The Kimbanguist Church

The Church of Jesus Christ on Earth by His Special Envoy Simon Kimbangu: the largest church to begin in Africa, born from a Baptist catechist's healings in 1921, led by his family, and the first member the World Council of Churches ever removed.

World Council of Churches, "WCC shares overview of June central committee meeting" (2021)

World Council of Churches, GEN 1, Report of the Officers (2004–05)

World Council of Churches, African Instituted (Independent) Churches (from the Dictionary of the Ecumenical Movement, 2002)

Robert M. Press, "All-African Church," The Christian Science Monitor, 28 March 1991 (an eyewitness report with interviews of the church's leaders)

Steve Rabey, "The People's Prophet," Christian History Magazine, issue 79 (2003)

Aurélien Mokoko Gampiot, "Kimbanguism: An African Initiated Church," Scriptura 113 (2014:1), pp. 1–11

Aurélien Mokoko Gampiot, "Kimbanguism," Critical Dictionary of Apocalyptic and Millenarian Movements (2021)

Aurélien Mokoko Gampiot, "Simon Kimbangu," Critical Dictionary of Apocalyptic and Millenarian Movements (2021)

"Simon Kimbangu," Journal of African Christian Biography 2, no. 1 (January 2017), Boston University

Religioscope, "Congo: quelle identité pour l'Eglise kimbanguiste? Entretien avec Nduku-Fessau Badze" (29 August 2004; a Kimbanguist theologian, reviewed by him before publication)

"Kimbanguism," Encyclopedia of New Religious Movements

Agenzia Fides, "What is the Kimbanguist Church" (28 January 2023; the Vatican missionary news service)

Agence Congolaise de Presse, "L'amour, les lois et le travail, trois valeurs qui incarnent le Kimbanguisme" (6 April 2026)

Agence Congolaise de Presse, "Simon Kimbangu Kiangani invite les Africains à s'impliquer dans la construction de N'Kamba" (22 March 2021)

Agence Congolaise de Presse, "Kongo-Central : Mama Mwilu célébrée comme pilier de la foi et de la résistance" (29 April 2026)

Kimbanguisme.net, "Le catéchisme Kimbanguiste" (a Kimbanguist site; Internet Archive copy of 14 April 2015)

Council of the Evangelical Reformed Church of Switzerland, reply to the synod motion on the WCC and the Russian Orthodox Church (Bern, 12 April 2023)

Mika Vähäkangas, "Kongo Incarnations and Diffuse Reincarnation: The Kimbanguist Saga with the World Council of Churches" (talk abstract, University of Turku, 12 May 2022)

The church began with one man's few months of public work in 1921 and thirty years of his silence in prison. The Belgian state banned and scattered his followers, and his family kept the movement together until it was legally recognized in 1959. It joined the World Council of Churches in 1969. Over the next fifty years a gap widened between what its theologians said to the council and what many members believed about Kimbangu and his sons. In 2021 the council ended the membership.

The first healing at Nkamba

Simon Kimbangu, a Baptist catechist, laid hands on a sick woman and ordered her, in the name of Christ, to rise. The church dates itself from that day. Crowds came from both banks of the Congo River and from Angola, and he preached against witchcraft and polygamy. In May about four thousand pilgrims came to Nkamba, and the Journal of African Christian Biography says Catholic and Protestant schools, hospitals and mission centers emptied.

Condemned to death, then reprieved

After a few months of preaching, Kimbangu was arrested and tried before a military court, which condemned him to death on 3 October. King Albert of Belgium commuted the sentence to life imprisonment, which the Journal of African Christian Biography dates to November, after a petition from civil officials and Baptist missionaries.

Thirty years in prison and mass deportations

Kimbangu was moved far from his home to Lubumbashi, and he died in prison on 12 October 1951. Gampiot records that 37,000 families of his followers were forcibly deported. His wife, Marie Muilu, led the movement in secret while he was held.

Legal recognition

The Belgian government recognized the church on an equal footing with the Catholic and Protestant churches. Kimbangu's youngest son, Joseph Diangienda Kuntima, was its spiritual leader and legal representative.

Admitted to the World Council of Churches

The Christian Science Monitor calls it the first church from Africa admitted to the council. It joined the All Africa Conference of Churches in 1974.

Communion introduced

The Encyclopedia of New Religious Movements states that its worship is rooted in Baptist tradition and that the institution of Communion came to the church only in 1971.

The temple at Nkamba

The temple at Nkamba, which Kimbangu was said to have foretold, was inaugurated. Gampiot writes that many Kimbanguists expected its opening to bring the end of the world.

Kimbangu's memory cleared

On 12 September a high appeals court under the Mobutu regime rehabilitated Kimbangu's memory. In the same year, according to Gampiot, the church took its present name.

Christmas moves to 25 May

A Kimbanguist theologian dates the decision to 1999, Gampiot to the year 2000: the church would keep Christmas on 25 May, the birthday of Kimbangu's second son, Salomon Dialungana Kiangani, in place of 25 December. Within the church he was regarded as Jesus Christ.

