CHURCH OF GOD AND SAINTS OF CHRIST

The history of the Church of God and Saints of Christ goes back a long way to biblical times. This is the old path, the old way spoken of by prophet Jeremiah in (Jeremiah 6:16). This the same Church that Solomon built, and which God called by his name, (1 Kings 5:3, and 1 Kings 9:2-3)

It was in 1896, when the Prophet came from the west, and he rooted up, and he tore down and he established the Church of God. The Almighty God in all his glory revealed this to Prophet William Saunders Crowdy in a dream. He unraveled to him His divine will. He called him from being a Baptist deacon to be His prophet and indeed God worked through him. The Church was organized and incorporated on November 8, 1896, in the land of Oklahoma. Prophet Crowdy established 108 centers in 12 years and a multitude of souls were converted to Christ. He made a lot of material achievements for the Church primarily because, among other reasons he did not use church money for his personal use, but for the work of God. Prophet Crowdy confirmed that he does not use church money for his living; he said he had other means of survival.

“I don’t take a cent from my flock because I have other means of earning a livelihood.” [Philadelphia Daily Press, February 16, 1902]

Among some of the many achievements he achieved, he bought a farmland in Virginia, as a home and refuge for the saints in the day of trouble. Following the Prophet’s demise, there was a leadership wrangle, which led to a major split, which was done by the court. Chief Joseph Crowdy assumed leadership. The other faction was under Bishop J.M. Groves who was the only bishop in the Church other than the Prophet. Some felt that Bishop J. M. Groves; being the only Bishop at that time would be a legitimate successor of the prophet, while others felt that he cannot lead Israel.

These two factions existed doing the same things as from the Prophet, only that they were two different leaderships. In Zimbabwe the other faction of Bishop J.M Groves was not known, hence we continued under Chief Joseph Crowdy’s leadership. This other faction of Bishop Joseph Wesley Crowdy during the leadership of Bishop Howard Zebulun Plummer, in 1963 assumed another doctrine, which was not consistent with the Prophet’s teachings. This teaching did not really blossom during the leadership of the said Bishop. They started denouncing the virgin birth of Jesus Christ, they said he was not the promised Messiah and even his crucifixion does not benefit us. They started drinking wine, and introduced so many other things, which were inconsistent with the teaching of the Church of God and Saints of Christ. The prophet brought us the whole plan of salvation in the Seven Keys, but these seven keys were no longer kept. God didn’t allow this kind of perverse to reach Zimbabwe that time until 1986 when this new teaching landed in the country of Zimbabwe under the Evangelist Ambrose Makuwaza. Not everybody received this teaching and this is the reason why we are still talking about this plan of salvation.

God didn’t forget us, well had Isaiah said, ‘Except the Lord of hosts had not left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom and we should have been like unto Gomorrah” (Isaiah 1:9). This new teaching faced strong resistance from Evangelist Israel Muzamhindo, Elders Martin Chibanda, and Elder Levi Mushonga (then deacon and Sabbath School Superintendents respectively), St Grace Gurure, St Elisha Sikutwa and a few others who were backing them. The last two named individuals fell by the wayside and they found themselves believing in the very same things they firmly stood against. As a result of the doctrinal change, these three men, later followed by others withdrew from the Church and carried on doing as the bible says, holding on to the teachings of the prophet and the testimony of Jesus Christ, which is the spirit of prophecy.This took place in 1993, with an inauspicious start and since then the Church has seen a rapid growth, 16 tabernacles, a central office with a permanent Church Secretary have since been established and the work of the Lord is still going on.

Until June 1994, we used to take the new converts to the Makuwaza’s faction for baptism. One of the Elders, Elder Joshua Madzinga, overseer of Makosa Tabernacle, Mutoko, Zimbabwe refused to baptise the new members and that is when we came to a realization that it’s time that we do the work of God not allowing anything or anyone to stand in God’s way. Coming from Mutoko, we performed our first baptism and upon arrival in Harare, deacon Israel Muzamhindo was consecrated to the office of an elder and superintendents Martin Chibanda and Levi Mushonga were elevated to the ranks of deacons. In 2001, the last two men were elevated to be Elders and at the same time they elevated Elder Israel Muzamhindo to the office of an Evangelist. Evangelist Israel in 2001 was planning to come to the United States where he is residing at this present time. He set up three men as leaders whilst he is away. Elder Martin became the Elder-in charge, an overseer over all the churches in Zimbabwe. He was and is followed in line by Elder Levi Mushonga and finally Elder Densen Ratimba, also a very prominent figure in our history. Then on Thammuz 4, 2009, Elder Martin was elevated to the office of an Evangelist.

HOW THE CHURCH CAME TO AFRICA
In 1902 Prophet W.S Crowdy had some visitations from God in which he was shown a man in a dream. This dream kept on coming back to him and he was exceedingly troubled. Simultaneously, that man whose name was Albert Christian was also seeing the Prophet in a dream and he was also troubled until he journeyed to England hoping to find that man. Still the dream troubled him even more and when he found out that he was on the wrong end, he journeyed to the United States of America and went to the city of New York. Still he could not find the man who troubled him in his sleep. Somehow, the Spirit of the Lord led him to Philadelphia were he met Prophet W.S Crowdy sitting outside Noah’s Ark Store (A church grocery store). They hugged each other and started to cry as each one related how the Lord had worked towards their meeting together.

Prophet Crowdy took Bishop Christian to his house and after teaching him about the Church, he sent him back to Africa, South Africa. It is amazing to see that Bishop Christian used to be a member of the Methodist Church but when he went to Africa he preached the Church of God and Saints of Christ. The Church started in Uitenhage, South Africa and spread to other parts of South Africa

HOW THE CHURCH CAME TO ZIMBABWE
History is not very clear as to how the Church came to Zimbabwe. It was in the 1930’s. A Malawian man by the name Mpande came to Zimbabwe from South Africa preaching about the Church. He preached the Church but not fully according to what the Church teaches. This raised eyebrows to people in Zimbabwe and they began to have a quest to find out the real truth about the Church from where this man came from. This Mpande used to mention the name Elder Mdaka and the people in Zimbabwe found Elder Mdaka’s address in Mpande’s briefcase.

A trip was organized to send a man to S.Africa and that man was Charangwa. This man met torrid times, he had anticipated being in S.Africa in a few days, hence he used a bicycle. The journey took months but finally he got there and was arrested for travelling without proper traveling documents.
When Elder Mdaka was contacted by the police, he said they knew each other as a result Charangwa was released and went to Elder Mdaka’s house where he was taught about the Church. It was good news to the Zimbabweans because the unadulterated truth of the Church was finally revealed to them.