In the past, there has been some controversy over whether or not Ahn Sahng Hong ever had children. When I was a member of the World Mission Society Church of God, I was told on more than one occasion that Ahn Sahng Hong was never married or had any children. After some research into Ahn Sahng Hong’s life, not only did I discover that he had established another church called Witnesses of Jesus Church of God, now known as the New Covenant Passover Church of God, but that Ahn Sahng Hong was in fact legally married to a woman named Hwang Won Soon and had four children.
However, now it appears as though the WMSCOG openly admits that Ahn Sahng Hong and Zahng Gil Jah had both been married and had children with their respective spouses.
It seems as though the way that the WMSCOG describes Ahn Sahng Hong’s life to its members and what the actual evidence shows, just does not add up. Let’s take a look.
In the WMSCOG’s New Song Book, a song titled “Holy Is Your Sacrifice” claims that [Ahn Sahng Hong],
“His whole body seemed to be shattered; He could barely take a step.”
A presumed WMSCOG member blog also describes Ahn Sahng Hong’s suffering and sacrifice:
“Father Ahn Sahng Hong climbed rough hills and mounts; no one knew He suffered all alone, searching for us. Every step, with pain, His whole body ached as He stumbled over stone, and He was feeble with weary legs. How much in pain Father Ahn Sahng Hong’s feet were.”
Ahn Sahng hong hardly suffered alone as the documents shown below demonstrate, he was married and had four children. Ahn Sahng Hong also does not appear “feeble with weary legs” in this picture of him standing in a river nor in this picture of him swimming at the beach.
The lyrics of “Holy Is Your Sacrifice” further claim that [Ahn Sahng Hong],
“Even a bowl of soup he would sacrifice; He saved his poor wages, skipping his poor meals…He was hungry, He was cold, for thirty seven years.”
The same presumed member blog (see screenshot above) similarly goes on to say:
“Mountain water was His only meal…Even His food He spared for the sake of the children and we steam Him not.”[sic]
Yet, Ahn Sahng Hong is seen above eating a meal with his wife, children and other members of his church that clearly includes plenty of solid food. Here, Ahn Sahng Hong is photographed standing behind his 3 tier birthday cake.
Clearly, there are a number of inconsistencies between the WMSCOG’s portrayal of Ahn Sahng Hong’s life and the evidence that we have available. Yet, another contradiction stands out. WMSCOG General Pastor Joo Cheol Kim’s view on family and love being “temptations of Satan” does not reflect Ahn Sahng Hong’s actions with respect to the same issues. Clearly Ahn Sahng Hong did not believe that family and love were temptations of the satan since he married and decided to have four children. It would appear that the WMSCOG believes that their own leader and supposed “god”, Ahn Sahng Hong, was tempted and succumbed to Satan’s tempations. It also is apparent that a marriage and four children did not interfere with Ahn Sahng Hong’s important work of establishing a new church, “restoring the Passover”, and preaching to the public. Three of his four children were born after Ahn Sahng Hong’s baptism into the Seventh Day Adventist Church on the alleged date of December 16, 1948. You can see the proof in Ahn Sahng Hong’s official family census record below.
AhnSangHong-Family-Census-English_RedactedIn our last segment we learned how the WMSCOG tried to pressure our correspondent from New Jersey into signing a non-disclosure agreement. Now, in our fifth and final section of our five part series, we learn of the ruin wrought to our correspondent’s marriage by her husband’s heavy involvement in the WMSCOG:
After my meeting with the WMSCOG, things between my husband and I would only get worse. My husband admitted that he had already made up his mind. There was no doubt in his mind that I had been posting “lies about the church” on the internet. My husband went as far as to accuse me of turning against God.
As the days went on, it seemed that his involvement in the WMSCOG continued to turn my husband against me. My husband became less attentive and less affectionate towards me. Our anniversary was fast approaching and my husband seemed disinterested in making plans to do something special. I suggested that we go away for a couple of days and he refused. He explained that he could not be away from the WMSCOG because “father was coming soon” and he needed to be ready when the time came. On the day of our one year anniversary, he still hadn’t committed to any plans or even made any suggestions about what we would be doing together. We subsequently spent the early part of the day arguing. He finally admitted that he felt guilty spending any time with me after I posted “lies about the church” on the internet. He left and spent the rest of the day and evening at the WMSCOG. I was no longer worthy of his time.
The next day, my husband took me out to dinner and gave me a card in which he wrote that we had enough love to make it through. Just when I thought that things between us would get better, he informs me that he had been recently chosen to participate in an intense Bible study training course where he would learn to teach 30 subjects in 30 days. That would mean that he would spend every day in the WMSCOG until very late at night and all day Sunday being tested from 9am to 6pm in the afternoon. I thought that it was pretty convenient that he would be “chosen” for this “intense training” that would make it nearly impossible for us to see each other, not too long after I was kicked out. The goal of this training sounded unrealistic and seemed like a ploy to set members up to fail. Why not set unattainable goals for your members to keep them focused, working hard, and feeling guilty and inadequate when they can not meet your demands?
