Ahn Sahng-hong was a Korean Christianminister and founder of the Church of God Jesus Witnesses. On 15 April 1984, the last Passover Assembly was held in Gangdong District, Seoul; on 10 January 1985, the Provisional General Assembly was established in Seoul and a special conference was held. Shortly after his death in 1985, a schism took place, dividing the Church of God Jesus Witnesses into two sects, the :ko:새언약유월절 하나님의교회|New Covenant Passover Church of God and what is today known as the World Mission Society Church of God. Both organizations claim him as their founder: the New Covenant Passover Church of God regards Ahn as a teacher; the World Mission Society Church of God regards Ahn as God.
Ahn grew critical to teachings in the Seventh-day Adventist Church, and the church excommunicated him in March 1962 over disputes about the cross as a religious symbol. Twenty-three people followed Ahn and left the church, and two years later on 28 April 1964, Ahn established his church Church of God Jesus Witnesses in Busan. Church of God Jesus Witnesses expanded to 13 congregations in South Korea before Ahn's death in 1985.
Beliefs
Major dogmata are outlined in Doctrine Manual of the Church of God Jesus Witnesses, and detailed in the more than two dozen books Ahn wrote. His original publications as well as scans of his notes and extant sermons have been made available online. Ahn argued that the practice of the apostolic early church had been distorted and his restorational doctrines and practices included:
Ahn, who like most Christians believed in the Second Coming of Jesus, had predicted a Second Coming "within 10 years" in 1956. In the tradition of Seventh-day Adventist eschatology, which had been suppressed by Kuniaki Koiso during his wartime rule of Korea, Ahn further believed that he was living in the end times and that the Second Coming was imminent. As Korean Protestants earlier in the 20th century had perceived Japanese occupation by identifying symbolically with the history of Israel, Ahn, through biblical exegesis in his book The Mystery of God and the Spring of the Water of Life, interprets the to suggest that the world could come to an end in 1988, 40 years after the independence of the modern state of Israel. Ahn's original The Mystery of God and the Spring of the Water of Life is made available ; World Mission Society Church of God in their later editions of the book have deleted information pertaining to the failed prediction. Ahn in his book The Bridegroom Was a Long Time in Coming, and They All Became Drowsy and Fell Asleep in a discussion based on scriptural typology, presented his conclusion that the world would come to an end in 2012:
Mother
Um Sooin
By 1978 a group of people centered around a female member, one Um Sooin, within the Church of God Jesus Witnesses, claimed through a chain of scriptural eisegesis that they published in writing, that Um variously was "the only bride", "the Heavenly Jerusalem", "the New Jerusalem" on earth, "the comforter sent by God", and they asserted that she was "our mother who has come down from Heaven", and that Ahn was Christ. Um and the group around her claiming she was the spiritual mother were expelled from the church, and Ahn dedicated a book entitled to the controversy, in which he writes: Ahn concludes his rebuking of Um Sooin:
Church of God World Mission Society said that during the last Passover Assembly on 15 April 1984, Ahn Sahng-hong witnessed God the Mother at the wedding hall. New Covenant Passover Church of God believes that this is because the church in Seoul is growing fast and the church gathers 300 people, so Ahn Sahng-hong celebrates the Passover in the wedding hall. It is said that Ahn Zhen-hui helped Ahn Sahng-hong and Zahng Gil-jah take a wedding photo at the Jiangdong Wedding Hall on 18 May 1984, but there were no guests or witnesses at the wedding scene, so the photo has been controversial. Ahn Sahng-hong preached in 1984, "Beware of another woman"! Minutes provided by New Covenant Passover Church of God for the 10 January 1985 meeting state that Zahng Gil-jah was appointed as the director of social dedication and Joo-Cheol Kim was the director of mission. On 19 April 1985, Joo-Cheol Kim wrote to the Busan General Assembly that the missionary Zahng Gil-jah herself was not willing to idolize herself, so we cannot idolize her.
Death
Following a heart attack during lunch on 24 February 1985, Ahn had a stroke en route to hospital, and died the next day, 25 February 1985 in the Catholic Maryknoll Hospital in Jung District, Busan. Ahn Sahng-hong was 67 years old. He was survived by his wife and three children. Ahn was buried in a public grave located in Seokgye Cemetery north of Busan. From the time of his burial in 1985, a single tombstone stood beside the grave, the epitaph reading: "The grave of the prophet Elijah Ahn Sahng-hong." After the death of his wife Hwang Won-sun 23 years later on 4 September 2008, she was buried in the plot beside Ahn, and a new tombstone carrying both their names replaced the 1985 stone, repeating the epitaph.
