New Apostolic Church - Splinter Groups

Splinter Groups

After Apostle Preuss' death in 1878, a dispute over succession caused a separation between the majority of Hamburg's congregation with Prophet Heinrich Geyer and Apostle Johannn Friedrich Gueldner on one side (still under the name Allgemeine christliche apostolische Mission) and the Apostles Friedrich Wilhelm Menkhoff, Eduard Wichmann, and Fritz Krebs on the other.

The second schism occurred with the HAZK in 1897 in the Netherlands due to the introduction of the office of the Chief Apostle. by The group following the Chief Apostle adopted the name Hersteld Apostolische Zendinggemeente in de Eenheid der Apostelen (HAZEA) after the schism of 1897 and continued to use it until the 1960s.

Niemeyer and later Carl Georg Klibbe began to criticize the worshipping of Chief Apostle Hermann Niehaus' person, resulting in Niehaus' announcement of Wilhelm Schlaphoff as Klibbe's replacement in 1913. Another point of view says this was a misunderstanding. The ship on which Klibbe was believed to be traveling, after a conference of apostles, sank. He was believed to have drowned, although he had actually chosen another ship. Nevertheless, Schlaphoff declined to resign his Apostle Ministry

After his exclusion, Klibbe went on working under the name New Apostolic Church. In 1926, an agreement was reached between the followers of Klibbe and Schlaphoff. As part of the settlement, Klibbe renamed the church he had founded in 1889 as Old Apostolic Church of Africa. According to court papers filed, the Klibbe group became independent from the New Apostolic Church in 1915. At the time of Klibbe's death in 1931 the Old Apostolic Church had more than 1 million adherents.

On 10 October 1920 Chief Apostle Hermann Niehaus appointed Apostle J. G. Bischoff as Chief Apostle Helper and on 14 December 1924 he assigned Bischoff to succeed him, even though the Saxon Apostle Carl August Brueckner had already been declared as his successor. After 1914, Niehaus was led more and more by emotions, dreams and visions. Brueckner became the focus for all those who criticised the spiritual views of the Chief Apostle and the worshipping of his person. The different opinions led to the exclusion of Apostle Brueckner and several thousand believers in 1921. The excluded founded the Reformiert-Apostolischer Gemeindebund. A further schism occurred when the Australian Apostle Hermann Niemeyer was excluded from the church on his way home after a conference of apostles. Like Brueckner, he had opposed the claim to power of the Chief Apostle. After his return he founded the Apostolic Church of Queensland. As a reaction to these crisis-hit times, Niehaus had all of the Apostles cast a vote of confidence in him and gathered them in his own association, the Apostelkollegium der Neuapostolischen Gemeinden Deutschland.

Other splits of the New Apostolic Church occurred in Switzerland Vereinigung Apostolischer Christen, South Africa (again) Apostle Unity and the Netherlands (where a large group of 26,500 members, forming 90% of total membership, left the New Apostolic Church in 1946) Apostolisch Genootschap and later again approximately 1200 Dutch members left in 1954 Apostolische Geloofsgemeenschap, and in West-Germany Apostolische Gemeinschaft and Apostolische Gemeinde des Saarlandes in 1955 due to a 1951 teaching of the then-Chief Apostle Johann Gottfried Bischoff. This teaching presumed that he would not die before Jesus Christ returned to take the predestined into his kingdom (First Resurrection). In 1954 this teaching, called "The Botschaft", became an official dogma. Those ministers, especially the apostles who declined to preach this, even after several interlocutions, lost their offices and were excluded from the New Apostolic Church. Chief Apostle Bischoff died in 1960 without his prophecy being fulfilled. but there was no restoration of the excommunicated ministers. The various communities and congregations like the Apostolic Church of Queensland or the Apostolic Church of South Africa - Apostle Unity which evolved out of these conflicts in different countries merged in 1956 as the "United Apostolic Church".

Another, earlier, split was the break with the Apostelamt Juda in 1902, from which the Apostelamt Jesu Christi emerged.

On May 1, 2005 a document of the first steps of reconciliation was signed by the Swiss New Apostolic Church and the United Apostolic Church in Switzerland (Vereinigung Apostolischer Christen).