existence, hey, you're getting pretty close, even though they never ceased existing.

"O Lord my God, Thou art very great; Thou art clothed with honor and majesty." Verse 2: "Who coverest Thyself with light as with a garment" — He is light. How many times have you heard Christ (God with us, Emmanuel) say, "I am the light"? "Who stretchest out the heavens like a curtain" — that's nothing to Him; He formed it. Verse 3: "Who layeth the beams of His chambers in the waters, who maketh the clouds His chariot." And quite frankly, chariots travel among clouds, all right. The same vehicle that picked Elijah up travels among the clouds to the naked eye. "Who walketh upon the wings of the wind" — the *Ruwach*, the Spirit.

Verse 4: "Who maketh His angels spirits" — again, spirits, the wind — "His ministers a flaming fire." Now if you ever want to see a minister of God, you will see a flaming fire, the fire being the Holy Spirit, His Word that is taught without excuse, exactly the way our Heavenly Father speaks it, whereby you receive the wisdom and have the blinders and the scales removed from your eyes and are open to God's truth that He shared, did not hide it in some monastery in some place for scholars only.

Verse 5: "Who laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not be removed forever." The ages change; the earth doesn't. That's why you can see some of these abrasions and faults that run for hundreds of miles — that first great upheaval that caused the plates to shift. They'll go back together; don't worry. Documenting that, take the documentary we did in Ashfall, Nebraska, where only African animals are found there — whole skeletal remains, camels, African birds (that is to say, African in as much as that's the only place we know they exist today), rhinoceroses by the score. Open your eyes, remove blinders. 10 million years ago it happened, and the documentation is there. Don't miss the documentary the next time we show it. His ministers of flaming fire.

And then verse 6: "Thou coverest it with the deep as with a garment: the waters stood above the mountains." That's the destruction — *tohu va bohu*. He flooded it; He brought that firmament down. Verse 7: "At Thy rebuke they fled; at the voice of Thy thunder they hasted away." That's not Noah. Noah took 150 days for the water to recede. But after the *katabole* — those of you with Companion Bibles, read your 146 appendix and you'll learn of that *katabole* that overflowed the foundations of the very earth — no, it rushed when He spoke. Noah's flood took a considerable length of time; they stayed aboard the ark and had to do a lot of feeding and a lot of shoveling before the waters receded. So don't... and as in Noah's flood, the fig tree, the olive tree was growing. God said, "I destroyed them in that first shaking." Noah's flood was just to get rid of a little infection of fallen angels, as it is written in Genesis 6, that had cohabited with the daughters of Adam — Satan's way of trying to destroy the coming of Christ through woman.

Pre-existence? Well, as I said, it really bothers me to call this lecture that, but there is no other way to bridge the gap of those with blinders. Souls exist from the beginning. But we could say "pre-" in as much as there was a first Earth age. Hey, we'll cap this off in the next lecture and just let your little cup run right over with God's truth — not from this man or any other man, but from God's Word. Don't miss it. All right, listen a moment, won't you please?

Dr. Pastor Arnold B. Murray

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**Announcer:** *Genesis 146* — the first six chapters in God's Word. The world that was. Did you realize there was a world age before this one? Same old world, different age. The creation itself. When were the races created? You see, all the races were created separately, and you'll find that documented in these particular CDs. How and what was the sin in the Garden? It will be discussed in this series also. This is a must for the serious Bible scholar, for if you do not understand how it was in the beginning, you certainly will never understand the end. I think you will find this series very rewarding and certainly will answer questions that no doubt you have always wondered about. *Genesis 146* — hey, I know you're going to enjoy this series.

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**Pastor Murray:** All right, there we are, back again. Let's have the 800 number, if we may: 1-800-643-4645. That number is good from Puerto Rico throughout the U.S., Alaska, Hawaii, all over Canada. If the spirit moves and you have a question, share it, won't you? Please do that. Those of you that listen around the world by shortwave at this time, your announcer at the end of the hour will give you our mailing address. It's always a pleasure to hear from you.

Now, you've got a prayer request? He's your Father. I mean, He has emotions, and He loves to hear from you. He really does. It makes His day. So talk to Him. Let Him know your thoughts and your love for Him. It pays great dividends in that returned love and blessings.

Father, around the globe we come at this time. We ask that You lead, guide, direct, touch, heal in Yeshua's precious name. Jesus. Amen.

Okay, let's see what's on the minds of people. Boy, I am so far behind in questions. This goes all the way back to 5/17, and that shows you how far behind I am.

Clint from Texas: "My wife and I were both baptized, but we were baptized under different words. Does this matter? Your teaching is wonderful." Well, thank you. It's God's Word that's wonderful, though. Okay, there are certain ways that baptism is said. Some say "Jesus only," and some speak in English. If you're an English speaker and you're not familiar with Hebrew, that's fine; it'll do. To be baptized in Jesus' name only, as some do — what is Jesus? It's *Yeshua*, which is "Yah's Savior." And wherever they are, the Holy Spirit is, so it doesn't matter. Baptism is not between a church and man; it's between God and His child. So there is only one baptism, all right. However it's said, I know that might upset some, but to a linguist it's a waste of time sometimes to go into semantics because of the lack of knowledge. People create different religions over different words when the words are one and the same. All right.

Michelle from North Carolina: "I really enjoy studying with you." Great, glad you do. "I am having problems explaining to people that there were two of each race on Noah's ark from the six-day creation. Could you give me some scriptures?" Well, the documentation is the fact that they survived the flood because we still have all the races with us. Chinese history goes back quite further than does our history, and the Chinese report a great flood over Mount Ararat in their history. It is for this reason and many other reasons that some do not believe that the flood was worldwide. And when the Bible states that all the world was covered — *cosmos* — you've got to understand what that word means. That government that God intended to destroy was destroyed; it certainly covered all of it. So the way you document... and for the sake of, I would not make an argument out of it. It doesn't matter. I would not even declare to you how I personally feel as to whether it was not worldwide but only to destroy the offspring of the Gibborim (the Nephilim, rather) or covered the entire world, because it wouldn't matter. You can take it either way, because God said to Adam in Genesis 6, "Take two of every flesh." Well, drop... I think that's long about verse what, 16 or something like that. Go back to verse 3, and it says God — it grieved God that He had made man in flesh. So man was flesh the sixth day and the eighth day. That's the way you document it.