Now going to the WMSCOG right after working and coming home after midnight was not enough. My husband would also stay up reading the WMSCOG books until almost 2 am. Then he would wake up at 5 am to pray. The WMSCOG was keeping the both of us sleep deprived. The strain on our marriage continued.
My husband had always told me that he wanted to have children and start a family. This was no longer the case after I was kicked out of the WMSCOG. He told me that he would not bring a child into this world and have the child’s blood on his hands because he knew that I would not allow our child to be baptized by the WMSCOG, and thus they’d be “spiritually dead”. So our plans to have a family were no longer important either.
At this point, things seemed to be hopeless. I wasn’t spending any time with my husband because he was never home. When he was home, he would pretend that I didn’t even exist. How could my husband of only one year, who I believed loved me very much before, have so much resentment for me only 6 months after I initially left the WMSCOG? A few weeks after our anniversary, my husband informed me that he no longer wanted to be with me. He decided that it would be best for the both of us since he felt that we would never agree about his involvement with the WMSCOG. He admitted that “the church was always the problem” and he would under no circumstances compromise the amount of time he spent at the WMSCOG in order to try and work on our marriage.
I was at my wits end. I believe that this was what the WMSCOG wanted all along. Why else would they have pushed him so hard? Why would they go on the internet and try to monitor my personal activity? Why would they want to track down my IP address? And what about the way that the WMSCOG pastor threatened me during the meeting? How could he just ignore their distasteful behavior? I tried everything to get my husband to see the contradictions to no avail. I just couldn’t take the emotional abuse and neglect anymore and about a week later, I gave my husband an ultimatum. It was the cult or me. He chose the WMSCOG and moved out again that very evening.
I am completely heart-broken over the decision that my husband made to just abandon me the way that he did. He rarely even speaks to me these days. He says that it upsets him that I speak out about my experience with the WMSCOG and how it destroyed our marriage. But if I can help even one person out there to avoid the pain and suffering that I am enduring because of this destructive organization, then it is worth the embarrassment of posting my story online for everyone to read.
I love my husband very much and all I can do now is pray that he wakes up and returns home soon.
And we are all praying with you. Please comment below to let our friend know you support her in this difficult time.
Would you like to share your experience in the WMSCOG with us? Contact us to tell your story.
]]>Previously we learned of our correspondent from New Jersey’s dramatic exit from the World Mission Society Church of God (WMSCOG). In this fourth part, of her five part series, we learn how this organization tried to make her sign some kind of non-disclosure agreement (NDA) when they believed she had been questioning them on the Internet.
During my research on the World Mission Society Church of God, I came across various internet blog entries written by people who had family members involved in the group. Soon an obvious pattern emerged. I read story after story about how the WMSCOG had either ruined their marriage or family. Since my husband had decided to remain a member of the WMSCOG, naturally I became very concerned. I discussed my concerns with my husband and he promised me that he would not let the church come between us. Little did I know, the WMSCOG was well on its way in doing just that.
My husband would soon explain that he needed to spend more time in the church because he needed to “learn and study more”. This of course made me furious because it appeared to be a blatant attempt to cannibalize all of my husband’s time in order to keep him away from me. If the WMSCOG didn’t allow me to sit next to the other “sisters” during the last service I attended in order to prevent me from “contaminating them with my doubts”, how much more would they attempt to keep my husband away from me for the same reason?
The arguments between us increased and the time we spent together decreased. One night my husband told me that I was going to hell because I was no longer keeping the Sabbath. I thought that God was the only one that could decide that? I was furious. It seemed that my husband was looking down upon me like I was a lesser being because I no longer wanted to attend the WMSCOG. Soon he began going to the church every day after work and coming home after midnight. We were newlyweds and we rarely saw each other or spent any time together. I became increasingly frustrated and angry as time went on. Six months after I left the WMSCOG my husband was convinced that I was being “used by Satan” in order to try and stop him from going to the church so he moved out one Friday while I was at work. When I got home from work all of his things were gone. I couldn’t believe he would do such a thing! I was completely devastated! It seemed like the WMSCOG was driving him crazy.
We sat down to talk during the evening on the day that he moved out. I explained to him that what he was doing was not Biblical. In the Bible, it states that marriage is a covenant, God hates divorce, and that a man should not leave his wife except for adultery. [Note to our readers, there is much controversy among Catholics and Protestants concerning the definition of the Greek word πορνείᾳ used in Matthew 19:9. Some view it as “adultery” while others view it as “illicit union”. That argument is beyond the scope of this site]. In the year that I was a member, the topic of marriage and its importance was never discussed in the WMSCOG. He went on to explain that he could no longer live with me because my “message would spread like cancer” (quoting 2 Timothy 2:17). This just didn’t make any sense. The verse that he quoted refers to Hymenaeous and Philetus preaching the message that the resurrection of Jesus never occurred (see 2 Timothy 2:18 & 1 Corinthians 15:12). He believed that because I had begun attending a Christian church on Sunday that this practice would somehow force him to do the same. How this would happen, I do not know. Members of the WMSCOG consider Sunday worship a pagan practice. I still don’t understand the connection between my attending church on Sunday, and those mentioned in the Bible that preached that Jesus had not resurrected. Just another verse that was taken out of context by him at the WMSCOG. Needless to say, the conversation was not productive because he left and refused to tell me where he would be going.
