World Mission Society Church of God
new religious movement
The World Mission Society Church of God is a Christian non-denominational church established by Ahn Sahng-hong in South Korea in 1964. Ex-members and several cult experts have described it as a cult. The church believes that founder Ahn Sahng-hong is the Second Coming of Jesus, and that Zahng Gil-jah is God incarnate, in the form of "God the Mother". Its headquarters as well as its main church are located Sungnam City, Kyunggi Province, near Seoul.
History
Founding
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, a 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. 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.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “World Mission Society Church of God” is new religious movement. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through World, Mission and Society, not as a finished interpretation.
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Contemporary correspondence, administrative files and participant testimony can test how later narratives organized the event or institution. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 16, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q403140. Authority coordinates are 37.384, 127.109. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1964 and 1985.
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This entry incorporates text from “World Mission Society Church of God” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.