GUIDANCE FOR CATHOLICS ON THE TEACHINGS OF THE IGLESIA NI CRISTO
TEACHINGS OF THE IGLESIA NI CRISTO (A
QUASI-CHRISTIAN SECT IN THE PHILIPPINES, NOW CELEBRATING 100 YEARS OF
FOUNDATION) AND COMMENTARY (MATERIAL THANKS TO THE CBCP).
(FOR THE GUIDANCE OF
THE CATHOLIC FAITHFUL WHO ARE ALWAYS TARGETED BY THE GROUP FOR CONVERSION TO THEIR RELIGIOUS BODY)
PART I: Basic Teachings of the Iglesia
ni Cristo[1]
I.
The Bible
(p.13)
The Iglesia ni Cristo (Church of
Christ) believes that the words of God are written in the Bible; that when the Bible speaks, God Himself speaks.
So, when the Bible is silent, the Iglesia ni Cristo is silent, too, for it
recognizes no other basis and authority in serving God except the Bible.
II.
God
(p.15)
There is only one God. He is
unchangeable: “For I the Lord do not change” (Mal. 3:6, RSV). He did not and
will not, become man or anything. He is immutable: contrary to the belief of
those who teach that Christ is God that became flesh. Christ is man, not God.
And God is not man. “For I am God”, He emphasized, “and not man” (Hos. 11-19).
He alone is God (Ps. 86:10). “For I am
God, and there is no other” (Is. 45:21-22; Is. 46:9-10; Dt. 32:39, RSV). The
INC interprets these as proof against
the Trinity of Persons in one God.
III.
Man (pp.
17, 19)
Indeed to fear God and to keep his
commandments is the whole duty of man (Ecc. 12:13). It is man’s duty to serve
God. In return, God will bless “the bread and water” (symbols of man’s
livelihood) of those who serve Him (Ex. 23:25). To them, the goodness and mercy
of God will abide (Ps 23:6), above all the blessings of salvation and life
everlasting.
Because of sin, man was separated from
God thereby losing his right to serve and deify (sic) God (Is. 59: 2). It was God Himself who provided the means by
which man could return to Him: the precious Blood of Jesus Christ which served
as atonement for man’s sin (Eph. 2:13; Col. 1: 20-21).
The
members of the Church of Christ which our Lord Jesus Christ purchased with His
own Blood (Acts 20:28) are the only ones benefited by His death. To them alone, the right to serve and
deify (sic) God is restored.
IV.
The
Church (pp. 19, 27, 29, 34, 37, 39; 61; 63)
God’s law requires that every man shall
suffer death for his own sin (Dt. 24:16). Christ, as Savior, took upon Himself
what the divine justice demands by creating the one new man (consisting of Him
as the Head and the Church that He built as the Body) thus, assuming accountability
for the sins of the redeemed (Eph. 2:15).
Christ died on the Cross for His
Church. And His death signifies the redemption only of the members of His
Church, and not of anybody else (Eph. 5:25).
(a)
Baptism
Just as Christ died
on the cross and after death He was buried, so also is he who receives baptism
is buried. And just as Christ did not remain but in the grave but rose from the
dead by the glory of God, so also those who are baptized do not remain immersed
in the water (Rom 6:4). To effect such
“burial” the one baptizing and the one who is to be baptized must both go down
into the water (immersion).
(b)
Membership in the Church of Christ is necessary for
salvation
Any
man can enter Christ (“I am the door…” – Jn. 10:9) by becoming a member of
Christ’s Body which is the Church that He built, or the Church of Christ (Mt.
16:18; I Cor. 12:27; Col. 1:18; Acts 20:28, Lamsa Version). So the Church is necessary. But not just
any Church; only the Church which is the Body of Christ wherein God’s will is
fulfilled that all men be gathered in Christ as members and consequently attain
salvation and eternal life. This is God’s plan of salvation.
(c)
Faith is not enough: one must be part of the Church of
Christ
Therefore,
to reject the Church is to reject our Lord Jesus Christ. Because to reject the
Body is to reject its Head. It does not suffice therefore to accept Christ
alone and disregard the Church to attain salvation. The
faith-alone-in-Christ-and never-mind the-Church concept is a false doctrine and
a dangerous one at that.
Faith
is made perfect if it is accompanied by works (James 2:22). A man may
wholeheartedly believe in God and in Christ but so long as he is outside the
Church of Christ – meaning he has not complied with the command of Christ and
therefore his faith is without works – he remains condemned to the lake of fire.
