Question:

Are you aware of the Church “Iglesia ni Cristo” or the Church of Christ?
This Church believes that Jesus Christ is just a “mere man” with
extraordinary power given to him by God the Father and that Felix Manalo
the founder of this Church is the fulfillment in Rev.7:2. What can you say
about their claim? ;Their claim can really persuade people because they
really are good in explaining the Bible passage especially in Phil. 2.

Answer:

Yes, I am aware of this group. As I understand it, the group is
principally based in the Philippines. The best I can tell, this is not
really a Christian group because they do not accept that Jesus Christ is
God. To put it very loosely, they are a little like the Phillipines
version of Jehovah’s witness. They are, in principle, like the Arians, a
group of heretics from the third and fourth centuries AD, who also taught
that Jesus was just a man–that he was not deity.

I believe the idea that Felix Manalo is the fulfillment of Revelation 7:2
is absolutely ludicrous and unsupportable. No one who is not part of this
group could possibly believe that a cult leader from the Phillipines is
the literal fulfillment of a highly symbolic apocalyptic passage in
Revelation chapter seven. The fact that this arrogant man would make such
a claim makes me believe that this is a cult group, and is therefore very
dangerous.

This group may sound convincing, but that would only be true to people who
do not know their Bible. Anyone who can read the book of John and
Colossians and Hebrews (and several other books as well) and not conclude
that Jesus is the Son of God–that he is deity, has clearly been trained
to ignore obvious biblical truth. My suggestion is that the best antidote
to such groups is for us to get people into the Word of God. If the
Iglesia de Cristo is anything like the Jehovah’s witness (and I have every
reason to believe that they have purposefully imitated this group), they
you can assume that members are brainwashed and very carefully taught how
to interpret certain verses. It is my suggestion that unless one is a
strong Christian, very well versed in the Bible, it is better to keep our
distance from such people, as it is extremely unlikely that they are
“open” to being taught the truth from the Bible. I say this with caution,
as my exposure to this group is principally by hearsay.

John Oakes, PhD