A religion headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland and spread throughout the world, holding the belief that there are living apostles that have received the holy spirit to spread to others through the process of holy sealing. The New Apostolic Church and New Apostolic Church North America web pages have more information about the faith.

The Pillar Youth is a new addition for unmarried members in their late twenties.

NACBoard is a link site and message board for English speaking discussions on the New Apostolic Church.

On December 25, 1951, then Chief Apostle Johann Bischoff announced (in translation) that "The period of preparation for the kingly priesthood will culminate under my hand and jurisdiction. All godly activity in the vineyard of the Lord will be concluded with my end. I am the last Chief Apostle; there will be no other after me. So it is decreed in God's Plan of Salvation. As a visible sign that this is in accordance with God's will, the Lord will come in my time in order to take His own unto Himself."

John P. Fendt and Ewald Hiby wrote a message to all congregations on January 12, 1955 suggesting "that a copy be left in each household and be placed in the family Bible. This, in order that it may be read from time to time and remain constantly before us." This became the "status confessionis" of the church which office honders were required to endorse in order to keep their position to the church and new priestly ministries were not confirmed without agreeing with this message.

On July 6, 1960, Johann Bischoff died and his prophecy was not fulfilled. The church refused for some time to admit that the former head of the church had made a mistake, instead claiming that the will of God had changed. A letter from the church went out on July 7, 1960 saying in part; "The undersigned Apostles are aware of the fact that our opponents and enemies will now think that through the death of the Chief Apostle they have reasons for their claim, that the work of salvation is the work of men."

Apostle Walter Schmidt was selected for the position of first Chief Apostle after the "last" one and took that position on July 10, 1960.

The last statement I could find by Chief Apostle Richard Fehr in March 12, 1998 concluded that the Bischoff prophecy "can neither be logically proven nor contradicted."

Links and discussions on the Botschaft in 1955 and 1960:

• The New Apostolic Church
• The Botschaft Doctrine of the New Apostolic Church
• Botschaft Explained- Letters to Members 1955 and 1960
• Botshcaft-NAC History of 1970 & more modern (1998) explanation
• Precious Words of Our Beloved Chief Apostle
• The Stammapostel is nevertheless home-gone...
• Wikipedia on Johann Gottfried Bischoff
• Wikipedia on Neuapostolische Kirche
• Wikipedia on New Apostolic Church
• Google Search: botschaft nak
• Neuapostolische Kirche - Eine kritische Betrachtung (1)
• VAC and NAK moving closer in Switzerland

Critical articles:

• New Apostolic Church by Eryl Davies, March 2003
• New Apostolic Church by Eryl Davies, April 2003
• New Apostolic Church by Eryl Davies, May 2003
• Discussion thread

As I find interesting links by bloggers or writers on either "side" of the discussion, I'm likely to post them here. I have no strong opinion on the "issues" either way. Feel free to e-mail me with suggestions.

Thanks to Rudolf Nebel for the correction on the location of the headquarters.

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