Evidently,
the place of reconciliation is the Church of Christ. To be reconciled to God
and be saved, one must become a member thereof. Unless he becomes a part of the
Church of Christ or Body of Christ he is not embraced by the redemptive death
of Christ; he is imperiled by the impending penalty for sinners (Jn.8:24). He
is, in short, doomed.
(d)
The true religion should be called “Church of Christ”
Our
Lord Jesus Christ called the Church that He built, “My Church” (Mt. 16:18). Any
Church not built by Christ would not be called by Him “My Church”. The true
Church built by Christ is called by name. It is the mark set by Christ Himself
to identify His sheep (Jn. 10:3). What’s in a name? So far as the true Church
is concerned, salvation is in the name (Acts 4:10, 12). To adhere to any
religion not bearing the name of Christ does not belong to Him.
The Apostles aptly called the one and
only true Church that Christ built, Church of Christ (Acts 20:28, Lamsa
Version) or Iglesia ni Cristo, in Pilipino. This is the only true Church, the one upon which the name of Our Lord
Jesus Christ is called (Acts 15:17-18).
(e)
The new chosen
people of God
Man
cannot be saved by his own works much less by his faith alone. Rather, God
elects the people on whom He shall bestow the gift of salvation. He sets them
apart to be godly before His sight and hears them when they call upon Him (Ps
4:3).
After
the fall of Israel, a new and chosen generation was elected by God to a royal
priesthood, bestowed with the right to offer praises and homage to Him. They
were called to the Kingdom of His Son – the Lord Jesus Christ (I Pt 3:9; Col
1:13). These chosen people are the members of the Church of Christ. They, being
in Christ, are “Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise” (Gal.
3:29).
V.
Jesus Christ (pp. 21, 23, 25)
The Lord Jesus Christ
has unique attributes which cannot be found in any other human being. Christ is
the God-appointed Savior of mankind. Such exclusive office is the very purpose
for which Jesus Christ was born. Not only is Christ appointed by God as Savior
and Mediator, He is to be reverenced by all: “But in your hearts reverence
Christ as Lord” (I Pt 3:15). He is the only man who is sinless, as Apostle
Peter testifies: “He committed no sin; no guile was found on his lips (I Pt
2:22, RSV). He is the only advocate of the sinner (I Jn 2:1, RSV).
(a)
Jesus Christ is not
God
Despite His uniqueness when compared to all other men,
Christ remains man in His state of being. Christ is never the true God. He is a
true man (“But now you seek
to kill me, a man who has told you the truth which I heard from God” Jn. 8:40).
When Apostle Mathew gave his account of the birth of Christ, he said that in
the womb of Mary was a child (Mt 1:18), not a god.
Christ, since birth,
was subjected to the experiences and circumstances of human life, inherent in
all men (sin, of course, excluded). The true God has no beginning nor is He a
son of man (Ps 90:2; Num 23:19). He is Spirit (Jn. 4:24); He does not grow
weary (Is 40:28), does not sleep (Ps 121:4). The true God is immortal (I Tim
1:17).
So Christ could not
be God. Neither could He be God that became man, nor could He be both true God
and true man at the same time. Christ is a man. But God is not man (Hosea
11:9). Therefore Christ is not God.
VI.
The
Apostasy of the Church (pp. 43)
The
Church established by Christ Jerusalem in the first century did not continue to
exist. It has apostatized.
But it does not mean that those who were responsible for the apostasy
established another Church; that same Church strayed away from the pristine
Christian faith.
(a)
The
doctrine of demons
Apostle
Paul foretold (sic) the Christians
then that there will be a departure from the faith because some will give heed
to “deceitful spirits or doctrines of demons” (I Tim 4:1). According to him,
after his death, men will arise who will speak perverse things to draw away the
disciples of Christ after them (Acts 20:30). The perverse things which they
will speak are the doctrines of demons, two of which are “Forbidding to marry,
and commanding to abstain from meats” (I Tim 4:3).
Apostle
Peter called them false prophets who will bring in destructive heresies
denying the Master, the Lord Jesus
Christ, by rejecting Him as Head of the Church, as the stone foundation and by
rejecting His name (2 Pt 2:1; Acts 2:36; 4:10-12; Eph 2:20).
Another
distinguishing mark of the apostates is the one described by Apostle Paul: “the
man of sin … showing himself that he is God” (2 Thess. 2:3-4).
