My name is Matthew Gill I was born on the 29th of August 1978 to Philip Gill and Alyson Gill. My parents were the making of me for it was from them that I learnt how to commune with God and how to pray and do all things that a believer in the Christ does. This is the story of how I found the Lord and how I was chosen to do a great work upon this earth and how that would eventually lead me to becoming a Prophet, Seer ,Revelator and Translator.
I was twelve years old when I first read the book of Mormon for the first time. I remember wanting to read it and wanting to find out if what I was told about it was true. I remember that the book of Mormon always took pride of place in my family home and that the Prophet Joseph smith Jr was talked about freely and with love and respect. I had a love for that great man even before I picked up the Book of Mormon. His testimony was strong, stronger than anything that I had heard or would hear. He truly was a man lead by the Lord. With this strong feeling for the book of Mormon in my family it was only natural that I would one day find the time and desire to read it for my self and do as I had been told I must do and pray and ask if it is true.
I was drawn to it, like nothing I had ever felt before I almost felt that if I didn’t read it I would be stopped from progressing with the rest of my life, it is a very strange thing to explain in words but I all I can say is that I felt compelled to read it.
The night was a Friday I remember it well. I took the copy of the book of Mormon that sat on our shelf and I made my way to my room. I had decided that I would read it all night if necessary until I had finished it. I took to my room made my self comfortable, with supplies and enough food and drink to last out. I started to read. Soon enough I had finished chapter one and I found that I had not tired or even felt like that would happen. I went on chapter after chapter I couldn’t stop reading. After a while I noticed that it was getting late and I put the book down and decided to go to sleep and continue in the morning. I could not sleep I tossed and turned and finally I had had enough I went to get out of bed but found that I could not move it seemed that I was being held down by some force or other. I struggled for some time to move until the weight upon my chest become to much to bear I called upon my Saviour in prayer and I suddenly found that I was free I sprang to my feet switched on my bedroom light and I knew that I must finish the book before the morning. It wasn’t long before I was reading about the Saviour and his visit to the Nephites and how he walked among them. I went on. Three o’clock went by then four then five I had finished. The joy of doing so filled my heart and the words of Moroni filled my head “Ask God the eternal father in the name of Jesus Christ if these things are not true”. They went round and round in my head and I knew that I must do as he asked. I knelt down and began to pray.
As I began to pray I became aware of a light gathering in my room, so much so that it filled the room and the brightness was so great that I had never seen the likes of it before. I saw descending from above me a personage who was glorious to behold he was dressed in a white robe and he descended until he came to a stop just off the floor. He spoke to me and said these words. “My name is Moroni I come to you from the presence of the Saviour Jesus Christ. I come to you because you asked with a sincere heart and with real intent as to weather the things that you had read were not true. I bear witness in the name of the Father and the Son that they are true and they do bear record of my people and of our dealings with the Saviour Jesus Christ”. I felt totally over come with the spirit I felt tears fall upon my cheeks I was filled with the power of the Holy Spirit and I knew that he was from the Lord because the spirit had bore witness to me. He went on saying. “Behold Matthew the golden plates. Stretch for your hand and feel them. Turn the pages that you might know that they are real. Feel the writing that you might know that it was by the hand of the Prophets that is was written”. I stretched forth my hand and I did as I was commanded. I can’t do justice to how I felt when I did this. All I can say is that I felt the pure love of Christ and that it was overwhelming for a boy as young as I was to have this happen to me. After I had touched the Golden plates Moroni spoke to me saying. “Do not wonder in your mind why I have been sent unto you. For it is the will of the Saviour Jesus Christ that I show these things unto you. The time will come when you will be called to do a great work upon the face of the earth like unto that of the Prophet Joseph smith Jr. But behold I say unto you that this will be the last time that I come unto you for when you are ready the saviour will send another unto you. Be faithful and obedient to the lord. Honour thy parents that your days may be long upon the land. Read from the book of Mormon, read third Nephi and study it out in your mind. I leave you know and I do so in the name of the Saviour Jesus Christ”.