Mr. Mansfield from Florida: "When the false Messiah comes, will Pastor Murray still be on the air?" Well, not only Pastor Murray, but many other people that are delivered up before the false Christ. When these trials — excuse me — these trials will be televised worldwide.

Harold from Louisiana: "I'm thinking about taking that handgun course for concealed weapons. I think I would like to do this for my protection. Do you think this is right?" Absolutely. Especially if you drive through high crime rate areas. That's like... whatever they do there, you've got to have an equalizer. I don't want to go... I mean, you always have to obey the laws of the land, and it is our right by our Constitution to be able to bear arms — not to overthrow our own government, but to protect our families, our homes. And the course is a training period that not only teaches you how to use the handgun but teaches you your rights in the sense of legality of when and when not to use it. Then follow up on that.

You know, many of us in rural areas that grew up — a boy's toy, first toy... well, I'm not going to say it's the first toy, but the first thing he really wanted was a .22, you know? I mean, you dreamed about your .22. Well, I suppose the first thing was a Daisy air rifle. Every boy wanted a Daisy air rifle. You kind of cut your teeth on that, and then your own .22. But buddy, let me tell you something: you had a lot of home training and stern instruction from Papa before you were handed that .22. And then that .22 was taken, and it put meat on the table because we didn't have refrigerators and things like that that kept fresh meat. We went out and hunted it and brought it in. So my point being this: teach your children. Let them know you have the gun. Let them know that it is a no-no. And if your children cannot be disciplined to the point that they leave it alone, then put it under lock and key. But I would really worry a little bit about a house that couldn't discipline their children to keep hands off guns. I think I probably wouldn't have one in the house, but I can't imagine myself having a child I can't discipline to keep their hands off the gun, too. I never had any trouble with it, and I find no excuse for anyone that can't.

All right. Where there's a will, there's a way. By all means, if you need to — check your state laws and so forth — take it. I think women should take the class also. There would be a lot less rapes in this nation if every woman had a license. And it's going to upset some preachers, but then I upset them all the time anyway, so why should I even give it a thought? There would be a lot less rapes and children assaulted if every woman carried a handgun and knew how to use it. Bear in mind, there's training that goes with this. This is not just handing somebody a loaded pistol. Don't get some little "lady's handgun" that is so small all it does is go "ouch." I mean, it's got to pack a punch — knocks them down, does them in. All right. But people worry more about the criminal. "If you carry a gun, you could hurt him." But what do you think he has on his mind? What do you think the criminal that wants to hurt these little teenage girls has on his mind? Hey, I want to hurt him bad, not just a little bit bad, you know. The Father likes people like that sent up to Him. No. By all means, take it. And you men and women, you protect your homes, but do it legally and with knowledge and wisdom. Take the training.

Paul from Oklahoma: "Where in the Bible does it talk about capital punishment? I'm sitting on a jury that involves the death penalty, and I'd like to have some scriptures." Do Deuteronomy chapter 19. Remember it foremost. Deuteronomy 19 gives you God's law concerning an accidental death and pure, outright premeditated murder. All right. God has special rules. Follow them, and your community will be a lot better off for it. Now, secondly, read Numbers chapter 35.

Crystal from Florida: "Is it possible for God to give the spirit of one of the prophets of the Bible to a living person on earth today?" Well, all you know, there is only one that that would happen as is promised by God, and that's the spirit of Elijah. It was upon John the Baptist and Elijah himself. And any ministry that turns the hearts of the children back to the Father, in a sense, is in that spirit of Elijah.

James from Oklahoma: "I love your teachings and have grown a lot since I started studying with you. Not long ago, I had put my trust in a man of God and he let me down when his ministry fell because of sin in his life. I believe I can trust you, but I keep thinking that you'll let me down like he did. I hope you understand I'm not knocking you; I just don't want to be let down. Thank you." What in the world would me sinning, James, have to do with your relationship with Christ? It's between you and this Word. Don't ever put your trust in man. Don't ever put your faith in man, because all men sin and fall short. You're going to be disappointed. Now, if you think I'm saying, "Well, I'm deliberately going to go out and sin" — no, man's not perfect, this man or any other man. Live in a real world, won't you? Your relationship is between you and God. James, you're kind of like the Israelites back when they just couldn't accept God as King; they had to have some man they could see, and every one of them with the exception of one or two let them down. All right. Well, there was little old David. Well, did David do good? No, he seduced his neighbor's wife. Should we just throw David out then? Well, no. I'm not going to. David wrote a lot of the Psalms, and they're absolutely beautiful, but David was a sinner. He was a man after God's own heart, but he was a sinner. So James, what I'm saying to you is this: do I brag that I might sin? No. I'm in the flesh, and I'm a realist. I live in a real world, and I fall short. Now, I'm not deliberately, but my gift from Almighty God to teach His Word does not depend one iota on my actions for those promises in God's Word to be fulfilled to the people I teach. All right. So don't ever, ever weigh the truth on some man. Weigh the truth on the Word of God, which is to say Jesus Christ, the light, the Lamb, the Way — never man. Okay? I'm not scolding you; I'm just saying get real. Okay.

John from California: "I watch you all the time and enjoy your programs. I have a question about Satan being the father of Cain. If God owns all the souls, what soul did Cain have in him? I don't understand why God would allow one of His souls to be put into a child of Satan, or did Satan have souls that belong to him?" He did not. Satan also was a child of God — Ezekiel 28 documents it. But what if God chose some from the foundations of the world (that is to say, the first Earth age) because they stood against Satan and his rebellion? Then some chose to follow Satan, as it's written — a third of them — but some even more so than that, his lieutenants. Every soul that is born into this world is born into its just lot. God is fair. But every soul, even Cain, when Christ entered the captives while He was yet in the tomb, as it is written in that same book of First Peter rather, chapter 3 verse 18, He released many of those captives because they believed upon Him. Cain has the right, even though he was a sinner, to overcome by believing upon Yeshua. All right. God's fair.

Edward from Missouri: "If in Revelation it states that John saw a great number of people standing before the throne of God, a number which no man could count, if this is true, why do Christians insist that the only ones going to heaven are those who believe in Christ? I can't find one place in the Bible that says this." Well, you poor soul. I can't believe that you would quote the Bible and read one or two verses and not read the rest of it. Had you... you're quoting here — and my mind's trying to put this all in perspective — you're quoting from the seventh chapter of Revelation, and this number that are so large you can't even count were therefore a reason, and it's given in the 14th verse. And that 14th verse says they were there because they had washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb. Now don't be one of these "one-verse Charlies," dude. God's Word is perfect, son; you can't twist it to suit yourself. Just be complete in it, because you kind of show your knowledge of the Bible by quoting it and then saying you can't find one place. It means you didn't read very far, son, because you would have only read what — one, two, three other verses — and you would have had your answer. Come on, get real. Okay.

