TAHPS-Document 1

The Kingdom of Matthias was a very interesting read. I would say that the events that were discussed in the book took place in the early 1800s but they could have happened in present day. The religious following that Matthias had was comparable to that of Jim Jones, the Mormons, or David Koresh. They were all charismatic leaders who motivated their followers to do whatever they asked. They were also willing to give up many material possessions to make sure their “savior” was well taken care of. The fact that there was a large amount of “chosen spiritual partners” shows that Matthias had a distortion of followers who allowed them to do things that they were not comfortable with. Elijah Pierson was a devout follower who paid dearly for his beliefs in Matthias. Before he met Matthias he was a religious man, in fact, on the day of his wife’s funeral he told those in attendance that he was going to raise her from the dead. He believed himself to have some of the same supernatural powers as Abraham had. When he was not successful, he then said that he would resurrect her when the Kingdom of Heaven comes to earth. A few years later was when he met Matthias who also had an interesting history with his wife. Matthias left his wife and kids when they were still young to pursue his own interests. He soon discovered that he attained followers who were devout Christians.
In reading this book I realized how manipulating religious influences could be.