IGLESIA NI CRISTO: It was Prophesied?

[From Catholic-Answers, permission was granted me to post this article in series. Thanks to the whole staff of Catholic Answers. Thanks to Mr. Karl Keating and his Production Manager Mr. Jon Sorensen. You can contact them at (619) 387-7200 (USA)].

The Bible is full of prophesies and most of them were directed to Jesus as the Promised Messiah for the Jews. In the NT, prophesies were directed to the Church and the coming of the Apostae (anti-Christ). This is what's being prophesied.

How about a "Total Apostasy" teachings? The Bible is SILENT!

Desperate, Felix Manalo, his son Erano and his followers can't support this claim so they resorted to to stealing some prophesies not perttaining to Felix Manalo.

Iglesia Prophesied? from Catholic Answers:

"A pillar of Iglesia belief is that its emergence in the Philippines was prophesied in the Bible. This idea is supposedly found in Isaiah 43:5–6, which states, "Fear not, for I am with you; I will bring your offspring from the east, and from the west I will gather you; I will say to the north, ‘Give up,’ and the south, ‘Do not withhold; bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the end of the earth.’"

Iglesia argues that in this verse, Isaiah is referring to the "far east" and that this is the place where the "Church of Christ" will emerge in the last days. This point is constantly repeated in Iglesia literature: "The prophecy stated that God’s children shall come from the far east" (Pasugo, March 1975, 6).

But the phrase "far east" is not in the text. In fact, in the Tagalog (Filipino) translation, as well as in the original Hebrew, the words "far" and "east" are not even found in the same verse, yet the Iglesia recklessly combine the two verses to translate "far east." Using this fallacious technique, Iglesia claims that the far east refers to the Philippines.

Iglesia is so determined to convince its followers of this "fact" that it quotes Isaiah 43:5 from an inexact paraphrase by Protestant Bible scholar James Moffatt that reads, "From the far east will I bring your offspring." Citing this mistranslation, one Iglesia work states, "Is it not clear that you can read the words ‘far east’? Clear! Why does not the Tagalog Bible show them? That is not our fault, but that of those who translated the Tagalog Bible from English—the Catholics and Protestants" (Isang Pagbubunyag Sa Iglesia ni Cristo, 1964:131). The Iglesia accuses everyone else of mistranslating the Bible, when it is Iglesia that is taking liberties with the original language. "

Read the whole article Iglesia ni Cristo.
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Read article from This Rock Magazine.

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Mr. Karl Keating is the founder of Catholic Answers, a lay apostolate of Catholic apologetics in spreading the "Splendor of Truth" of the Catholic Church and evangelizing non-Catholics and Catholics at the same level.

Other Links: Iglesia ni Cristo from Answers.com.