Elaine from Nevada: "After Cain killed Abel, he went to another land and got married. Where did those other people come from if they weren't children of Adam and Eve?" They weren't. They were the other races God created on the sixth day, and God loved them. You know, look around you today. We have people of different races. They're here. It's a fact. Get real, be a realist. You that have problems with that, I would recommend that you order — and I'm not peddling tapes — but it's all explained in detail and taken back in the Hebrew in my three tapes under the number 146. 146 — it will give you how those races came to be. And don't anyone ever apologize for their race in front of me. You're children of God, and He has a purpose for you, else He would not have created the race. That's why so many people can't understand the Bible. Cain went to the Land of Nod and took a wife. Who was over there? The six-day creation is very simple.

Jud from Maryland: "What does it mean in Revelation about John receiving his vision on the Lord's day?" That's a good question, and you can probably answer it from today's lecture. What is the Lord's day? It's a thousand years. It's the Millennium. All right. He was taken there, and he could see what was happening and what had happened. All right. And you'll find that in chapter 1, verse 10.

Linda from Kentucky: "If you believe in God but don't go to church, can you still go to heaven?" You're in church. Shepherd's Chapel is a church. We are communing and fellowshipping right now through the airwaves, the Holy Spirit, the Word of God. So you *do* go to church; you're right here. And I know what you mean: a local church. Hey, if you can't find one that teaches the Word of God, it wouldn't do you any good to go there anyway. And if you do have one that teaches the Word of God chapter by chapter and verse by verse, it will have the largest, fullest parking lot of any church in town, because the Word of God draws people; you can hardly handle them. And I keep saying that to pastors, but some do, some don't. And hey, praise God for His Word. It is powerful.

Pastor: You know why I love you all so much? Because you care about our Father enough to study His Word in more depth. And what's really more important, it causes our Heavenly Father to love you. It makes His day. It pleases Him. And that's why we're all so blessed. That's why we don't have to be a bunch of beggars like people I know. God takes care of us through people — little people. Thus, we're brought to you by your tithes and offerings. If we've taught you, you help us keep coming to you. When you do that, what's most important is this: stay in His Word. Leave man out of it. Stay in His Word every day. It's a good day. You know why? Jesus — Yeshua — is the Living Word. Hearing God's Word with understanding will change your life.

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📖✨ Summary of Shepherd’s Chapel Family Bible Study with Pastor Arnold Murray: Pre-Existence and Election ✨📖

This teaching by Pastor Arnold Murray explores the biblical doctrines of pre-existence, election, and God’s sovereign plan for humanity. It emphasizes God’s foreknowledge, justice, and purpose, showing how believers fit into a divine plan that began before this present Earth age.

🔑🔥 Key Biblical Themes and Concepts

🕊️✨ Pre-Existence of Souls

👤 Souls were created by God before this Earth age and have never ceased to exist.
📖 Scripture such as Jeremiah 1:5 shows God knew individuals before birth.
🌱 The parable in Matthew 13 reveals truths hidden since the foundation of the world.
⚔️ Souls were present during Satan’s rebellion, where loyalty was tested.

👑📜 Election & Predestination

🌟 God chose certain souls (the elect) before the foundation of the world (📖 Ephesians 1:4–11).
🔮 Election is based on God’s foreknowledge, not human works.
🛡️ The elect are described as “first fruits” with a special role in God’s plan.
⚖️ Process includes: called → justified → glorified (📖 Romans 8:29–30).
⚔️ The elect are expected to stand firm against deception, including the Antichrist.

⚖️👁️ God’s Sovereignty & Justice

🧠 God’s plan is perfect, fair, and unchanging (📖 Romans 8:28).
🏺 The potter and clay analogy (📖 Romans 9) shows God’s authority over creation.
❤️ God’s choices (Jacob vs. Esau) reflect divine foreknowledge, not randomness.

🔥🕊️ Role of the Holy Spirit

🙏 The Holy Spirit intercedes for believers in weakness (📖 Romans 8:26–27).
🧭 Guides the elect according to God’s will.
📢 Helps reveal truth and strengthen faith.

👤➡️✨ Flesh vs. Spiritual Body

⏳ The physical body is temporary.
🌟 Believers await transformation into a spiritual body (📖 Romans 8:23).
🌱 Earthly life is a testing and growth period.

📚📊 Important Concepts Simplified

🕊️ Pre-existence → Souls existed before earthly life
👑 Election → God chooses based on foreknowledge
🔮 Predestination → God’s plan unfolding over time
⚖️ Justification → Declared righteous by God
🌾 First Fruits → God’s elect with special purpose
🕊️ Holy Spirit → Helper, guide, and intercessor

⏳📖 Key Scriptural Timeline

🌟 Souls Created by God (before Earth age)
⚔️ Satan’s Rebellion & Testing of Souls
👑 Election of the Faithful
🌍 Human Birth (Current Age)
⏳ Spiritual Growth & Testing
✨ Final Redemption & Transformation

💡📌 Additional Insights

⚖️ Free Will vs Election
- 🧭 Both exist together—God’s plan stands, yet individuals still choose.
🚫 Misconceptions Addressed
- 🔄 Pre-existence ≠ reincarnation
- ⚠️ Warnings against deception in end times
📖 Practical Application
- 🧠 Study scripture deeply
- 🙏 Walk in faith and patience
- 👁️ Seek truth willingly—God does not force belief

📖✨ Key Supporting Verses

🕊️ Ecclesiastes 12:7 — Spirit returns to God
✨ 2 Corinthians 5:8 — Present with the Lord
🕊️ Revelation 6 — Souls under the altar
⚠️ Mark 13:23 — Beware deception
👑 Romans 9 — God’s sovereign choice
📜 Ephesians 1 — Election before foundation

📝✨ Conclusion

🌌 God’s plan began before this world existed
🕊️ Souls are eternal and purposeful
👑 The elect have a special role in God’s plan
🔥 The Holy Spirit actively guides believers

🙏 This teaching encourages believers to seek deeper understanding, trust God’s sovereignty, and remain faithful, knowing they are part of a divine plan that spans beyond this present world. ✨

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Pre-Existence - Part 3:

**Pastor Murray:** Good day to you. God bless you. Say welcome to the Shepherd's Chapel. Welcome to this family Bible study hour. Say, it's real good to be back with you. We're going to complete pre-existence in the final segment of it.

