The Megiddo Mission or Megiddo Church is a small American Restorationist denomination founded by L. T. Nichols in 1880 in

Rochester, New York Rochester () is a city in the U.S. state of New York, the seat of Monroe County, and the fourth-most populous in the state after New York City, Buffalo, and Yonkers, with a population of 211,328 at the 2020 United States census. Located i ...

. The church's magazine is the ''Megiddo Message.'' Lemuel T. Nichols was born on October 1, 1844,

Goshen, Indiana Goshen ( ) is a city in and the county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or civil parish. The term is in use in Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, Taiwan, and the United States. Th ...

near

Elkhart, Indiana Elkhart ( ) is a city in Elkhart County, Indiana, United States. The city is located east of South Bend, Indiana, east of Chicago, Illinois, and north of Indianapolis, Indiana. Elkhart has the larger population of the two principal cities of t ...

and was named after his father, Lemuel Truesdale Nichols Sr. – though it appears that the younger Nichols never used his given names. He founded his church in 1880. Nichols conceived an idea of spreading his message by cruising the Mississippi, the Ohio, and their tributaries in a three-deck steamboat, named the Megiddo. When Nichols died on 28 February 1912 at Battle Creek, Michigan, he was quickly succeeded by his assistant Maud Hembree, a female former Catholic convert from Oregon, who took over as pastor. Hembree died in 1935 and was succeeded as pastor of the Rochester church and editor of the magazine by Ella Skeels, Nichols's sister.

Beliefs

The Megiddo Church denies the

doctrine of the Trinity The Christian doctrine of the Trinity (, from 'threefold') is the central dogma concerning the nature of God in most Christian churches, which defines one God existing in three coequal, coeternal, consubstantial divine persons: God the ...

; Jesus is considered God's son and the Holy Spirit is seen as a divine power not a person. They also deny the

immortality of the soul Christian mortalism is the Christian belief that the human soul is not naturally immortal and may include the belief that the soul is “sleeping” after death until the Resurrection of the Dead and the Last Judgment, a time known as the interm ...

, and believe in

resurrection of the dead General resurrection or universal resurrection is the belief in a resurrection of the dead, or resurrection from the dead ( Koine: , ''anastasis onnekron''; literally: "standing up again of the dead") by which most or all people who have died ...

and judgment at the return of Christ. The church does not practice water baptism and practices

communion Communion may refer to: Religion * The Eucharist (also called the Holy Communion or Lord's Supper), the Christian rite involving the eating of bread and drinking of wine, reenacting the Last Supper **Communion (chant), the Gregorian chant that ac ...

once a year at

Passover Passover, also called Pesach (; ), is a major Jewish holiday that celebrates the Biblical story of the Israelites escape from slavery in Egypt, which occurs on the 15th day of the Hebrew month of Nisan, the first month of Aviv, or spring. ...

. Nichols expected the

return of Elijah Return may refer to: In business, economics, and finance * Return on investment (ROI), the financial gain after an expense. * Rate of return, the financial term for the profit or loss derived from an investment * Tax return, a blank document o ...

and rejected the idea of a new Elijah. Nichols is held in the highest esteem by the members of the Megiddo Church, and his birthday, October 1, is celebrated as a holiday second only in importance to Christmas.Patzwald Waiting for Elijah: a history of the Megiddo Mission 2002 "Given that Nichols expected the actual prophet Elijah to return and that he rejected the idea of a new Elijah, ... Since Nichols is held in the highest esteem by the members of the Megiddo Church, as a holiday his birthday is second in ..... According to an article in the Message, "Christmas Day and October 1 are memorable days at Megiddo. It may be a mere coincidence that the birthday of our honored leader comes in the fall, while that of our coming King occurs in the "

References

{{coords, 42.1351, -77.6506, display=title Religious organizations established in 1880 Restorationism (Christianity) Nontrinitarian denominations 1880 establishments in New York (state)