Ahn Sahng-hong, the founder of COGJW.
His Baptism Year Is 1954, Isn’t It?
Ahn Sang-hong was baptized at the Seventh-day Adventist Church and lived a religious life. And he was expelled from the SDA Church in March 1962. This is a well-known story.
Through his booklet, “The Letter to Laodicea Church”(1968, 4th Edition), Ahn Sang-hong left a clear evidence that he belonged to the SDA Church located in Jaesong-dong, Dongrae-gu, Pusan. He cited a sermon which was preached on February 3, 1956 in the Jaesong-dong church.
The Letter to Laodicea Church, Ahn Sahng-hong wrote that he had attended a sacred meeting of the SDA Church located in Jaesong-dong Dongrae-gu Pusan on Feb. 3, 1956.
However, when Ahn Sang-hong was expelled from the SDA Church around March 1962, he was not a member of the Jaesong-dong Church. The church that expelled him was the Haeundae Church. It is estimated that he moved his attendance from the Jaesong-dong Church to the Haeundae Church around 1957.
According to the historical data of the SDA Church, the Jaesong-dong Church was established around 1920 as a area church of the Korean SDA Church. As the church grew, they established the other area churches in Sooyoung-gu in 1954 and Haeundae-gu in 1955. Because Ahn Sang-hong lived in Unchon Village which was located near to the Haeundae Church, it seemed that he began to attend the Haeundae Church after some time when the Haeundae Church was opened.
SDA Jaesong-dong Church, Haeundae-ro 319, Haeundae-gu, Pusan, Jaesong-dong changed from Dongnae-gu to Haeundae-gu in 1980.
SDA Haeundae Church, Udong-1-ro 127, Haeundae-gu, Pusan
According to the historical materials of the SDA Church, the record of Ahn Sahng-hong can be found in the Haeundae Church’s membership directory. Haeundae Church, which was branched out from Jaesong-dong Church around 1955, reorganized its membership list around July 1958. The record of Ahn Sahng-Hong is confirmed in the Haeundae Church membership list, which was begun to record in 1958.
Photo taken as evidence inside the SDA Church in Haeundae, Can see the book of membership directory on the sermon table.
The original book of membership list which was begun to record in 1958. Can see the Korean letter, ‘Nock-Myung-Chaek’ which means ‘Book of List’
The book of membership list of the Haeundae Church is officially called ‘Nock-Myung-Chaek’ which means the book of list. The problem is that WMSCOG and NCPCOG misunderstand the ‘Nock-Myung-Chaek’ as the book of life of their church. As you know, they have the book of life which is the baptism list, and the list has been recorded in the order of baptism. As a result, they claim that the record in the book above is not reliable, because the list of the Haeundae Church has not been recorded in the order of baptism. You have to know, however, that the list of Haeundae Church is not the baptism list, but just the membership list.
Haeundae Church created the list in 1958, after the separation from Jaesong-dong Church in 1955. It was a book of list that recorded the members who belonged to Haeundae Church on that time. Of course some of them might be new comers who had been baptised since 1955, but most of them were the members who had been transferred from the Jaesong-dong Church. So the book of membership list is independent of the order of baptism.
When you open the first page of the book, there are five things to note when recording this list.
Notes are as follows. 1. Contents once recorded cannot be corrected without permission. 2. The record shall be permanently preserved. 3. The new member shall be recorded immediately. 4. In case of transfer, the record shall be transffered together. 5. If a member is expelled or dead, the date and its reason shall be recorded immediately.
According to the record of the book above, you can see that Haeundae Church began to organize the membership list on July 18, 1958. When the first record was started, it was written in a mixed state of church members who moved from Jaesong-dong Church at the same time in 1955 and those who moved from other regions for the next three years. Therefore, regardless of the order in which they were baptized, the list of members was randomly created.
Can see ‘On July 18, 1958’, which is written before recording the list from No 1 member. It means that the record started in 1958 even though the church separated in 1955.
Of course, members who moved in after July 18, 1958, would have recorded in the order of transfer. Likewise, if a new baptism occurred on or after July 18, 1958, it would have been recorded in the order of baptism since then.
Anyway, the book of list of Haeundae Church is a list of members who recorded regardless of whether they were transferred from another local church or newly baptized. Therefore, in case of the movement from other area church, even if the mover is recorded after a newly baptized person, the date of baptism of the mover can be far ahead.
In the case of Ahn Sang-hong, it was presumed to have been moved from Jaesong-dong Church to Haeundae Church around 1957, so it was mixed with those who moved in before or after, so it was recorded regardless of the order of baptism.
This book has a way of writing from the right to the left. The above is a copy of the first page which has the list of seven members, No.1 to No. 7.
The above is a copy of the second page which has the list of fifteen members, No. 8 to No. 22. Seven members on the right, eight members on the left.
The above is a copy of the third page which has the list of next fifteen members, No. 23 to No. 37. Seven members on the right, eight members on the left. Ahn Sahng-hong is recorded on No. 23. Ahn Sang-hong’s wife, Kim Um-jeon, is recorded on number 29.
According to the book of membership list of Haeundae Church, Ahn Sahng-hong was baptized by Rev. Seok-young Kim of the SDA Church in Jaesong-dong, Dongrae-gu, Pusan on October 9, 1954, and then he moved to Haeundae Church around 1957. Then, on March 31, 1962, he was removed from the membership of Haeundae Church after making a new claim that the feasts such as Passover were to be observed.
