God calls by name!

Have you noticed in the Bible a clear pattern how God calls someone to do His special mission? He calls them by name and changed them according to how they would carry out their divine assignments.

God established his Covenant to Israel. Even today, Israel still is the Chosen Nation belonging to God. No matter how stubborn the Israelites were, He never deserted them nor had God replaced Israel to something else. Even in their tenacity God NEVER found another “Israel” nor did He abandoned his Chosen Nation and form another. God keeps his promises. He is true to his words and he never changed yesterday, today and forever, says St. Paul.

From the time when he first called Abram to be the “Father of all Nations” He gave him a very difficult test by asking him to offer his son Isaac as a sacrificial offering. With trust and confidence he obeyed God, not giving to his love Isaac. And as we know, later his son was spared however God was pleased with him of which his name was changed to Abraham which means “Father of all Nations”. (see Genesis)

God changed Abram to Abraham and Sarai to Sarah!

Through Abraham, his son Isaac bore two sons through Rebekka; Esau and Jacob. Jacob who’s the younger one obtained his “first-born” sonship when Esau sold it to him for a bowl of porridge. Realizing how he was duped by Jacob, in fear of Esau’s vengeance, Jacob was told to spend his time in Mesopotamia (now Iraq). Years past Jacob is known to have wrestled with an angel the night before he reunited with his elder brother Esau (see Gen. 32:25-30). The angel renamed him “Israel” for he wrestled with God and still he’s victorious.” And we all know that Israel became a nation to this day.

God changed Jacob to Israel!

Israel had 12 sons of which the story of Joseph being sold to Egyptians was recorded in Genesis. The time had come when his descendants became slaves in Egypt they cried out to the Lord for deliverance.

Keeping his promise of old through Abraham, Isaac, & Jacob, he called Moses from among his own people and used him to free the Israelites from bondage. Throughout the life of Moses he mediated between God and his people however after seeing all the wonders and miracles God did in their midst, the Israelites remained stubborn people. But God kept his promise never to abandon them until they set all their foot in the Promised Land (now Israel) no matter how they were unwilling.

Here you see how God kept his promised to his people. As Marshall Taylor said in his book 'The Crucified Rabbi', no matter how stubborn the Israelites were, he never created a “Protestant Israel” nor he changed his covenant with them. He never sends prophets and sages and helped Israel back to its right path. He has his words and his promised fulfilled.

As in the Old Covenant, God continues to call someone to carry out a special mission in the New Testament. Out of Twelve (12) Jesus called Simon bar Jonah. After Simon confessed that Jesus is the Son of God, he was given a special leadership to His Church by calling Simon “PETER” which means “ROCK” that “upon this ‘ROCK’ he will build his Church” and that he promised, hell could never snatch it away from him (see Matthew 16). He specifically entrusted him the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, that whatever he binds on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatever he looses on earth would be loose in heaven. Simon Peter’s role was to be the Twelve’s arbiter. Record of his function was accounted in the Council of Jerusalem (see Acts…) when he first acted as the head of the Twelve.

God changed Simon to Peter (Rock) and that through this ‘Rock’ he would build HIS CHURCH, and promised not to abandon it. He will never forsake his Church nor he would leave them desolate like widowed. Just as God kept his covenant with the stubborn Israelites, he promised NEVER to abandon his own Church. Nor the gates of Hell could take it away.

St. Paul of Tarsus was another. His former name was Saul, known to be Christians fierces persecutors. While on his way to Damascus (Syria), he was blinded by a great light and he heard Jesus. From there he was converted (metanoia) and was instructed by Jesus to meet his Ananias in Damascus to restore his sight. Soon after, he was known to have met St. Peter and St. James in Jerusalem before he set his missions outside Israel.

Christ changed Saul to Paul and made him the apostle to the Gentiles.

Because of that pattern, in the Catholic Church, each elected Pope has to change his name which reflects his mission to lead Christs’ flock. Today, Cardinal Ratzinger is known as Pope Benedict XVI emulating St. Benedict.

Why I am saying this is because I want to establish the fact when God calls someone for a special mission, he calls them by name and changing their names emphasizes the nature of their mission.

In the case of FELIX Y. MANALO who claimed to be God’s chosen “Last Messenger” he was a special because they cannot establish any proof of how God called him in a pattern he did from old until today. Nor did he receive any revelation from God that he would be as such and that from now on his name would changed to something else. All we know is that he was a confused former Catholic and pastor of different protestant sects until he finally decided to register his own cult as a Corporation Sole.

His original name FELIX MANALO YSAGUN was given him when he was baptized as a Catholic. Later on he alone decided to change his own name preferring his mother’s last name over his father’s and thus the name FELIX Y. MANALO came to be.

God didn’t changed his name! He did it all alone by himself and credited God for it.

When he was caught red-handed over allegiations that he molested women in his congregation, like Rosita Trillanes and some other wives of his ministers, sensing he’d be losing control over his own cult by that controversy which went public in gazzettes, he alone by himself decided to teach HIM BEING AN ANGEL then cut-paste biblical verses that he thought would back-up his claims!

In fact, Felix Manalo’s teachings reflects none of God’s way of calling. Here’s what he had changed about God, Christ and his Covenant with his people- Israel and the Church.

1. He teaches that God deserted his Covenant by abandoning his Original Church and sent someone to register another church in the Philippines under the Tagalog name ‘Iglesia ni Cristo.’
2. He teaches that God created another ‘Covenant’ by saying Christ totally disposed of his own Church and established it again in the Philippines through him as “his Last Messenger” leaving all his apostles, sages, saints and martyrs insignificant witnesses.
3. He teaches that God lied to Simon Peter and that the gates of hell actually did prevailed in his Church.
4. He teaches that Christ abandoned his Church when in fact God never abandons his own Chosen People no matter how stubborn they have been.
5. He teaches another God—a lying God!
6. He teaches a liar Christ—a man, mortal, completely exposed to sinfulness and imperfection when the Bible says He is Logos-God, made flesh.
7. He teaches a man only Christ and exulted him to the heights of “angels’.
8. He teaches people to worship God alone but prays to a man named Jesus for deliverance and forgiveness of sins when only God can do such forgiveness.
9. He teaches that no one is saved unless baptized in his Iglesia ni Cristo and that each believe Felix Manalo was the ‘Last Messenger’
10. He teaches that all those who were not baptized in the Iglesia ni Cristo® has already been condemned to Hell.

Therefore, Felix Manalo is a liar, apostate, false prophet, fallen angel and that his Iglesia ni Cristo® is the modern day god baal whom they so revere and pledge allegiance to death. Aside from copy-paste carefully selected verses from different Bible Translations of their choices, they cannot establish any proof that God called Felix Manalo. Following that simple litmus test of how God calls his sages, Felix Manalo falls short and therefore he belongs to those whom he said “apostate”. All those who were not baptized in the Iglesia ni Cristo® are already condemned he said.

From his own mouth comes his own condemnation to Hell!
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Sources:
Examine Iglesia ni Cristo
Answers.com
Web Archive
About.com
Adherents.com
Catholic Answers
Into the Maw of the Cult
CIA Facts
Iglesia ni Cristo in a Nutshell
Marshall Taylor - The Crucified Rabbi
Emily Jordan Blog