Two days later, my husband agreed to come over and talk to me again. I asked him to please come back home. He said that the only way he would move back in, would be if I agreed to attend one Sabbath service per week. Sound like coercion? I reluctantly agreed, and he moved back home. Even though I knew the teachings were wrong, and refused to take part in the prayers, I agreed to sit through the services in order to try and save my marriage. Things would be ok for a few days but it was the calm before the storm.
My husband insisted that I do all of the studies over again. I scheduled time to study with the deaconess that I had befriended during the first year of my membership. She never seemed to be available once I arrived at the church though. Unbeknownst to me, I would be studying with the pastor. My husband was present during the first study with the pastor but the study didn’t go well. It seemed that the pastor would become very frustrated when I asked questions. At the end of the study I asked the pastor to tell me what the Bible says about divorce. He wouldn’t answer. Instead he explained that he could not get involved in my relationship with my husband and that it was our “personal decision” if we wanted to stay together or not. Funny because I didn’t ask him for his opinion on the topic, I asked him to explain what the Bible tells us about divorce. I said that I needed to understand why my husband was under the impression that it was ok to leave me. He became very frustrated and said “what difference does it make if you’re both gonna die”. He alluded to the belief that my husband and I should be more concerned about our salvation (which by the way can only be obtained by keeping the Sabbath, Passover, tithing, and many other requirements according to the WMSCOG) than our marriage. After that statement, the study was over. I would only study once more about two weeks later, without my husband.
The first service I attended after being gone for 6 months was quite uncomfortable. I told my husband ahead of time that I wanted to sit with him during the service. After all, I had been made to sit next to him before so I didn’t think it would be a problem. I was wrong. When I got there, I told the “sister” in charge of the seating arrangement that I wished to sit with my husband. Suddenly no one knew where he was. I was suddenly allowed to sit with the “sisters” again, sandwiched in between a deaconess and a missionary. Maybe they would be the buffers between my doubts and the other “sisters”. After the service I confronted my husband about the seating arrangement. He explained that a deacon told him that it would be best if we didn’t sit together because he wouldn’t be able to focus on the message being given during the service. The deacon thought that my husband would be distracted by me. Why wasn’t this a concern of theirs before? This was just another inconsistency to add to the list.
About a month after I started attending the church again, my husband informs me that I am not allowed to return. He told me that the pastor “found out” that I had posted some negative information about the church online. He also mentioned a facebook page but did not offer anymore details. My husband assured me that they had shown him irrefutable evidence that I was the one that posted the negative information about the church online. I asked my husband to show me the facebook page on the computer but he said that he didn’t remember how to get to the page. About two days later I called the pastor and asked him what facebook page he was referring to? The pastor stated “you come here and I’ll show you”. I agreed to meet with him later that afternoon.
When I arrived at the church, I would soon be joined by my husband who had lied to me about where he was before the meeting. He had arranged to attend this meeting without my knowledge. I would sit down with the pastor, a deacon and my husband to discuss the matter at hand. To my surprise I was greeted with a two page non-disclosure agreement. The deacon explained “we prepared this to protect you and to protect us…mentioning that we won’t say anything about you in the same way that you won’t say anything bad about us”. I thought to myself, why do I need protection? I hadn’t done anything wrong.
He went on to explain that in the past people have visited their church and then “lied very bad” about them on the internet. I requested that they show me the “evidence” that my husband claimed they had. My request was denied. The deacon stated, “we don’t make anything on you having problems with Mark…is it ok if I read things in front of Mark?” I declined which of course made my husband upset, but he was advised by the pastor to leave the room. Here are the comments that the deacon read to me from some papers he had in front of him:
“My husband is so brainwashed by these people. It’s ridiculous. I am now having these arguments with him. All he ever answers to any of my points is if not this church then where? Basically because no other church celebrates the Sabbath on Saturday and Passover. He openly admits that he can not interpret anything in the Bible without the Church of God teachings. I can’t stand it. So when I read verses in the Bible that are clearly understood by anyone who reads them, he says you are applying your own mind”.
“As far as the calendar goes and how they calculate the dates of the feasts, as per one of the deacons after one of the services a few weeks ago, only the general pastor in Korea knows the formula. Apparently it is secret information that no one but the general pastor is allowed to know. If you ask, they will tell you that the Jews miscalculate all the dates citing the example of when they start to celebrate the Sabbath. The Jews, from what I understand, start the Sabbath on Friday evening. According to the Church of God this is wrong, therefore all of their dates are wrong. Go figure”.
