The founder of the Church of Christ in these last days

Published in Pasugo, Jul 1999


THE PRESUMPTION THAT the founding of the true Church of Christ is similar to establishing an ordinary organization wherein the organizer must necessarily be present has made it difficult for people to believe that the Lord Jesus Christ Himself established the Church of Christ (Iglesia ni Cristo) that emerged in the Philippines in these last days. “How could He,” they are prone to ask, “when He is already in heaven?” This article deals with the scriptural truth that our Lord Jesus Christ established the Church of Christ that emerged in the Philippines through the fulfillment of the prophecies written in the Holy Scriptures.

The ‘other sheep’

Before ascending to heaven, our Lord Jesus made a prophecy regarding the Church of Christ that would emerge in the Philippines. In John 10:16, the Savior said:

“And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there shall be one flock and one shepherd.” (New King James Version)

Our Lord Jesus spoke of His other sheep that would, at a future time, become one flock. [The flock refers to the Church of Christ (Acts 20:28, Lamsa Translation).] These other sheep were not yet in the fold or flock that existed during the time of Christ and His apostles in the first century. They have yet to hear His voice and were to be called to become one flock.

What does “to hear the voice of Christ to be one flock or Church” mean? In Matthew 7:24-25, our Lord Jesus explains:

“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against the house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.” (New International Version)

To hear the voice of Christ is to put His words into practice, to obey or follow them. Our Lord Jesus declared, “… I am the door of the sheep. …If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved” (Jn. 10:7, 9, NKJV). Those who enter through Christ, the door of the sheepfold, become His sheep and are found in the flock. The prophesied other sheep of Christ, therefore, are those yet to be called by the Lord to be one flock or Church.

Only from the true messengers

Though Christ’s call necessitates listening to and understanding the words of Christ, not all preachers who use the Bible today teach His words that can bring people into the true Church. According to Apostle Paul, not all preachers have the authority to teach the true gospel. Apostle Paul declared:

“How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? (Rom. 10:14-15, NIV)

The preachers who have the exclusive authority to preach the pristine gospel of our Lord Jesus leading people to become members of His Church are the ones sent by God (His messengers). The apostle is explicit, “How can they preach unless they are sent?” Hence, those who were not sent or authorized by God cannot deliver the true gospel of Christ that can bring people into the true Church. Those who use the Bible and claim to preach the gospel, so to speak, while without divine authority, only preach a perverted gospel that is really no gospel at all (Gal. 1:6-8, Ibid.) and lead people to damnation.

God’s policy from the beginning has always been to send messengers who will preach His laws and commandments. To reject the messenger of God is equivalent to rejecting both the Lord Jesus Christ and God (Lk. 10:16) because what the messenger preaches are not his own but the teachings of God taught by the Lord Jesus Christ.

The third group

Why are we certain that the “other sheep” of Christ mentioned in John 10:16 refers to the Church of Christ that emerged in the Philippines? How many groups of people comprise the Church established by Christ? In Acts 2:39, it is written:

“For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.” (NKJV)

Apostle Peter said that three groups of people comprise the Church established by Christ. The third group – those who are afar off – are those who then were yet to be called by God into the Church (Col. 3:15, 1:18). They were not yet members of the Church in the first century. They are the members of the Church of Christ prophesied to emerge in the future. The other two groups of people who had already been called by God and have become members of the Church during the first century were Jews and the Gentiles (Rom. 9:24). The Gentiles were the children of the Jews in the faith as they were the converts of Apostle Paul who is the messenger to the Gentiles, who himself was a Jew.

Apostle Peter said that the third group of people who were also prophesied to become members of the true Church of Christ – the other sheep of Christ – would come from afar off. But where from “afar off” would this third group emerge? The prophecies in the Book of Isaiah teach that the third group would emerge in the Far East, in the islands of the sea (Is. 43:5, Moffatt Translation; Is. 24:15, NIV)

True to these prophecies, the Iglesia ni Cristo emerged in the Philippines, a nation in the Far East composed of many islands, more or less 7,100. Aside from being acknowledged by God Himself as His children, the members of this Church will be called by His name – just as His nation Israel was called by His name (Is. 43:5-7, II Chron. 7:14). The name of Christ, by which God’s nation in the Christian era is called, is God’s name which He gave to Christ (Jn. 17:11, Today’s English Version), hence, the name Church of Christ – Iglesia ni Cristo (Rom. 16:16).

