Vietnam’s Church of God Followers Ordered to Recant Faith

The members of the Christian group have been under state monitoring since 2018

The police in a central province of Vietnam has ordered followers of the Church of God, a Christian movement that originated in South Korea, to stop practicing the “illegal religion.”

In a statement on March 6, the police at Cam Ha Commune in Quang Nam said they inspected a local village house and found six women and four men illegally carrying out a ceremony as followers of the banned faith, Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported on March 7.

During the raid, police seized a laptop, three computer speakers, 10 bibles, five notebooks, 14 white sheets, and a podium.

The movement has been under government surveillance since April 2018, when the state-run religious affairs committee asked central and local authorities to monitor the Church of God, officially known as the World Mission Society Church of God.

The movement started in South Korea in 1964 by Ahn Sahng-hong. His followers believe him to be Christ. It has more than 3.3 million members in 7,500 churches in 175 countries, according to its website.

Communist-ruled Vietnam's law requires religious groups to register their organizations and places of worship.

Only organizations that have operated for at least five years can apply for registration. Once registered, the organizations are granted status as legal entities. Many groups refused to register out of fear of persecution or concern for their independence, RFA reported.

International Christian rights group, Open Doors, ranks Vietnam 25th among 50 countries where Christians face various forms of persecution.

Sounds like a pseudo-Christian religion:

The church believes in God the Father and God the Mother,[18] claiming to be restoring the truth and practices of the early Church.[9] The church also believes that co-founder Zahng Gil-jah is God the Mother, as taught by the founder Ahn Sahng-hong.[19]

According to the church’s interpretation of Exodus 20:4, items such as crosses and statues are considered a form of idolatry and are not erected on or in their churches.[24] The Church has likewise removed stained glass windows from existing churches, as images made of light are seen as being connected to sun worship.[1]

The World Mission Society Church of God holds many views differing from mainstream Christianity. The church says it observes holy days according to the dates of the sacred calendar in the Old Testament as the early church did in the time of Jesus.[33] They also believe that God the Father and God the Mother have come in the flesh in South Korea, according to Bible prophesies. These beliefs have attracted some criticism of the church. The church teaches that this is the same persecution that the early Christians received for believing in Jesus in the flesh at his first coming.[34]

Responding to an inquiry, the WMSCOG issued a statement that “the biggest difference between our Church and other churches” is that “we believe in God the Mother as well as God the Father. (…) According to the prophecies of the Bible, God the Mother is to appear in the last age of redemption.”[26]

The deification of Ahn Sahng-hong and Zahng Gil-jah has been “harshly criticized,”[13] and has led to the church being officially condemned by the National Council of Churches in Korea as an interdenominationally combatted, blasphemous, heretical cult.[35] The Christian Council of Korea, which represents Protestant churches in South Korea, has denounced the WMSCOG as “heretical.”[6][30]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Mission_Society_Church_of_God

I ran into a member of this cult in a Houston suburb a few years ago. They were going door-to-door in an apartment spreading the message that everybody has heard of God-the-Father, but they wanted to tell people about God-the-mother.

Had a long talk walking them through the Bible (which they claimed to believe). They said they wanted to have further discussions but chickened out when I followed up. They don’t know the Bible at all and are just a cult.

It’s not religious persecution to be sure that cult leaders are not endangering the congregants, especially children. This one is likely to end like the Jim Jones cult did.

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