Redeemed Christian Church of God
The Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) is one of the largest Pentecostal churches in Nigeria . It was founded in 1952 by Pa Josiah Akindayomi (1909–1981) and is now widespread in numerous African countries, but also in Europe and the USA. As a church based in Africa that was founded independently of a European mission, it sees, conversely, today in Europe and the USA a field for its own missionary endeavors.
history
The church founder Akindayomi, born in today's Ondo state in Nigeria, grew up in a family that adhered to the traditional religion of the Yoruba . He was baptized by the Church Mission Society in 1927 and in 1927 joined the Cherubim and Seraphim Society , an independent African church . After he became convinced that the Cherubim and Seraphim Church was deviating from the true path of God, he started a private prayer group he called the Glory of God Fellowship . The circle, which started in Lagos with nine members, grew rapidly and took on institutional forms in 1952. The prayer group became a church and was given its current name. After Akindayomi's death in 1981, Enoch Adejare Adeboye succeeded him. In contrast to the illiterate Akindayomi, Adeboye was educated, he taught as a lecturer in mathematics at the University of Lagos. One of his accomplishments, which contributed to the internationalization of the Church, was to translate Akindayomi's sermons from Yoruba into English. The church has been expanding very quickly since 1981, and according to its own information there are currently around 2000 congregations in Nigeria alone. In addition, numerous congregations were founded in other African countries. After Africans in the European and American diaspora also founded churches there, the RCCG soon discovered Europe and the USA as mission areas. In Europe, the RCCG is today particularly active as a mission church in Scandinavia.
Doctrine and Faith Practice
The taught beliefs of the RCCG include the verbal inspiration of the Bible, the Trinity , the rejection of man through the fall and redemption through repentance and faith. Christological statements are the deity, virgin birth, sinlessness, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The effectiveness of the Holy Spirit is confirmed by speaking in tongues . Healing of diseases is possible through the direct action of divine grace. In relation to the sacraments , the RCCG teaches the Lord's Supper as a celebration of remembrance. Baptism is performed by immersing the person to be baptized completely in water. The Last Judgment is a future historical event for the RCCG , as is the millennial kingdom of Jesus Christ.
If the RCCG is close to evangelical or fundamentalist endeavors in its teaching content , it originally represented them with less polemics and militancy than is the case with European or American groups. The background to this is that these beliefs in Africa encounter different historical and cultural conditions than in Europe and the USA, where fundamentalism emerged as a direct reaction to the Enlightenment . Only when the church in its missionary endeavors in the diaspora was massively confronted with secular and religiously critical discourses did the tone of its proclamation sometimes intensify.
One of the special features of the RCCG is the so-called Holy Ghost Service , a nightly service that is held every first Friday of the month at the headquarters in Lagos and during which divine miracles are expected to occur. The Holy Ghost Congress is a mass event that takes place annually in December in Lagos. It is usually attended by millions of people from Nigeria and abroad.
Well-known preachers
One of the preachers of the RCCG is Yemi Osinbajo , Vice-President of Nigeria since 2015.
literature
- Asonzeh FK Ukah: A New Paradigm of Pentecostal Power: A Study of the Redeemed Christian Church of God in Nigeria. Africa Research & Publications, USA, 2008, ISBN 9781592216215 .
- Stephan Hunt: "A Church for all Nations" - The Redeemed Christian Church of God. In: Pneuma 24, No. 2, pp. 185-204 ISSN 0272-0965 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Katrin Gänsler: Presidential Election in Nigeria: The Voices of the Prophets. deutschlandfunk.de from February 14, 2019, accessed on February 14, 2019