Is there a heavenly mother?

Answer: The Bible does not teach the existence of a “heavenly mother.” God is the “heavenly Father”
(Luke 11:2). The church is pictured as a bride, loved by Christ (Ephesians 5:25-33).

The concept of a “heavenly mother” who is the “true” bride of Christ is taught by the World Mission
Society Church of God (WMSCOG or WMSCG), a Korean cult founded by Ahn Sahng-Hong in 1964. The
WMSCOG believes that Ahn Sahng-Hong was the second coming of Christ. When he died in 1985, his
“spiritual wife,” Zahng Gil-Jah, took over, calling herself the “heavenly mother” and citing verses such as
Revelation 21:9-10; 22:17; and Galatians 4:26.

Revelation 21:2 describes the New Jerusalem as a beautifully adorned bride. Verses 9-10 show that the
“wife of the Lamb” and the New Jerusalem are synonymous terms. Obviously, the New Jerusalem is a
city, not a person. A city is a group of people, not an individual; in this case, the city is the church, the
redeemed of the Lord living in God’s heavenly city. The Lamb’s “wife,” then, is figurative, not literal.

Galatians 4:26 says, “The Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother.” Taken by itself, this is
indeed a perplexing verse. However, the context makes the meaning plain. Paul is contrasting the Old
and New Covenants. As an illustration, he contrasts Hagar (Abraham’s slave) with Sarah (Abraham’s
wife). Hagar represents the bondage to the law, and her son, Ishmael, was a son of law and of bondage.
Sarah represents freedom, and her son, Isaac, was a son of promise and of freedom. Paul’s point is that
those “born” of Sinai (under the Old Covenant of law) are in bondage, whereas those “born” of the
heavenly Jerusalem (under the New Covenant of grace) are free. To paraphrase verse 26, “We, like
Isaac, are children of promise; we are not under the law; we are freeborn citizens of the heavenly city of
Christ.”

So, the “mother” in Galatians 4:26 is not a literal female personage. Rather, it is a symbolic
representation of the kingdom of Christ. Another passage that pictures the city of God and its
inhabitants as a mother and children is Isaiah 49:17-21. Anyone who proclaims herself the “heavenly
mother” or who claims to be the literal “bride of Christ” is practicing deceit.

The World Mission Society Church of God is absolutely a cult. Its “heavenly mother” heresy is just one of
its many false teachings.
World Mission Society Church of God

Creation

God the Father and God the Mother

created the heavens and the earth together

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Ge 1:1). From the first verse of the Bible in
the original Hebrew text, the word Elohim, the plural of God, appears about 2,500 times in the Bible.
The Creator of the heavens and the earth is not one God but Gods.

When making man, the Creator said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness” and created man
“in his own image, in the image of God . . . male and female he created them.” (Ge 1:26–27)

Why did God call Himself Us instead of Me? It is because not only the male image of God the Father but
also the female image of God the Mother exists. That is why the New Testament too testifies about the
spiritual Father and the spiritual Mother: “Our Father in heaven” (Mt 6:9); “Jerusalem that is above is
free, and she is our mother” (Gal 4:26).

God the Father and God the Mother had been together from the beginning, creating the heavens and
the earth and everything in them.

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea
and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along
the ground.”

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created
them.

Gen. 1:26~27

“This, then, is how you should pray: ” ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,

Matt. 6:9
Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother.

Gal 4:26

The Power of the Passover

The Passover: The feast that makes disasters pass over

Through the Passover, God freed the Israelites who were slaves in Egypt for 430 years.

The name of the Passover means that disasters pass over, and the date is the evening of the fourteenth
day of the first month by the sacred calendar (around March or April by the solar calendar). The
Israelites kept the Passover by putting the blood of the lamb on the sides and tops of the doorframes of
their houses as God commanded them when the last, tenth plague of killing the firstborns struck Egypt.

God said, “When I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you” (Ex 12:13),
and commanded them to “celebrate it [the Passover] as a festival to the LORD—a lasting ordinance” (Ex
12:14).

Thanks to God’s grace, the Israelites were protected from disasters and released from Egypt at last.
When Israel was divided into two kingdoms, Kingdom of Israel in the north, which did not keep the
Passover, was destroyed (2Ki 18:10–12); whereas Kingdom of Judah in the south, which kept the
Passover, was protected by God (2Ki 19:30–35; 2Ch 30:1–12) when Assyria attacked them.

Whichever age it is, when we keep the Passover, we can avoid disasters and our lives will be protected
by God’s promise and His mighty power.

“The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over
you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.”

Ex 12:13
“This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to
the LORD—a lasting ordinance.”

Ex 12:14

God Came as a Man

Jesus Christ proclaimed the new covenant

“The time is coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and
with the house of Judah . . . I will be their God, and they will be my people.”

Jer 31:31–33

God prophesied that when the time came He would make a new covenant.

To fulfill the promise, God came to the earth as a man named Jesus and established the new covenant
with the Passover. The Passover, the evening of the fourteenth day of the first month by the sacred
calendar, was one day before Jesus was sacrificed on the cross. To save mankind chained by sins and
death, Jesus promised the forgiveness of sins and eternal life through the Passover bread and wine that
represent God’s flesh and blood and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood.” (Mt 26:17–28; Lk
22:7–20; Jn 6:53–54)

“… My appointed time is near. I am going to celebrate the Passover with my disciples at your house.’ So
the disciples did as Jesus had directed them and prepared the Passover. …

While they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying,
“Take and eat; this is my body.” Then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, saying, “Drink
from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of
sins.

