January 12, 2020
The Editor,
Sunday Tribune,
- O. Box 424,
Imalefalafia Street, Oke-Ado,
Ibadan.
God’s Kingdom Society, a different body from the Jehovah’s Witnesses
Our attention has been drawn to a part of a story carried at page 30 of the Sunday Tribune of December 29, 2019, entitled “Olukoya: E tu Jehovah’s Witnesses?” In it the writer stated: “The God’s Kingdom Society people, aka Jehovah’s Witnesses, have been in the forefront of those campaigning against December 25 as Jesus Christ’s birthday, insisting He was not born on that date and that His date of birth remains unknown.” According to the Dictionary, the expression, aka, means, “also known as”. In other words, God’s Kingdom Society, (GKS), the Church of the Living God, is also known as “Jehovah’s Witnesses”. Nothing can be farther than the truth.
While it is true that the GKS has since the late 1930s been preaching against the observance of Christmas in view of its pagan origin, insisting rather, with Bible proofs, that Christ was born in the month of October, the fact which no one can gainsay is that the GKS, whose headquarters is at Salem City, Warri, Delta State, Nigeria is quite a different religious organization from the “Jehovah’s Witnesses”, the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society founded by Charles Taze Russell at Pittsburgh, Pa., in America with headquarters at Brooklyn in New York, U.S.A.
There are several doctrinal differences between the WBTS and the God’s Kingdom Society. For instance, the members of WBTS believe in monogamy, take the Lord’s supper, go from house to house, say one must be a preacher in order to be saved, are notorious date-setters, believe that all of them are Jehovah’s Witnesses, believe that Mary will go to heaven, etc, all of which are contrary to the Bible.
We are amazed, even nonplussed, that a newspaper of the standing of Tribune could make such a blunder. This is because the founding instrument of GKS St. Gideon Meriodere Urhobo, of blessed and eternal memory, enjoyed tremendous goodwill of The Nigerian Tribune, especially in the late 1940s and early 1950s, when St. Urhobo declared support for the Action Group and waged a “battle against godless nationalism”. We still have in our visitors’ diary, the comment of late Chief Obafemi Awolowo, when he visited Salem City on April 20, 1952, in which he stated: “Salem City is an eloquent evidence of the great genius of the late illustrious Gideon Urhobo …His successors, I am sure, will carry on the good work he has started. This is the only way by which the memory of this great man can be perpetuated.”
It should be recalled that St. Urhobo “with a squad of lieutenants”, attended the first meeting of the Western House of Assembly at Ibadan after the intermediate elections held in November 20, 1951. He was received by the Action Group and given a special place in the Assembly to watch the proceedings.
As we know, facts are sacred. While we appreciate the efforts of the papers in the Tribune group to enlighten the public on the issues of the day, we appeal to the writer to be more circumspect so as to ensure this sort of embarrassing mix-up does not occur in the future.
Yours faithfully,
Benedict Hart,
Publicity Secretary,
GKS