As he said this I noticed that the light gathered around him and that he ascended back the way that he had come until he was gone and I was alone. I fell to my bed exhausted when I had gathered my strength I made way to may parents and told them what had happened. May father told me that I must do as the angel Moroni had instructed me and that if I did the promise would be fulfilled.
I never forgot that experience and I don’t think I ever will.
Years went by, I continued to do as I was commanded I was diligent in reading the book of Mormon and honouring my parents, although I did at times falter with regards to the latter and I did stumble along the way I was quick to call upon the Lord for forgiveness. I told many people of my experience. Some accepted it others did not some said it was of the devil others that it was from God. I know what I saw and I will never deny it. The time came when I met my wife and we married and we had our son Levi, it was the most amazing time of my life to hold in my arms a newly born baby and to realise where its spirit had come from was truly wonderful.
It was in 2005 that my life changed forever and the promise that had been given me by the Angel Moroni was fulfilled. I had retired to bed with my wife early. I had decided to spend that time reading the book of Mormon and praying, it was while I was praying for guidance about what I could do for my family in these last days of trouble and strife that it happened. The room became engulfed in light and I saw descending out of heaven a personage he rested just of the floor and he spoke to me calling me by name saying “behold I am Raphael sent unto you from the presence of the father and the son”. I stretched forth my hand and he took hold of it I felt him and he was real. I sat on my bed and listen to him talk to me about the work I was to do and the at one day a book would be given to me that would speak of a people that once inhabited my country and that it would stand as a further witness of Jesus Christ.
I was visited many more times by Raphael each time I was given more commandants and revelations until the time I was given the Book of Jeraneck. I testify that these things are true that I have indeed spoken to Angels from God and they have indeed imparted many things unto me. I know that my Redeemer lives and that I have been given a book that indeed testifies of the Saviour and that it speaks and bears witness of many things to do with the gospel of Christ. I will not deny them and I will defend them till my death and beyond. In the name of Jesus Christ amen.
So in light of this how do you now see the traditional LDS church and what happened when you shared this with your bishop?
I consider the LDS church to be an apostate group that split when Joseph Smith Died. As for the reaction of the LDS bishop at the time, well I’m sure you can imagine what happened. he told me that I was not entitled to received that sort of revelation, and that there must be something in my lfe amiss for Satan to have given me such a vision. I told him that i had done nothing wrong and that it was form God and basically he told me to forget about it and put it out of my mind, it would only do my reputation more harm than good.
For me just a 12 year old boy i was devastated that i have been told this by a supposed man of God, I told my dad and he just told me to forget what the bishop had said and to do what the Angel had told me to do.
Ok so you got a strong response from your bishop which I am sure is understandable, however how did your parents and family respond to this, is this something they had been aware of for many years?
Well their reaction was great, after all they are my parents and they know me. I had always been very studious as a child and I had always had the support of my parents and to be honest most people would probably see that as a problem with my story but for me it was great to have my Mom and Dad standing by my side. It has been said by some people that if they knew about my experience why didn’t they tell anyone, well they did they we proud of it and told people, only to have it thrown back in their faces.
In the mainstream LDS Church they have a concept call the Testimony, which is an internal witness of the truthfulness of the Mormon gospel. Do your members have this and if so what do you think is really going on with the internal witness Mainstream Mormons receive?
