The World Mission Society Church of God is a new religious movement established by Ahn Sahng-hong in South Korea in 1964.

[20][21][22] In his 1980 book The Mystery of God and the Spring of the Water of Life, Ahn Sahng-hong predicted that the world would end in 1988, 40 years after the independence of Israel in 1948, citing Matthew 24:32–34.

[26][27]: 342 [28]: 494 According to Korean Christian heresy researchers, members of the church gathered on a mountain in Sojeong-myeon, Yeongi County, South Chungcheong Province, to prepare for the coming of Christ Ahn Sahng-hong and the salvation of 144,000 souls.

He referred to 1988 as a prophetic moment where the bridegroom's coming might be delayed[33]: 35  and compared this to Jonah's prophecy that Nineveh would be overthrown in forty days, which did not occur.

They believe that Ahn Sahng-hong restored the truth of the early Church and fulfilled the biblical prophecies about the Second Coming of Christ including the time and place.

[45][39] They also cite Polycrates and Polycarp, known as the Quartodecimans, as the basis for the early church's practice of keeping the Lord's Supper on Passover.

They claim December 25th did not originate from the Bible, but rather from the Roman festival of Sol Invictus (the Unconquered Sun), coinciding with the winter solstice.

[citation needed] The D.C. government ruled that the church had created a conflict between preservation laws and its religious freedom by failing to conduct due diligence before purchasing the building.

[63] Some ex-members have described the group's recruiting efforts as very aggressive, saying that it target vulnerable people, especially those going through a major life transition or with a void in their lives.

A church member at the University of Memphis mentioned that there had been no issues about spreading messages for years and believed the actions were a result of false allegations on social media.

The article also reported claims from an anonymous female former member, who claimed that members were expected to follow strict rules, such as separating themselves from social media and non-church friends, attending masses and recruitment sessions, tithing ten percent of their income, avoiding wearing jeans, rejecting music and masturbation, and losing weight to fit Korean beauty standards.

[74] They reported that members had been threatened, faced murder threats, pepper spray attacks, and harassing phone calls.

She claimed that the group recruits people undergoing life transitions or feeling a void, exploiting this vulnerability to draw them in.

She said that the church manipulates members with "fear and guilt" and constant repetition, and that it "micromanaged" her life, including controlling her music choices and forbidding internet use.

Instead, most members expected to gain personally by portraying the Church as a harmful cult and filing collective damage lawsuits.

[93] Additionally, he alleged that the group pressured members to stage fake divorces to depict the Church as a family-destroying cult.

[95] After the former member’s declarations, Hapimo sued him for defamation, but the court ruled that his claims about the group’s activities were not proven false.

Ross says that members often are sent to group housing and shared apartments, becoming isolated and alienated from family and friends, even spouses and adult children.

Ross notes the group, which recruits members on university campuses, at malls and other shopping sites, has no meaningful accountability for leadership—a "dictatorship in Korea"—nor for the millions in revenue it receives.

[97] The World Mission Society Church of God is one of many controversial and globalized grassroots Christian new religious movements that emerged in South Korea and has experienced rapid growth over the past 20 years since the 2000s.

[99][100][5][70] A heresy expert of the Christian Council of Korea was found guilty by the courts of attempting to forcibly convert members of the World Mission Society Church of God, thereby violating their human rights and religious freedom.

[101] Pastor Jin, vice chairman of the Christian Council of Korea's Countermeasure Committee against Heresy and an editor at 'Modern Religion', confined members of the church in attics or prayer rooms and conducted forced conversion sessions.

Shin Hye-sook, director of the Women's Cultural Center, criticized the actions, stating that using violence against people of different religions indicates a lack of basic religious qualities.

The Korean courts ruled that "the collective petitions from religious organizations and nearby residents are merely personal and subjective evaluations of this church and cannot be seen as objective evidence that this religion causes harm.

Major South Korean media outlets reported suspicions of religious bias by the mayor of Wonju City regarding the rejection.

[114][115] The World Mission Society Church of God considered filing an administrative lawsuit against the Wonju city government.

[118] In 2018, the Vietnamese Committee for Religious Affairs warned against the World Mission Society Church of God, describing it as cult-like.

The government accused the group of deceptive recruitment, manipulative indoctrination, doomsday predictions, urging cash donations, and encouraging members to abandon their families.

Le Ngoc Thanh, a Redemptorist priest in Saigon, said he was afraid that the propaganda campaign against the World Mission Society Church of God was designed to create tensions between religious and non-religious people.

[120] Vietnam's independent media outlet, IJAVN reported that "the Ministry of Home Affairs recently requested local authorities to disband and revoke licenses for religious groups associated with the 'Church of God' and 'Heavenly Mother' focus, preventing these organizations from regrouping and forming new centers of activity.