Iglesia ni Cristo
An Apologetics Index research resource

The sect was founded in 1914 by its current leader's father Felix Manalo, a disaffected former member of the Seventh Day Adventists.

Recruiting mostly from the working classes, the sect has several million adherents and has even expanded abroad, spread by the country's large overseas work force.

By some accounts, it is now the second largest formal religion in the Philippines, a former Spanish and US colony, after Catholicism.

Discipline and conservatism define the sect. Attendance is compulsory at twice-weekly masses inside its distinctive and brightly lit spire-topped churches, where the women sit apart from the men.

Part of every member's income goes to tithes. Dancing is prohibited, along with eating animal blood.

Iglesia spokesmen have said the sect provides "guidance" to its voters, in line with the sect's belief that its chief minister is authorized by God to interpret the teachings of the Bible in contemporary times.

Manila pollster Mahar Mangahas of Social Weather Stations said that despite the bloc-vote weapon, the Iglesia's recent election record is mixed. However, its support has been decisive in close contests.

It backed the wrong horse -- the brewer Cojuangco -- in the 1992 presidential vote narrowly won by former general Fidel Ramos, who became the country's first Protestant president.

The Iglesia ni Cristo (Tagalog, "Church of Christ") claims to be the true Church established by Christ. Felix Manalo, its founder, proclaimed himself God’s prophet. Many tiny sects today claim to be the true Church, and many individuals claim to be God’s prophet. What makes Iglesia ni Cristo different is that it is not as tiny as others.

Since it was founded in the Philippines in 1914, it has grown to more than two hundred congregations in sixty-seven countries outside the Philippines, including an expanding United States contingent. The Iglesia keeps the exact number of members secret, but it is estimated to be between three million and ten million worldwide. It is larger than the Jehovah’s Witnesses, a better known sect (which also claims to be Christ’s true Church). Iglesia is not better known, despite its numbers, because the majority of Iglesia’s members are Filipino. Virtually the only exceptions are a few non-Filipinos who have married into Iglesia families.

The organization publishes two magazines, Pasugo and God’s Message, which devote most of their energies toward condemning other Christian churches, especially the Catholic Church. The majority of the Iglesia’s members are ex-Catholics. The Philippines is the only dominantly Catholic nation in the Far East, with eighty-four percent of its population belonging to the Church. Since this is its largest potential source of converts, Iglesia relies on anti-Catholic scare tactics as support for its own doctrines, which cannot withstand biblical scrutiny. The Iglesia tries to convince people of its doctrines not by proving they are right, but by attempting to prove the Catholic Church’s teachings are wrong.

Unbiblical Beliefs

1. Vehemently oppose the Biblical revelation of the Triune God.
2. Believes in the absolute oneness of God the Creator in the Person of the Father.
3. Believes the Son as the literal Word (which has no pre-existence) who became man. He was given power by the Father to do supernatural miracles. He is not God.
4. Believes in an impersonal Holy Spirit, a power sent by the Father in the name of Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit is not God but one of the spirits sent by God.
5. Believes the Father (Creator) and Son (creature) must be worshipped. The Son must be worshipped because the Father says so.
6. Believes a person must hear the "gospel" from authorized INC messengers and INC ministers. They are the only ones who have God's Holy Spirit in order for them to understand the Bible. 
7. Believes the official name of the church is "Iglesia ni Cristo" while other names are not.
8. Believes a person must be a member of the Iglesia ni Cristo (INC), be water baptized, follow the church rules (must avoid the eating of "dinuguan," avoid joining labor unions, avoid court sessions, do block voting, be under compulsory church attendance, practice giving to the church) and perform his good deeds as an INC member in order for him to be saved.
9. Believes Felix Y. Manalo is the fulfillment of Isaiah 43:5-7; 46:11, and Rev. 7:2-3 prophecies.
10. They also believe in "soul sleep," a belief that at death, the souls dies. There is no consciousness. (A belief of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church - Ellen G. White).

Lamsa's strongest supporters and colleagues have (apparently) always been cultists and aberrant Christian religions, not evangelicals.
[...]

The widespread support Lamsa enjoyed from non-Christian groups is a strong indication that he promoted metaphysical, heretical, and unscholarly teachings — not evangelical and scholarly.

Lamsa developed his own cultlike following over the years. He founded the Aramaic Bible Society in 1943 to propagate his work. Four years later he founded the Calvary Missionary Church and gained a larger following through print and radio. Today the Aramaic Bible Distribution Society desires to carry on the "Lamsa work" and place a Lamsa Bible "on every pulpit and in every home." It considers Lamsa's life miraculous and singularly qualified to bring "Truth" to the world. Society brochures state, "We believe that long ago, God formulated a Plan — and when the time was right, He brought Lamsa into the world to begin the fulfillment of that Plan."

While Christian scholarship has disregarded or criticized Lamsa's work, cults and new religions often quote him in print and debate when it serves their purposes. In addition to the five groups mentioned above, the Jehovah's Witnesses, the Holy Order of MANS, Christadelphianism, Iglesia ni Cristo, and Astara have all tapped Lamsa's material. These groups have consistently quoted Lamsa in opposition to evangelical Christian beliefs, further suggesting Lamsa's distance from the biblical faith.

On the surface, Lamsa appears to be a revealer of biblical truth and culture and a friend of evangelical Christianity. Closer study, however, has revealed that Lamsa promotes metaphysical, not evangelical teachings which have led him to inaccurate interpretations and translations of portions of the Bible. As an ambassador of Nestorian, not biblical culture, Lamsa became a cultic figure in his own right.

Although Lamsa appears to offer truth to his readers, he preaches many and severe errors instead. The biblical author Jude warned against false teachers like Lamsa who are like "clouds without water" and "autumn trees without fruit, doubly dead" which deliver the opposite of what they promise. Therefore, Christians should not receive, promote, or refer to Lamsa's work, nor stock his books in their libraries (unless it is for the purpose of discernment ministry) or bookstores. When questions about the biblical text, culture, or Jesus' teachings arise, one should instead refer to scholarly and evangelical books on these subjects. When cults and new religions cite Lamsa in opposition to evangelical teaching, one must "contend earnestly for the faith" (Jude 3), exposing the lifelessness of Lamsa's teaching and leading them to the fruit of the faith once for all delivered to the saints.