Firstly I believe that the focus of my worship should always be in Jesus Christ, As Joseph Smith himself said:- “The fundamental principals of our religion is the testimony of the apostles and prophets concerning Jesus Christ, that he died, was buried, and rose again the third day, and ascended up in to heaven; and all other things are only appendages to these, which pertain to our religion” So for this reason I have a testimony of Christ, how you would characterise that is something I can not explain, sure we have the confirmation of the holy spirit, but this is not just something that is given to Mormons but to all men. As far as the witness they receive all I have to say about that is that I believe that the spirit of God bears witness of the truth, so when they talk of Christ in their meeting and of Joseph Smith then they feel the spirit bearing witness that they are true, however I believe that this is a hard and troubling question to answer because of the following reason. Many people have had experiences of edification when they have sat and listened to people talk at church meetings and they have assumed that this edification is a justification of truth and a justification of their testimony however I believe that this is not always the case, just ask yourself is something true just because you or I find it edifying? I read a great example of people feeling the spirit when they heard the WW2 stories of a congressman from Utah, the congressmen’s stories were later found out to be false a complete hoax. Many people say that he was very inspiring and after he had spoken at a meeting the host of the meeting got to his feet and said “if you have never felt the spirit before, it was here today in abundance”. The same can be said of Paul H Dunn a member of the first quorum of the seventy in the LDS church, many claim they felt the spirit when he spoke about his religious experiences during WW2 and as a pro baseball player, once again all his stories were a hoax. How you explain how people say they feel the spirit in these circumstances is a mystery to me, I don’t know you will have to make up your own mind. As for me I know that the Lord lives and that he is the Saviour of the world.
The Bible is of central importance to our religion and to our lives, let us not forget that we get a greater insight in to the saviour’s life in the Bible than in any other book. However let me just say this concerning the Bible. I do not believe that it is the most correct book of scripture we have on the earth. The Bible is the most copied and printed book in the world there are version after version of the bible, re-interpreted over and over again, in modern English or old world English. I believe that there are books that have been left out of the bible by unscrupulous men who were responsible for the printing of the bible hundreds of years ago, let us not forget if it were that correct and infallible why do so many people have different interpretations of it? Let us not forget that at the council of Nicaea it was decided which books to keep and which ones to leave out, this is why I believe that it needs to be treated with care when reading it, however I still believe it is a keystone to any Christian home.
As for mainstream Christianity I think this is again very complicated what is mainstream? I don’t think I have ever seen a mainstream Christian church they all interpret the gospel differently, this is why we need a living prophet, someone who talks to God to tell us what needs to be done here and now.
Salvation only comes in through the Lord Jesus Christ this is not open to debate as far as I am aware. We believe in the celestial kingdom as taught in the 1835 D&C I believe this is sufficient for the understanding if the celestial kingdom, I do not hold with the views of the LDS church which add to the original teachings of the 1835 D&C.
Joseph Smith is the first prophet of the restoration, he is very important to us. Without him we would not have the book of Mormon, we would not have the wonderful expanded gospel we have today. Polygamy is a very intense and complicated subject and its history is full of falsehoods and innuendo and a subject that is far to complicated to cover in this blog interview, suffice to say we do not hold with the LDS church and its version of the history of polygamy and Joseph Smiths involvement in it. There will always be those that have issue with Joseph Smith, this is to be expected people often attack what they don’t understand and as the prophet once said “No man knows my history”
What must be understood is that the early church under the leadership of Joseph Smith was relatively small; the early missionary efforts were nothing like those that people think it was. The other thing that must be remembered is that the LDS church is not the early Mormon Church they are separate and individual’s entities. The LDS church is a huge monster of an institution I doubt if the prophet would recognise it as his church if he came here today.
The mission of The Latter Day Church of Jesus Christ’s mission is simple it is the first command that we were given by the Lord to send out the Book of Jeraneck unto the world. The second mission is simple to establish Zion upon the world and welcome all who wish to help in that endeavour and baptise them in Jesus name. Simple.
My final remarks are these. I love the Lord with all my heart, you may not agree with me, and that is fine. However we have one thing in common and that is the Lord, he is our God and our Saviour and it is through him that we may live and it is through him that our sins are forgiven. I know that many believe that I am a false prophet, all I ask is that you talk to me and ask me direct if things you have heard about me are true, there is nothing worse than hearing gossip and thinking it to be truth. I am filled with Joy that I have been able to speak will Bobby about doing this blog, and although there are things that we don’t agree on I know that I have made a friend in Jesus. God bless you all and may the Lord continue to walk along side you and be with you and bless you.
