News Release: British Mormon Prophet Says Jesus Was Indeed Married

NEWS RELEASE

BRITISH MORMON PROPHET SAYS JESUS WAS INDEED MARRIED

Says Personal 2007 Revelation is Consistent with Recent Discovery 

of Papyrus Fragment Speaking of Jesus' Wife

Friday, 5 October, 2012

Contact: Elder Phil Gill 01283 585972 (UK); 1-44-1283-585-972(from US)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

ASHBOURNE, DERBYSHIRE, ENGLAND – The discovery last month of a scrap of papyrus that seemed to point to Jesus of Nazareth having a wife shocked many people. But Matthew P. Gill wasn't one of them.

“Our official church stance on this is simple,” says Gill, the Prophet, Seer and Revelator of the Latter Day Church of Jesus Christ. "We believe that Christ had a wife."

Gill, head of the UK-based church (which is not affiliated with the Utah-based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints) says that based on his revelations from God, long-held Mormon theology, and common sense, the image of a married Jesus should not be a surprising one.

The papyrus fragment that started a media firestorm was presented last month by Karen L. King, a professor and scholar of Christian history at Harvard Divinity School in Massachusetts. The business-card sized document, written in Coptic and tentatively dated to the Fourth Century, reads,“ Jesus said to them, "My wife ...'" Below it is the statement, "she will be able to be my disciple."

While the meaning is still being deciphered by scholars, Gill says the meaning of this fragment is perfectly clear to him, since he has known since a personal revelation in February, 2007 from Jesus Christ himself that Christ had been married to Mary Magdalene during his earthly ministry.

That revelation reads, in part, "Behold, I make it known unto you that it is especially pleasing that the words of Mary Magdalene be heard, for she is loved of me and she is special unto me, for she is my wife, and I love her."

The church believes in progressive and ongoing revelation through its Prophet. Gill received that title and his mission in 2006 and founded his church a year later.

Apart from his direct revelation, Gill says it's only logical that Jesus had a wife, in keeping with his cultural traditions and status as a Jewish Rabbi.

"It would have been unheard of for a Jewish man not to have been married very early in his life, and it was the custom to be betrothed as young as the age of eight," he said. "But apart from that, there are some scattered evidences, such as the title Rabbi, and you can only be a Rabbi in the true sense if you are married."

Gill also says that Mormon theology requires adherents to be married in order to enjoy eternal marriage in Heaven, a belief held by other Mormon sects. Just as Christ was the "New Adam," we are to be an image of Christ, said Gill. That means following his example in marriage.

"We believe that it is an eternal principle to be married," said Gill. "The first commandment that Adam was given was to go forth and multiply and replenish the Earth. Adam was also given a wife in Eve, and Adam is a similitude of Christ. If Christ commands us to be married and have children, then he should do the same. Since God does not give us commandments that He would not have asked Christ to do, and marriage is an eternal principle, Christ, the Son of God, embodied those principles by marrying during his earthly life."

A married Jesus – one who had sexual relations with his wife – doesn't fit easily into mainstream Christianity, admits Gill. But the reason we're not familiar with such a notion can be traced to early Roman Catholic Church councils, starting at Nicaea in AD 325, which dropped and even covered these facts.

He believes this was done at the same time as "orthodox" doctrine was being formed, in part, so that the Roman Catholic Church could exercise power over others.

"This is what Nicaea was all about – making Christianity uniform," says Gill. "They needed a uniform Gospel because then you can control what people believe in and shut down other sects like the Gnostics and others who were murdered and suppressed because they would not bow the knee to Roman Christianity. This is when much of this information that was lost."

These uniform beliefs were later passed onto Eastern Orthodox and Protestant Christianities when they broke with Rome over other doctrines. These beliefs are now restored in The Latter Day Church of Jesus Christ, which traces its origin to the revelations Joseph Smith, Jr. in 1830 and Gill's revelation of the Book of Jeraneck in 2006.

Aside from the Book of Prophesies and Revelations, Gill's church accepts the Bible as well as the original 1830 version of the Book of Mormon, the 1835 version of Doctrines and Covenants, and the Book of Jeraneck as scripture.

The Book of Jeraneck tells the story of people who were guided by God from the Tower of Babel to Ancient Britain. They constructed Stonehenge as a "Temple of Light," along with other stone structures as temples to God Almighty.

The group meets in Ashbourne, a small town in Derbyshire, England. The church is online at www.latterdaychurch.co.uk.

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