For instance, history is replete with personalities who are pretenders to the throne. For instance, Russia’s Period of Troubles had men pretending to be the legitimate czar and had caused rebellions which left many casualties. Even before the coming of Christ, the real Messiah, there had been messianic claimants even when they were not God’s anointed. Caiphas and the other priests therefore had to be very careful except that they overdid it. Identity theft therefore, is not new but as old as the old religion. There was Lucifer claiming to be like God and the Serpent claiming that it can make Adam and Eve to be like gods.
Which brings us to Apollo Quiboloy. Cognizant that there is only One Begotten Son of God, this pastor applies a modern touch by making himself proclaimed as the Appointed Son of God. It is implied of course, that God Himself appointed him as foremost among men to become owner of the universe, too, by virtue of his appointment. But of course, we know that God does not have a Commission on Appointments and simply anoint prophets who never boasted that they can stop earthquakes and storms. We, in Sanhedrin see this as an identity theft especially when a man claims to be equal to the Son of God by virtue of an appointment he claims without proper witness. For the real Son of God had been witnessed for by prophets even before His actual birth. And who is going to be witness for Quiboloy. His pastoral? Nay, but these women are just his nocturnal wetnesses and would not qualify as witnesses. Even when he was just starting, it was not his dream to become a preacher and only took the profession as a comfortable alternative to education for he himself had wanted to become a pilot, instead. Moreover, the real Son of God never asked children to sell foodstuffs for His church and His kingdom was not of this world. How can Quiboloy allow the children to suffer just so that his Joy Foundation could earn money? How can he try replicate God’s kingdom on earth where the police had inevitably searched for him. How dare he try duplicate the lost Eden of God? Who is now scattering the serpent seed he mused to abhor?
And yet in 1914, there was another identity theft. That time, it was just an anointed of God whose identity was being taken. Yes, it was the case of Felix Manalo who was claiming to be Cyrus, the Great. The claim was that the real church of Christ right after the apostolic period, as in any classic protestant position, had a great falling away, necessitating someone to be sent to bring back the children of God to the true church. This according to the INC is Manalo who is the fulfilment of the prophecies meant for Cyrus (i.e. Isaiah 44:28, 45:1; Ezra 1:1-4,7,8, 3:7, 4:3; 2 Chronicles 36:22-23) some of which would even name him. But they are most vocal about the bird of prey from the far east to mean Manalo, their last messenger. Unfortunately, their claim would become so confabulated since the passages about the bird of prey have nations being subdued by him and that he will be stripping kings of their armor. This of course can’t hold true about Manalo for not even a single nation was subdued by him nor a king stripped of his armor. The great powers of the known world were defeated by Cyrus namely, Astyages, (his grandfather) of Media, Croesus of Lydia, the subject states of Media and Lydia, the Greek city states in the Aegean and finally, the superpower at that time, Babylon with Nabonidus and Belshazzar as co-rulers.
Manalo and Quiboloy have notable personalities, even perhaps charismatic for a lot of simple people. Their having attended bible colleges have made them prepared as preachers who had the opportunity to innovate something credible for the simple man. Manalo used the fact that the Philippines is in the far east and he used that for identifying himself as the Bird of Prey (Isa. 46:11). The biblical passage made 150 years before Cyrus however, positively identified him (Isa. 44:28). Quiboloy anchored his claim on the Sonship of Jesus for equating himself via an appointment. Both were effective in establishing themselves and even politicians wooed them for the votes. The similarities in the cult following does not end there.
Slowly, the Filipinos are realizing the possible weakness of Quiboloy in his accommodation of women. This may also hold true with the Rosita Trillanes case where the woman accused Manalo of raping her. This was the offshoot of the libel case made by Manalo against Trillanes who publicized her concern for other women members. Trillanes lost at the court of first instance but made an appeal to the Court of Appeals which described Manalo as a man of low morals. What is strange about this is her recanting after winning the case after a decade and even becoming an INC deaconess. INC, a bible-based faith, should not have taken her back again especially as a deaconess. Aside from being female, as the holy writ accommodates only men deacons, she must have been a slanderer against the INC founder, as INC authorities claim, and should never be relegated the responsibility of being a deacon. Not withstanding the fact that it was a Japanese-sponsored judiciary which ruled against Manalo and the presence of hearsay testimonies, the INC should have upheld what the word of God says against a member who is guilty of slander and lies.
INC Ministers use the Book of Revelations passage concerning the Euphrates angels to assign 1914 as the year of their “Sugo” being sent by God. They would identify the angels (Rev. 9:14-15) as the Big four namely: David Lloyd George (Britain), George Clemenceau (France), Vittorio Emanuele Orlando (Italy) and Woodrow Wilson (USA) as the Paris Peace Conference started way back in 1914 to establish the time element but history tells us that these politicians only met in 1919. Besides they never had the chance to slay 1/3 of mankind as ordered since WW II was still far. And it is plain to see that these world leaders have nothing to do with the establishment of the INC as God’s church which the SEC document show instead was that what Manalo and his members registered and established was a corporation. Said politicians cannot also be shown as having been bound in the river Euphrates. Nor would they be identifiable with the angels who held the four winds for they are not from the four corners of the world with three countries neighboring each other in Europe. They met in Paris which main river is the Seine and not Euphrates.
Would this church also rob the prophesied angels of their identities? These angels bound in Euphrates are in fact fallen angels for the simple reason that they are bound until the river dries up. Why would someone sent by God (the reason why they claim Manalo is an angel) rely on fallen angels as a backdrop for establishing the church especially when they are supposed to slay a third of mankind? This is weird.
Ricardo de los Santos
Bartolome Graforti
Felipe Fortitudo