(b) The Catholic Church: apostate Church
One does not need to go too far to
learn that the Catholic Church upholds and teaches the two above-mentioned
doctrines of demons. The Catholic Church denied the Lord Christ’s Headship by
putting Peter and the Popes in His stead. It denied the Lord’s position as the stone
foundation, again by putting Peter in His stead. It rejected His name, Christ
by sporting such an unscriptural name as Roman Catholic Church. And the Pope’s usurpation of the Fatherhood of God
(God being the Father of Souls) fits well to Apostle Paul’s description, of the
man of sin. So now the Catholic cannot evade the accusing finger of his
biblical revelation. The Catholic Church is the apostate Church. This also
proves beyond doubt apostasy was a fact.
VII.
The Re-establishment of the Church (p.47)
The sheep of Christ
with promise belong to three groups. The first and second groups – the Jews and
the Gentiles – were already called and already in the fold during the time of
Christ and the apostles. The third group was still “far off” and they are not
yet called then; they are yet to be called by God (Acts 2:39) to become one
flock or one Church of Christ (Acts 20:28, Lamsa
Version).
So when the Iglesia ni Cristo appeared in the Philippines in
1914, a prophecy was fulfilled, a prophecy which God Himself told: “From the
Far East will I bring your offspring” (Is. 43:5, Moffat).
(a)
Iglesia ni Cristo: the Church from the Far East
The north (Protestant Church which came
to the Philippines from North America) will give them up, and the south (Roman
Catholic Church which came to the Philippines from Rome in southern Europe)
cannot keep them back. For God said, “Bring my sons from afar and my daughters
from the ends of the earth” (Is. 43:6).
These children of God from the Far East
(Apostle Peter said they are the ones who “are afar off”) belongs to the third
group of Christ’s sheep. They are called by the name created by God for His
glory: the name Christ. This name is called upon the children of God in the Far
East. They are called Church of Christ because they are the one flock (Church)
of Christ (Is. 43:7; Acts 2:36; Phil. 2:9; Rom. 16:16).
(b) Significance of July
27, 1914
They are the other sheep of Christ who
will be called “from the ends of the earth”. The ends of the earth signify the time before the end of the world or the second coming of Christ which is signaled
manifestly by “wars and rumors of wars” (Mt 24:6). This war occurred in 1914
and was better known as the First World War. It was during that time that the
children of God in the Far East or in the Philippines were called. Indeed, at
the outbreak of the war on July 27, 1914, the Iglesia ni Cristo was
concurrently officially registered in the Philippine government.
VIII.
The Messenger (“Ang
Sugo”): Felix Manalo
Felix Manalo was the messenger of God instrumental in the
re-establishment of the Church of Christ after it was apostatized.
Isaiah 46:11 articulates
one of the prophecies on the Last Messenger of God: “Calling a bird of prey
from the east, the man of my counsel from a far country. I have spoken and I
will bring it to pass; I have purposed and I will do it” (RSV). In this
prophecy, the bird is from the east and the man, who is also the bird, is from
a far country. So this bird of prey who is a man of God’s counsel or who does
the counsel or word of God (Ps 107:11) is from the Far East or the Philippines.
(Note: In INC doctrine, the Philippines
is
the Far East; it is not merely in the Far East.)
He is called bird of
prey because the sons and daughters of God from the Far East or the Philippines
are being hindered by the north and the south (representing Protestantism and
Catholicism) and the messenger of God has to bring them out of these two
religions (Is. 43:6).
Felix Manalo also
fulfills the prophecy in Revelation 7:2-3: “Then I saw another angel rising
where the sun rises, carrying the seal of the living God…”
IX.
The Resurrection of Christ and of His members (i.e., of the Iglesia
ni Cristo)
To redeem the members
of His Church (i.e., the parts of the Body of the one new man He created)
Christ being their Head, died for them. He died on the Cross, was buried, was
resurrected by God on the third day, and after forty days He was gloriously
taken up into heaven.
Those who will
resurrect into life everlasting are those who died as members of the Church of
Christ, and since they are Christ’s they will experience the first resurrection
(Rev. 20:6) for “the dead in Christ shall rise first” (I Tim 4:16). Then shall
come to pass that which is written, “I will build my Church, and the powers of
death shall not prevail against it” (Mt 16:18, RSV).
X.
Felix Manalo
He was born on May
10, 1886 in Taguig, Rizal province. After the death of his mother (Bonifacia
Manalo) he decided to use her surname instead of his father’s (Mariano Ysagun).