Matt. 26:17-26
Then came the day of Unleavened Bread on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. Jesus sent
Peter and John, saying, “Go and make preparations for us to eat the Passover.” …

And he said to them, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. …

And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body given for you;
do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is
the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.

Luke 22:7-20

Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood,
you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him
up at the last day.

John 6:53-54

Through His unimaginable pain and suffering and sacrifice on the cross, God opened the way of eternal
life to mankind, who has become slaves to death. Now, people who were doomed to die can go forward
to the eternal kingdom of heaven when they keep the Passover of the new covenant.

The Last Supper, a mural painting by Leonardo da Vinci, depicts the Passover celebrated by Jesus Christ
and His twelve disciples including Peter and John. The precious truth of the New Covenant Passover had
been observed until the Apostolic Age by people like Apostle Paul even after the death of Christ (1Co
5:7).

Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast—as you really are. For Christ, our
Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Therefore let us keep the Festival…

1Co 5:7–8

Following the example of Jesus, the early Church kept holy the seven feasts in three times: the Passover,
the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Day of Firstfruits, the Feast of Weeks, the Feast of Trumpets, the
Day of Atonement, and the Feast of Tabernacles.
Each feast contains God’s blessings—eternal life, forgiveness of sins, resurrection, and the Holy Spirit,
and so on.

Dark Ages

God’s feasts and commands were changed

When the apostles and the members of the early Church died, the Church became secularized and the
Passover of the new covenant disappeared.

At the Council of Nicaea in A.D. 325, the Passover was abolished. People no longer kept the seven feasts
in three times in the Bible. Also, they changed the seventh-day Sabbath, the weekly feast on Saturday,
into Sunday.

For a long time of 1,600 years, while passing through the Dark Ages and the Reformation Era, mankind
lost the path to eternal life. Nobody could find the way.

It is because only God can give us eternal life (1Ti 6:16) and only God can restore the truth of life—the
Passover of the new covenant.

Second Coming Christ Ahnsahnghong

Restoration of the new covenant according to the prophecies of the Bible

… so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time,
not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.

Heb. 9:28

To save mankind, God came to the earth in the flesh a second time, following the prophecies of the
Bible.
Christ Ahnsahnghong humbly served us, sacrificing Himself for our salvation just as He did at His first
coming. He restored the Passover of the new covenant, which nobody had realized, to open the way of
eternal life for which all people yearn.

As it is written in the Bible, “The Most High himself will establish Zion” (Ps 87:5), He established Zion the
city of God’s feasts (Isa 33:20–).

That is the Church of God, which keeps the teachings of the Bible including the Passover of the new
covenant just as the early Church did.

Every year, the Churches of God in 175 countries celebrate the Passover. After the foot-washing
ceremony according to the example of Jesus Christ (Jn 13:1–15), we have the Holy Supper ceremony by
eating and drinking blessed bread and wine.

The Church of God preaches the truth of life to the world, wanting all seven billion people to keep the
Passover of the new covenant and become God’s children so that they can be protected from disasters
and receive eternal life.

God the Mother, the Source of the Water of Life

If you want to be saved,

you must meet God the Mother.

The last chapter of the Bible prophesies that the Spirit and the Bride—God the Father and God the
Mother—will lead mankind to salvation.

The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let him who hears say, “Come!” Whoever is thirsty, let him
come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life.

Rev 22:17
These words mean that God the Father and God the Mother, the Creators of heavens and the earth in
the beginning, come as human beings and give people the water of life so that they may have eternal
life and happiness. As it is written, “Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother” (Gal 4:26),
God the Mother, who is represented as the wife of the Lamb (Rev 19:7) and Heavenly Jerusalem (Rev
21:9), stays with us and guides us to salvation with the teachings of love and sacrifice. All living things
like animals, birds, fish, and humans receive life through their mothers. God’s providence is for us to
receive eternal life from Mother of our spirits.

The earthly family system, which consists of a father, a mother, and their children, is a copy and shadow
of the heavenly family, which consists of God the Father, God the Mother, and God’s children. Just as
there is a family, the community of love, on the earth, there is the spiritual family, the community of
eternal love, in heaven. That is why the Church of God cherishes families and earnestly hopes that all
families in the world may belong to the heavenly family.

We hope all people to come to God the Mother and receive heartwarming comfort and rest.

“Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.” And he . . . showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem,
coming down out of heaven from God.

Rev 21:9–10

Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother.

Gal 4:26

Heaven, Eternal Home

Spiritual Home Where God the Father,

God the Mother, and God’s Children Are Together

Before we were born in this world, we were angels in the kingdom of heaven (Job 38:1–7; Pr 8:22–30).
Heaven is our spiritual home where we can stay with God the Father and God the Mother, and our
brothers and sisters. However, we sinned in heaven and were expelled to this earth, and are living
through pain, sorrow, and sufferings.

If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return.
Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one.

Heb 11:15

God the Father and God the Mother earnestly wait for people to realize the truth of God, get born again
with repentance, and participate in the divine nature so that they can come back to the beautiful
kingdom of heaven. The eternal kingdom of heaven, where the water of life as clear as crystal flows and
the tree of life bears twelve crops, where there is no end in joy and happiness! Father and Mother are
preparing it for us.

“No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love
him.”

1Co 2:9

The Church of God preaches the good news of salvation to every corner of the earth, hoping that
everyone in the global village will realize the love of God the Father and God the Mother, become the
heavenly family member, and enjoy everlasting glory in heaven.