The Apostolic Christian Church (Nazarean) -- frequently referred to as the ACC -- is a denomination which teaches that the grace of GOD has been made available to all men through the shed blood of Jesus Christ, His Son; that the only way to fellowship with GOD the Father is through absolute confidence that Jesus paid the penalty for our sin by shedding His blood at Calvary, and obedience to His will as revealed by His Holy Spirit. While we believe and teach that those who have this faith gladly do good things for their fellowmen, we absolutely reject any notion that the good deeds men do can in any way pay for their salvation.
Because we hold such 'old fashioned' views as the inherently sinful nature of man and his need to be reborn "not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of GOD" we, like numerous other 'evangelical' denominations, trace our roots back to the congregations established by the original Apostles of Jesus. Just as most denominations began as small fellowships of believers keeping a tradition of worship, so our denomination began in the early 1800's in Switzerland.There a young preacher named Samuel H. Froehlich came to understand that despite the fact that he had been baptized as a baby in the Protestant state church and was a trained theologian, he was separated from fellowship with GOD because of his sinful human nature. Searching the Bible anew, he realized that the reason Jesus had died was to pay for Sam Froehlich's personal misdeeds, and when he accepted this salvation, he was reborn by the Holy Spirit of GOD. Froehlich began to preach the gospel of redemption through faith in the shed blood of Jesus and the need to be born again, and was soon excommunicated from the national church.
Undaunted, Froehlich continued to preach in open fields and in private houses; he was continually in danger of being jailed for this and had to travel from town to town at night to avoid arrest. He married, and because he did not belong to the national church the officials did not recognize his marriage as legitimate; his wife was thrown in jail for prostitution every time one of their children was born. In 1844 he was finally banished to France.
Shortly after the American Civil War, a number of young converts emigrated to the United States. Small congregations sprang up wherever they settled. In the early 1900's a disagreement arose over the practice of some traditional Eastern European customs and the Apostolic Christian Church (Nazarean) split away from the Apostolic Christian Church of America. Doctrinally the two have remained nearly identical; the division does not exist in the European congregations. Both groups actively support both domestic and foreign missions and relief work, with delegates from both groups often serving on the same committees.
We invite you to worship and work with us, to the honor and glory of GOD.