Catholic Apologetics Guidebook - A Catholic Perspective on the Gospel Assembly Movement

Introduction: In doing research for this web site, I couldn't find any good Catholic sources which address or even mention the Gospel Assembly religious movement. Probably the reason for this lack of resources is that the Gospel Assembly movement is relatively small compared to many denominations or sects, and thus most people, even many Catholic apologists, have probably never heard of it or encountered it. Since I have had the pleasure of meeting and corresponding with several members and former members of this movement, and since I have done a bit of informal research on their history and beliefs, I present the following article in the hope that other Catholics who encounter members of this group may benefit from this information.

The Gospel Assembly movement is a group of loosely affiliated congregations, all of which can trace their roots back to the religious movement founded by an American named William Sowders in the early 20th century. This movement is known by various names, including Gospel Assembly, Latter Rain, or the Body of Christ, and individual congregations within this movement may have names like Gospel Assembly, Gospel Tabernacle, Gospel Temple, General Assembly, and others. In the absence of any more accurate name for the movement as a whole, I will use the name "Gospel Assembly" to refer to the entire religious movement started by William Sowders, including all of the modern-day congregations that can trace their roots to this movement.

William Sowders founded this new religious movement starting around 1914, beginning in western Kentucky, southern Illinois, and southern Indiana. Sowders originally converted to Christianity within the Pentecostal movement. Shortly after that, it is claimed that he received direct revelations from God, telling him to teach the true Gospel (as opposed to certain "false" doctrines that the Pentecostals and other Christian groups were teaching). Sowders began to preach this allegedly true Gospel which had been revealed to him, and thus the Gospel Assembly movement was born. After Sowders' death in 1952, the movement that he founded went through various splits, though today many of the congregations within this movement are trying to strengthen their ties with each other.

The doctrines which William Sowders taught, and which evidently are held by most Gospel Assembly congregations today, bear some resemblance to the doctrines of the Jehovah's Witnesses, with some Pentecostal flavor thrown in, and with some additional similarities to Mormonism, Seventh-Day Adventism, and late 19th-century and early 20th-century American Fundamentalism. Some of the distinctive doctrines of the Gospel Assembly movement are as follows:

The Nature of God: Apparently seeking a middle ground between traditional Trinitarian belief and "Oneness" Pentecostal belief, Sowders taught that there are two separate persons in the Godhead – God the Father, and Jesus the Son. According to this doctrine, the Father is greater than the Son, and the Son is created, though still divine. Sowders also taught that the Holy Spirit is not a person, but rather is the impersonal spirit, or essence, of God. In other words, Gospel Assembly doctrine on the nature of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is similar to Jehovah's Witness doctrine, with the notable exception that the Gospel Assembly does not identify Jesus as Michael the Archangel.

For a Catholic response to this doctrine regarding the nature of God, please see the sections of this web site on The Trinity and on the Jehovah's Witnesses.

Satan and Hell: Gospel Assembly doctrine teaches that Satan and Hell do not exist. For some Catholic perspectives on the existence of Hell, please see the section of this site on Hell.

Perfection: Gospel Assembly doctrine says that we must be perfected (i.e., overcome sin) in order to enter heaven. On this point, Catholics can agree (provided of course that this perfection comes about as a result of divine grace). However, since the Gospel Assembly movement rejects the doctrine of Purgatory, they believe that perfection must be attained in this life in order to enter heaven. Further, they believe that those Christians who do not reach perfection in this life will receive a second chance at perfection here on earth after the general resurrection. Those who still do not attain perfection during this second chance period will die, and simply cease to exist (since they do not believe in Hell).

Baptism of the Holy Spirit: The Gospel Assembly movement, drawing on Pentecostalism, teaches that Christians must receive the "baptism of the Holy Spirit," evidenced by speaking in tongues, in order to be saved.

Worship: Gospel Assembly worship draws heavily on the Pentecostal worship style. There is a heavy emphasis on spontaneity and being led by the Spirit during worship, with little or no use of liturgy.

Apostasy and Restoration: The Gospel Assembly congregations teach that the Christian church fell into complete apostasy either during or prior to the time of Constantine and the First Council of Nicaea. They believe that a process of restoration of the church began with Martin Luther, and continued through various other reformers and movements such as early Pentecostalism, and ultimately through William Sowders and the religious movement that he founded (though they believe that the process of restoration is still ongoing today, and has not yet been completed). They believe that many or all traditional Christian beliefs (e.g., the Trinity) should be re-examined in the light of Scripture, and thus they reject tradition even more radically than the early Protestant Reformers did, or at least they claim to do so. But from my perspective, it appears that rather than rejecting the concept of tradition altogether, they actually have replaced orthodox Christian traditions with new traditions based on William Sowders' private revelations.

Furthermore, they identify the Catholic Church as the mother of harlots from the book of Revelation, and they identify many or all of the Protestant churches as the daughters of the harlot. It appears that some very negative anti-Catholic misconceptions and stereotypes are commonly believed and taught, especially regarding the Church in the Middle Ages.

The Gospel Assembly movement also holds some distinctive beliefs regarding the end times and the interpretation of Biblical prophecy, however I do not have a solid and thorough understanding of these beliefs, and so I will not attempt to summarize them here.

In closing, I would like to give the following disclaimer: I have tried to be as accurate as possible in this short article. But because the Gospel Assembly congregations profess the Reformation principle of Sola Scriptura, and because they have no central doctrinal authority beyond Scripture and their own traditions, it is possible that some Gospel Assembly congregations, or some individuals within those congregations, may hold beliefs that are significantly different than what I have described here. In fact, it has been pointed out to me by a Catholic convert from this movement that the doctrines which I have mentioned above are held by most branches of the Gospel Assembly movement, but that there is one particular branch which differs on some of these doctrines, particularly on perfection and on the existence of Satan.