Others believe that the founder of the Iglesia ni Cristo is Brother Felix Y. Manalo because he was the one who preached this Church in 1914. Although he did preach about the Iglesia ni Cristo, this does not make him its founder. Like the apostles, he was merely instrumental in preaching the true gospel of Christ so that the believers would be brought back or restored to the true Church of Christ.

The Lord Jesus Christ commissioned the messenger from the Far East for His Church to be reestablished. Take note that when the third group of people were called to become members of the Church of Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ had long been in heaven. He did not have to come down to preach His words in order for His Church to reemerge; instead, He sent His messenger to do this task. Listening to and accepting the preaching of this messenger is equivalent to listening to and accepting the Lord Jesus Christ.

The doctrines taught by Brother Felix Y. Manalo to the members of the Church of Christ were not his own but were purely scriptural. As the messenger of God in these last days, he was instrumental in the restoration of the true Christian faith by means of preaching God’s righteousness, the gospel, snatching people from false religions that are holding them captives, and bringing them into the true Church (Rev. 7:2-3; Is. 46:11-13, 43:5-6; Rom. 1:16-17).

The need to reestablish

Why was there a need to reestablish the Church of Christ? What happened to the Church founded by Christ in the first century to which the Jews and the Gentiles belong? While the Lord Jesus Christ was still on earth, He warned His disciples to watch out that they may not be deceived (Mt. 24:4). This was because many false prophets would rise to deceive many, if possible even the elect (Mt. 24:24). How would the false prophets accomplish their deception and what does “to be deceived” mean? Apostle Paul explains:

“NOW the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;…Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth.” (I Tim. 4:1,3, King James Version)

In deceiving people, the false prophets would propagate the doctrines of demons or the teachings of the devil. And those who were deceived would depart from or abandon the true teachings of God. Two of the devil’s doctrines are forbidding to marry and imposing abstinence from meats. The church that teaches or upholds these two doctrines is the apostate church or the one that has departed from the true Christian faith.

In the book Faith of our Fathers, Cardinal Gibbons stated:

“The disciples of the Church[Catholic Church] has been exerted from the beginning in prohibiting Priests to marry after their ordination.” (p. 328)

In another Catholic book entitled The Teaching of Christ, it is stated:

“…Fasting and abstinence are encouraged in Lent, but Church[Catholic Church] law does not require a great deal of us in this regard. Specific regulations vary in different countries. In the United States of America, for example, all Fridays of Lent are days of abstinence, that is, days on which no meat is to be eaten; and Ash Wednesday and Good Friday are days of fast as well as abstinence.” (pp. 461-462).

The Catholic Church, therefore, practices both celibacy and abstinence, both doctrines of the devil which are against the true Christian faith. No wonder the true Church established by Christ in the first century did not continue.

The need for reemergence

Therefore, to restore the true Christian faith based on the teachings of the Holy Bible, it is indispensable that the true Church of Christ be reestablished. Hence, the emergence of the Church of Christ in the Philippines is the fulfillment of Christ’s prophecy regarding His other sheep. The true founder of the Church of Christ that emerged in the Philippines, therefore, is Christ Himself (Rom. 16:16; Acts 20:28, Lamsa Translation; Jn. 10:9).

The call of God to those who have abandoned the true Christian faith and those who have joined false churches is stated in the Book of Revelation:

“Then I heard another voice from heaven, saying, ‘Come out, my people! Come out from her! You must not take part in her sins; you must not share in her punishment!” (Rev. 18:4. TEV)

But, it is not enough to just come out or leave the false churches or religions to win God’s favor and be freed from His punishment on Judgment Day. God said:

“… Stand in the ways and see, And ask for the old paths, where the good way is, And walk in it; Then you will find rest for your souls.” (Jer. 6:16, NKJV)

To be assured of salvation on Judgment Day – which is to find rest for our souls – is to find the good way and to walk therein. The good way and only true way to the Father and to eternal life is our Lord Jesus Christ. We can walk the good way by entering Christ as the door to become His sheep and be found in His fold or flock which is the Church of Christ (Jn. 10:9, 16; Acts 20:28, Lamsa Translation).