Kingdom of Matthias: The Age of Reform--Biblical Matthias
AMS 355 Group 13 project
by: Jean Nations

"And the Lord said to me: 'What they have spoken is good. I will raise up from them a Prophet like you from among their brethren, and will put My words in His mouth, and He shall speak to them all that I command Him. And it shall be that whoever will not hear My words, which He speaks in My name, I will require it of him. But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in My name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die.' And if you say in your heart, 'How shall we know the word which the Lord has not spoken?'-- when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if that thing does not happen or come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him.

(Deuteronomy 18:17-22)

 The Biblical God is clear about what He expects from His prophets and His Messiah.

After Judas betrayed Christ he took the thirty pieces of silver that he was paid to the temple, then immediately went and hung himself. This left a vacancy among Jesus' followers, which the apostles sought to fill.

And they proposed two: Barnabas, who was surnamed Justus, and Matthias. And they prayed and said, "You, O Lord, who know the hearts of all, show which of these two You have chosen to take part in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas by transgression fell, that he might go to his own place." And they cast their lots, and the lot fell on Matthias and he was numbered among the eleven apostles. (Acts 1:23-26)

Robert Matthews proclaimed himself the recipient of the spirits of all the Hebrew prophets and patriarchs, Jesus, and Matthias the Apostle. He claimed that the souls of all those spiritual leaders were passed down from father to son in the way of "everlasting life." He claimed to be the incarnate Spirit of Truth, a Prophet of God, and the Messiah.

Bibliography

Johnson, Paul E., and Sean Wilentz. The Kingdom of Matthias. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994.

The Inspirational Study Bible. Dallas, TX: Word Publishing, 1995.

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