All right, bear in mind and remember that in pre-existence, in the first two lectures we covered many things to say that the word "pre-existence" works is actually a misnomer, in as much as from the time our Father created the souls, they have never stopped existing. So really, we can't use that terminology, but for English we'll do it, and there we go.

So with that thought in mind, I want the deeper student to make a note of Matthew chapter 13 in documenting that there was an earth age before this. Take the parable of the sower—the simplicity in which Christ taught. We see within that the parable of the sower, which any man that's been around agriculture (if you've seen the picture) can see a man broadcasting seeds. And then in the 35th verse of that 13th chapter of Matthew, he stipulates that this is a secret that has been hidden since the foundations of the earth. The verb with this again is *katabole*: the overthrow of Satan. Since the overthrow of Satan, the subject and object being locked in that because of the overthrow of Satan caused God to plant seed in the flesh—being man in the garden. When Christ begins then to explain the parable, we find out that the wicked one that came in the night and planted the tares (the seeds) was of course the Devil Himself. So again, a good documentation. But when you have Companion Bibles, again I encourage you to read Appendix 146, "From the Foundations," and it will give you an excellent study on that.

Now, pre-existence. We're going to Romans chapter 8, verse 22. Let's pick it up—a word of wisdom from our Father in Yeshua's name. And it reads: "For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now." Especially this is true that the creation itself—the trees suffer from acid rain, rivers polluted—naturally it groans for the return where things will be put right.

Verse 23: "And not only they" (that's to say the created things) "but ourselves also, which have the first fruits of the Spirit." Now he's identified a people here who are the first fruits—the elect, of course. Even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. That is to say, to be changed from this flesh body into a spiritual body, whereby we are alleviated from all the pains from wearing this vessel of clay.

Verse 24: "For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope." In other words, you've actually witnessed it, then for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? In other words, it's there, and we're going to see that day; it's going to come to pass.

Verse 25: "But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it." And do be patient. This is said for those that might want to take shortcuts to leave the flesh. But you're put here for a purpose, and until the silver cord parts (as it's written in Ecclesiastes chapter 12, long about verse 4 and 5), you've got work to do. God is using you, wants to use you, and He's very angry at those that would do otherwise than to know and say, "Yes, Father, I'll patiently wait."

Verse 26: "Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities"—let's just say our weaknesses. If you've got a weakness, the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, will help you, strengthen you in that. "For we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself" (that's the Holy Spirit Himself) "maketh intercession for us with groanings" (just to say a sigh) "which cannot be uttered." In other words, our Father, in utilizing His servants of the first fruits (the elect), you don't really know the ultimate of God's plan in detail. So He provides an intercession in your life that brings you to that—you're going to hear the truth. If you are one of God's elect, He's going to steer you. And why would He do that above someone else? Why would He do that to old Paul on the road to Damascus to destroy the church? There was no revival. Paul certainly didn't want to be converted, but God struck him down. And as you will read in Acts chapter 9, verses 1-15, God saying, "Paul is My chosen vessel." Why would He choose him? Because of what happened at the overthrow. It's important that you know that, or you're never going to understand why you're here in the flesh in the first place. Why would God put us in these fleshly, weak, perishable bodies?

Verse 27: "And He that searcheth the hearts" (that's to say the minds) "knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because He maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God." Listen carefully: according to the will of God—that's to say according to the plan of God. Let me ask you something: Do you have a part in God's plan? Many of you have known since you were a child there was more to God's Word than you had been taught. You knew it. You knew that our Father was totally, completely fair. Thus, how could He possibly intercede in someone's life and cause them to do righteous things even though they be a sinner in part? (That is to say, we all fall short at times.) It was because they were chosen before the foundation—that is to say, they earned the right at Satan's first rebellion. And our Father doesn't forget something like that. But according to the plan of God—why? God's plan, His prophecies, will come to pass exactly as they are written, and He uses His servants to bring that to pass.

Verse 28: "For we know that all things work together for good to them that love God." All things happen good to those that love God, to them who are the called—I repeat, not volunteered, *called*—according to His purpose. Again, two times for emphasis on His plan. All things work to the good. That doesn't mean you're not going to have some bad days. It doesn't mean that you're going to have a bed of roses. God doesn't want any hot-house lilies to serve Him. He wants people, and He wants people that can handle it—that don't scream every time the bark gets skinned just a little bit. That is to say, that are can-do type people. And yet at the same time have hope, which is faith. Though they have not seen, yet they patiently wait for the plan of God to proceed, and they do their part as the Spirit would intercede in their life to bring them to that place to serve God. The best way to learn His plan, and in as much as it has been mentioned twice for emphasis, is from His Word, of course.

Verse 29: "For whom He did foreknow" — that means to know from before in that first Earth age — "He also did predestinate." Do you understand predestinate? He determined that they would accomplish those things to be conformed (that is to say, similar) to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. He set the way. He set the path. He paid the price, whereby we in all our weaknesses can still perform that which God would have us perform in taking His Word to those ears—those secrets that have been kept from that overthrow (the foundation) and share them with God's children.

Verse 30: "Moreover whom He did predestinate" — again, I hope that word isn't difficult for people; it means exactly what it says. Not because they're the prettiest, but because they earned it. He can depend on them. They stood against Satan in the first rebellion, and He knows they will stand against the spurious Messiah in his second rebellion as he's cast out of the heavens. "Them He also called" — and whom He called, chose, predestinated, "them He also justified." Do you know what the word "justified" here in the Greek means? It means to have judged. He judged them and found them not wanting. This is why it is written in the 19th chapter of Revelation that Christ in a sense already has a wife, and He's taking on a bride. Think about it.

Verse 31: "What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?" It wouldn't do anyone any good to be against us. God would crush them—that is to say, move them out of the way, as He has stated: "Touch not mine anointed," because God's plan and purpose will come to pass as it is written.

Verse 32: "He that spared not His own Son" — this is to say He allowed him to be crucified, but delivered him up for us all — "how shall He not with him also freely give us all things?" That is to say, all things that you need to do God's work that He has led you to do. God will provide. When you ask for it, He'll furnish all the bricks you need; you just do the building.