In the photo below, Ahn Sahng-hong is recorded as the 23rd in this book, and Ahn Sang-hong’s wife, Kim Um-jeon, is recorded as the 29th. Kim Um-jeon was born on March 30, 1924 in Gyeongsangnam-do, and was recorded as being baptized by Lev. Seok-young Kim on the same day as Ahn Sahng-hong on October 9, 1954. Kim Um-jeon was the first wife of Ahn Sahng-hong.
According to this book, Ahn Sahng-hong was born in Gyeongsangnam-do on January 13, 1917. All the years recorded in this book are based on the Dan-gun era. To make the Dan-gun era into AD, need to subtract 2333. The Dan-gun era 4250 is 1917 AD.
The above is a record about Ahn’s birth. He was born in Kyeongnam-do, on Jan. 13, 1917 that is the Dan-gun era 4250.
Ahn Sahng-Hong was removed from the membership list of Haeundae Church on March 31, 1962 (Dan-gun era 4295), and the reason for the removal was recorded as a factionalist. You can see that he was expelled while insisting that the feasts such as Passover should be observed within the SDA Church.
The person who baptized Ahn Sang-hong was Pastor Kim Seok-young. According to the historical data of the Korean SDA Church, it was said that he had been the pastor of the Jaesongdong Church from around 1950. It was written that Ahn Sahng-hong was baptised on October 9, 1954 AD (Dan-gun era 4287) by Lev. Kim Seok-young.
This is a record of Ahn Sahng-hong’s baptism. Pastor Seok-Young Kim was an officiator, the date was recorded as Oct. 9, 1954 AD, Dan-gun era 4287.
This is the record about Ahn’s expulsion. The date of expulsion was recorded as Mar. 31, 1962 AD (Dan-gun era 4295) and the reason was due to his claim for the feasts.
The book of membership list of Haeundae Church, which is shown in the above photos, is the original book itself. You could confirm that it has the whole record that the church has made on the book since 1958. The church began to make a record four years before the expulsion of Ahn Sahng-hong. Therefore, it is impossible to claim that the Baptism date was manipulated four years before being expelled to condemn Ahn Sahng-hong.
As you know, WMSCOG and NCPCOG claims that Ahn Sahng-hong was baptized by Pastor Lee Myung-deok on Nakseom, Incheon on December 16, 1948. It is more reasonable to believe that they are manipulating Ahn’s baptism date and stitching him to the David’s throne prophecy.
The Korean SDA Church officially announced that Lee Myong-deok is not identified in the list of SDA Church. Lee Myong-deok is just like a ghost figure created by WMSCOG or NCPCOG. It is only possible to guess whether they named the ghost after his birthplace Myeongdeok-ri, Jangsu-gun, Jeollanam-do.
In addition, we have to think that Haeundae Church has taken over the records of Jaesong-dong Church, because he was a member of the Jaesong-dong Church before the Haeundae Church was separated from Jaesong-dong Church. The baptismal year or date can not be mistaken in the situation that members knew each other. Even if the church officer asked Ahn Sahng-hong the date of baptism, we couldn’t imagine that Ahn Sahng-hong gave the wrong information to the church. There was no reason that Ahn lied to the church.
The book of list of Haeundae Church has been maintained since 1958 until now. Even in the case that some error is found in the middle, it cannot be corrected without care. When needed some correction, they couldn’t correct it by cutting. They have to correct the error by the way that the original record can be checked even after the correction. It is a book that cannot be manipulated because traces of all records remain. The records about Ahn Sahng-hong, who was baptized in 1954 by Kim Seok-young, was written in 1958 and has been preserved so far. It must be regarded as the most reliable evidence.
Baptism date and year of Ahn Sahng-hong’s has been confirmed with data and evidence so clearly. Nevertheless, WMSCOG and NCPCOG is deifying Ahn Sang-Hong as God. Moreover, they are lying about his baptism date and year to rationalize their errors.
First of all, Um Soo-in published a book titled “God in the flesh” in 1977, and she arbitrarily interpreted the David throne prophecy and claimed that Ahn Sang-hong was the Second Coming Christ. Um Soo-in said that Ahn Sang-hong was baptized in 1951 and must ascend with 144,000 in 1988 after 37 years of his gospel preaching to fulfill the prophecy of the throne of David. Um Soo-in was the first guy to attempt to make Ahn Sahng-hong as Second Coming Christ by manipulating his baptism year from 1954 into 1951.
If you want to know more about Um Soo-in’s argument, please refer to the two articles below.
http://blog.naver.com/ceongkim/221973959847 – 엄수인의 최초주장 “육체로 오신 하나님”
http://blog.naver.com/ceongkim/221982634293 – 엄수인 책자, “육체로 오시는 하나님” 전면 공개
In fact, according to the testimony of several people, even until February 1985, the Seoul Church (Jang Gil-ja/Kim Joo-cheol) actively conveyed the apocalyptic theory of 1988 which was the same teaching of Um Soo-in’s claims. However, in February 1985, Ahn Sahng-hong died suddenly. Then Jang Gil-ja and Kim Joo-cheol began to insist that Ahn Sahng-hong was baptized in 1948. In order to make their former claims to be true, they were needed to justify Ahn’s death by teaching that the 37th year of King David’s throne was completed in 1985 through his sudden death.
However, the biblical prophecy of the throne of David cannot be interpreted as 37 years, and even if it is so interpreted, it does not match Ahn’s baptized year. Because his baptized year is not 1948, but 1954.
Those who want to see how the throne of David’s prophecy was distorted by WMSCOG, please take a look at some of the following articles.
http://www.cogjw.kr/david-english/ Apostle Peter’s interpretation of the prophecy of the throne of David
http://www.cogjw.kr/david-peter-paul-english/ Peter and the Apostle Paul’s Teachings about the Prophecy of King David