Succession by the grandsons, and a split

The last of Kimbangu's three sons died in 2001. A family meeting named the eldest grandson, Simon Kimbangu Kiangani, spiritual leader. In 2002 a general assembly of the clergy adopted 63 resolutions that confirmed him as the only spiritual leader. His cousins did not accept this, and the church has had two rival lines since.

The council names "theological deviations"

The World Council of Churches Executive Committee spoke of "the theological deviations in the church" and set September 2005 as the final date to decide the question of membership.

Membership ended

The council's Central Committee discontinued the membership for theological reasons. The process had begun in 2016 and included consultation with the All Africa Conference of Churches and the Organization of African Instituted Churches. A University of Turku talk abstract calls it the first church whose membership the council has ever discontinued.

Simon Kimbangu

A Baptist catechist who began to preach and heal in 1921. He told his followers to read the Bible at all times, and he died a prisoner. Scholars give his birth year as 1887 or 1889, and a revelation given to believers fixes the day as 12 September 1887.

Marie Muilu

His wife, who held the movement together in secret through the thirty years of his imprisonment and raised her three sons to lead it.

Joseph Diangienda Kuntima

Kimbangu's youngest son, and the church's first spiritual leader, from 1959 until his death. His sermons and the history he published in 1984 are among the church's chief theological sources. Many members hold him to be the second incarnation of the Holy Spirit.

Salomon Dialungana Kiangani

Kimbangu's second son, and the last of the three to die. Under him the church moved Christmas to his birthday, and within the church he was regarded as Jesus Christ.

Charles Kisolokele

Kimbangu's eldest son. He served as deputy spiritual leader and, after 1960, was vice-president of the Alliance of the Bakongos, a political party.

Simon Kimbangu Kiangani

Kimbangu's grandson and a son of Dialungana. He leads the official church, and his side holds him to be the reincarnation of his grandfather and of his uncle Diangienda. His cousins lead the rival side.

What the sources disagree on. The date the change of Christmas was made is given as 1992 by Fides (which says Diangienda "claimed" to have verified by "exhaustive studies" that Christ was born on 25 May), 1999 by a Kimbanguist theologian and 2000 by Gampiot. Kimbangu's birth is given as 1887, 1889 and 1899. The arrest date is given as September or October 1921. The church's own pages could not be reached, so none of these could be settled from the church's side.

The two Kimbanguisms. The sociologist Susan Asch, as Gampiot reports her, separated "official Kimbanguism," preached by the leaders and the church's reform-minded theologians, from "the Kimbanguism of Kimbanguists," held by the rank and file. In the first, Kimbangu is the go-between of Africans with Christ. In the second, he is the Holy Spirit and his three sons are the persons of the Trinity. Gampiot says the church's catechism of 1963, its 1969 text of application to the council, Diangienda's history of 1984 and the 63 resolutions of 2002 all call him a saint or a messenger of Jesus and do not call him the Holy Spirit. She dates the open break to the year 2000, when she says the authorities "decided to officialize and consecrate the popular faith." A Kimbanguist theologian puts it more sharply: the leaders kept one speech for outsiders and another for the household.

The council's decision. The council's public account gives its reason in two words, "theological reasons." Its Executive Committee's report to the June 2021 meeting records an earlier charge to the general secretary to visit the church "and to find appropriate solutions." The Council of the Evangelical Reformed Church of Switzerland, explaining the council's rules in 2023, wrote that a membership can end in three cases, one of them the rejection of faith in the triune God, and that the Kimbanguist Church is the only church the Central Committee has excluded, after nearly ten years of talks. The full minute of the decision, and any reply by the church, could not be found in the council's published documents or in the press, so this chart does not say which belief the council weighed beyond the "theological deviations" its own 2004–05 report names.

The Bible is the book of the church, with a second stream beside it: inspired hymns and the sermons of the spiritual leaders, who are Kimbangu's family.

The Kimbanguist Church holds the Bible as its book. Diangienda told a reporter in 1991, "The Bible is our book." Kimbangu's charge to his followers before he surrendered, as the church records it, was to hold to the Bible and God's commandments. Gampiot writes that the church rests on three sources: the Bible, the church's inspired hymns, and the prophetic speeches of the spiritual leaders, whose reading of the Bible and the hymns is the key to both. The hymns are songs that believers receive in dreams and visions, and there are now several thousand. A Kimbanguist theologian says that today the church reads the Bible as fundamentalist circles do, to support its beliefs, and that it no longer holds the front place.

Among the church's written texts are its catechism of 1963, Diangienda's history of 1984 and the resolutions of 2002. The church's own site could not be reached, and none of these documents could be read, so what they say is taken from the scholars who have read them.

I will leave you nothing but the Bible. Read it at all times and in all places, and put God's Commandments into practice unfailingly

Moi, je pars avec le Livre. Vous aussi vous restez avec le Livre. Tout ce dont vous avez besoin est dans la Bible.

