July 27, 2014
…Unless the LORD build the house, they labor in vain who build it… (Psalm 127:1)
One hundred years have passed since Felix Manalo and others founded the Iglesia ni Cristo on the allegation that the original Church of Christ, the Catholic Church, apostatized. To understand and test the truthfulness of this claim, let us go back to the bible.
The people of Israel in the Old Testament prefigure the Church in the New Testament. The Israelites suffered persecutions and enslavement when pagan nations conquered them as a result of their sins. These trials went on for hundreds of years. Nevertheless, in those many years, God never abandoned them. Despite their unfaithfulness, God remained faithful to His covenant with His people and continued to send prophets to remind them of the covenants they swear and the obligation to fulfil them. Finally, God sent His only begotten Son, but still they did not listen and kill Him instead. This resulted to the vineyard finally being taken from the Israelites (Luke 20:9-19) and a new covenant was established between Christ and His Church:
And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which will be shed for you. (Luke 22:20)
Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ loved the church and handed himself over for her (Eph 5:25)
This new covenant is said to be better than the previous:
to that same degree has Jesus (also) become the guarantee of an (even) BETTER COVENANT. (Heb. 7:22)
If we Christians have a better covenant than the Israelites, would it therefore be logical that we can continually exist longer and better than the Israelites? Would it be reasonable to conclude that we become more faithful than them considering the Holy Spirit was sent to guide us (John 14:16-17)? It is therefore unreasonable to claim that the entire Christianity apostatized after only few years of its existence. It is a great insult to the apostles who were taught by Christ, receivers of the promise of the Holy Spirit and builders of local churches or branches. It is a slap on the faces of the early Christians who were first hand students of the Apostles, but, in the span of few years, were totally overcome by deceptions as Iglesia ni Cristo of Manalo asserts. Yet, here is the church founded by Manalo and others, claiming to profess the authentic teachings of Christ, debating supposed heretics, establishing churches worldwide and now celebrating its ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF EXISTENCE. Its claim of apostasy in the early Church leads to the inevitable conclusions:
1. That the Apostles and their followers should’ve learned better ways (the Manalos’ ways) of evangelizing so as to survive longer;
2. That the Founder of the True Church in the New Testament and His successors do not know how to run, much more protect and preserve the Church against those who threatened its existence, unlike the church of the Manalos who has a debating team to answer doctrinal issues and a legal team to secure the succession of the church’s headship from Felix Manalo’s son to his grandson until probably to the next generations of Manalos.
3. That the pillars of the Church (Eph. 2:20) is of low quality, that they easily crumble to heresies and Jesus Christ, the Church’s architect, was not able to build a durable Church. Again, very different from the Iglesia ni Cristo of Felix Manalo who allegedly overcomes in its debates Catholics who overthrew the Early Christians. From this, it follows that Manalo’s Church accomplished what the early Christians, who were first hand students of the apostles, failed to achieve. Hence, the church of the Manalos is far superior to the original Church Jesus Christ founded.
Needless to say, all these three conclusions are baseless and absurd. This is because all of these including the establishment of the Iglesia founded by Manalo are based on the premise that the early Church apostatized. Such a foundation is sand and therefore doctrines pillared on it will not stand the test of faith and reason.
Our Lord never lied when He said to His Church,
“behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age. (Mat. 28:20.)”
“I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you (John 14:18.)
Only the Catholic Church can respond to these words and say,
“Heaven and earth will pass away, but your words will not pass away (Mat. 24:35.) I am the living testimony that the word that goes forth from your mouth did not return to You void (Isaiah 55:10-11.)“