The Law of Witnesses

Our dear living prophet in our world today is Matthew Gill.  He is a living witness to the fact that our Father in heaven and his Son Jesus Christ are real and living personages. At all times when the Lord has organised his kingdom on the earth in various parts of the earth there are, and always have been living witnesses called prophets. Nothing has changed in this respect. Words are a very important powerful tool, an instrument the Lord can use as words do not just affect our bodies, and emotions, but can penetrate our minds, and our spirits. Sometime they are never forgotten. Although our thoughts are our own, our words are never our own once they have been said.

Word Origin and History for witness. Old English witness "attestation of fact, event, etc., from personal knowledge;" also "one who so testifies;" originally "knowledge, wit," formed from wit (n.) + -ness. Christian use (late 14c.) is as a literal translation of Greek martyrs (see martyr). Witness stand is recorded from 1853.

c.1300, from witness (n.). Related: Witnessed; witnessing.

What does the Bible tell us about witnesses, let us see. The Bible tells us that:-

More than one witness is required in criminal cases (Deut. 17:6; 19:15). They were the first to execute the sentence on the condemned (Deut. 13:9; 17:7; 1 Kings 21:13; Matt. 27:1; Acts 7:57, 58). False witnesses were liable to punishment (Deut. 19:16-21). It was also an offence to refuse to bear witness (Lev. 5:1).

We learn from the Bible and the scriptures that our Lord Jesus Christ Himself was a living witness to the existence of our Father in Heaven. We believe in Almighty God (Heavenly Father) and in his only begotten Son, Jesus Christ and in the Holy Spirit. We, the Latter Day Church of Jesus Christ are the Latter Day continuation of the original Church of Jesus Christ established on earth by Jesus Christ and his Apostles, and restored by Joseph Smith, Jr in 1830. We know as Latter Day Mormon that in past ages, God began to speak to us through the Scriptures, the Old and New Testaments of the Bible. Today as in old God continues to speak to us through the Scriptures of the Book of Mormon, Doctrine & Covenants, the Book of Jeraneck, and continuing revelation through his living Prophet that has been placed on the earth today.

I have personally been in numerous lessons, discussions, and meetings with our living prophet. I have witnessed the fire, the irresistible motive for a belief or action that can give us all a profound desire to live the Lords gospel. To search, read, pray, and have an un-quenching desire to gain an unassailable knowledge.

In the book of John we read:-

 1 In the beginning was the gospel preached through the Son. And the gospel was the word, and the word was with the Son, and the Son was with God, and the Son was of God.

2 The same was in the beginning with God.

3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

4 In him was the gospel, and the gospel was the life, and the life was the light of men.

5 And the light shineth in the world; and the world preceiveth it not.

6 Then was a man sent from God, whose name was John.

7 The same came in to the world for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, to bear record of the gospel through the Son, unto all, that through him men might believe.

8 He was not that Light, but came to bear witness of that Light.

9 Which was the true Light, which lighteth every man who cometh into the world.

10 Even the Son of God. He who was in the world and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.

11 He came unto his own, and his own received him not.

12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, only to them who believe on his name:

13 He was born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

14 And the same word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

15 John bare witness of him, and cried, saying, this was he of whom I spake, He who cometh after me is preferred before me; for he was before me.

16 For in the beginning was the Word, even the Son, who is made flesh, and sent unto us by the will of the Father. And as many as believe on his name shall receive of his fullness. And of his fullness have all we received, even immortality and eternal life, through his grace.

17 For the law was given through Moses, but life and truth came through Jesus Christ.

(IVB New Testament John 1:1 - 17)

The Latter Day Church of Jesus Christ stands as the only true church of Christ upon the face of the earth and it is through the Lords anointed Prophet Matthew Gill that he has given us direction and has set right what was once torn down and has made what was hidden once again to stand in the light of truth. So with this the Latter Day Church of Jesus Christ is established and has brought forth new scripture called the Book of Jeraneck which stands as a witness to Christ along with the Bible and the Book of Mormon and we are ready to serve the Lord Jesus Christ and the Father of us all even God and to bring the world his truth and light again the path of mankind even unto salvation.