Legacy
The unexpected death of Ahn gave rise to a power struggle within Church of God Jesus Witnesses: some people in the church wanted to continue along the lines laid out by Ahn, others wanted to re-introduce the concept of a "spiritual mother" embodied in the then 41-year-old woman named Zahng Gil-jah. After an extraordinary general meeting in Church of God Jesus Witnesses on 4 March 1985 failed to reconcile the opposing factions, a schism divided the church into two sects
New Covenant Passover Church of God,
Witnesses of Ahn Sahng-hong Church of God.
New Covenant Passover Church of God
One group of people in Church of God Jesus Witnesses stayed on the premises in Busan. Among them were Ahn's wife and their three children. According to the minutes they provided on 10 January 1985, the church was renamed as New Covenant Passover Church of God. They opposed the doctrine of God the mother of the "Witnesses of Ahn Sahng-hong Church of God". Ahn's son Ahn Kwang-sup is an elder in the church and continues to expound on his father's work. They claimed that they had 25 published by An Shanghong, 37 books about his growth and 10 . At present, there are seven churches in total, including Songpa Church in Seoul. The church observes the Sabbath and seven feasts, including Passover. Due to the calculation of feasts, Church of God Jesus Witnesses in Gwangan-ri, Busan was to be independent from the New Covenant Passover Church of God in 2016 and also oppose God the mother doctrine. An outside observer visited the church and had this comment:
Witnesses of Ahn Sahng-hong Church of God
Another group of people in Church of God Jesus Witnesses including the man Kim Joo-cheol and the woman Zahng Gil-jah wanted to re-introduce the concept of a "spiritual mother", and on 22 March 1985 moved from Busan to Seoul. On a meeting in Seoul on 2 June 1985, they discussed how to call Zahng Gil-jah, and established a church called Witnesses of Ahn Sahng-hong Church of God. Two major new doctrines were codified
Ahn Sahng-hong should be regarded as Jesus Christ who had already come, should be titled Christ Ahn Sahng-hong, and pursuant to a traditional trinitarian view of Christian hypostasis Ahn was consequently also The Holy Spirit, God the Father, and thus God.
Zahng Gil-jah should be regarded as God the Mother, a female image of God, be titled Heavenly Mother, or simply Mother, and together with Ahn Sahng-hong be regarded as God.
A change in religious practice, as reflected in the change of name from "Witnesses of Jesus" to "Witnesses of Ahn Sahng-hong", was, that prayers were no longer conducted in the name of Jesus Christ but in the name of Christ Ahn Sahng-hong. The deification of Ahn Sahng-hong and Zahng Gil-jah has been "harshly criticized," and has led to the church being officially condemned by The National Council of Churches in Korea as an interdenominationally combatted, blasphemous, hereticalcult. Around 1997, Witnesses of Ahn Sahng-hong Church of God had established a non-profit organization titled the Church of God World Mission Society for the purpose of registering and managing the organization's assets.
Evaluation
1988 failed doomsday prophecy
Witnesses of Ahn Sahng-hong Church of God announced that "1988 is the end of the world" citing as Ahn had done in his 1980 book The Mystery of God and the Spring of the Water of Life. A few thousand members of Witnesses of Ahn Sahng-hong Church of God gathered on a mountain in :ko:소정면|Sojeong-myeon, Yeongi County, South Chungcheong Province awaiting the coming of Christ Ahn Sahng-hong, preparing for the rapture and the salvation of 144,000 souls. When Ahn failed to appear and nothing happened the church updated their apocalyptic forecast and scheduled it to the opening of the 1988 Olympics in Seoul later that year where the members gathered and preached the end of the world would come by the end of 1988 and that Ahn Sahng Hong would come again. WMSCOG later claimed it was a fulfillment of the preaching of Johna.
Controversy over the date of baptism
As a central argument to the claim that Ahn Sahng-hong should be the Second Coming of Jesus, and in turn an argument for his suggested promotion of Zahng Gil-jah to the Bride of the Lamb, is the proposition that he fulfilled a Davidic prophecy by preaching 37 years from his baptism 16 December 1948 to his death on 25 February 1985, a period which in reality was only 36 years, 2 months, and 9 days. The source for the baptismal date of 16 December 1948 performed by a Pastor Lee Myeong-deok in Incheon is however obscure, and no written record exists. In 2011 a protocol from the Seventh-day Adventist Church was discovered, stating Ahn was baptised when he was 36 years old on 9 October 1954 by a Pastor Gim Seo-gyeong. The investigation by International Korean Christian Coalition Against Heresy showed, that while Pastor Gim could be confirmed, no Pastor Lee Myeong-deok was with the church in 1948, reducing the length of the ministry of Ahn from 36 years to 30 years and 4 months.