I asked the deacon to explain what parts of the comments that he read in his opinion, were lies? He said “the part about him being brainwashed”. He explained that everyone is entitled to their opinion, but their opinion may be a lie. They refused to tell me what website these comments came from. The deacon would explain that these comments had been posted on “some forums” with my personal email address. Then he proceeded to accuse me of posting links to other websites about the church on RickRoss.com. Again I asked for the pastor and the deacon to please show me where they obtained the information. The deacon then asked, “Would you like to sign this before I show you?”. I declined to sign the non-disclosure agreement and again requested that I be shown proof of the accusations being made against me. The deacon then insisted that I read the agreement in front of me. The pastor explained “it’s nothing it’s like we protect each other”. I still didn’t understand why I needed protection. Why would I need protection from the World Mission Society Church of God? I read the agreement and it basically said that I could not discuss anything that I read, studied, or heard in the church with anyone except my husband. I do not recall the agreement containing any statements to guarantee that the church would not “say anything bad” about me as stated earlier by the deacon. The pastor said, “What if someone bad mouth your personal life do you like it?” Was this a threat to defame me?
The pastor explained that if I leave the church, I do not need to take any intellectual property with me. Interestingly, the WMSCOG has most of the “studies” on their official website. I have also seen their members copy and paste them into responses on various blogs. What the WMSCOG teaches isn’t exactly secret is it? The pastor then said that if I left the church and “bad mouth” the church then he would “have to do something…hire a lawyer”. He then mentioned how other people have accused them of “sue everybody”. He also admitted to suing “several people” for “exposing everything” about the church and went on to say that if I am “not one of them then I just want to protect you but if you are one of them then you got a trouble”. The pastor then stated “through this message clearly it should be you”. At this point it was obvious that the pastor was threatening to sue me. The pastor and the deacon would not allow me to take a copy of the agreement that they requested I sign so that I could have it reviewed by an attorney. The deacon then said that he would send a “more revised version” to my attorney if I had my attorney contact them directly. Again the pastor issued what I considered to be another threat when he said, “if it’s not about you it’s ok but if it is you it’s a problem”. They again refused to show me any evidence of their accusations. They also claimed that they requested my IP address and email address from the forums and that the forums sent them all of the information that they requested. Again I was assured that after I signed the agreement they would be able to show me “all of the evidence no problem”. Most forums, including facebook, do not just give out their contributors’ email addresses and IP addresses because of a mere request. Disclosure of this type of personal information is only given out if the requestor provides a subpeona issued by a court. If the WMSCOG did in fact have my email address and IP address attached to any comments that they alleged I posted, I would have to question how they obtained this information. I have seen comments on forums and even videos on YouTube that accuse people in the WMSCOG of hacking websites. I started to wonder, was this one of those cases?
I wondered if the WMSCOG did this often. Do they monitor the information about them on the internet? If so, why? I remember the pastor saying, “we found out something that is not good for us that’s why we called you and told you to come and check it out…we tried to find out who is a believer”. Is monitoring internet activity how the WMSCOG tests the faith of their members? Are other churches concerned with what is written about them online? Do other churches ask their members to sign non-disclosure agreements before they get kicked out? This type of behavior sounds more like a business than a church.
During this meeting, the pastor and deacon mentioned more than once that they were not trying to cause problems between my husband and I. If that was true, why would they confront my husband with this so called “evidence” days prior to having my husband notify me? But later the pastor said that in this situation if my husband read these comments and found out that I was the one that posted these comments “how can you be together like that?” It seemed pretty obvious to me that their intention was to cause division between my husband and I. My husband had already made up his mind when they confronted him days before this meeting. He viewed my refusal to sign the non-disclosure agreement as an admission of guilt. But I explained to my husband that I was under no circumstances going to sign away my right to free speech. Why would a church want to silence one of their former members?
It would not be long before my husband would be turned completely against me…
Well, we can say that when the WMSCOG reads this article, they’ll know for sure that you were the one that wrote it. It’s funny, anyone can see those comments they read to you weren’t lies, but opinion. Good thing you didn’t sign that NDA, otherwise, you wouldn’t have been able to speak out and tell the community about your experience. This story makes us sad because this type of behavior does not represent Christ, and it certainly doesn’t represent any type of healthy “church” either. We totally agree with your question of “Do other churches ask their members to sign non-disclosure agreements before they get kicked out?” In our opinion, that is a red flag dear reader, that you should re-consider your involvement in the WMSCOG.
In the fifth part of our five part series, we learn of the ruin wrought to our friend’s marriage by her husband’s heavy involvement in the WMSCOG.
]]>In parts one and two, of this five part series from our correspondent in New Jersey, we learned how she was first recruited into the World Mission Society Church of God, and how the pressure to spend more time at the organization slowly increased. In part three below, we’ll learn the blatant Biblical contradiction she discovered that led to her dramatic exit. We’ve taken the liberty of adding some relevant annotations between square brackets [].
Before my husband and I left for our honeymoon, the pastor advised us to pray during the service times and spend the Saturday that we would be away, reading a book written by Ahnsahnghong. My husband and I agreed and we were off on our way to Mexico. Little did I know, that would be the last vacation we would spend together.