What the church adds to the Bible. Gampiot reports that Kimbanguists read Jesus' promise of "another Comforter" (John 14:16-17) as a promise of Kimbangu, and that the prologue of John is used to support his existence before his birth. The Kimbanguist theologian quoted above calls this "une lecture instrumentale de la Bible" (my translation: "an instrumental reading of the Bible"), a way of reading it to justify beliefs the church already holds.

The church's summary of the faith is love, commandments and work. What the church teaches about how a person is saved, and what baptism is for, was not found in any text obtained.

The church sums up its teaching in three Lingala words, bolingo, mibeko, misala: love, the commandments, and work. The Agence Congolaise de Presse explains the second as strict keeping of the divine laws, the Ten Commandments, and of the laws of the state. The Christian Science Monitor reports that Diangienda named a "spiritual umbrella" and understood him to mean the same three. Gampiot adds that the prevailing belief is of salvation, individual and collective, coming by supernatural means, and that in the popular reading Kimbangu's work lifts the status of Black people.

What was not found is the church's own statement of how a person is saved by Christ, or what baptism is for. A Catholic news service says the church holds four sacraments, baptism, the Eucharist, marriage and ordination. A Kimbanguist site's notice of the church's catechism, written by Dialungana, says one becomes a Kimbanguist by learning the life of Jesus and of Kimbangu, and that baptism then follows the catechism as its "sacrement de couronnement" (crowning sacrament). So baptism comes after instruction. How it is given, and what the church says it does, was not found in any text obtained. The Christian Science Monitor reports a blessing of babies in the service it saw. In 2004 the Catholic bishops of Congo stopped recognizing Kimbanguist baptism, a Kimbanguist theologian reports. The chart states no position on the purpose of baptism and does not guess one.

We want to apply, in the true sense of the word, love. And we want jealously to guard the Ten Commandments of God.

Abide by the God-given Law, and you shall be victorious.

Where the gap is. The lineage chart records baptism by immersion and the blessing of children, and says the purpose the church holds for baptism could not be established. Baptism after instruction, and a blessing of babies, are confirmed here. Immersion, and the purpose of baptism, are not, and they remain open.

Communion came to the church in 1971 and is kept at a few set feasts a year, not each week. No statement by the church on what it means was found.

Christian History Magazine reports that the church keeps three official holidays, and that these are the only times its members take communion. It names cakes made with local grains and vegetables, and "a sweet honey-wine." Agenzia Fides names a bread made of corn and bananas, and honey mixed with water to symbolize the blood, since members do not drink alcohol. The Encyclopedia of New Religious Movements dates the introduction of Communion to 1971.

For its first fifty years the movement kept no Supper of its own. A Kimbanguist theologian tells that Kimbangu would not baptize the crowds who came to him, and sent them to the Catholic and Protestant missions, saying the churches were already there. The church's own statement of what the Supper is, whether it is a remembrance or something more, and who may take it, was not found. Robert Press of the Christian Science Monitor, who attended a service in 1991, wrote that the church "practices communion in a way that is similar to Catholic practices." Christian History lists the three holidays as the anniversary of Kimbangu's first healing, 12 October (the day he died) and Christmas, which the church now keeps on 25 May.

Moi, je suis envoyé pour annoncer la Parole, mais les Eglises sont là.

One spiritual head from Kimbangu's family, with a general assembly and an executive council under him, and pastors, deacons and catechists whom he appoints. Women serve as pastors.

The church is led from the top. Fides describes the spiritual leader as "the supreme authority," with a general assembly that sets policy and an executive council beneath him. Gampiot says the church is organized in two orders: the first is Kimbangu's descendants, and the second is the pastors, deacons, deaconesses and catechists, and the two manage the church together. Pastors are of two kinds: members whom the spiritual leader appoints for their calling and their service, and graduates of the church's divinity school, which the Swiss theologian Marie-Louise Martin founded in 1968.

Gampiot also reports that the spiritual head holds a traditional office as well as an administrative one, and that his gifts, including healing, clairvoyance and the ability to speak with the dead, are held to pass by descent. Diangienda said of himself, in 1991, "I'm just a transmitter."

I'm just a transmitter. It doesn't come from me.

Barefoot worship with sermons, choruses, bands and orchestras, the Ten Commandments read aloud, and a store of several thousand inspired hymns.

Worship is lively and musical. Christian History Magazine describes sermons that run long, processions with palm branches, congregational prayers, the reading of the Ten Commandments, and singing with orchestras of flutes and drums. The Christian Science Monitor saw a tuba and a guitar ensemble. Members leave their shoes off at services. Fides reports the church's symphony orchestra, once the only one in Central Africa. The Encyclopedia of New Religious Movements calls the worship Baptist in its roots.

The hymns are the heart of it. Gampiot dates the first Kimbanguist hymn to 1921, when a Protestant missionary challenged Kimbangu on why his healing was accompanied by Protestant hymns. Kimbangu withdrew to pray and came back with a new song in Kikongo. The church now has several thousand, received by believers in dreams and visions.

Sing the songs of the angels!

The church holds that Kimbangu healed and raised the dead as the apostles did, and that the Spirit is at work through his family. Its popular belief names Kimbangu as the Holy Spirit.