Verse 33: "Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth." It is God that judges. In other words, other people cannot judge those that do God's work—that is to say, absorb His Word, that listen to Him, those that He can trust. And they were proven and tested and proved loyal. He predestinated that they would not necessarily have free will in all things, but that He would intercede in their life and cause them to come into the knowledge or be in the right place at the right time to understand the secrets of God's Word—which are so simple within themselves, but so many ears are blocked to that truth. And there's no way that you can remove that seal on their ear to bring them into the truth. Why? Probably not one of God's elect among the kings, queens, or those of Israel. Just the way it is. God chooses and uses whom He would.

One of the other scriptures right here in this great book of Romans that we find that God foreknew that they pre-existed is His statement in this ninth chapter of Romans. Let's pick it up with the 11th verse. And what we're talking about here are the twins, Jacob and Esau, while they're still in their mother's womb. And it reads: "For the children being not yet born" (these are the twins), "neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election" — do you want me to say that again? According to election — "might stand, not of works, but of Him that calleth." It is God that does the calling. While these two little babies were still embryos in the mother's womb, verse 12: "It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger." And so it is written.

Verse 13: As it is written, "Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated." It's God's right. Well, why would He hate Esau? Because Esau in the first Earth age thought no more of his inheritance or heritage than he did in this Earth age, and God knew it. God knew which way he would go. But Esau still has the choice. It is possible that when Christ — as it is written in 1 Peter chapter 3, verse 18 — was converted, when Christ gave the opportunity of salvation all the way back to the time of Noah.

Verse 14: "What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid." Is this not fair — that God would love one little old bitty baby before it was born and hate the other? Of course it's right, if you know the souls that He placed therein. For the soul was not the soul of a baby; it was the soul of the sons of God — an entity that came from God. Therefore, God is totally just and right in hating the one. "Well, I didn't know God hated." Well, you just didn't know, my friend, and you've been listening to some fuzzball, haven't you? Not that I'm flattering — using flattering names to some that claim to be scholars of God's Word. But anyone that misleads the children of God, "fuzzball" is a gentle name. I could call them what they deserve, if that were the case. And don't worry, God will.

Now He continues on, our Father, to show you that He is the Potter and we're the clay. He speaks of Pharaoh and how He raised Pharaoh up to fulfill the role of Pharaoh in taking our people captive for 400 years. We were slaves for 400 years, and He raised up Pharaoh. And then He says, "Would the clay want to question the Potter?" Because you know what you can do to a clay pot? You can throw it to the ground, and it doesn't have much of a lifespan. And He said from the same lump of clay (further in this chapter), "I can either make a flower vase or a chamber pot." That's my translation, and it's correct. Do you understand? In other words, I can take one of the twins, and I know what that soul's going to do, and the other I know what it's going to do. Is that unrighteous that God would... Well, why would God curse one? God didn't curse them. That's their own attitude, that's their own desire. Some have a free will to want to do to others that they certainly wouldn't want done to themselves. They're thieves, robbers, liars. God didn't curse them with that; that's themselves, that's their own soul. Souls do not change just because they move from a spiritual body to a flesh body. If anything, perhaps the flesh being weak amplifies the condition.

So we see then, did they pre-exist? Of course they did. God foreknew them. Now that doesn't put some big mystery on God's Word. I think that every Christian (or at least everyone I have made a study of) every group believes that your soul comes from God. So I really don't see how there is any big problem in that. Science itself declares that this earth is millions of years old, so we don't have any problem in that. And we know that our Father's in control, and you had better know that everything that He does is fair. There's a reason for it. Rather than squirming, if you think you brought trouble on yourself, you need to analyze yourself, not God. That is to say, for the negative input there. God corrects His people, yes. But when our Father chastises someone, they even end up stronger for having had the experience.

You know, I recommend as a side study and a home assignment that you make a study of St. John chapter 17, where Christ would speak to the Father in that beautiful, wonderful prayer. I've used it many times, even at funeral services, where Christ would say, "Father, I have saved all those that You have given me" — made it possible for them to attain salvation — "except the son of perdition." That wasn't Judas; that's Satan, the son of perdition of Second Thessalonians chapter 2. And He said, "Even the first fruits, as they are not of this world age (*cosmos*), neither am I." In other words, the elect did not need to go through this Earth age to be saved. They had already attained salvation because they were justified when God chose them at the overthrow. Do you understand that? But they came here as first fruits to see that God's plan — though they cannot totally understand it — God intercedes through the Holy Spirit in their life to bring these things to pass. So Christ would say, "Even as I am not of this world, neither are they. Yet I ask You not to take them out of this world, for those they come in contact with perhaps will be converted to the truth" — that is to say, those with free will, those that did not overcome, having the option (born of woman, innocent) to make their mind up whether to accept God or whether to love Satan as they did there. The choice is an individual thing, and each individual must make that choice.

And many might say, "Well, are you going to try to force me to believe what you're saying?" I don't care whether you do or not. If you're happy where you're at, stay there. I am only responsible for teaching God's Word. My inner wish is that you would love your Father enough that you would study His letter that He has written to you personally. But if you don't want to, hey, that's your business. All right. God's truth is never forced on anyone, because in the first place they couldn't understand it even in the simplicity of it as it is written, else they had ears to hear. And the first fruits and the kings and the queens are the only ones that possessed that, other than attaining salvation.

Well, what makes the difference then? Someone might say between free will and election. There is very little difference in free will and election, in as much as those of the election are called the remnant that will pass away before Christ returns — or rather before the Antichrist appears. But after the Antichrist appears, those that have said, "I am saved and love the Lord Jesus Christ" and have not studied the Word — it becomes a total different picture, because the supernatural entity walks the earth claiming to be Christ. He is instead of Christ, the spurious Messiah, and many will be deceived. That's why it's important that you study all the letter, not just parts, not just a verse here and a verse there by some one-verse reverend.

All right, now another place — let's just drive the last nail if possible from the Old Testament that we'll utilize in this lecture. You'll find it in the first chapter of Jeremiah. Turn there with me, won't you please? Jeremiah chapter 1, and I'm going to pick it up at verse four. God is discussing the soul — I repeat, God is discussing the soul of Jeremiah.

