Old Apostolic Church

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Old Apostolic Church (Alt-Apostolische Kirche), on Afrikaans Ou Apostoliese Kerk, is a Christian religious community.

Emergence

The founder of the Old Apostolic Church was Carl Georg Klibbe, who was born in Pomerania (Germany) and was originally a Lutheran pastor. He emigrated to Scotland and later to Australia, where he was sealed in the Apostolic Church of Queensland , which at the time was in contact with the German congregations of the General Christian Apostolic Mission Associations around Menkhoff, Krebs, Obst and Ruff. From there, Klibbe was singled out by Apostle Heinrich F. Niemeyer in 1889, first as an evangelist and later as an apostle for South Africa. He spoke only German and began his work among the German immigrants around Cape Town and Worcester (Western Cape Province), initially with no results. In order to be able to work in the German branch in Berlin, about sixty kilometers from East London, he moved to East London, where the first church was founded in 1892.

Conflicts with Chief Apostle Niehaus

When Niemeyer and later Klibbe had problems with Hermann Niehaus , who was then Chief Apostle of the New Apostolic Church , in 1913 Niehaus appointed a “counter” apostle for Klibbe. This was Wilhelm Schlaphoff. (Another view is that there was a misunderstanding because Klibbe had a ship accident after an apostle meeting in Germany and was considered drowned. However, he had taken another ship, was alive and Schlaphoff refused to give up his apostolic office again.)

After Klibbe's expulsion, he initially continued to work under the name “New Apostolic Church”. In 1926, however, Schlaphoff won a lawsuit that obliged Klibbe to refrain from using this church name. He then renamed the church he founded in 1927 to the Old Apostolic Church of Africa, which had more than one million members when he died in 1931. When Schlaphoff died in 1928, the New Apostolic Congregation numbered 39 congregations. The exact history of its origins is largely unclear, as Apostle Klibbe is also proclaimed the founder of part of the Apostolic Church of South Africa - Apostle Unity (see there).

Teaching

The Old Apostolic Church (Altapostolic Church) consists of the four basic pillars, apostleship, breaking bread, prayer and community.

The articles of her creed are based on the Bible.

The Old Apostolic Church proclaims the "already completed return of Jesus Christ". Christ has come again through the body of Jesus Christ, which is formed by all brothers and sisters who are born again through baptism and sealing. Christ has come again, his way and his actions and actions should be revealed in people. According to Galatians 2: 20-21 LUT, the essence of Christ should be born in every person . People don't need to expect Christ to come again, Christ wants to work and create through people.

The Old Apostolic Church does not consider the "natural names and designations of the churches" to be decisive, but rather the statement of faith.

Todays situation

The current membership is estimated at around 2.5 million, the majority of which are in South Africa. Other areas of the church with congregations are the following countries: Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Zambia, Malawi, Namibia, Angola, Australia, New Zealand as well as in the Netherlands, Great Britain, Ireland, the United States of America, Canada and Germany. In the Netherlands the church is administered by the elder Ronald Looij. In Botswana alone, 32 new church buildings have been erected in the 29 years since the church was officially registered in 1974.

In Germany, the Old Apostolic Church was founded in August 2006 by apostles who left the Apostle ministry of Jesus Christ . In July 2007 they joined the Old Apostolic Church.

The Old Apostolic Church sees itself as a church that is faithful to the Bible . The old King James Bible and the Luther Bible from 1912 are used because their text is closest to the original Hebrew text (cf. Revelation 22: 18-19 LUT ).

The church is independent and has nothing to do with the South African Apostolic Church of South Africa - Apostle Unity, which is a member of the Association of Apostolic Congregations.

Spin-offs

There is also a split from this community under the name Reformed Old Apostolic Church under the leadership of Apostles SJ Solomon, MN Mdlalo and RR Solomon. There appears to be another split called the Reformed Apostolic Church , led by Apostle Freddie Isaacs and 7 other Apostles, but only a few articles are found in South African newspapers.

Web links