When we returned, the pressure to spend more time in the church increased even more. There was also a huge focus on “bearing ten talents” or recruiting. I remember going out with “sisters” to “preach” to new members. I had a sense that we were targeting people in their 20s and 30s since we never approached anyone that appeared to be older than that. We always went to crowded areas like stores and shopping malls. I was told that crowded areas were best and we would get to talk to the most people. I had a difficult time with this because I didn’t feel comfortable walking up to strangers and asking them if they had “ever heard about god the mother in the Bible”. The rejection from most people didn’t help. A lot of people would just walk away or tell us that they were atheists. Security asked us to leave after receiving complaints from customers.
A few months before the wedding, one of my friends sent me an email that refuted the WMSCOG’s claim that Constantine abolished the Sabbath. This email had been bugging me for a few months and now that I had some time to think, I decided to do some research on the topic. I thought that it would be great to find some information that supported what I was taught during my first study about the Sabbath at the WMSCOG. I had trouble finding information in bookstores so I finally turned to the internet. I had avoided the internet after having heard that the internet was evil and considered by the WMSCOG to represent the modern day “tree of knowledge of good and evil” [more info on this]. A simple google search and I was lead to an article titled “Did Constantine Abolish The Sabbath In 321 AD?” [For our readers, she is referring to this article]. I was shocked to find out that Christians had been worshipping on Sunday long before Constantine was even born. So Constantine didn’t abolish the Sabbath did he? The WMSCOG’s studies that I thought were rock-solid seemed to be starting to crumble one at a time.
This lead me to do a google search on the WMSCOG. To my surprise, I found a website that claimed that the WMSCOG was a cult! [The site is no longer online]. My anxiety levels continued to increase as I sat reading information about the contradictions in the WMSCOG doctrine, questionable practices, and former members’ stories about how they had been hurt by the WMSCOG. The most disturbing information that I had come across was that the WMSCOG was said to have been using the same mind control tactics used on US prisoners of war in N. Korea. I also learned about Robert J. Lifton’s thought reform model [more on this]. When I finally read an article that explained how the Jehovah’s Witnesses used the same tactics to control their members I could not ignore the similarities to what I had experienced in the WMSCOG. [For our readers, she is referring to this article].
I discussed the information that I had come across on the computer with my husband that evening after work. He was in his second day of a three day fast. I cannot recall the occasion for the fast, but fasting at the WMSCOG means no food or water. Participation in the fast is expected from all members including children and infants. I remember hearing a “sister” explaining “my baby needs salvation too”. I found this outrageous so I refused to participate.
It was a Tuesday evening so we were scheduled to attend the 3rd day service. After confronting my husband with the information that I found on the internet, he was shocked too. He admitted that we had been fooled and wondered why an organization would take advantage of people like this. He said that he felt “lost” and didn’t know where to go now. He was starving so we went to dinner and decided not to attend the service that evening. The WMSCOG takes attendance during services so it was soon obvious that we did not show up. We were both contacted that evening regarding our absence and I remember replying something to the effect that I had found some information on the internet that caused me to consider whether or not we would be returning. We were encouraged to attend a meeting with the pastor where all of our questions about the information on the internet would be answered. We were assured that the negative information on the internet was all lies.
My husband and I went to the WMSCOG a few days later to meet with the pastor. When we arrived in his office there were three other WMSCOG members present (a deacon, a deaconess, and another male member). The meeting started with an explanation of how people persecute the WMSCOG on the internet by spreading lies about “father and mother”. I was assured that all of my questions would be answered.
I remember asking the pastor why members in the WMSCOG had separated from their non-believing spouses. After all, the girl who recruited me had just left her husband because he decided to stop attending the church. I pointed out how in 1 Corinthians 7, the apostle Paul states that married members of the church should not separate from their non-believing spouses. The pastor explained that the church does not encourage divorce, but instead encourages married couples to stay together. So again I asked, if this is true then why are there so many divorced or separated members? He explained that the members had no choice but to leave their spouses because of the persecution they received. He went on to explain that the non-believing spouses usually had a problem with how much time the member spent in the church and usually would end up trying to make the member choose between the church and the marriage. The deaconess sitting to my right went on to explain that she divorced her husband due to similar circumstances and that her husband had also committed adultery. It is important to point out that she had never once mentioned that her husband had committed adultery to me before. The other times that she had discussed leaving her husband with me, her reasons were that he had tried to stop her from tithing and attending the church as often. I thought, how convenient.