The church holds that miracles did not end with the apostles. Bena Silu, who directed the office of the spiritual head, told a reporter in 1991: "Simon Kimbangu did raise the dead; he cured the lame." Gampiot says the spiritual leader is believed to hold the gifts of healing, clairvoyance and speaking with the dead, and that Kimbangu himself is said to appear still.

On the Holy Spirit as a person, the scholars give two accounts of what the church officially teaches. Gampiot writes that the church's official texts, from its 1963 catechism to its 2002 resolutions, call Kimbangu a saint or a messenger of Jesus, and that his divinity is found in the popular faith: in it Kimbangu is the promised Comforter of John 14, the Holy Spirit. She adds that from the year 2000 the leaders "decided to officialize and consecrate the popular faith." The Journal of African Christian Biography says instead that "the official Kimbanguist Church" teaches that the persons of the Trinity became incarnate in Kimbangu's three sons. Léon Nguapitshi Kayongo, a Kimbanguist theologian, wrote that the church "believes in the Trinity," which the sons symbolize.

Simon Kimbangu did raise the dead; he cured the lame. In fact, he performed everything as it is written in the Bible. As the Apostles did, so he did the same

The Spirit has revealed to me that the time has come now for me to surrender myself to the authorities.

Healings as Kimbanguists tell them. Diangienda's history, as Gampiot quotes it, says that on 2 October 1921 his mother Marie Muilu fell ill with a boil under her arm, that the jail physician mocked her, and that Simon Kimbangu then appeared before them "as if by magic," touched the boil, and healed her. Gampiot notes that the church remembers him as free to be in many places at once though he was a prisoner, and that the sociologist Balandier judged that his imprisonment did more to raise his power than to destroy the movement.

Nkamba is held to be the New Jerusalem of Revelation 21, and the church reads events in Congo and the world as the fulfillment of Kimbangu's prophecies. No statement on Christ's return, the resurrection or judgment was found.

Kimbanguists hold that Nkamba, Kimbangu's home village, is the New Jerusalem that John saw (Revelation 21). Gampiot writes that the passage is, for Kimbanguists, "already accomplished in N'Kamba." The theologian Marie-Louise Martin described worship there in 1969 as "lived eschatology," and Gampiot says the church's life still shows it: events in politics and in the church itself are read in the light of Kimbangu's prophecies, and some members took the opening of the Nkamba temple in 1981 and the deaths of Kimbangu's sons as the fulfillment of passages in Revelation. The church spreads its message with the sense that it is the chosen people of God, given a task to the nations. Diangienda said in 1991 that the church is "born in Zaire, but with a universal calling."

What was not found is a statement by the church on the return of Christ, the resurrection of the dead, the judgment, or the state of the dead. Gampiot reports that members revere Kimbangu as a messiah and quotes Marie-Louise Martin that people "were and are probably still expecting his return." Christian History reports that the church itself rejects the notion that Kimbangu is an African Messiah.

And rule all nations on the earth!

We are a church born in Zaire, but with a universal calling.

Simon Kimbangu: the special envoy

The church is named for Kimbangu as the envoy Christ sent. In the popular faith of its members he is the Holy Spirit and his three sons are the persons of the Trinity.

The church's name says that Simon Kimbangu is the special envoy of Jesus Christ. The Christian Science Monitor reports that his followers call him "the One Sent by Jesus Christ." Diangienda wrote in his booklet The Beloved City that through Kimbangu "the promises of Jesus have been fulfilled." Gampiot's reading of the church's official documents is that they name him a saint and a messenger of Jesus.

In what she calls the Kimbanguism of Kimbanguists, he is the Holy Spirit of John 14, and his three sons are the three persons of the Trinity. A Kimbanguist theologian reports that in the 1980s the sons were held to make up the Trinity, with Diangienda as the Holy Spirit.

The sources differ on whether this is the church's official teaching. Gampiot says it is not written in the church's official documents, though she says the leaders began to make the popular faith official from 2000. The Journal of African Christian Biography says it is: "The doctrinal teaching of the official Kimbanguist Church," it writes, names Kisolokele the Father, Dialungana the Son and Diangienda the Holy Spirit. A written statement by the Kimbanguist theologian Kayongo says the church believes in the Trinity, with the Trinity "symbolized" by Kimbangu's three sons. This chart does not decide between the two accounts. Its verdict below holds on either.

The EJCSK believes in the Trinity, yet the Trinity is symbolized by Simon Kimbangu's three sons, paths to the Trinitarian God.

Through Simon Kimbangu, who was obedient to God, the promises of Jesus have been fulfilled and the Name of the Father and the Son has been glorified.

ils étaient considérés comme des êtres exceptionnels, composant la Trinité: le premier, qui est Dieu le Père, le deuxième, qui est le Fils, et J. Diangienda Kuntima, qui est le Saint-Esprit, l'incarnation de son père.

For there is one God, one mediator also between God and men, himself man, Christ Jesus,

And in none other is there salvation: for neither is there any other name under heaven, that is given among men, wherein we must be saved.

But the Comforter, even the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said unto you.