With the introduction of Protestant teachings at the turn of the 20th
century, he first joined the Methodist Episcopal Church. He was trained in the
Methodist Theological Seminary and became an evangelist. In 1907 he moved to
the Presbyterians, and became a pastor after attending the Union Theological
Seminary. In 1910, he joined another group called “Christian Mission” because
he preferred their way of baptizing by immersion. The following year he joined
the Seventh-Day Adventists, eventually becoming a pastor. But soon after, he
left the group.
Unsatisfied with the
various Christian groups, he set out to examine the different teachings he was
exposed to. In 1913 he isolated himself in his room for two days and three
nights, and compared all those teachings with what is found in the Bible. He
emerged from that isolation convinced that he had found the truth, and that he
felt obliged by God to proclaim it.
He died on April 12,
1963.
PART II: Some
Comments on the Teachings of the INC
1.
While professing reverence towards the Bible, the INC
interprets it to suit its doctrines, no matter how arbitrarily it is done (the
“proof-text approach” abused). It selects a version of the Bible as long as the
name “Church of Christ” comes out. For instance: Acts 20:28 (for this, the Lamsa version is used; the majority of
Bible translations say “Church of God”). And as a scriptural basis for the
mission of Felix Manalo, the INC uses the translation of Isaiah 43:5 according
to the Moffatt version).
a)
George Lamsa (1892-1975), the author of “The Holy
Bible from Ancient Eastern Manuscripts” based his translation of the New
Testament on Aramaic, not Greek. Even Protestant Bible Scholars question
Lamsa’s orthodoxy. Lamsa’s Bible is accepted by the INC, Jehovah’s Witnesses
and Christadelphians. Based on his other writings (he wrote 21 books), his
beliefs on the Holy Trinity, on Jesus Christ as a divine Person with a true
divine nature and a true human nature are not in accord with the Christian
faith. He is considered a follower of Nestorianism (declared erroneous in AD
431 in the Council of Ephesus). For him the Holy Spirit is not a Divine Person
but “influence”, “effectiveness”, “hidden power”. The INC follows this teaching
on the Holy Spirit.
b)
James Moffatt (1870-1944), A Scottish scholar, later
on a professor of Church History at the Union Theological Seminary, New York,
he published his Bible translation in 1926, known as the “Moffatt, New
Translation”. In his desire to make the Bible readable, he freely translated
and paraphrased many passages, and even changed the established order of the
Chapters. Thus, Moffatt renders Isiah 43:5, that Felix Manalo used as source of
the identify of God’s last messenger (Felix Manalo) as: “from the Far East will
I bring your offspring”. The Revised Standard Version (RSV) says: “I will bring
your offspring from the east, and from the west I will gather you”.
2.
While the INC frequently says “Our Lord Jesus Christ” in its
official publications, it denies His divinity. But in the Greek Old Testament,
“Lord” stands for the divine name Yahweh. From the early beginnings of the
Church the name “Lord” (Kyrios, in
Greek) has been used as an expression of faith in Jesus Christ’s divinity. “So
then, as you received Jesus as Lord, and Christ, now live your lives in Him…”
(Col. 2:6); “… and every tongue should acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord, to the
glory of God the Father” (Phil. 2:11). See also 2 Peter 1, passim.
The
INC’s teachings on Jesus Christ are a mere repetition of the “heresies”of the
early centuries of Christianity, in particular, “Monarchianism” of the second
century. Monarchianism taught that God is only God the Father; thus, it denied
the Trinity, the eternity of the Logos (the second Person),and reduced the Holy
Spirit to a mere “force” of God the Father; consequently, Jesus Christ is not
God. This is the same belief held by the Jehovah’s Witnesses and Unitarians.
How
does INC interpret John 1:1? –-- “In the beginning was the Word: the Word was with
God, and the Word was God”. “Word” refers to God’s “purpose” that Christ would
be created, and this was fulfilled at his birth in Bethlehem. Using Moffatt’s
translation (“and the Word was divine”), the INC says that the “Word” had a
divine quality, but it is not God.
From
the beginning of her history, the Church has always defended the mystery of
Jesus Christ’s being “true God and true man”; the Church never wavered from
asserting Jesus’ true and complete human nature (with a human body and a human
soul) as much as it has defended His being a divine Person (“consubstantial with the Father”, as we
say in the Creed).
