World Mission Society Church of God

The World Mission Society Church of God is a new religious movement established by Ahn Sahng-hong in South Korea in 1964. The church believes that Ahn Sahng-hong is the Second Coming of Jesus, and that Zahng Gil-jah is God. Ex-members and several experts have called it a cult. Its headquarters as well as its main church are located Sungnam City, Kyunggi Province, near Seoul.

History
Ahn Sahng-hong founded the Church of God in South Korea on 28 April 1964. During his lifetime, there were 13 branches, and the headquarters were located in Busan. After Ahn Sahng-hong died on 25 February 1985, an extraordinary general assembly of all the church leaders was held in Busan on 4 March 1985. In this meeting, they recognized Kim Joo-cheol as Ahn Sahng-hong's successor and Zahng Gil-jah as Ahn Sahng-hong's spiritual bride through the evidence left by Ahn Sahng-hong. The headquarters were moved from Busan to Seoul on 22 March. However, in April, leaders of 2 out of 13 churches opposed the doctrine of the spiritual bride and split. They formed the minority group NCPCOG. The majority group of 11 churches, led by Kim Joo-cheol, held a meeting in Seoul on 2 June 1985. During this meeting, they affirmed two major doctrines: that Ahn Sahng-hong should be regarded as the Second Coming of Christ and Zahng Gil-jah should be regarded as God the Mother. They also changed the church's name to Witnesses of Ahn Sahng-hong Church of God. Around 1997, the Witnesses of Ahn Sahng-hong Church of God established a non-profit organization titled the World Mission Society Church of God for the purpose of registering and managing the organization's assets.

The Second Coming of Christ
The church regards Ahn Sahng-hong as the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, calling him "Christ Ahn Sahng-hong." According to a trinitarian view of hypostasis, Ahn is consequently also the Holy Spirit, God the Father, and thus God. They conduct prayers in the name of Ahn Sahng-hong instead of the name of Jesus Christ. They argue that just as christians prayed in the name of Jesus after He came as the Christ, they now pray in the name of the Second Coming Christ.

God the Mother
The church regards Zahng Gil-jah as God the Mother, a female image of God titled Heavenly Mother or simply Mother, and together with Ahn Sahng-hong be regarded as God (for which the church commonly uses the Hebrew plural word: Elohim).

Idolatry
The church states that according to its interpretation of, items such as crosses and statues are considered a form of idolatry and are not erected on or in their churches. The church also removes all stained glass windows from churches it uses, claiming that images made of light, like those cast from stained glass windows, are rooted in sun worship. This caused a lawsuit in Washington D.C. after the church purchased a historically preserved building and attempted to remove the historically preserved stained glass windows.

Criticism and controversy
The World Mission Society Church of God is one of many controversial grassroots religious movements that have rapidly emerged in South Korea during the latter half of the 20th century. Other groups include the Good News Mission (also known as Guwonpa) and the Shincheonji Church. These groups have been criticized for their recruitment strategies where women, university students, and ethnic minorities are targeted.

The group has been publicly criticized, by some former members and cult researchers, as acting as a cult, exercising excessive control over its members, separating them from family and friends, and exploiting them excessively, while violating laws and avoiding transparency and accountability.

Criticism and Controversies of Korean Churches
The Korean Christian community, including the National Council of Churches in Korea and the Christian Council of Korea, has "harshly criticized" the deification of Ahn Sahng-hong and Zahng Gil-jah. They have officially condemned the church as a blasphemous and heretical cult, opposed by various denominations.

A heresy expert of the Christian Council of Korea was found guilty by the courts of attempting to forcibly convert members of the World Mission Society Church of God, thereby violating their human rights and religious freedom. Pastor Jin, vice chairman of the Christian Council of Korea's Countermeasure Committee against Heresy and an editor at 'Modern Religion', confined members of the church in attics or prayer rooms and conducted forced conversion sessions. Members who did not convert were forcibly admitted to psychiatric hospitals. The victims filed lawsuits against Pastor Jin and others involved in the confinement. In 2008, the court sentenced Pastor Jin to a suspended prison term for night-time group coercion and aiding confinement, acknowledging the serious violation of personal freedom and religious freedom under the guise of conversion persuasion. The accomplices and psychiatrists involved were also found guilty. Shin Hye-sook, director of the Women's Cultural Center, criticized the actions, stating that using violence against people of different religions indicates a lack of basic religious qualities. Religious groups also criticized the intolerance and judgment of different denominations as reminiscent of the medieval religious dark ages.

In the past, the World Mission Society Church of God rented parts of collective buildings, but after 2007, church construction increased. As the number of buildings of the Church increased, Korean Christian organizations held protests and filed complaints to interfere with the church's construction. They stated, "The reason we must oppose the construction of this church on its own land with its own money is that this church is a cult." Most local governments approved the church's construction, and approximately 150 church buildings were constructed over the 10 years following 2007. However, a few local governments, including Yeosu City and Ulsan City, rejected the construction approvals, citing complaints and traffic congestion. The World Mission Society Church of God filed administrative lawsuits. The Korean courts ruled that "the collective petitions from religious organizations and nearby residents are merely personal and subjective evaluations of this church and cannot be seen as objective evidence that this religion causes harm. It is difficult to view this church as an anti-social religious group or to see its activities as anti-social. The church meets the legal parking requirements and there are no legal violations. " Consequently, the courts declared the local governments' refusals to approve the church's construction to be illegal.