But when the apostles, Barnabas and Paul, heard of it, they rent their garments, and sprang forth among the multitude, crying out and saying, Sirs, why do ye these things? We also are men of like passions with you, and bring you good tidings, that ye should turn from these vain things unto a living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and all that in them is:

Scripture names the Holy Spirit "the Comforter, even the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name" (John 14:26), a person sent after Jesus' return to the Father, and not any man born on earth. It gives "one mediator also between God and men" (1 Timothy 2:5), and no other name by which men must be saved (Acts 4:12). When Paul and Barnabas were taken for gods, they said, "We also are men of like passions with you" (Acts 14:15). To hold that Kimbangu is the Holy Spirit and his sons the Father, the Son and the Spirit puts men where the apostles refused to stand. The milder reading does not escape either: a "special envoy" through whom "the promises of Jesus have been fulfilled," named in the church's own name, sets a second messenger between Africans and Christ, where Scripture leaves only the "one mediator." Whichever of the two accounts of the official teaching is right, the church bears its founder's title as the special envoy, and that title is the heart of the error.

What the World Council said. Its report of 2004–05 spoke of "the theological deviations in the church" and the Executive Committee said it "cannot afford to postpone indefinitely the question of the membership of the Kimbanguist Church." Sixteen years later the council's own account was that "The committee discontinued the membership of the Church of Jesus Christ on Earth by His Special Envoy Simon Kimbangu (Kimbanguist Church) for theological reasons." The church's own reply to the council was not found. A chart written from this site's standpoint is open to the objection that it judges an African church by European habits, and for that reason the verdict rests on the text and not on the council. Peter's refusal of worship from Cornelius (Acts 10:25-26) is the apostolic answer, and the council, in this instance, came to the same place.

The spiritual head by descent

The church's spiritual head must come from Kimbangu's own family, and many members hold that his gifts pass by descent and that each head is Kimbangu come again.

Kimbangu's sons led the church in turn, the youngest first and the second after him, with the eldest as deputy, and since 2001 the leadership has gone to his grandsons. Gampiot reports that the gifts of the spiritual leader, among them double sight, prophecy and healing, are held to be hereditary. After the last son died in 2001, a meeting of the grandchildren named the eldest, Simon Kimbangu Kiangani, spiritual leader, and the clergy confirmed him in 2002. His side holds that Kimbangu's spirit returns in him by way of Diangienda. His cousins hold that Kimbangu is present in all the grandchildren when they are united, and they lead a second church. Dialungana, the second son, described the succession this way: "Just as the work of Jesus was carried on by the apostles after His death, the same was true of the prophet Simon Kimbangu."

Just as the work of Jesus was carried on by the apostles after His death, the same was true of the prophet Simon Kimbangu

But as many as received him, to them gave he the right to become children of God, even to them that believe on his name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

and think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.

Look ye out therefore, brethren, from among you seven men of good report, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business.

And when they had appointed for them elders in every church, and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord, on whom they had believed.

The new birth is "not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God" (John 1:13), and John the Baptist told the crowds of Israel that descent from Abraham gave them nothing: "God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham" (Matthew 3:9). The apostles did not pass their work to their sons. They had the church choose "men of good report, full of the Spirit and of wisdom" (Acts 6:3), and they appointed "elders in every church" (Acts 14:23) for their qualifications, not their family. A leadership that runs by birth in a single household, and holds its gifts to be inherited, has no pattern in the apostolic churches. It also split the church after 2001, as two lines of the same family each claim the inheritance.

Nkamba, the New Jerusalem

Nkamba, Kimbangu's home village, is held to be the New Jerusalem, the holy city and the seat of the church.

The church holds that Nkamba is the New Jerusalem. The Encyclopedia of New Religious Movements says Nkamba "became known as the New Jerusalem and serves as the spiritual center of the church," and calls it a site of pilgrimage. Gampiot writes that for Kimbanguists the passage in Revelation 21 about the holy city coming down from God "is already accomplished in N'Kamba." The Congolese press agency calls it "Nkamba, Nouvelle Jérusalem" and the church's international seat. The temple there was opened in 1981.Diangienda's booklet is titled The Beloved City. In March 2021 the spiritual head called on Africans to help build the holy city, and in April 2026 his personal representative asked the church to speed its building, since pilgrims will come from every part of the world.

The great stairs leading up to the sanctuary symbolize Jacob’s ladder, which he saw in a dream as meaning the presence of God for all those coming up to it in prayer.

cette ville tend vers un moment où elle sera fréquemment visitée

And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of the throne saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he shall dwell with them, and they shall be his peoples, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God:

but ye are come unto mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable hosts of angels,

Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when neither in this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, shall ye worship the Father. Ye worship that which ye know not: we worship that which we know; for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth: for such doth the Father seek to be his worshippers. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship in spirit and truth.

Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is the Christ, or, Here; believe it not. For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect.

