La Luz del Mundo
The Iglesia del Dios Vivo, Columna y Apoyo de la Verdad, La Luz del Mundo or simply La Luz del Mundo is a nontrinitarian Christian denomination in the Restorationist tradition, with its international headquarters in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico. La Luz del Mundo practices a form of Restorationist theology centered on three leaders: Aarónborn EusebioJoaquín González, Samuel Joaquín Flores, and Naasón Joaquín García, who are regarded by the church as modern-day apostles of Jesus Christ.
La Luz del Mundo was founded in 1926 during the Mexican Cristero War, a struggle between the secular, anti-clerical government and Catholic rebels. The conflict centered in the west-central states like Jalisco, where Aarón Joaquín focused his missionary efforts. Given the environment of the time, the Church remained a small missionary endeavor until 1934, when it built its first temple. Thereafter, it continued to grow and expand, interrupted by an internal schism in 1942. Aarón Joaquín was succeeded by his son Samuel upon his death, who was in turn succeeded by his own son Naasón upon his death. The Church is present in more than 50 countries and has claimed to have between 1 and 5 million adherents worldwide.
La Luz del Mundo describes itself as the restoration of primitive Christianity. It does not use crosses or religious images in its worship services. Female members follow a dress code that includes long skirts and use head coverings during services. Although the Church does not allow women to hold leadership positions in its religious hierarchy, women hold leadership positions in church public relations and church-operated civil organizations.
The three church leaders have faced accusations of sexual abuse. In June 2019, church leader Naasón Joaquín García was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport and charged with sex crimes by the California Department of Justice. On June 8, 2022, he pled guilty to three charges concerning the sexual abuse of children and was sentenced to a maximum 16 years and 8 months in prison.
Name
The full name of the Church in Spanish is Iglesia del Dios Vivo, Columna y Apoyo de la Verdad, La Luz del Mundo, which translates to Church of the Living God, Pillar and Ground of The Truth, The Light of the World. The name of the Church is derived from two passages in the Bible: 1 Timothy 3:15 and Matthew 5:14.History
Historical background
Eusebio Joaquín González was born on August 14, 1896, in Colotlán, Jalisco, Mexico. At a young age, he joined the Constitutional Army during the Mexican Revolution. While he was on leave with his father in Guadalajara in 1920, he met Elisa Flores, also from Colotlán, whom he later married. While stationed in the state of Coahuila in 1926, he came into contact with preachers under the pseudo names Saulo and Silas, two ascetic preachers from the Iglesia Cristiana Espiritual. Their teachings forbade their followers to keep good hygiene and wear regular clothes. Their real names were Antonio Muñez and Francisco Flores, and had become preachers just two years earlier.Sources about their lives are secondary and often contradict each other.
According to Gaxiola, these two preachers caused scandals among the early Apostolic Pentecostals. They preached of prophesies, visions and dreams, which they claimed gave them spiritual authority, rather than the Bible, as it was generally unread in early 20th-century Mexico. However, the obituary of Eusebio Juaquin González in the Crónica Jalisco newspaper states that
"Eucebio started to attend the reunions of preachers by the name Saul and Silas. He convinced his wife to go with him. The attitude and customs of these people surprised Eusebio. They didn't drink, they treated each other with the utmost respect, they studied the Bible, and they put in practice the words of the holy scriptures." After being baptized by the two itinerant preachers, Aarón Joaquín resigned from the army, and along with his wife became domestic workers to the two preachers.
History from multiple religious sources all agree that around his conversion, or soon after, Aaron Juaquin had met oneness Pentecostal pastor Francisco Borrego, the man he called his "father in the faith", for having instructed him in doctrine, notably baptism in the name of Jesus Christ. According to La Luz del Mundo's Vida y obra del Apostol Aaron Juaquin, He had been converted in the "Iglesia Apostólica de la Fe en Cristo Jesus". On the name of Borrego's movement, witnesses from an LLDM book recalled;
"Francisco Borrego, who because of a deliberate question by Mr. Joaquín over the origin and social meaning behind this organization, his response was that this community was known as Iglesia Cristiana Espiritual".
This explanation was the one given by Juaquin when asked about his affiliation by church members in Guadalajara. It was retold by José María Gonzalez in his 1956 introduction of the 'Constitucion de La Iglesia del Buen Pastor' after splitting from what would become La Luz del Mundo.
During the 1920s, Mexico underwent a period of instability under the administration of Plutarco Elías Calles, who was seeking to limit the influence of the Catholic Church to modernize and centralize the state within the religious sphere of Mexican society. To protest Calles's policies, the Catholic Church suspended all religious services, bringing about an uprising in Mexico. This uprising, or Cristero War, lasted from 1926 to 1929 and reemerged in the 1930s. On April 6, 1926, Aarón Joaquín had a vision in which God changed his name from Eusebio to Aarón and told him to leave Monterrey, where he and his wife served Saulo and Silas. On his journey, he preached near the entrances of Catholic churchesoften facing religious persecutionuntil he arrived at Guadalajara on December 12, 1926. The Cristero Wars impacted both Catholic and non-Catholic congregations and preachers, especially evangelical movements. Small movements were attacked by the government and the Cristeros, resulting in a hostile environment for Aarón Joaquín's work.