I then pointed out the contradiction from “The Mystery of God and the Spring of the Water of Life” pg. 465 where Ahnsahnghong writes “Jesus Christ went up to the temple and preached every day during the Feast of Tabernacles,…”. In the Bible (John 7:14) it says that Jesus did not preach in the temple courts until the middle of the Feast of Tabernacles. The WMSCOG believes that Ahnsahnghong and Jesus are the same like water exists in three chemical forms (solid, gas, liquid) so does God (Father, Son, Holy Spirit). But how could Ahnsahnghong and Jesus be the same and tell different versions of the same story? Did Jesus preach every day of the feast or did He wait until the middle of the feast? It cannot be both because God does not make mistakes. The deacon explained that “Jesus preached every day”. I pointed out that in the beginning of John 7 it clearly explains the reason for Jesus having waited until the middle of the feast. In John 7, Jesus tells his brothers to go ahead of him to the Feast of Tabernacles, and afterwards travels in secret because He knows that people are looking for him to try and kill him. Jesus could not have traveled alone in secret, and preached during the 2 1/2 day journey (on foot) from Galilee to Judea. If Jesus traveled alone in secret, that obviously means that he was not telling anyone who He was right? It was at this point that the pastor explained the reason for the contradiction. The particular edition of the book was written in Korean on the left page and in English on the right. The pastor pointed to a word that was mistranslated, underlined it (중에), and explained that it was an error in translation. According to the pastor, the word he underlined (중에) should have been translated to “middle” instead of “every day”. So therefore, according to the pastor there was no contradiction between Ahnsahnghong’s writings and the Bible. He explained that the people who translated the books from Korean to English, made a mistake because English was not their native language. He assured me that he would be notifying the general assembly in Korea to correct the error. I was still skeptical at this point. Why wasn’t I given that explanation in the beginning? [For our readers, by request, we asked our correspondent for a picture of the word in her book, and she sent us the photo below]:
[See image gallery at www.examiningthewmscog.com]
I was determined to find out the truth about this alleged “mistranslation”. A few days later, I asked my husband to drive me to a nearby town where many Korean folks live. I know it sounds crazy but I had to know. I approached random Korean people on the street and asked what the underlined word (중에) meant. Some just pretended that they didn’t speak English probably because they thought I was trying to recruit them. Some didn’t know enough English to tell me what the word meant. Some were too Americanized and didn’t know enough Korean to read the word and tell me what it meant. I was becoming frustrated because it was around midnight at this point and I still hadn’t found anyone to help me with the translation. I had just about given up when I found a couple in a diner that was willing to talk to me after I started the conversation with “I’m not trying to preach to you, I just need to know what this Korean word means in English”. The gentleman that was willing to look at the book told me that the underlined word (중에) meant “during” and not “middle”. He also pointed to a word in the next line that said “every day” (날마다). That meant that there was no error in the translation! Ahnsahnghong really did write that Jesus preached every day during the feast. I was completely shocked!!! That meant that the pastor lied to me. I couldn’t believe that he would lie to me just to placate me.
When I told my husband what the Korean man in the diner said, he was less than moved. I couldn’t understand why this seemed not to bother my husband. My husband ignored the blatant contradiction between Ahnsahnghong’s book and the Bible, and continued to attend. [For our readers, there are many more contradictions between the writings of Ahnsahnghong and the Bible listed here] . Despite confirmation of the translation with Google, my husband was somehow convinced by a WMSCOG missionary that the word did in fact mean “during”. I remember even asking one of the Korean “sisters” what the underlined word meant as I was in line to use the bathroom. She also told me that the word (중에) meant “during”. Some time later my husband eventually admitted that the pastor did in fact lie to me, but excused his actions. According to my husband, the pastor lied to me in an attempt to “save” me. I don’t understand why, but he continued to ignore the contradiction between Ahnsahnghong’s statement and the Bible. I asked my husband why the pastor would point to Ahnsahnghong’s writings and lie if the pastor believed that those words were written by “god”. Would he point to the Bible and do the same? When did Jesus or any of his apostles lie to someone in an attempt to save them? Never.
The last service that I attended at the WMSCOG after this incident was a reality check for me. First, I was made to sit next to my husband, which is a big no-no in the WMSCOG. I was later told by a deaconess that “sometimes married couples sit together” though I had not observed this in the past year of my membership. Then toward the end of the service the pastor mentioned that it was only acceptable for new members who hadn’t finished their studies to ask questions about contradictions they read on the internet. According to the pastor, if the member asked questions after having completed the basic studies, it was “stupid”. I thought, wait a minute, didn’t he just tell me a few days ago that I could come to him with any questions that I had and that they would be answered. Why would the pastor encourage me to ask questions and then call me “stupid” for doing exactly what he encouraged me to, in front of the whole congregation a few days later? Was this an attempt to humiliate me?
My husband later admitted to me that the seating arrangement had been made prior to my arrival in an attempt to keep me from “contaminating other sisters” with my doubts. So the deaconess lied to me too? At this point I felt manipulated and I had had enough of the lies and secrecy. I would not be returning to the WMSCOG. I wondered, and worried, what it would be like now that I had decided not to return to the WMSCOG and my husband had decided to remain a member.
Wow. We have no further comments. She said it all. What an incredible story of her dramatic exit from the WMSCOG. Can you believe what happened in that last service she attended? The audacity and rudeness is almost unbelievable. How people stay in this group is mind boggling. If you thought part 3 above was bad, wait until you read part 4 when the WMSCOG attempts to make her sign a document saying she can not talk about her experience. What is with these people? We’re sure glad she didn’t sign it, otherwise she wouldn’t have been able to share her experience with the rest of the community here at www.examiningthewmscog.com.
