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Maran-atha was the official periodical of the National and International Pentecostal Missionary Union (NIPMU), a Pentecostal denomination founded in 1914 by Philip Wittich. Wittich, born in Wurttemberg in 1859, immigrated to the U.S. with his father's family in 1881. He graduated from Lutheran Seminary in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania in 1884 and was ordained by the Evangelical Lutheran Synod of New York and New Jersey. He served several Lutheran and Evangelical congregations in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana. While pastoring St. Paul's Evangelical Protestant Church of Allegheny, Pennsylvania (1899-1906), he came "to know Jesus as his personal Saviour and healer." At his next parish, St. Paul's Lutheran Church of New Bremen, Ohio, his zealous preaching of salvation through repentance caused a "mighty revolution" in the congregation and community. A crisis in the church caused Wittich to leave and organize a mission, Christ Church, in the same city. Wittich was Spirit-baptized in 1912, as were all the members of Christ Church soon thereafter. He formed the National and International Pentecostal Missionary Union in 1914 and incorporated the organization in Ohio on June 5, 1919. Wittich began publication of Maran-atha in 1919. Maran-atha included theological articles and news from churches and missionaries. Wittich accepted the pastorate of Stone Church in Chicago in 1924, then left to organize Christ Church in Chicago in April 1928. Wittich suspended publication of Maran-atha during his pastoral tenure at the Stone Church, which published its own periodical, the Latter Rain Evangel. In March 1930, NIPMU claimed 238 credentialed ministers, including 45 foreign missionaries. Most stateside ministers resided in California, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin. Maran-atha apparently ceased publication in 1935 or 1936. NIPMU was renamed the International Pentecostal Church and merged with the Association of Pentecostal Assemblies on August 25, 1936 to form the International Pentecostal Assemblies (IPA). The IPA merged with the Pentecostal Church of Christ on August 10, 1976 to form the International Pentecostal Church of Christ.

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