1. The Founding of the Church of God and the Background of Its First Doomsday Prophecy
Ahn Sahng-hong was baptized in the Seventh-day Adventist Church in 1954 and was active there until he was expelled in 1962 over doctrinal disputes. He went on to found the Church of God in 1964. Seven years later, in 1971, he officially declared the church’s first doomsday prophecy. This claim was the result of arbitrary interpretations of the Bible, based on the absurd logic of “seven years after the church’s founding equals Noah’s seven days in the ark.”

2. Ahn Sahng-hong’s Arbitrary Bible Interpretation and Date Manipulation
Ahn Sahng-hong tried to legitimize his doomsday theory by forcibly connecting unrelated biblical events. His logic unfolded as follows:

1. The Distortion of the Passover, the Exodus, and the Crossing of the Red Sea
   Ahn interpreted Moses observing the Passover and leading the Israelites out of Egypt as symbolic of believers being saved from the “world of sin.” He claimed the parting of the Red Sea represented Jesus’ resurrection, creating a doctrinal structure of Passover → Exodus → Crossing the Red Sea → Resurrection. This doctrine wasn’t discovered by Ahn through study, but was copied from Adventist teachings.

2. The Ten Commandments, Pentecost, and the Religious Dark Ages
   Ahn matched the 40 days Moses spent after the Red Sea, receiving the Ten Commandments, with Jesus’ ascension 40 days after his resurrection. Moses’ ascent for the Ten Commandments on Pentecost was paired with the Pentecost descent of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament. Especially, Moses descending to find the Israelites worshipping the golden calf (resulting in the breaking of the tablets) was logically linked to the early church’s corruption, the establishment of Catholicism, and the 1,260-year religious “Dark Ages.”

3. William Miller, the Adventists, and Distorting 167 Days as 167 Years
   Ahn linked Moses’ ten days of fasting before receiving the second tablets to William Miller’s decade-long Second Coming movement in 19th-century America. The movement’s end and the Adventist church’s founding in 1844 were tied to the Day of Atonement, and then, matching the Old Testament’s completion of the temple in 167 days, Ahn added 167 years to 1844, arriving at 2011 as the year of the end. Here, turning 167 days into 167 years was a classic case of literal distortion and numerological manipulation.

4. Misuse of the Verse “For the Sake of the Elect, Those Days Will Be Shortened” and the 1971 Doomsday Theory
   Ahn quoted the Gospel of Matthew’s “for the sake of the elect, those days will be shortened,” and subtracted 40 years from 2011, reaching the forced conclusion: “2011 - 40 = 1971.” The use of 40 years here was completely arbitrary and without biblical basis.

5. Connecting Noah’s Seven Days in the Ark with Seven Years After the Church’s Founding
   Ahn likened Noah gathering animals and waiting seven days in the ark to the seven years since the church’s founding. Thus, 1971, seven years after the 1964 founding, became the designated year of the end. All of these interpretations stemmed from the illogical equation: “seven years of the Church of God = seven days of Noah’s ark.” In this way, Ahn’s doomsday theory arbitrarily stitched together biblical events and symbols and manipulated numbers to set a date for the end. The result was the first false prophecy, declaring 1971 as the year the world would end.

3. The False Prophecy Fails and Irresponsible Blame-Shifting
Of course, the world did not end in 1971. When his prophecy failed, Ahn quickly shifted responsibility, claiming, “I was misled by the Adventist interpretation.” Rather than admit his error, he deflected all blame onto the Adventists, ignoring the true reason for his failed prophecy.

4. The Rise of Jang Gil-ja and the Continuation of Doomsday Indoctrination
Records indicate that Jang Gil-ja joined the church around 1968, meaning she was likely influenced by this false doomsday prophecy. Later, Jang and the church leadership would use the 1971 failure as a new starting point, recycling doomsday predictions repeatedly.

5. Conclusion: The Root of the Pattern of False Doomsday Predictions in 1971
The 1971 doomsday prediction was the first incident in which the Church of God distorted the Bible to confuse and deceive its followers. This false prophecy left a serious scar on the church’s credibility, but Ahn did not acknowledge failure—he simply layered on new doomsday predictions to further deceive members. The experience of 1971 became the origin of the church’s ongoing pattern of “date-setting,” false prophecies, blame-shifting, and member exploitation. Now, it is time to recognize the dangers and falsehoods of these teachings and for society to increase its vigilance.