]]>In part one, of our five part series we learned how our correspondent from New Jersey was recruited into the World Mission Society Church of God. Now, read part two below to learn how her time commitment and involvement was slowly encouraged to increase…
After being a member for about two weeks, I invited my boyfriend of about one year to come to the church for a Bible study. Things were rocky between us at the time and I thought that going to church together and learning more about God might help. He seemed a little reluctant at first, but he agreed. I was allowed to be present during my boyfriend’s first study with a WMSCOG Deacon. He also opted to be baptized immediately after his first study about the Sabbath.
Soon after we began attending Tuesday and Saturday services and occasionally visiting during the week for a study. After all, we had a list of about twelve basic studies to complete. We would study separately from now on. I noticed that married couples and families did not study together unless there was a longer study being offered on a Sunday afternoon. Even during these 6 hour long studies, women and men sat separately. I remember finding it strange that women and men were seated on opposite sides of the sanctuary during worship times as well. I was told that the seating arrangement was to prevent gossip, distractions, and men looking at women with a romantic interest or vice versa. One of the members said, “this way we only focus on God”. It didn’t take long for the seating arrangement to seem normal. During one of the services I attended, I remember the pastor mentioning how outsiders find this seating arrangement weird. Then he shouted “but brothers and sisters, we don’t find Zion customs weird right?” This was followed by everyone shouting “Amen!”
For about two months we only attended one of the three services held on Saturdays. I remember being surprised to find out that most members spent their entire Saturday, from about 9 am to 10 pm, in the church attending services and in between, studying the Bible, watching videos (usually about Zhang Gil Jah or disasters), or reading books written by Ahnsahnghong and others. I remember asking someone there why it was necessary to spend all of Saturday in the church. The “older sister” replied that “God commanded the Sabbath day not the Sabbath hour or one Sabbath service”. This topic would be touched upon during services as well. I remember one of the missionaries mentioning that members of strong faith don’t question the amount of time you are supposed to spend in the church on the Sabbath. I started to view these subliminal messages during services as ways to suggest feelings of guilt among members. I decided to keep my concerns about this to myself. It didn’t take long for the pressure to build, so we started attending two services on Saturdays.
Shortly after, I began receiving text messages on Fridays or Saturdays from the “older sister” assigned to watch over me, asking what time I would be there for service. My boyfriend would receive the same from one of the “older brothers” assigned to watch over his progress. This “buddy system” that I observed seemed increasingly odd as the frequency of the text messages increased to every day. I remember being at work and getting a text message that read something like “GBU sister, when do you think you will be coming to Zion to continue your Bible studies?” Again, I felt that this was more pressure to spend more time in the church.
Two months into my membership at the WMSCOG, my boyfriend did something that really hurt our relationship. I went to the pastor for guidance on the situation and he advised my boyfriend and I that it was not good to be together and that we should be with other people. He suggested that if we loved one another and wanted to be together, then we should get married. Despite how heartbroken I was, I forgave my boyfriend. Four months later we were engaged. Four weeks after that, we bought a foreclosed home that required a lot of construction. So between work, the construction, and planning the wedding that would take place four months later, we really didn’t have much free time. My now fiancé also worked part time a few nights per week. We were both completely overwhelmed but we continued to spend as much time in the church as possible.
After a while, Saturdays were not enough. We were pressured to return on Sundays too. The WMSCOG holds what they call a “preaching assembly” on Sunday mornings followed by recruiting for the rest of the afternoon. When members return, they typically spend more time in the church studying. Those members that were not experienced enough to go out recruiting would attend an approximately 6 hour long group study. There were also times when members would gather on Sunday evenings to watch movies that were determined by the WMSCOG to have some “spiritual” content.
And then there were the feasts during which members were required to attend services at 5 am and then again at 7:30 pm for sometimes 10 days at a time. I tried the 5 am services but it was nearly impossible for me considering that I normally went to bed around 2 am. So I would attend the 7:30pm services despite being exhausted after a long day at work.
During the first year of my membership at the WMSCOG, my family was quite concerned with the amount of time that I was spending at the church. I tried numerous times to get my family to join the church with me to no avail. I was initially disturbed by their resistance because I really believed in the WMSCOG’s claim that one could not be saved without their many requirements (Sabbath, Passover, other feasts, etc.). I was told by my “older sisters” not to worry and that God will make them come if I provide a good example for them to follow. I soon found myself feeling pressured to choose between the WMSCOG and my family. I remember telling my sister that I could not attend my nephew’s birthday party because it was on a Saturday. I dropped off a gift and went on my way to the church for the rest of the day. I regret this now. But this would only be the beginning of conflicts with my family due to my involvement with the WMSCOG.
The creeping time commitment is a big concern we hear from others who have loved ones in the WMSCOG. In part 3, we’ll learn of the astonishing Biblical contradiction and the surrounding events that led to our correspondent’s dramatic exit.
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We recently asked one of our correspondents from New Jersey to send us the story of her experience in the World Mission Society Church of God. What followed certainly did not disappoint. Following her through this five part journey, we learn how she was recruited, the questions that began to unravel her beliefs, an her final exit. Unfortunately, some of what she went through is not uncommon in stories we hear from other former members. Perhaps her experience is not unlike your own? Without further delay…
I first visited the World Mission Society Church of God in Ridgewood, NJ for the first time back in October of 2009 after being invited by two co-workers of mine. One of my co-workers told me that she had recently joined a church that she really enjoyed attending. My other co-worker, having been a member of the WMSCOG for three years, didn’t mention any details about the organization’s beliefs either. One day I asked my co-workers if I could visit the church with them. I was surprised that they suggested that we go that very night and offered to pick me up. I found this a bit strange because I expected that I would have to wait for a specific day to visit the church for a service or something.