It is my prayer that we can with an open mind, and heart, search, pray, and read the Lord has decided to reaffirm his will, and give us all again an opportunity to comprehend, and live his revealed gospel through our living prophet.

I pray for these things. Amen

Elder Peter Barber

Sermon: Mormonism & Christianity

Mormonism to mainstream Christians is and always has been a point of ridicule. Followers of Mainstream Christianity see Mormonism as a distortion of all they believe and hold holy. The distortion of Mormonism is not the preserve of Christians solely non believing secularists also come into the affray seeing followers of Mormonism as strange and dangerous due to our belief in the supernatural as they see it.

The views of these Christian and secularists are commonly based on the LDS (Utah) view of our belief system. The facts are that Utah Mormons only send out an obscure view of Mormonism these teachings are at odds with our founder Joseph Smith. True Mormonism is Christ centred and fits perfectly with the practices of Christianity as laid down by our Saviour. True Mormonism not Utah Mormonism is Christ centred, indeed we could be accused of being obsessed with being Christian.

People criticise us for having modern day revelation and other witnesses of mans interaction with Deity for example The Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants. However these Books just reaffirm our faith, love, and commitment to Gods teachings as outlined in the Bible. When we preach the gospel we rejoice in Christ, prophecy of him and write of him as the Gatekeeper to our eventual journey into the Eternities. The fact that we have stripped away lots of man inspired practices in a lot of Mainstream Christianity is something that we are very proud of.

Regarding The Book of Mormon mainstream Christians would tell you that the book is a fairy tale. The facts however, are that the Book is supported by Archaeological evidence found in the Eastern states of the United States of America where the Book of Mormon is set. The real point however is this, a book dealing with the history of people relating to their God and how through the Holy Ghost he guides the righteous. Some writers on Mormonism would have you believe that the Mormon view of Christ is at odds with the Christ of Christianity, this is nonsense. The fact is there is no one mainstream Christian view of the Saviour, indeed there are many denominations just like there is more than one view of Mormonism, not every Mormon is LDS (UTAH).

As a Latter Day Mormon (NOT LDS) we believe in a literal Saviour who has a body who was born of a virgin and who took upon himself our sins and died for us. We believe in a Father in heaven who does not have a physical body but is of spirit. Contrary to what most people believe Joseph Smith taught this all his life. Some commentators would have you believe Mormons put the cross secondary to Gethsemane this is simplification gone mad. In fact we hold them both as important. The fact is in Gethsemane the Saviour took up the bitter cup and devoured for our sake all sin, equally on the cross he showed us that as a God he was prepared to lay down his life, this was necessary for the biggest prize we could be given power over death in his resurrection.

In conclusion let us be one in praise of  the Saviour and hope that we can unify all those who praise God under the banner of what we have in common, not what we have dividing us.

 

In the name of Jesus Christ Amen

Elder Philip A. Gill

Official Church Statement: Jesus & Joseph What We Believe

With so much happening in the news this week concerning Jesus possible marriage and Fatherhood and the LDS church coming out officiously and saying that Joseph Smith was polygamist we the leadership of the Latter Day Church of Jesus Christ thought it was important that we clarify a few things concerning our stance on these issues.


Firstly The Latter Day Church of Jesus Christ has always maintained that Jesus was married and was married to Mary Magdalene, this is a basic principle of the church and will remain so. The recent news concerning this issue which was published in the Sunday Times is made even more sensational with the claim that the new lost gospel says that Jesus also had children. The Lost Gospel, which has been translated from Aramaic by Professor of Religious Studies Barrie Wilson and historical writer Simcha Jacobovici, reveals the fact that Christ was married with children. Professor Wilson said on his website that he found the "ancient Syriac manuscript lurking in the British Museum, dating from the 6th century but translated from much earlier Greek writing.” He added that “scholars have known about it for almost 200 years, but have not known what to make of it.”  For us in the Latter Day Church this is not new news at all but rather a confirmation that the truths that we had proclaimed to the world are true and that the world has caught up with the truth. Much like the issue which we discuss below many in the Christian world has denied this new claim because it destroys their view and history of Christianity. Some might also think that the reason this has been kept silent for over 200 years is because of vested interests in the world of Christianity. The world can offer nothing new that the Lord has not already proclaimed. As the Lords servants on the earth today we proclaim again to the world that we stand by the teachings that Christ was married. We say we are not ashamed of this fact and we embrace it and see that Jesus fulfilled the laws that we have to live under and as he came to be an example why would he not be married and have a family, we see no reason why not and with the beauty of modern day revelation we can say with a certainty that this is not just a cutting edge new story but fact.


