Ahn Sahng-hong

Ahn Sahng-hong was a South Korean Christian minister and founder of the Church of God Jesus Witnesses. He was born on January 13, 1918, in a small rural village in North Jeolla Province, at a time when Korea was under Japanese rule. His parents were Buddhists, and he followed their religion until he was baptized by a Seventh-day Adventist priest in 1948. He began to study the Bible and call for the restoration of the truth of the New Testament and the last religious reformation. He claimed to receive revelations from God and to fulfill the prophecies of the Second Coming of Christ. He was excommunicated from the SDA church in 1962 for his teachings and claims. He established his own church, the Witnesses of Jesus Church of God, in Busan in 1964. He wrote several books and pamphlets to explain his doctrines and to criticize the Catholic and Protestant churches for their non-biblical practices. He advocated the observance of the Sabbath and the seven festivals of God, including the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which he believed were abolished by Satan. He also taught that women should wear veils during worship, that baptism is the first step to salvation, and that crosses are a form of idolatry. He died of a stroke on February 25, 1985, at the Maryknoll Hospital in Busan. He was buried at the Seokgye Cemetery in Yangsan, next to his wife Hwang Won-sun, whom he married in 1958 and had three children with. After his death, his church split into two factions: the New Covenant Passover Church of God, which sees him as a teacher, and the World Mission Society Church of God, which sees him as God. The latter group also believes that he was spiritually married to another woman, Zahng Gil-jah, whom they regard as God the Mother.