I remember that it was a Monday night around 7:30 pm when I arrived at the WMSCOG with my two co-workers, not knowing what I was getting myself into. I was greeted by a few smiling faces at the front desk, which they call “admin”, and given an application to fill out. The application consisted of a few basic questions like what my religious background was and if there were any specific questions I had about God or the Bible. Then I was introduced to a missionary that would teach me my first Bible study lesson. The four of us went to a small room that had a dry erase board and a small table with a few chairs. My first lesson was about the Saturday Sabbath. Being somewhat of a conspiracy theorist, in about 30 minutes I was convinced that all of my life I had been deceived into going to church and worshiping the Lord on the wrong day! I was told that Constantine, a Roman Emperor, abolished the Sabbath and forced Christians to worship on Sunday and thus worship the pagan sun “god”. Then I was asked if I would like to do another study, so I said sure why not.
The missionary asked me if I thought that I was going to heaven. I answered that I hoped that I would be saved and allowed in to heaven. I mean I thought that I was generally a good person, no one is perfect, and I worked in a field where I helped people every day. She would soon prove me wrong. The missionary began to explain that humans were angels that had been kicked out of heaven for sinning against God. As we flipped back and forth through the Bible, which I admit I wasn’t very familiar with at this point in my life, I became convinced that I had committed a sin against God in heaven that afforded me the “death penalty” on earth. I found it strange that we continued flipping back and forth through the Bible, ignoring the context around any of the verses, but it somehow seemed to make sense at the time. So then the question was, what do I do in order to be saved and allowed into heaven? She explained that baptism was the first step and that despite having been baptized into a Catholic church as a child, that previous baptism did not count because Catholics worship on Sunday. After all, I had just learned that Sunday worship was really pagan sun “god” worship right?
Then the missionary asked me if I would like to get baptized. Since I was impressed with the way that I was able to “understand” the Bible all of the sudden, I agreed. I was then taken to another room down the hall where there was what looked like a large stand-in shower, given a robe-like top and shorts to wear, and asked to change. After I changed I was asked to kneel in the shower while a Deacon that I had never met poured water over my head and baptized me in the name of Jehovah, Jesus, and then another name I had never heard before. Since the Deacon was Caucasian, I had no idea that what he said was actually in Korean. While this was going on my friends were singing in the room with veils on their heads. I thought that this was weird but since my co-workers, who I had also befriended and trusted, seemed happy I didn’t think to ask.
After I changed back into my normal clothes, I was taken in to another room in the same hallway, to partake in the “Passover bread and wine”. I was shown a few verses in the Bible where Jesus said that we must eat his flesh and drink his blood in order to have eternal life. So I said to myself, “who doesn’t want eternal life?” and did as I was told. Then the Deacon brought out this huge book and asked me for my name, address, phone number and next to my info he wrote down the names of my two co-workers.
Next, I was told that after baptism they always take a picture of the new member. I jokingly said, “oh great after my hair is wet and make-up is smeared”. One of my co-workers told me not to worry, that I “looked great”, and that it was just for their records. I reluctantly agreed and let them take a polaroid of me.
As my co-workers and I were leaving, they asked when I would be returning to continue to study. I answered that I wasn’t sure because I was taking dance classes on some evenings during the week. I was told that I could return at any time during the week so I didn’t feel pressured to return right away.
We are very familiar with the studies concerning whether we were angels in heaven before. In fact, we have an entire section devoted to just that topic. The articles therein demonstrate how we were not angels in heaven before.
In part 2 of her story, we’ll learn how our friend slowly felt pressured to spend more and more time at the WMSCOG.
]]>This true story from one of our friends who is now an ex-member of the World Mission Society Church of God has been posted here with their permission. Here is our friend’s story in her own words:
I was raised Pentecostal/Apostolic and I was dating a guy from the World Mission Society Church of God. He has been a member of the WMSCOG for about 2 years now. He broke up with me because I would not convert to his religion. I just could not enter that church! I got such a strange and scary feeling the one time I got near it. The Saturday after we broke up his pastor arranged for him to marry a Korean member from the church because according to him, “she would help him grow spiritually“. I suspect that this was in order to get her US citizenship. I mean she barely speaks English. So he married her only one month after our break-up. After he got married I asked him if he loved her and he responded “god the mother will bless us”. I wouldn’t exactly take that as a yes.
I pray that he will wake up and open his eyes. I don’t know how likely the chances are of this happening now that he has married a devoted church member. The last few months haven’t been easy but I have prayed (to Jesus Christ) to give me the strength to move on. The Lord has blessed me since!
Are you a former member who would you like to share your story with us? Contact us, and let us know why you also left the WMSCOG.
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