The Jerusalem John saw comes "down out of heaven from God" (Revelation 21:2), and the Hebrew letter says Christians "are come unto mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem" (Hebrews 12:22): a city in heaven, not on a hill in the Kongo. Jesus told the Samaritan woman that the hour had come when worship would be "neither in this mountain, nor in Jerusalem," but "in spirit and truth" (John 4:21-24). A holy city on earth, with its stairs, its temple and its pilgrimage, sets a place in the center of worship where the New Testament took it out. Kimbanguists honor the Bible by finding in it a promise for their people, but it does not name a village on earth as the place.

Christmas on 25 May

The church moved Christmas from 25 December to 25 May, the birthday of Kimbangu's second son, and its holy days are set by the family's calendar.

A Kimbanguist theologian says the church decided, after the death of the first spiritual head, that Christmas would no longer be kept on 25 December as in the older churches but on 25 May, the birthday of Salomon Dialungana Kiangani. Agenzia Fides says that in 1992 Diangienda claimed to have verified "after exhaustive studies" that Christ was born on 25 May. Christian History names the church's other holidays as the anniversary of Kimbangu's first healing and 12 October, the day he died.

Il ne fallait plus célébrer Noël le 25 décembre comme cela se fait dans les Eglises traditionnelles, mais le 25 mai.

Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of a feast day or a new moon or a sabbath day: which are a shadow of the things to come; but the body is Christ’s.

One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let each man be fully assured in his own mind. He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord: and he that eateth, eateth unto the Lord, for he giveth God thanks; and he that eateth not, unto the Lord he eateth not, and giveth God thanks.

Ye observe days, and months, and seasons, and years. I am afraid of you, lest by any means I have bestowed labor upon you in vain.

The New Testament never gives the date of Christ's birth, and it leaves no day for keeping it. Paul says, "Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of a feast day or a new moon or a sabbath day" (Colossians 2:16), and he feared for the Galatians who observed "days, and months, and seasons, and years" (Galatians 4:10). Any church may be free in this, as Paul allows (Romans 14:5-6), and 25 December has no apostolic ground either. But the church did not use that freedom. It tied the birth of Christ to the birthday of a living man, and it bound its people to keep the day. A holy calendar that follows the founder's family, with Christ's birth set on a son's birthday, gives to a man the honor that belongs to the Lord.

A strict moral code

The church forbids alcohol, tobacco, polygamy, witchcraft and magic, and its members worship barefoot with the head of women covered. It teaches the Ten Commandments as its standard.

The church keeps a strict moral code. The Encyclopedia of New Religious Movements says it rejects politics, violence, polygamy, magic and witchcraft, alcohol and tobacco. Christian History Magazine adds narcotics, and says members take off their shoes in church and women cover their hair. Gampiot writes that Kimbangu himself preached against idols and witchcraft and condemned polygamy and lascivious dances. Kimbangu's last word to his followers was to put "God's Commandments into practice unfailingly," and Diangienda said in 1991, "we want jealously to guard the Ten Commandments of God." The church also runs hospitals, schools and a university.

put God's Commandments into practice unfailingly

And be not drunken with wine, wherein is riot, but be filled with the Spirit;

If ye died with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, do ye subject yourselves to ordinances, Handle not, nor taste, nor touch (all which things are to perish with the using), after the precepts and doctrines of men? Which things have indeed a show of wisdom in will-worship, and humility, and severity to the body; but are not of any value against the indulgence of the flesh.

But the Spirit saith expressly, that in later times some shall fall away from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of demons, through the hypocrisy of men that speak lies, branded in their own conscience as with a hot iron; forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by them that believe and know the truth. For every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be rejected, if it be received with thanksgiving: for it is sanctified through the word of God and prayer.

Much of what the church forbids, Scripture forbids: drunkenness ("be not drunken with wine, wherein is riot," Ephesians 5:18), sorcery and idolatry. Kimbangu's first preaching, against fetishes, witchcraft and polygamy, stands with the apostles' own, and a church that has held its people to it for a century deserves plain credit. The weaker point is the way the church binds. Paul warns of those "commanding to abstain from meats, which God created to be received with thanksgiving" (1 Timothy 4:3) and of rules, "Handle not, nor taste, nor touch," that carry "a show of wisdom in will-worship" but are "not of any value against the indulgence of the flesh" (Colossians 2:21-23). A member may abstain, and many wisely do, but a church that binds every member to it as a mark of belonging has gone past what is written.

Each of the seven positions is set beside the Scriptures, as the Lord set a plumb line beside Israel's wall (Amos 7:7-8). On several courses the church's own words could not be found. In each such case the verdict rests on what the sources report, and says where they leave off. This is not a verdict on a church of Africa for being African. It is a verdict, by the same line, on every church.

Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he shall guide you into all the truth: for he shall not speak from himself; but what things soever he shall hear, these shall he speak: and he shall declare unto you the things that are to come.

and he put all things in subjection under his feet, and gave him to be head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.

But though we, or an angel from heaven, should preach unto you any gospel other than that which we preached unto you, let him be anathema.

Every scripture inspired of God is also profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction which is in righteousness: that the man of God may be complete, furnished completely unto every good work.