Regarding Joseph Smith and his so called practice of polygamy and the news of this that has come to the forefront of the media in the last couple of weeks. The Latter Day Church of Jesus Christ once again make it publicly known that with modern day revelation we know that Joseph Smith did not practice polygamy. The LDS (Utah) church continues to feel the need to proclaim to the world that Joseph Smith was a polygamist and that the early church under his leadership practised it. The LDS (Utah) church has done this by issuing an essay on Plural Marriage in Kirtland and Nauvoo. This essay was added to the topical guide of the LDS.org website on 22/10/14.  This essay has been picked up by the NY Times and was run as a story on the 10/11/2014 with the running title “It’s Official: Mormon Founder Had Up to 40 Wives”. Firstly this is not official! The LDS church does NOT speak for all Mormons it only speaks for those that are members of their church, they DO NOT speak for us and they DO NOT speak for many other Mormons. Unfortunately this myth that the LDS church is the only authority of Mormonism on the planet has given rise to many falsehoods and misconceptions about the early church and Joseph Smith himself. The LDS essay focuses on the so called polygamous marriages of Joseph Smith. The essay addresses some of the shortfalls from their first essay on polygamy which completely omitted Joseph Smith which is interesting in itself. The LDS (Utah) church continually feels the need to explain away polygamy because of the massive holes in their own history and the need to find a link between the Mormonism of Brigham Young and the Mormonism of Joseph Smith, because if any one knows anything about Mormon history the two are incompatible, they are like chalk and cheese, so making a link between the two has always been important to them because their church history and their version of events are so messed up they don’t think twice about destroying the reputation of the founder of their faith just to save face, indeed to save their own perverted version of Mormonism.


The Latter Day Church of Jesus Christ would like to point out that all of the officially published material in the lifetime of the Prophet condemned the practise of polygamy. The Book of Mormon condemned it, the Doctrine and Covenants condemned it, the church periodical the Times and Seasons condemned it. We know for certain that the Prophet Joseph Smith never practised polygamy and that there is wonderful research done by lots of people to prove this fact. We would encourage people to read the research done by Pamela and Richard Rice in Joseph Smith fought Polygamy. Both volumes one and two are a wonderful research tool and make use of some great historical fact. The Latter Day Church of Jesus Christ cherishes the work done by Pamela and Richard Rice, unfortunately too many people would rather believe in half truths and out and out lies to enrich their own perverted view of Mormonism. It also suits many Christians to believe this false history because they then have another reason to attack the work done by Joseph Smith and Mormonism; it falls nicely in to their lap and allows them to indulge in their own perverted religious world. Too many Christians will never look at the opposite research done such as the Rice's research in favour of highly dubious research. We find it fascinating that they will believe it when a Mormon proclaims that Joseph was a polygamist and they believe his words that Joseph was a man of questionable moral values, but when a Mormon proclaims anything opposite to this they are shouted down. So a Mormon is only right when it fits in to the perverted world view of Christianity. We also find it interesting that still too many LDS (Utah) members this should not rock their belief and faith in their leaders, once again they have yet another unravelling of their own church history, and they have yet another omission of so called historical fact. What amazes this church is that so many LDS members still ignore this warped history and write it of in the hope that “All is well in Zion”.