So there you go please leave comments or questions, also Matthew has recently recorded an interview on the Mormon Expression podcast (http://mormonexpression.com/) this should be on there later in the Month please watch for that if you want to learn more about this interesting guy.
Well aint that something. What do other Mormons think about this?
Is he a true prophet or is he just expressing an opinion?
Superb exclusive Bobby, well done!! Nuff respect to Matthew for being as open and detailed as that. With regard to Joseph Smith, is Matthew denying Josephs Smiths involvement in polygamy?? Seems like he’s got a sort of blind love for him.
from looking at his site I think Matthew does deny that Joseph Smith was polygamous, a very tough claim indeed!!
hmmm…maybe it would have been better for him to admit that Smith was just a man and made mistakes like any other. I think it takes some credit away from anything else he says if he just ignorantly denies Smith did anything wrong.
Bobby, I’m wondering if there are other “off shoot” groups that deny Joseph Smith was a polygamist. Do you have any information on that?
I have watched Matthew Gill’s video’s on youtube, found him an interesting fellow. Hopefully one day he gets born again.
Heard of another group in Bristol (LDS group) of british fundamentalists, unable to trace their where abouts.
Oh right I am not aware of the Bristol one, I will look into it, if you come across it please let me know :)
You are referring to the Munnites, who soon after the 1978 announcement regarding Blacks and the Priesthood, split from the main LDS church. They practised polygamy, and, as I understand it, claimed that all the LDS prophets from Wilford Woodruff down were false. I may have that somewhat garbled, because as an active LDS in Bristol at the time, it was all very hush hush, whisper whisper. It caused an enormous stir in one of the Bristol wards, and it was several years before it ewas resolved, and the Munnite members were identified, and excommunicated. If anyone can tell me more about them I’d love to hear, because it will be an interesting addendum to some of the history I am compiling.
This young man has as much right to his claim to be a prophet of GOD as Joseph Smith had, or any othe LDS prophet for that matter. That is, NONE WHATSOEVER! I think it’s a GODsend that he has emerged, because it highlights the ridiculousness of the foundation of the Mormon faith in general. This is like a re-run of Smith’s beginnings. It would be pricelessly hilarious, if it weren’t so sad. Why don’t you leave all of this nonsense behind and get saved by Christ. The whole basis of Mormonism denies GOD, Christ and the Holy Spirit, and the power thereof. May Christ remove the scales from your eyes.
We had a start up Prophet, Seer, and Revalator here in the Rexburg area of Idaho. He claimed that his daughter would marry the new prophet. His wife, and daughter died, and he left their decomposing bodies in a house for several years. Someone became curious as to their whereabouts. Long story short, they found the bodies, and he was I believe sent to the state mental hospital. There apparently was no foul play involved.
Ryan,
Your comment is so true. It also made me think of a man here in the U.S. who claims that he is Hyrum Smith incarnate. His name is Chris Nemelka. You should check out his story. Just google it. Very interesting stuff.
I happen to grow up in the final Mormon ward he attended (in Derby England). He must have been around late 20’s early thirties. He was something of an aid to what was known as the ‘young men’s president’. he told us stories about being ambushes as a missionary and how he was shot through one of his ears (when quizzed about no remnant this gun wound he said it had healed up.) In addition to Matthew Gill i was also taught Sunday school by his mother, who was very temperamental and easily offended by what was light and typical rebellious teenage behaviour from myself and other class mates. However this prompted Matthew Gill to threaten myself and another one of my class mates alone in the classroom after a Sunday school lesson.
Like Joseph smith Matthew took to stealing other peoples works, impressions, claimed revelations and visions, he even made the foolish move of compiling these fraudulent ‘visions’ to many ward leaders (some of whom he had copied these claims from in the first place. He told many tall tails and caused a lot of damage to the well being of the young men in his charge. He was and is a liar, a charlatan and mentally ill. I know even more so since I became less active after doing extensive research into the origins and organisation of the Mormon church and deeper reading of the doctrines of Mormonism and Christianity in general. I implore any who come in contact with this man to give evidence against the claims I have made.