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 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 for 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. The WMSCOG later claimed it was a fulfillment of the preaching of Jonah.

At least two former members in South Korea accused Zahng Gil-jah and Kim Joo-cheol who declared 1988, 1999 and 2012 as the end of the world in order to defraud members for more wealth.

Change in Ahn Sahng-hong's book
The Mystery of God and the Spring of the Water of Life (1980) has 38 chapters in total. The WMSCOG removed three chapters from "The Mystery of God and the Spring of the Water of Life", namely Chapter 1: Restoration of Jerusalem and the Prophecy of 40 Years, Chapter 11: Let Us Reveal the Truth from the History Books About the Church, and Chapter 36: Elijah Will Be Sent.

The "New Covenant Passover Church of God" (NCPCOG) which is the group that has split with the WMSCOG, claimed that the WMSCOG had changed the first edition dates of "The Mystery of God and the Spring of the Water of Life", "The Last Plagues and the Seal of God" and "Visitors from the Angelic World" to 1967 once upon a time. The NCPCOG also refuted the claim by the WMSCOG that Ahn Sahng-hong had the book "The Law of Moses and the Law of Christ", and said that Ahn Sahng-hong has never published this book, but it seems to have been compiled with reference to Ahn Sahng-hong's book "The New Testament and the Old Testament".

People magazine inquiry
In December 2015, People magazine published an interview with former member Michele Colon, who had attended the WMSCOG church in Ridgewood, New Jersey for two years, and later sued the organization. Colon, who was generally contradicted by the church but generally corroborated in interviews with six other former WMSCOG members, described the WMSCOG as a "doomsday cult" that is "opportunistic." She said they try to recruit people who are going through a life transition period, or have a void in their lives "and they will fill it." She said WMSCOG manipulated members with "fear and guilt," and constant repetitions. She reported that the church "micromanaged" her life, and expected that all her time be spent there, controlling her music-listening and forbidding her from using the internet.

Colon said church leaders do not tell members, until they seem fully committed, that their "God the Mother" is actually a living South Korean woman in her 70s, known by multiple names and various spiritual titles, who is apparently the widow of the deceased founder, Ahn Sahng-hong.

At least one former member has sued them for urging her to have an abortion, and others have accused the church of discouraging pregnancy in anticipation that the world would end in 2012.

Lawsuits


Michele Colon, a nurse from New Jersey, claimed, in a civil suit filed against WMSCOG in New Jersey, in 2013, that the group is a "profit-making" cult, and claimed it "uses a number of psychological control tactics … to prevent its members from exposing its criminal and tortious behaviour."

However, Colon's lawsuit was almost entirely rejected by the district and appellate state courts. Colon's claims, the court ruled, depended upon her claim that the WMSCOG is a "cult", not a "church"—a determination that the courts ruled they were not allowed to make, by law. The courts, largely citing the "religious freedom" element of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, particularly the judicial church autonomy doctrine (forbidding courts to inquire into "the facts and circumstances which intrude into church doctrine, affairs, and management"), the appellate court ruled that: "Each claim springs from Colón's contention that WMSCOG is a cult, not a church, and that she was essentially defrauded by this cult. The conflict arises from her disagreement about the manner in which the church implemented its doctrinal beliefs, managed its clergy and parishioners, and invested donations. Therefore Colón's complaint necessarily required the court to examine the interior workings and structure of the church, a constitutionally unacceptable process."

Wonju city government
In 2016, the Wonju city government denied the construction approval for the Church of God in Wonju City, citing complaints and concerns regarding traffic congestion. However, there was controversy over the unfairness of the Wonju city government's refusal. The building applied for had about twice the number of legally required parking spaces, but the Wonju city government demanded parking spaces for 1,000 cars, assuming 1,000 church members. This calculation included children as drivers. Major South Korean media outlets reported suspicions of religious bias by the mayor of Wonju City regarding the rejection. Church members protested against the Wonju city government's administrative action by phone. There were more than 30,000 complaint calls made between May 30 and June 1, 2016. These complaints disrupted the city hall's complaint processing work. The church filed an administrative appeal against the Wonju city government's action, but the Administrative Appeals Commission dismissed it. The World Mission Society Church of God considered filing an administrative lawsuit against the Wonju city government.

Subsequently, in administrative lawsuits between the World Mission Society Church of God and other local governments, such as Yeosu City Hall and Ulsan City Hall, which had rejected construction approvals, the courts ruled that the local governments' refusals to approve the church's construction were illegal Although there was no administrative lawsuit against the Wonju city government, it changed its stance and in 2019 approved the use of the building for church purposes. They approved the previously rejected church construction, and the church held a dedication ceremony for the newly constructed church in 2023. When the World Mission Society Church of God applied to build an additional church in Taejang-dong, Wonju City, there were complaints filed again. However, the Wonju city government approved the construction application, stating there were no legal issues.