Kimbangu's charge before he surrendered was to read the Bible at all times and keep God's commandments, which is where a church ought to start. But the church has set a living authority beside it: a spiritual head from Kimbangu's family, whose sermons, with hymns received in visions, Gampiot names as sources of the faith, and whose word is the key to the Bible. Jesus promised the apostles that the Spirit "shall guide you into all the truth" (John 16:13), so nothing was left for a later envoy to add. God gave Christ "to be head over all things to the church, which is his body" (Ephesians 1:22-23), and the church has no second head on earth, by descent or otherwise. Paul's word closes the door: "though we, or an angel from heaven, should preach unto you any gospel other than that which we preached unto you, let him be anathema" (Galatians 1:8).

Scripture is enough: "that the man of God may be complete, furnished completely unto every good work" (2 Timothy 3:17). A head whose word deciphers the Bible stands above it, however much he honors it. The Kimbanguist theologian quoted above says the Bible is still the church's foundation, but that it is now read to support the church's beliefs and not examined. The Bereans are the pattern: they were "examining the Scriptures daily, whether these things were so" (Acts 17:11), and they tested even an apostle's word. The record shows what follows when the leaders' word is not tested: the World Council, the Catholic bishops of Congo (in 2004) and the Protestant church of Congo (in 2002) each broke fellowship over the church's teaching.

And Peter said unto them, Repent ye, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ unto the remission of your sins; and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that disbelieveth shall be condemned.

We were buried therefore with him through baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life.

The church's three words, love, the commandments and work, are good words, and Kimbangu's turning of people from witchcraft and fetishes is a turning from idols that the apostles would have honored. What the church teaches on how a person is saved, and on what baptism is for, was not found, so no verdict can be given on the water. The line is plain: baptism is "unto the remission of your sins" (Acts 2:38), a burial and a rising with Christ (Romans 6:4), and "in none other is there salvation" (Acts 4:12). Where Kimbangu is set beside Christ as the Spirit, or as the one through whom Jesus' promises were fulfilled, the last of these is at risk, and a church that holds so has more to settle than this placement shows.

The placement follows the lineage chart's values for this church, which carry the Baptist practice of baptizing believers and immersing them, and those were not confirmed here. If the church's teaching is shown to place Kimbangu at the center of salvation, as Gampiot reports of the popular faith, this course should sit further from the line.

And upon the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul discoursed with them, intending to depart on the morrow; and prolonged his speech until midnight.

For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink the cup, ye proclaim the Lord’s death till he come.

And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread and the prayers.

The church took up communion in 1971, which was a step toward the New Testament, for before that it had none. It keeps the Supper at three holy days a year, tied to the story of Kimbangu and to Christmas. The disciples at Troas came together "upon the first day of the week… to break bread" (Acts 20:7), and the Jerusalem church "continued stedfastly… in the breaking of bread" (Acts 2:42). A Supper kept three times a year, on days set by the founder's story, is far from that pattern, and the elements differ from the Lord's bread and cup as well. This course sits where it does because the church's teaching on what the Supper means and who may take it was not found, and what could not be read is not charged.

The day and the frequency are where the church departs: the first-day Supper is binding on the example of the apostles, and a feast tied to Kimbangu's history is not the Lord's table on the Lord's day. Paul wrote that the Supper proclaims "the Lord’s death till he come" (1 Corinthians 11:26), not the death of a prophet.

For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that were wanting, and appoint elders in every city, as I gave thee charge;

Tend the flock of God which is among you, exercising the oversight, not of constraint, but willingly, according to the will of God; nor yet for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; neither as lording it over the charge allotted to you, but making yourselves ensamples to the flock.

But I permit not a woman to teach, nor to have dominion over a man, but to be in quietness.

Paul and Barnabas "appointed for them elders in every church" (Acts 14:23), and Titus was told to "appoint elders in every city" (Titus 1:5). Peter forbids the elders to be lords: "neither as lording it over the charge allotted to you, but making yourselves ensamples to the flock" (1 Peter 5:3). The Kimbanguist Church has the opposite shape: one spiritual head over the whole church, a general assembly and an executive council under him, pastors whom he appoints, and an office that goes by birth in one family. The sources describe no congregation that governs itself. The church also has women in its ordained ministry, and Paul wrote, "I permit not a woman to teach, nor to have dominion over a man" (1 Timothy 2:12).

The Kimbanguist Church deserves credit that it has pastors and not priests, and that its catechists and pastors come from among the people. But a hierarchy under one head from one family is farther from a plurality of elders in each congregation than the congregational Baptist churches in which Kimbangu was raised.

God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship in spirit and truth.

speaking one to another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord;

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts unto God.

But in vain do they worship me, Teaching as their doctrines the precepts of men.

The church worships with the Ten Commandments read aloud, with its people singing, and with a great store of hymns: "psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts unto God" (Colossians 3:16) is the New Testament's own instruction. It stands short in the instruments. Bands, a tuba, guitars, flutes, drums and orchestras are reported in the church's worship, and the New Testament names the singing, "singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord" (Ephesians 5:19), and no instrument. The hymns also carry a further problem. A hymn received in a vision, and used to say what the church believes, has a standing the New Testament gives to no song, and in some of them Kimbangu himself is the speaker.