Early years
Working as a shoe vendor, Aarón Joaquín formed a group of ten worshipers who met at his wife's apartment. He began constructing the Church's hierarchy by instituting the first two deaconesses, Elisa Flores and Francisca Cuevas. Later he charged the first minister to oversee fourteen congregations in Ameca, Jalisco. During these early years, Aarón Joaquín traveled to the states of Michoacán, Nayarit, and Sinaloa to preach. In 1931, the first Santa Cena was held to commemorate the crucifixion of Jesus. The Church met in rural areas, fearing complaints from Catholic neighbors. Urbanization contributed migrants from the countryside who added a significant number of members to the Church.In 1934, a temple was built in Sector Libertad of Guadalajara's urban zone and members were encouraged to buy homes in the same neighborhood, thereby establishing a community. The temple was registered as Iglesia Cristiana Espiritual, the church Aaron had been baptized in, but Aarón Joaquín claimed to have received God's word in the dedication of the temple, saying that it was "light of the world" and that they were the Iglesia del Dios Vivo, Columna y Apoyo de la Verdad. The Church used the latter name to identify itself. In 1939, it moved to a new meeting place at 12 de Octubre street in San Antonio in southeast Guadalajara, forming its second small community which was populated mainly by its members. The community was formed to escape a hostile religious environment. It was not designed as an egalitarian society.
In 1937, La Luz del Mundo officially split from the Iglesia Cristiana Evangélica Espiritual A man named Francisco Borrego, the Pastor General of the movement at the time, wanted to know the doctrine being preached in Guadalajara. His disagreements with Aaron led to a split due to said doctrine. This is mentioned by José Maria Gonzalez R. in his 1956 writing on the brief history of LLDM before the 1942 schism. The name of the church was changed to Iglesia Cristiana Espiritual La Luz del Mundo to distinguish it from its previous denomination, and it would remain as the legal name of LLDM until the 1990s.
In 1938, Aarón Joaquín returned to Monterrey to preach to his former associates. There he learned that he had been baptized using the Trinitarian formula and not in the name of Jesus Christ as he preached. His re-baptism in the name of Christ by his collaborator Lino Figueroa marked Aarón Joaquín's separation from the rest of the Pentecostal community.
Schism of 1942
In August 1942, during its most significant schism, at least 250 members left La Luz del Mundo. Tensions began to build after Aarón Joaquín's birthday, when the congregation in Guadalajara gave him gifts of flowers and perfume and sang hymns celebrating his birthday. Having received word, this celebration generated a heated debate that culminated with the defection of three LLDM congregations and two missions with most of their members, including their pastors. The issue was brought up whether the birthday of the "servant of God" should be celebrated, along with the celebration of birthdays in general, according to New Testament texts on banquets.LLDM's 2008 book Hechos del Apóstol Aaron states the following in chapter 6,in the section titled la Division:
"There were some pastors who for some time had wanted to separate from the church, and had begun to plant the foundation for the argument of Aaron's corruption with the following harangue, "Why does brother Aaron accept that people sing him hymns in honor of his birthday? Why does he accept flowers? Where in doctrine does it states that neckties should be worn? Should the church of God accept doctors and medics? Should birthdays be celebrated in the church of God?" At the end they said, "What a perfect work, what marvelous act has God done for us! He brought us from impurity, from sin, from injustices, from evil. For love of him we left properties, families, commodities... we've done good leaving everything for Jesus Christ... brothers... and if Aaron were corrupted... would we consent his sin? -NOOO! Shouted the church, having been deceived by these traitors. And they added; -"we will continue to defend the holy and pure doctrine unto death". In the following Sunday School meeting, these pastors announced from their ministry - "Aaron has been corrupted, Aaron has been corrupted." The questions they threw at the church were without foundation, the dissidents weaved a tangled web of false arguments, to arrive at the false accusation, the dishonor, the confrontation, and attacking the prestige of the servant of God".
Anthropologist Renée de la Torre described this schism as a power struggle in which Aarón Joaquín was accused of having enriched himself at the expense of the faithful. Church dissidents took to local newspaper El Occidental to accuse church members of committing immoralities with young women. Aaron Joaquin was accused by dissidents of adultery with a young woman, Guadalupe Avelar, back in around 1938, and supposedly fathered a boy by the name of Abel Avelar. According to Esbozo Historico De La Iglesia del Buen Pastor, Avelar had confided in the dissidents, and had become a part of them. Some of the accusations were aimed to close down a temple that the Church used with government permission. Members of La Luz del Mundo attribute this episode to the envy and ambition of the dissidents and their leader, who formed their own group called "la Iglesia del Dios Vivo, Columna y Apollo de la Verdad, El Buen Pastor" under the leadership of José María González, the pastor in Colonia Vallejo, Mexico City, with doctrines and practices similar to those of La Luz del Mundo. According to Gill, their leader is considered a prophet of God. Their current leader is bishop president Pablo Aguilar Figueroa. As of 2010, El Buen Pastor has a membership of 17,700 in Mexico. Among those who defected to El Buen Pastor was Lino Figueroa, the pastor who had re-baptized Aarón Joaquín in 1938. Others include pastors Jose Isabel Acevedo from San Pedro Totoltepec, Vicente Martinez from Cuaotla, and Domingo Vega from Cuernavaca. The 14 August celebration of Aaron Juaquin's birthday became an annual church tradition, with all ministers being required to attend the mother church in Guadalajara, a custom that eventually merged with the Santa Cena, which before had been observed around December/January for New Years.
LLDM's Hechos del Apóstol Aaron states that Joaquín had been foretold of a heavy trail at the beginning of that year, only to bear much fruit in the end. Later, Aarón Joaquín had a vision in July 1943 where the baptism by Figueroa was invalidated and he was ordered to re-baptize himself invoking Jesus' name. The whole congregation was re-baptized as well, as now Aarón Joaquín was the source of baptismal legitimacy and authenticity. With all those who had challenged him gone, Aarón Joaquín was able to consolidate leadership of La Luz del Mundo.