Have You Heard of God the Mother?
The question may come on a campus walk or at your apartment door: “Have you ever heard of God the Mother?” (The Oberlin Review, 2018). The person asking is polite and has a Bible open. Within minutes you may be shown Let us make man (Genesis 1:26), the Spirit and the bride (Revelation 22:17), and a verse from Paul about a mother above.
The person belongs to the World Mission Society Church of God, a movement from South Korea that often calls itself simply the Church of God. It has no tie to the many unrelated churches that use that name. It reports “4 million” registered members in 175 countries (watv.org, 2025), a figure we cannot check. Its members give long hours, its volunteer work has won awards in the United States and Britain, and most of its American members are not Korean (Massimo Introvigne and Holly Folk, World Religions and Spirituality Project, 2017).
Many people first hear only about a Mother in heaven. The teaching goes further: God the Mother has come to earth as a living woman, and the group's founder, who died in 1985, was Jesus returned. Its own history page says, “If you want to be saved, you must recognize God the Mother.”
We regard this teaching as a cult in the sense defined in What Is a Cult?: it preaches another Jesus, another spirit, and another gospel (2 Corinthians 11:4). The group says, “The Bible is the only standard of judgment,” so we will weigh it there. The word is a theological category, never an insult, and no verdict on any member's heart. Christ died for the person at your door, and we wrestle not against flesh and blood (Ephesians 6:12).
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For Deeper Study
- Our Mother Who Art Not in HeavenJ. Quinton FribergA Christian critique of the group's teaching, recommended in Faith Today by the apologist Steve Matthews.
- The Forgotten TrinityAmazon James R. WhiteA clear explanation of the Trinity from Scripture, written for church members. Reformed Baptist; we differ on election.
- The Revelation of Jesus ChristAmazon John F. WalvoordA verse-by-verse commentary, including the bride and the holy city. Dispensational, premillennial, and pretribulational.
- The Mystery of God and the Spring of the Water of LifeAhn Sahng-hongA primary source, by the founder. The group's sites are free to read. Read what your friend actually believes before you answer it.
- Foxe's Book of MartyrsAmazon John FoxeThe classic Protestant record of those who died for the faith, from the early church to the English Reformation.
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What Is a Cult?
A cult, as this section uses the word, is a group that uses Christian words while denying the Gospel or the God it reveals, preaching another Jesus, another spirit, or another gospel.
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