3.
The revelation about the Holy Trinity is at the heart and
source of the entire Christian Faith. The “Creed” that was formed as a result
of the Ecumenical Councils of Nicea (AD 325) and Constantinople (AD 381) stress
the divinity of the Second Person (“The Word”) and of the Third Person (“The
Holy Spirit”) of the Holy Trinity. When the INC denies that there are three
distinct Persons in one God it closes its mind to the obvious statements of the
Lord Jesus Christ about this mystery (e.g., Gospel according to John; Mtt.28:19).
Consequently,
the baptism in the INC is not equivalent to a Christian baptism.
4.
The INC claim that the Church committed apostasy in the 1st
century (after the death of the apostles) is indefensible:
(a)
Carefully study the History of the Church, from the 1st
century up to the present. The INC implies that the numerous Christian martyrs
of the first 300 years were mistaken in their beliefs.
(b) If the Church had
apostatized that early, then the Holy Bible that the INC is using as the only
source of its teachings does not merit the INC’s reverence and faith. For,
which authority decided which books should be considered divinely inspired and
thus deserved to be part of the New Testament? ---- The Catholic Church. It was
in the Synod of Hippo (North Africa) in AD 393 ---- that St. Augustine
participated in ---- that the Canon of 27 New Testament books as we know it now
was formally accepted.
5.
In the past centuries, every “new prophet” who claimed to be
a messenger of God --- in order to strengthen his credibility ---- would say
the same thing: the Church committed apostasy in the early centuries. Thus,
they consider themselves founders of a “Restorationist church”. If in the 21st
century, a new messenger would accuse Felix Manalo of having committed apostasy
(by using the same Bible texts used by Mr. Manalo), what defense would the INC
offer? If each “new prophet” interprets the Holy Scriptures according to his
own mind, then the cycle would be endless, and the biggest loser would be God
Himself (non-believers would scorn the Bible even more).
6.
The INC’s claim that the Catholic Church apostatized because
it changed its original name (“Church of Christ”) ignores that part of the
Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed: “I believe in one, holy, catholic and
apostolic Church”. It is obvious in this sentence that the word “catholic” is
an adjective (from the Greek katholikos:
universal), expressing an essential characteristic of the Church founded by the
Lord Jesus Christ. The use of the name did not begin in the 4th
century: “Where there is Christ Jesus, there is the Catholic Church” (St.
Ignatius of Antioch, bishop and martyr, a discipleof St. John, apostle; died at
the end of the 1st century).
7.
Like all “exclusivist” doctrines, the INC appropriates as
its own Revelation 7: 3:8 --- the “sealed ones”, the 144,000 members of the
twelve tribes of Israel, are the only ones to receive salvation. In contrast,
the Catholic teaching is this: yes, every person has the obligation to seek the
truth and embrace it; however, “those who, through no fault of their own, do
not know the Gospel of Christ or His Church, but who nevertheless seek God with
a sincere heart, and moved by grace, try in their actions to do His will as
they know in through the dictates of their conscience ---- these too may
achieve eternal salvation” (lumen getium,
16; CCC 846-848).
8.
In the Apostolic Exhortation Verbum Domini (2010) Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI wrote: “Where the
faithful are not helped to know the Bible in accordance with the Church’s faith
and based on her living Tradition, this pastoral vacuum becomes fertile ground
for realities like the sects to take root” (no. 73).
a)
In order to reach out to all souls (those already part of
the Church as well as those who are not), he added: “The Holy Spirit, the
protagonist of all evangelization, will never fail to guide “Christ’s Church in
this activity. Yet is important that every form of proclamation keep in mind,
first of all the intrinsic relationship between the communication of God’s
word and Christian witness (no.
79).
b)
“For this reason, the priest himself ought first of all to
develop a personal familiarity with the word of God. Knowledge of its
linguistic and exegetical aspects, though certainly necessary, is not enough.
He needs to approach the word with a docile and prayerful heart so that it may
deeply penetrate his thoughts and feelings and bring about a new outlook in him
--- ‘the mind of Christ’ (1 Cor 2: 16)” (no. 80).
[1]
These
teachings are from the book This is the Iglesia ni Cristo (‘The Church
of Christ”), an official publication of the INC; thus, this text is
a faithful copy of the book (the page numbers indicated refer to the same
book). Some subheadings have been added.
(paki-share po para lalong makatulong sa iba at dumami ang magpuri sa Panginoon. thanks po!)
