Apostle ministry of Judah

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The Apostle Ministry of Judah (AJ), also known as the Community of Divine Socialism - Apostle Ministry of Judah , is a Christian religious community that belongs to the denomination group of the apostolic communities . It arose in Germany through the exclusion of District Elder Julius Fischer from the New Apostolic Church in 1902 . The reason were doctrinal differences from the return of Christ .

Origin and history

The Apostolic in Germany - a simplified overview

Julius Fischer (1867–1923), originally an inland boatman, had become a member of the New Apostolic Church in 1896 (in the tribe of Efraïm under Chief Apostle Krebs). Through his work, he was able to quickly found several parishes in and around his place of residence, Zehdenick , and was appointed district elder. In 1901 he came into conflict with the Berlin church leadership when he represented his fundamentally different views of the second coming of Christ, which he believed had already taken place in the flesh of the apostles . In early 1902, Fischer was excommunicated by cancer, but a sizable number of the parishioners entrusted to him remained loyal to him. He continued to hold meetings and in the evening service of May 2, 1902, the “prophet” Schröder uttered a prophecy addressed to Fischer: “And you are the young lion from Judah, who is to break the 7 seals.” ( Rev 5.5  EU ) Fischer saw this as his calling to be an apostle in Judah . The community founded by Fischer was subsequently given the same name as the Apostle Ministry of Judah . Several followers are said to have reported after this service that they saw the risen Christ personally as a figure of light who had blessed Fischer, standing behind him, and donated the Holy Spirit.

From then on, May 2, 1902, was the day the new congregation was established. Fischer succeeded in acquiring a considerable number of friends for his community in Silesia , so that before the First World War he was able to divide the apostolic office of Judah into six tribes. He put a Chief Apostle at the head of each tribe . The end of the war brought a new period of prosperity to the community. Fischer edited his book Truth Science and the monthly magazine Truth Science - The Revolution in the Mental Field . The number of Chief Apostles rose to the biblical number of twelve.

However, conflicts soon arose because several of these apostles, the numerically significant tribes, recognized fishermen as apostles in Judah not as superior, but only as apostles with equal rights. In 1921 Gustav Rhode separated from Fischer, who, along with his followers, called himself Johannes Apostelamt . In 1922 Bruno Zielonkowski followed with the apostle ministry of Jesus Christ , which was not identical to the religious community of the same name that still exists today.

In the same year, Fischer raised the skipper Adolf Tschach (1891–1981) to Apostle Bishop and later designated him as his successor, but some of the officials did not agree with the appointment. After Fischer's death on March 2, 1923, several apostles and ministers separated from Tschach, who was only 31 years old. By far the most important group was formed around the apostle Simeon (Hermann Krüger), who has been called the Apostle Ministry of Jesus Christ since 1947 .

The remaining community under Tschach was now called the Community of Divine Socialism - Apostle Ministry of Juda and was entered under this name in the Berlin-Mitte register of associations in 1924 . During the Third Reich , in February 1936, the Ruben tribe banned part of the apostolic office of Judah by the Gestapo , and in order to forestall further repression measures , Tschach then formally dissolved the religious community, and the apostolic office of Judah continued to exist illegally.

After 1945 the apostolic office of Judah resumed its activities, but the community stagnated, not least because the most flourishing tribes that had been in Silesia no longer existed. Tschach's successors were Walter Burkert (1923–1987), Heinrich Matschenz (1930–2017) and then to this day Dieter Titze (* 1959) in the office of Apostle Judah.

In 1964, the size was estimated at about 3000 members, which were particularly in Berlin and in the Mark Brandenburg . The number of members is said to be well below 3000 today.

Offices and teaching

In the apostolic office of Judah, as in several other apostolic communities, the fourfold office of apostle , prophet , evangelist and shepherd is active. The offices of bishop , elder , priest , deacon and sub-deacon are also known. The officials work on a voluntary basis . The traditional core principle of the doctrine is the presence of God in the flesh of the respective apostle in Judah , which is why the Bible is only of subordinate value.

bibliography

  • Heinrich Matschenz: Second Coming of Christ on May 2, 1902 in the apostolic office of Judah ; (Hubert W. Holzinger Verlag)
  • Heinrich Matschenz: Light of God in the Apostle Ministry of Juda ; (Hubert W. Holzinger Verlag)
  • Heinrich Matschenz: 100 years of apostolic office in Judah ; (Hubert W. Holzinger Verlag)
  • Helmut Obst : Apostles and prophets of the modern age . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen. ISBN 3-525-55438-9
  • Helmut Obst: New Apostolic Church - the exclusive end-time church? ; [S. 82-110] (RAT, vol. 8); (Friedrich Bahn Verlag) Neukirchen-Vluyn, 1996. ISBN 3-7615-4945-8
  • Horst Reller (Ed. For the VELKD working group on behalf of the Lutheran Church Office): Handbook of Religious Communities. Free churches, special communities, sects, ideological communities, new religions. 2nd Edition. Gütersloher Verlagshaus Gerd Mohn, Gütersloh 1979, ISBN 3-579-03585-1 .

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