The placement follows the lineage chart for the church's worship. No report of an ordinary weekly service was found, only the monthly outdoor service of 1991 and a magazine summary.

And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may be with you for ever, even the Spirit of truth: whom the world cannot receive; for it beholdeth him not, neither knoweth him: ye know him; for he abideth with you, and shall be in you.

how shall we escape, if we neglect so great a salvation? which having at the first been spoken through the Lord, was confirmed unto us by them that heard; God also bearing witness with them, both by signs and wonders, and by manifold powers, and by gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to his own will.

Kimbanguists read Jesus' promise of "another Comforter" as a promise of Kimbangu, but the Comforter is "the Spirit of truth: whom the world cannot receive; for it beholdeth him not" (John 14:17). A man the world saw, tried and imprisoned is not that Spirit, and one born in the Congo and dead in 1951 is not the One who would "be with you for ever" (John 14:16). Nor is Kimbangu the Spirit's envoy with more to say: the Spirit "shall guide you into all the truth" (John 16:13), and he did so through the apostles. There is "one mediator also between God and men, himself man, Christ Jesus" (1 Timothy 2:5), so a special envoy who stands between Africans and Christ has no place, whether he is called the Spirit himself or only the Spirit's messenger. The miraculous gifts confirmed the word "at the first" (Hebrews 2:3-4), and they do not pass by descent to a family.

The healings of 1921 are described here as the church and its historians describe them: a catechist who laid hands on the sick in the name of Christ, and a colonial state that feared the crowds. Kimbangu himself preached without violence and, as the church tells it, turned himself in to the authorities while calling on his followers to remain nonviolent, and that deserves plain honor. But Peter, when Cornelius fell at his feet, raised him up: "Stand up; I myself also am a man" (Acts 10:26). The written statement that the Trinity is "symbolized" by the sons is milder than the popular belief, and the council did not find it enough.

who also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye looking into heaven? this Jesus, who was received up from you into heaven shall so come in like manner as ye beheld him going into heaven.

And inasmuch as it is appointed unto men once to die, and after this cometh judgment; so Christ also, having been once offered to bear the sins of many, shall appear a second time, apart from sin, to them that wait for him, unto salvation.

The angels told the apostles that "this Jesus… shall so come in like manner as ye beheld him going into heaven" (Acts 1:11), and that He will "appear a second time, apart from sin, to them that wait for him, unto salvation" (Hebrews 9:28). The church was not found to deny this, and nothing found settles it either way. What is documented is that it places the New Jerusalem on a hill at Nkamba, that members have read the deaths of the sons and the opening of the temple as fulfillments of Revelation, and that Gampiot reports an expectation of Kimbangu's return. Jesus warned, "if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is the Christ, or, Here; believe it not" (Matthew 24:23). A hope fixed on a prophet's return and a city on earth turns the eyes from the coming of Christ.

The placement is authored, not taken from the lineage values. It sits at three because what was found is a distance from the New Testament hope, while the church's own statement on the return of Christ, the resurrection and judgment was not found. If the church affirms the second coming of the Lord in the plain sense and puts no one beside Him, this course would sit nearer.

The Kimbanguist Church holds the Bible as its book, and its founder's charge was to read it at all times. Its moral code is strict, and much of it is the apostles' own: it forbids drunkenness, polygamy, witchcraft and the use of fetishes, and it keeps the Ten Commandments before its people. Its founder preached without violence under a colonial state that condemned him to death, and when he gave himself up he told his followers to remain nonviolent. His people kept that way through mass deportations, and they still give, build schools and hospitals, stay out of violence, and bring their burdens to prayer and fasting. Its members are reported to refer to the Nicene Creed, and its written theology affirms the Trinity. It kept a faith under thirty years of persecution that the state meant to crush, and its founder died in a prison cell.

Measured by the New Testament alone, the Kimbanguist Church stands nearest the line in the Bible it kept and the morals it keeps, and furthest in what it has put beside Christ and the apostles: a prophet, a family, a city and a calendar. The Holy Spirit is a person sent from the Father, not a man of Nkamba, and He needs no envoy to finish what He gave the apostles. Christ is the only head of His church, and no head on earth succeeds Him by descent. Authority is in the written word, not in hymns received in visions or in the sermons of a leader. Elders lead each congregation, and no office passes by birth. The Supper belongs to the first day of every week. The Lord will come again from heaven, and the church should look for Him there.

These are not the faults of people who never opened the book. Simon Kimbangu told his followers to read the Bible and keep God's commandments, and the church that bears his name has kept both before its people through a hundred years of hard rule. What remains is to hold them to the end: to let "Every scripture inspired of God" (2 Timothy 3:16) stand alone, to receive the Comforter as "the Spirit of truth" (John 14:17) whom the Father sent and not a man, and to look for the Lord Jesus himself, "this Jesus" who "shall so come in like manner" (Acts 1:11).

More illuminations · Harbinger's Lamp