Verse 4 of chapter 1: "Then the word of the Lord came unto me, saying" — so we know this is God speaking. Verse 5: "Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee." Now think about that. Be serious; give it serious thought. I'll read it one more time: "Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations." In other words, it's saying Jeremiah pre-existed, that God knew him before even he was conceived. Therefore, Jeremiah was chosen, as the other prophets were chosen, having been tried and tested in that rebellion from before — that is to say, Satan's rebellion in the first Earth age. We don't have many earths; there's only one, but it is divided up into eons of time. And I'll repeat myself by saying there is no argument between the true Word of God and science as far as how old this earth is. God's Word declares that this earth is millions of years old. He knew him before He formed him in his mother's womb. Well, then there will still be some that will say, "Well, I just don't know how you could say we pre-existed. Is that evolution?" No. We were with God. Evolution? I'm sorry. Is that reincarnation rather? Reincarnation is where a soul goes through the flesh age twice. That doesn't happen; that's blasphemy. There are those that are possessed of evil spirits that have possessed a flesh body of someone else at another time and can really tell you what happened there. Why? Spirits are very intelligent. But there would be some that would say, "Well, why does that mean Jeremiah pre-existed?" Because God said it. He made it very clear, and He repeats it over and over in this great Word of God. And in repeating that, we know that certainly He knew him before he entered the mother's womb.

Now let's have the next verse, if we may. Verse 6: Then said I — this being Jeremiah — "Ah, Lord God! Behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child" (meaning a youth). When God called Jeremiah, he said, "I'm just a country boy out here; I don't know how I can speak as a prophet."

Verse 7: "But the Lord said unto me, Say not, I am a child" — say not that I am young. Why? He existed from the world. "For thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak." This cannot help but remind you of God's plan that is a continuation of this in Mark 13, where it stipulates that those that are delivered up before the spurious Messiah will allow the Holy Spirit to speak through them, not themselves.

Verse 8: "Be not afraid of their faces" (that means their countenance, their personage), "for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the Lord." And God is with His elect always has been, always will be. Why? Because they were with Him. When they make that stand for God, God will make that stand for them.

Hey, you know what? We started in Ephesians chapter 1. I wonder if it could mean a little more to you now that we have covered in these three lectures the calling. That is to say, does that make — I might insert — does that make someone that is one of the first fruits better than anybody else? No. It means that they overcame at the first rebellion. God loves all of His children. It wasn't because they were better that God chose them; it was because He could trust them. It was because they loved Him and were not pulled away by demonic spirits of Satan or any of his lieutenants. How about you? You see, that's not great qualifications in my mind, because to follow Satan is a bumble — it is the worst thing I could ever think of to do. So to me, it's no big thing to be against Satan and to be for our Father who loves us with such greatness.

Now I want to read back in the New Testament again, having said these things. Ephesians 1, verse 4 — the very verse that we opened this discussion with back in the first lecture: "According as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world" — that's this world age — "that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love." That love is so important. You cannot help loving God when you understand His overall plan, that it is to save His children. It is His will that all come to repentance.

Verse 5: "Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will" — let's just say according to His plan, as we read in the 8th chapter of Romans.

Verse 6: "To the praise of the glory of His grace" — that's to say His granting of unmerited favor. We don't merit it totally; we fall short — "wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved." That is to say the first fruits. Why? You earned it, that is to say, in the first Earth age before the foundations. I repeat from verse 4 of this age.

Verse 7: "In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace" — that's to say His mercy. We even though the events that happen still sin; why? We're in the flesh, and flesh has a powerful influence upon a soul.

Verse 8: "Wherein He hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence." He's with us. Wisdom is for the taking, and the taking is to partake of the book, to eat it in your mind and let it absorb into the very soul, the spirit of man (which is to say his intellect).

Verse 9: "Having made known unto us the mystery" — there's that mystery of His will. It's a wonderful thing to know what God wants you to do; then you recognize your destiny according to His good pleasure which He hath proposed in Himself. He knew it; He planned it. How about you? Are you a part? I don't know; only you can answer that.

Verse 10: "That in the dispensation of the fulness of times" — and we're coming to that point — "He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth, even in Him." That great shaking coming that will change both the heaven and the earth and place it in the third heaven age and the third Earth age, which is the final.

Verse 11: "In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated" — don't ever forget it — "according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will" — after the counsel of His own plan. I don't care whether people like it or not; it's going to happen as it is written. And the sooner you absorb what is written by prayerfully studying that plan and finding your place, coming with that is peace of mind. That wisdom will fall upon you. It's a beautiful thing, the plan of salvation that our God has for all His children.

God is not necessarily concerned that much about the salvation of the elect; they have work to do. It is not by their own works that they overcome, but listen carefully: by doing the works of God that they overcome, because that is pleasing and gives pleasure to our Father, and He blesses you richly with peace of mind when you find your destiny, your purpose. We are not just passing through this Earth age by accident. It's planned; it has a pattern. Again, have you known since you were a child that there was more to God's Word than you had been taught? Then teach yourself in His Word and find that that pleases your Father, and indeed you will find success and happiness.

Pre-existence — that's what the Bible says. Would you argue with it? All right, bless your heart. You listen a moment, won't you please?

Dr. Pastor Arnold B. Murray

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**Announcer:** *The Mark of the Beast* on CD is our free introductory offer to you. What is the Mark of the Beast? Many false teachers would have you believe it will be a tattoo on your forehead or a computer chip implanted under your skin. It is getting late in the game. You need to know what the Mark of the Beast is as it's written in Revelation 13:8. Many will be deceived. There is no need for you to be deceived. Christ said in Mark 13:23, "Behold, I have foretold you all things." Jesus indeed told us how not to be deceived, and Pastor Arnold Murray takes you on a step-by-step study of God's Word concerning this critical subject, *The Mark of the Beast*. The telephone call is free. The CD is free. We don't even ask for the shipping and handling; it is free as well. All you need to do is call 800-643-4645 to request your one-time, one-per-household copy of *The Mark of the Beast*. You may also request your free CD by mailing your request to Shepherd's Chapel, Post Office Box 416, Gravette, Arkansas 72736. Don't be deceived by Satan.

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**Pastor Murray:** I bless your hearts. There we are, back again. Let's have the 800 number, please: 1-800-643-4645. That number is good from Puerto Rico throughout the U.S., Alaska, Hawaii, all over Canada. If you have a question, share it, won't you please? Never ask a question about some organization, some church by name, some belief by name — I will not answer it. If I cannot teach God's Word in a positive sense without knocking someone else by name or specifics, if their practice falls outside the will of God, then if the shoe fits, wear it. I make no apology for that, but I do not name-call against specific denominations. So please, just save you time and everyone else's time; don't try — I won't answer. All right.