Rick Ross critique
Rick Alan Ross, cult researcher and deprogrammer describes the WMSCOG as "a very intense group ... similar to the Unification Church [of] Sun Myung Moon—the Moonies", comparing WMSCOG indoctrination methods to those of the Unification Church.

Ross claims that the WMSCOG has driven members into bankruptcies due to excessive donations, and claims that some have lost their jobs to excessive demands by the group and associated sleep deprivation. Ross says that members often are sent to group housing and shared apartments, becoming isolated and alienated from family and friends, even spouses and adult children. Ross notes the group, which recruits members on university campuses, at malls and other shopping sites, has no meaningful accountability for leadership—a "dictatorship in Korea"—nor for the millions in revenue it receives.

Vietnam
In 2018, the Vietnamese Committee for Religious Affairs warned against the World Mission Society Church of God, describing it as cult-like. The government accused the group of deceptive recruitment, manipulative indoctrination, doomsday predictions, urging cash donations, and encouraging members to abandon their families. Authorities seized the Church’s assets in Hanoi, Saigon, and other provinces, interrogated hundreds of members, and accused Church leaders of brainwashing and micromanaging members' lives.

Asia News reported that many consider these allegations to be false, used by Vietnamese security forces to discredit certain groups. Fr. Le Ngoc Thanh, a Redemptorist priest in Saigon, said he was afraid that the propaganda campaign against the World Mission Society Church of God was designed to create tensions between religious and non-religious people. Vietnam's independent media outlet, IJAVN reported that "the Ministry of Home Affairs recently requested local authorities to disband and revoke licenses for religious groups associated with the 'Church of God' and 'Heavenly Mother' focus, preventing these organizations from regrouping and forming new centers of activity. This is difficult to understand because, even without any discovered violations of the law, licenses are still being revoked".

Evangelism
Members travel from house to house, in shopping malls, and in college campuses to proselytize for the church. Some ex-members have described the group's recruiting efforts as very aggressive, saying that it target vulnerable people, especially those going through a major life transition or with a void in their lives. They have also said the group targets those with greater access to money. College students and returning veterans have been particularly targeted.

Some aggressive WMSCOG recruiters have created concern on college campuses, where young women seem to be their primary target, proselytized emphatically with the church's "Mother God" doctrine. Some of these recruiters have been banned from some college campuses in the U.S. for "trespassing" or proselytizing without permission.

Recruitment and human trafficking rumors
WMSCOG has been investigated for—and subsequently cleared of—human trafficking on multiple American university campuses. Police investigations into possible human sex trafficking connections ensued in January 2018 at the University of Mississippi, in September 2019 at the University of South Carolina, and in March 2020 at the University of Utah. Similar reports also occurred at the University of Louisville, Vanderbilt University, the University of Georgia, Oberlin College, Texas State University, and Arizona State University, among others. All investigations were closed after failing to find a link between the church and illicit activity.

Many students, across multiple campuses, reported unknown persons asking if they knew about "God the Mother." Recruiters have been known to approach female students and ask if they believe in a female god, which often will lead to invitations to study groups. Recruiters will also approach students and ask if they would like to join a Bible study group.

This style of recruitment has come under fire from former church members, who have said that the church tends to target those who appear "psychologically vulnerable" and specifically young white people who appear wealthy.

New Zealand
In August 2017, the Otago University Students' Association in Dunedin disaffiliated from the Elohim World Academy following complaints from students about deceptive and coercive recruitment methods. The University of Otago's Proctor Dave Scott had considered trespassing members of the group but ruled it out since that would have violated the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990's provisions on religious freedom and freedom of expression. In 2020, the University of Auckland student magazine Craccum reported that members of the Elohim Academy had targeted students at the University of Auckland and the University of Waikato in Hamilton.

In September 2021, Craccum reported that the Elohim Academy was also conducting door-knocking evangelism campaigns in Wellington and Auckland, with an emphasis on recruiting young women. Members were expected to follow strict rules separating themselves from social media and non-church friends, attend masses and recruitment sessions, tithing ten percent of their income, avoid wearing jeans, reject music and masturbation, and lose weight to fit Korean beauty standards. Former members alleged that members including minors were shamed for not meeting the church's rules and standards and that members were ranked based on their recruitment rates. Church members were also reportedly shown graphic videos of Hell. In addition, pastors also arranged marriages between congregants.

Size in 2013
A media outlet owned by the Church of God reports to have more than 7,500 churches, and 3.3 million registered members in the world's 175 countries. However, an external account mentions that the number of church members is estimated to have only been around 100,000 in 2013, contrary to Kim Joo-cheol's claims.

Awards
UK ZION, a World Mission Society Church of God chapter, was awarded The Queen's Award for Voluntary Service in 2016.