Charismatic prophet Matthew Robert Payne is about as crazy as a rat in a coffee can. He epitomizes what it means to be led astray by every wind of doctrine. His prophetic pontifications make Kat Kerr look as sober and biblically literate as John MacArthur. He is quite possibly on the fringiest fringe of the continuationist movement, but he must have started somewhere, and that somewhere is mainstream charismaticism.
Payne’s schtick involves claims that he goes to heaven daily and then has hour-long interviews with famous people from the bible- Mary Magdalene, King David, Eve, Elijah Jesus, and God the Father himself, asking them about their childhood, what they like most about heaven, what are their favorite foods, what are their favorite memories not mentioned in the bible, what TV shows they watch from heaven, what they do for fun in heaven, etc.
He then records what they say to him and writes a book about it. To this end, he has self-published 55 Books on amazon, most which either are free or go for $0.99 cents. Miraculously, some have dozens of review. For one book series, Conversations with God, we read
“Imagine if you could hear God speak. Imagine if you could sit down and speak to God about a wide range of subjects that are helpful to the Christian faith and have him respond to you.
Matthew Robert Payne did exactly that over the course of a month. He sat down with the subjects covered in his previous book, “Jesus Speaking Today,” and asked God to open up about them. What follows is a number of intimate conversations with God.
God shares his heart with Matthew in a way that is raw, honest and candid. Peek inside the pages to see how God speaks to his friend who is interested in hearing his heart. Listen in on these conversations as God gets personal and emotional about the things that matter to him and that should ultimately matter to humanity.
It is Matthew’s hope that this book will encourage you to learn to hear from God for yourself and encourage you to journal what God says to you each day.”
Hard pass
He also explains that he charges for his prophecies now, about 22$ each, because the Lord told him to request a donation. This is completely legit because after all, he himself is paying a prophet named Jeremy Lopez $40 for personal prophecies, so his charging makes sense. Payne also offers trips to heaven for $100, explaining:
Through speaking to the prophet Bob Jones in the Councils of Heaven, I was instructed to make an offer possible for people to be able to visit heaven, to visit their loved ones and to see parts of heaven….if for some reason when we attempt to experience heaven together, you cannot see heaven, I will refund $50 USD so that you are not too much out of pocket. I take this payment for the time in invest in trying to make the trip happen.
Recently, he claims that he saw Queen singer Freddie Mercury in heaven, the openly gay musician who died of AIDS in 1991. Payne says there are unspecified “contests” in heaven, and those who win get to partake in an intimate concert with Freddie Mercury playing the piano and singing. For those who question how Mercury is in heaven, Payne reveals what Mercury told him regarding the source of his salvation:
“I have to explain that there were millions of people, millions of christians in the world praying for my salvation. And during the time I had cancer, I went unconscious towards the end and I had a vision of Jesus. Jesus asked me if I want to accept him to be my savior and I always assumed that Jesus didn’t like gays. And I was overjoyed to say yes to him, but no one really knows about my salvation, and I was overjoyed to come to heaven and heaven is just such a wonderful place. So I’ve really come to really love Jesus. He’s more than a friend to me, he’s more than I ever had as a lover.