Now, those of you that listen by shortwave around the world, we're so happy to have you with us. Your announcer at the end of the hour will give you our mailing address. You've got a prayer request? He's your Father. He likes nothing better than to hear from you. Do you know that He created all things for His pleasure, including you? Have you pleasured Him lately? Think about it. Let Him know you love Him.

Father, around the globe, we ask that You lead, guide, direct, touch, prosper, heal in Yeshua's precious name. Amen.

Okay, I have an announcement. As of this time and from the beginning of time, all material broadcast are taught under the name of Shepherd's Chapel and is copyrighted. Unfortunately, we have been forced to this by people that actually take our work and sell it. That is not the reason that I wanted it to be copyright-free in the beginning. But as of the first of this week, it became law that from day one, everything is copyrighted that is taught from the Shepherd's Chapel. That does not mean that you do not have the right to study it and to pass it to a relative, but no one has the right to sell it. I have spent over 50 years teaching God's Word, and to this day I have yet to take one dime salary for teaching God's Word. I do not take money for teaching God's Word. Yes, we take donations to pay for television time where you're watching us and to produce the material, but as far as I personally, I have never made one dime from teaching God's Word, nor will I ever. So I do not intend to allow someone else to from my efforts. All things copyrighted from Shepherd's Chapel — which, if I can say it this way, it must never be sold to anyone. All right. It is there to be utilized to learn to the glory of God.

All right, now said Denise from Wisconsin: "How will you be judged if you believe in God but keep making mistakes over and over?" Well, Denise or Dennis perhaps — here I believe I better say Dennis — how? Repent. Christ said 490 times — 70 times 7, 490 times — if a man repents honestly from the heart, forgiving, so does our Father. And our Father forgives a lot better, a lot cleaner than do people. So everyone makes mistakes. Don't set yourself up as a perfectionist; you would become nothing but a self-righteous hypocrite, and God doesn't like them. God doesn't like self-righteous hypocrites. Do the best you can, but the very fact that you would say "keep making mistakes over and over" documents your honesty that you admit it, and that's the first step of repentance.

Regina from California: "My mother died last year. I am a Christian, and I'd like to know where I can read in the Bible to find out where she is and to get some comfort." Well, dear, that's the most beautiful gift of Christ is that comfort that comes from His Word in knowing where the dead are. As a matter of fact, I have a tape titled that, and I would recommend it. But I will give you scripture even at this time to let you know. Let's begin with Ecclesiastes 12:7. Ecclesiastes chapter 12, verse 7 stipulates that the instant that the spirit and soul (the spirit being the intellect of the soul — where one goes, so does the other) it returns to the Father, where this flesh returns to dust, and that's all it is. And if you were to pick up a handful of dirt (and in some of our cases, the way we eat, at least it would be rich dirt), all right, very rich. But the body goes back to dirt. That's all it is. It's not going to rise again; you instantly rise in the new spiritual body, the inner body, the inner man. It is documented again in the New Testament in — what is it? — 2 Corinthians 5:7-8: to be absent from this body is to be present with the Lord. Also, you will read in the sixth chapter of the Great Book of Revelation: what do you see under the altar? And this was back in 97 A.D. You see the souls of those that were saved and that overcame. They weren't in a hole in the ground; they were under the altar and have been. We don't place souls in the ground or anywhere else — cremate them or anything — they're gone. They're with the Father.

Claude from Texas: "At the end of your prayers you say Yeshua. Yeshua is the Living Word. What does Yeshua mean, and where can I look it up to find the meaning?" Yeshua is 3091 in your Hebrew concordance of a Strong's Concordance. Look it up; it means Jesus. It's the same thing, only you're saying it in a different language. You're saying it in the same language that when Moses said to God, "Who am I going to say sent me?" and He said, "Yah" — I AM that I AM, which is the etymology of the sacred name *Yah*. And Yeshua is His Son, and it means "Yah saves" (Yah Savior). All right. And where you have both of them, you have the Holy Spirit. It's that way. And again, in your Strong's Concordance in the Hebrew dictionary, 3091 — I think that's right; I think you'll find it correct.

Christine from California: "Can a person be possessed or tormented?" Well, if you allow it, if you allow yourself to be. But all you have to do is in the name of Christ, in the name of Yeshua, order anything demonic out of your home, your life, and yourself. People possessed you do not find very often. It is an experience that I would pray that most people never had to experience, as even the cleansing of someone that was possessed is not a pretty thing. But yet it's a beautiful thing to see the power of God overcome Satan in your very sight. But yes, it can be. There are also diseases that can be very similar in acting to someone possessed. It simply must be checked by one that knows.

Robert from Florida: "I know in Revelation it says do not add to or subtract from the Word, but what about when they change it to apples and snakes and so forth?" Well, I would allow the snakes, but as far as the serpent is concerned, I do think it is a terrible thing that in Sunday School classes some Christians teach their little children that Eve ate an apple, and that's a lie. And they build their foundation upon that lie. It's sad, real sad, because it certainly isn't in the manuscripts — in any of them, J.P. or whatever.

Just from Florida: "I'm on disability, keeps me at home all the time, and my wife works outside the home. My disabilities keep me very inactive" — I can understand that with spinal disease — "is it if a man should stay home and take care of the home the best he can, if the wife says she's happy, is this pleasing to God?" Of course it is. Hey, that's can-do type people. And certainly, if the missus is happy, well then you're very fortunate. But always remember this: the witness from a handicapped person to a non-believer will go a lot further than one that has a healthy body, because even though you're disabled, you still believe, and that sends a strong message. All right. God bless you.

Francis from Ohio: "When the angels fell to earth and mixed with humans, did God put souls into them, or are they still here, or what happened to them? I really love the program." Well, thank you. Yes, of course they had souls. And Jude — the Great Book of Jude — will tell you what happened to them. You see, they left their place of habitation, and that damned them coming out the gate. Those souls were damned, and you'll read of it in the Book of Jude: they're in chains, and they're going to die as it is written — 7,000 of them in the Great Book of Revelation, chapter 11. Jude verses 1-6 will tell you how they damned themselves. In other words, they weren't in ignorance when they left heaven and came to the earth and seduced the daughters of Adam. They knew what they were doing, because they were in supernatural bodies.