We make an appeal again to all those that are reading this to finally wake up to the fact that many of you have been lied to and led astray from the truth for many years. Some of you may feel hurt by this and some of you may feel that you do not know the Mormonism that they are now trying to portray to you. I would urge you not to throw away the foundation of truth that has been laid but rather seek to rebuild upon that foundation with truth, we have the answers to all your concerns but we once again say as we always do, not to take our word as truth but rather those that were said by the prophet and his family and then relay on the spirit to guide you. So with this in mind we would like to leave you with the words of the Prophet himself “I had not been married scarcely five minutes, and made one proclamation of the Gospel, before it was reported that I had seven wives.... I am innocent of all these charges.... What a thing it is for a man to be accused of committing adultery, and having seven wives, when I can only find one. I am the same man, and as innocent as I was fourteen years ago; and I can prove them all perjurers." and finally the words of the Prophets grandson Israel Smith “Joseph Smith was the greatest victim of fraud and conspiracy of the last 500 years. Nothing like it in recorded history. He was simply lied about when something had to be done to justify ... Utah Mormon polygamy."

Official Statement of The Office of Prophet of The Latter Day Church of Jesus Christ

Remembrance Day Sermon

Remembrance Sunday

(Ps46:1-11)

“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble”

(Ps 46:1)

It is horrible that today, sadly we take the sacrifice of the many men and women who served in the Forces during the War for granted. We too easily forget the price of the peace we enjoy at home today. I think Remembrance Sunday is one of the most important services in the Christian year, a time when we stop to “remember them”, those who gave so much that we might live and worship in peace and freedom General Sherman, the American Civil War General once said: “War is hell”. How true it is. For whenever we encounter war in our lives we see that it serves only the purpose of sending souls unto God. Since the second world war we need to remember that there have been other conflicts since such as the Korean War, the Falkland War the two gulf Wars in which our brave troops have fought and today although war may not be at or door conflict is still ragging in many countries around the world most notably in the Ukraine and in the Middle East and it is in these times of trouble and strife around the world that we stand and recall the millions of servicemen who gave their lives in both World Wars and the other conflicts so that we might enjoy peace today.

The ability to remember is a wonderful gift that God has given to mankind. Some of our memories are happy and we can recall wonderful experiences but some of our memories are sad and we may weep as we remember those that have served, some of them in our own families. We must also remember that even though the Second World War ended over 70 years ago and the First World War 100 years ago it is important that we remember that many still bear the scars of war today, and it is good for us to remember those who have fought for their country, to support them and to pray for them. Today is a day we stand united as a people and we say “Thank you” to all those who made the sacrifice so that we can stand here today in peace and freedom and for the privilege it has given us to worship, to play and to live in peace and the in the knowledge that those brave men and women died for us, for the lives that we live today. We must never forget those who are still suffering as a result of these wars, the work of the British Legion, who work to alleviate suffering among ex servicemen is indeed a work that we must continue to support and to give generously to, for without our help the great work that they do would not be possible. As we sit here today as the church united these thoughts of sacrifice should bring us back to the ultimate sacrifice that Jesus made for us all on the battlefield of Gethsemane and ultimately on Calvary. John the Apostle put it well when he said “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13)

Our Saviour Jesus Christ gave his life not only for his friends but also for his enemies. As a God Jesus had no need to experience human suffering or failings but he did for all our sakes and we must at this time today remember this sacrifice as well. For us this day, Remembrance Day is of course the time set aside nationally to reflect, it is a time to remember, a time to mourn those who gave their lives in the First and Second World wars and the all of the conflicts since. For some people it may seem like yesterday and it is to them that we pay deep respect and we moan with them on this day of Remembrance.
I always find Remembrance Day and the services that follow bring a lump to your throat and then the Remembrance Day poem which always moves me:-

"They shall not grow old
as we that are left grow old.
Age shall not weary them
nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

And then the closing words which haunt me always and stay with me always:-


“When you go home tell them of us and say for your tomorrow, we gave our today”.


With a final trumpeting of “Reveille” my mind is turned to the heroes of our past, the great men on both sides who fought for a cause that they believe to be just and true and all the heroes of scripture that did the same that gave their lives in the cause of truth and freedom. Then I think of my Lord, my Saviour Jesus and my Father in heaven for he loved us so much that he sent His dearly loved and most precious Son to die for us in what has become the ultimate sacrifice. So for us Latter Day Mormons let us join with the country and will every man in remembering today those that have sacrificed for us to site here today.

Prophet Matthew Gill