Answer
The World Mission Society Church of God (WMSCOG) was founded by a man named Ahn Sahng-Hong in South Korea in 1964. He was born in 1918 to Buddhist parents and spent many years with the Seventh-day Adventists. He claimed to have rebuilt the Church of God—the same Church that Jesus established and with the same truths of the Early Church. Ahn Sahng-Hong died in 1985.
The WMSCOG believes in God the Father and God the Mother, who came to earth in the flesh. Ahn Sahng-Hong’s spiritual wife, Zahng Gil-Jah, is known as “the Heavenly Mother.” According the WMSCOG, “God the Mother is the core of our faith and the figure that guides us. . . . God the Mother stands by and prays for us whenever we face hardships.” The Bible does not teach the existence of a “heavenly mother.” God is consistently referred to as our Father. Revelation 21:2 describes the New Jerusalem as a beautifully adorned bride. But verses 9–10 show that the “wife of the Lamb” and the “New Jerusalem” are synonymous terms. Obviously, the New Jerusalem is a city, not a person. In this case, the city is the church, the redeemed of the Lord living in God’s heavenly city. The Lamb’s “wife,” then, is figurative, not literal.
Another false teaching of the WMSCOG is that God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are not different Persons but simply different manifestations of one God. This teaching is a heresy called modalism. The Bible presents God as one God, but then speaks of three Persons—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
The World Mission Society Church of God believes that Jehovah is the Father, Jesus is the Son, and Ahn Sahng-Hong is the Holy Spirit. The Bible tells us that the Holy Spirit is a divine Person, a being with a mind, emotions, and a will. The fact that the Holy Spirit is God is clearly seen in many Scriptures, including Acts 5:3–4. For any man to declare he is the Holy Spirit is blasphemy.
The WMSCOG teaches that salvation is in the names of Jehovah, Jesus, and Ahn Sahng-Hong, and that baptism is required for salvation. The Bible declares that salvation is through Jesus Christ alone (Acts 4:12; John 14:6). Salvation is in the name of Jesus Christ. To claim salvation in the name of Ahn Sahng-Hong is blasphemy. Requiring anything in addition to faith in Jesus Christ for salvation is a works-based salvation. To add anything to the gospel is to say that Jesus’ death on the cross was insufficient to purchase our salvation. The Bible says that Jesus’ death alone paid for our sins (Romans 5:8; 2 Corinthians 5:21). Jesus’ righteousness is appropriated to our account by faith alone (John 3:16; Acts 16:31; Ephesians 2:8-9). Therefore, baptism cannot be a requirement for salvation.
The WMSCOG claims that “Christ Ahn Sahng-Hong” came as the Savior in the age of the Holy Spirit and was truly the Second Coming of Christ. This teaching conflicts with what the Bible says about the second coming in Revelation 19: “He has a name written on him that no one knows but he himself. He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God” (verses 12–13). To claim to be the very Word of God is blasphemy.
Ahn Sahng-Hong was a false prophet. He predicted Christ would return in 1967, then changed the date to 1988. The WMSCOG believed the world would end in 1967, then 1988, and then at the end of 2012. History has proved Ahn Sahng-Hong wrong. It is noteworthy that one of the signs of the end times is the increase in false prophets and false messiahs. Ahn Sahng-Hong clearly falls into the category of false prophet and false messiah.
The beliefs of the World Mission Society Church of God are not compatible with Christianity.