Grace from Minnesota: "Should you baptize little babies?" Well, it's... you know how interesting to a linguist some terminologies are. We call it here at Shepherd's Chapel we "christen" and dedicate little babies. That is to say, we place them with prayer and anointing in the care of the Lord Jesus Christ, that when the parent can't watch over them, He does; He takes care of them. For the word "baptize" itself means to be totally submerged. It comes from the prime root word in Hebrew "to die" or "to dip" totally, so that it's saturated. And that must be done when a person is at the age of accountability. What is the age of accountability? It's different for some people — it's six, and for some people it's 60. All right. Some people are just not accountable and hardly ever get that way — I jest in a sense. But when they grow to the point that they love the Lord.

Fred from Alabama: "What did Jesus mean when He told one of His disciples, 'Let the dead bury the dead'?" Well, it was the man that wanted to follow Him, the young man, and his father wasn't already dead; he was in the process of dying. And you know sometimes that could take a year. And He told him, "Let the dead bury the dead, and follow Me." God is the God of the living, not the dead. It was not an insult to his father, but if you're going to follow Christ, don't wait until after some event; do it. That's the point.

Don't have a name from the state of Massachusetts: "Which tape can I order to find out more about the origin of the races?" It's information that everybody should know, and there wouldn't be any racial problems. It's the first three tapes of Genesis. They all fall under the number 146. There are three tapes — which is about 6 hours of teaching — that takes you into the Hebrew language, whereby those words are transliterated or translated, and it helps you to understand the creation.

Lisa from Virginia: "My question is, will the witnesses be wearing the clothing of their time, or will they be wearing modern clothing?" Modern time is their time; it hasn't happened yet. And yes, they'll be wearing clothing that we all wear. All right. It's yet to happen; it's future yet.

Rashelle from Kentucky: "I'm 140 pounds overweight. Will I go to hell for this? I love you." No, dear. Um, health — if we disregard health laws, actually we become unhealthy. And I know there are medical reasons such as thyroid and other things that cause a weight problem. No, it has nothing to do with sin. To your body is a sin to your health, not to your soul, which is eternal. If you overcome, it will not harm you in that way.

Christina from Michigan: "What race was Ham? My aunt says he was black, but I don't believe her. You're a real blessing to us; keep up the good work." Well, thank you. Well, your aunt is very wrong. Ham was of the sons of Noah, and Noah was of the sons of Adam, and Adam means "ruddy-complected." Now, you've got a few of these one-verse reverends that will tell you that the black race was cursed first by Ham and he was made that way. God doesn't work out of the natural. To uncover your father's nakedness is to lie with his wife — Leviticus 18:8, as well as Leviticus chapter 19, make it very clear that uncovering your father's nakedness is to sleep with his wife. All right. The offspring from that was not Noah's son but was Canaan, who was the son of Ham and Noah's wife. That's why the curse was placed there — not by God, but by Noah: "Get him out of my sight." And the word "Ham" does not mean black. The word — let me think — in the Hebrew tongue means "heat" or "hot" or "sunburn." That sunburn tells you that it is not a black person, right? Though that people — I have been corrected that yes, black folks do sunburn, and I suppose that they do, but not certainly as bad as some of us ruddy-complected people. Two weeks ago I could tell you what Ham meant when the heat began to burn in a sunburn that I received. Okay, your aunt is incorrect, and it puts a false teaching upon the black race to think that God cursed them. He didn't. They were created on the sixth day, and God saw it was good.

Jeremy from Florida: "When Satan comes down, how will he speak to the world if he can't speak in tongues like on Pentecost day?" Hey, do never undersell Satan. He's supernatural. He can make you believe that he can speak the tongue of Pentecost day. He can't make us speak it.

Janice from Kentucky: "In Genesis 5, why does Adam's genealogy start with Seth instead of Abel?" Well, you know why? Abel, when he became of age to give to the Lord (which is very young), he was killed. He was killed immediately following that. He didn't have any offspring, and that's what genealogy is — offspring. So he was gone; he was dead already, returned to the Father. And so Seth was the first living child that had issue, which is to say had children.

Robert from North Carolina: "The Kenites that came from Hobab, father of the house of Rechab — was he a Kenite?" This would be the father-in-law of Moses. Was he a Kenite? No, he was not a Kenite. He lived in the land of the Kenites, but what was he? Hobab — he was a Midianite priest. You can't be a priest of Midian and be a Kenite. So his race was of the progeny of Midian. Well, who was Midian? Genesis chapter 25: Abraham's second wife, Keturah, was the mother of Midian, the father-in-law of Moses. His father — that is to say, great-great-great — was Abraham. She was of the tribe and peoples of Abraham, of the seed of Abraham. Moses's wife? They only lived in that land.

James from Michigan: "When Satan returns with his fallen angels, will the angels come as male and female? Please comment." Negative. They will only come as male, male. That's why St. Paul would stipulate in 1 Corinthians 11 that it was that a woman should keep the veil over her head. Unfortunately, it's translated "hair"; it doesn't have anything to do with hair — it's Christ. But it would be a shame for a man to have long hair, it says — but it doesn't have anything to do with hair. It would be a shame for a man to have to hide behind the veil of Christ, because it would mean that he would be creating a perverse act with another male.

John from Pennsylvania: "This is a life-and-death matter. If I do the same sin repeatedly but ask for forgiveness, will I be forgiven?" Well, how could that be a life-and-death matter? You know, in the simplicity of Christ's teachings, He paid the price on the cross. Of course you're forgiven. Now, if I were you, though, you know you've got to use common sense with our Father. Ask Him for strength to stop doing whatever it is you're doing. That's a correct prayer. He understands you; He knows the way you think. Talk to Him. But of course He forgives.

Pastor: Now guess what? We're out of time again. This whole hour just flies by. And you know what? I love you all a lot. You're real unusual — that is to say, that you enjoy studying our Father's Word in more depth. But what's most important: that causes our Father to love you, and that brings you blessings. So if we have helped you, you help us keep coming to you. Once you do that, and there's one thing that's more important, though, than anything else, and that's this: that you stay in His Word every day. And His Word is a good day, even with problems. Know why? Jesus — Yeshua — is the Living Word. Hearing God's Word with understanding will change your life.

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3️⃣🌎Ages; ♾️Existence; ✝️GOD'S 📖Plan ❤️🔗

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