One of the prominent Arian cult groups in the Philippines is the Iglesia Ni Cristo that was founded by the late Felix Ysagun Manalo on July 27, 1914. Their magazine, known to many of their followers as Pasugo (The Message) is littered with numerous articles that attack the divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ. 

Allow me to respond to the Iglesia Ni Cristo arguments in their The Message magazine. I will post their reasoning then my response afterward.

INC: Christ Himself testifies that He is “a Man” (John 8:40 New King James Version), while the true God declares that He is “God, and not man” (Hos. 11:9 NKJV) and does not allow man to be God (Ezek. 28:2).

My Response: The Iglesia Ni Cristo does not need to prove Jesus is truly human to the Roman Catholics and the Evangelicals because they both believe He clothed Himself with humanity. What they need to show is a clear proof that Jesus Christ Himself is not God by His claim. For the Iglesia Ni Cristo ministers to quote the words of Jesus saying, “but now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God” (Jn. 8:40) is not enough proof to debunk His divinity. The Scripture is very clear that Jesus clothed Himself in humanity’s form according to John 1:14 saying, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”  

Christians fully agree with the Iglesia Ni Cristo that Jesus Christ is human. But Christians will strongly disagree with them that He had a beginning at Mary’s conception. Jesus has always existed even prior to His coming to earth in humanity’s form, that is, prior to the virgin Mary’s conception. What had a beginning was His human flesh for Hebrews 10:5 says, “a body have you prepared for me,” not Jesus being a Person for He was God. There are many passages that prove His preexistence like the following:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. – John 1:1

Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” – John 8:58

who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, – Philippians 2:6

Jesus was the Word not in the sense of being an “impersonal thought” or just a voice or plan of God. Nor was He only in the mind of the Father. The term “Word” is a name given to Jesus as the Word of God who is intimately beside God the Father (see Rev. 19:13). You will notice from the writings of the Apostle John how he carefully describes Jesus as the Word of God who is with God the Father in the beginning. And the term “In the beginning” doesn’t mean Jesus was not there prior to the beginning of time. According to Greek scholar Dr. Spiros Zhodiates, “One of the most important statements of the Bible about the person of Jesus Christ is that made by John in his Gospel: ‘In the beginning was the Word.’ If we correctly translate that verb ‘was’ (een in Greek), then the clause should read ‘Before there was a beginning the Word had been.” (Spiros Zhodiates, Was Christ God?, 43)  

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. – John 1:1

that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. – 1 John 1:3

He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God. – Revelations 19:13    

The Word who is by nature God and equal in substance with His Father “was made flesh,” not that He was “created” to be human rather clothed Himself in human flesh. The Greek word for this also meant “come into being” which explains that He had a divine nature of being God even before clothing in humanity’s form (see Jn. 1:1, 14). 

The ESV and NIV rendered the Greek word accurately with the English word “became” which is more appropriate. Notice how the English Standard Version says, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” 

In John 16:27-28 Jesus also says, “for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God. I came from the Father and have come into the world, and now I am leaving the world and going to the Father.” He said He “came from” not that He was “created by” which gives us a clear idea that He had a prior state of nature being God even before He became human. 

The passages in Hosea 11:9 do not prove God could not clothe Himself in humanity’s form for this would surely limit God’s power. In fact, the Holy Spirit clothed Himself in the body of a dove. The passage in Hosea 11:9 says, “I am God, not man” that He would waver HIs character. Notice the passage says, “I will not execute the fierceness of My anger; I will not again destroy Ephraim” which shows the contrast of character between God and humans.

In Ezekiel 28:2, we fully agree that man can never be God because they are creatures made in the image of God with no attribute equal to God. On the other hand, God can become human if He wanted us to know that He truly loves us. And this is what Jesus Christ who is God equal with the Father did for us.

INC: Christ Himself said that He heard the truth from God (John 8:40); so, obviously, He is different from Whom He heard the truth.

My Response: We also agree that Jesus heard from God making them distinct from each other but it doesn’t prove that He is not God. We believe Jesus is distinct as a divine Person from His Father, in the same way, that the Father is distinct as a divine Person from the Holy Spirit making them three distinct divine Persons in the one God. No wonder, in Clause 2 of John 1:1, it says “And the Word was God” where the word “with” in the Greek is pros. As Dr. Zhodiates once more expounds this word saying, “Pros could be translated as ‘toward’ to express the idea of motion. It is as if the Logos and the Father were facing each other.” (Spiros Zhodiates, Was Christ God?, 71)

INC: Christ is “a Man attested by God,” according to Apostle Peter (Acts 2:22 NKJV). Christ could not be the same God bore witness of HImself.

My Response: In Acts 2:22 Peter states, “Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God” because this is a fact. But this doesn’t mean Jesus is no longer God because he admitted, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And to say that Yahweh God has a Son is to make that person God equal to Yahweh as well. No wonder when Jesus claimed God to be His Father, the Jews vehemently reacted and the apostle John writes, “This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God” (John 5:18).

INC: Christ is a Man—a “child” conceived in His mother, Mary, according to Apostle Matthew (Matt. 1:18, 20 NKJV).

My Response: In Matthew 1:18, 20 it says, Jesus became a child conceived in the womb of Mary. This is true because God prepared a body for Him as stated in Hebrews 10:5. The person of Jesus being divine is eternal but His human body had a beginning. Truly He is fully God who came down in the flesh to be born of a virgin as fully human.

INC: Christ was “born of a woman” (Gal. 4:4 NKJV). God, on the other hand, is not a “son of man” (Num. 23:19 NKJV).

My Response: In Galatians 4:4, Jesus was indeed born of a woman because this is how He chose to come in human flesh. While in Numbers 23:19, God was revealed not as a “son of man” in His original state that He should change HIs mind. This is again a comparison of the character attribute of God with a man who is very fickle minded. This does not say anything about the impossibility of God to be born as a human through a virgin.

INC: Christ has a beginning—He “proceeded forth and came from God” (John 8:42 NKJV)—while the true God has no beginning for He is “from everlasting to everlasting” (Ps. 90:2 NKJV).

My Response: In John 8:42 of the King James Version, Jesus indeed stated, “I proceeded forth and came from God” but the word doesn’t mean He had a beginning. The Literal Version rendered it, “Then Jesus said to them, If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I went forth and have come from God. For I have not come from Myself, but that One sent Me” (John 8:42). Did you notice the words “I went forth and have come from,” a statement made by Jesus? It is like saying, “I left the place and have come to seek intimacy” (see Thayers Lexicon). God is indeed eternal based on Psalm 90:2 saying, “Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.” But the Father also testifies about the Son being the eternal Creator in Hebrews 1:10 where the author quotes Psalm 102:25 saying, “And, ‘You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the work of your hands.'”

INC: Christ died (John 19:30, 33), while God is immortal (1 Tim. 1:17).

My Response: It is true that 1 Timothy 1:17 declares God as “immortal” but in John 19:30, 33 it also shows how Jesus died because He became fully human. For God, to experience death, He must become human which is not difficult for HIm to do.

INC: Christ was resurrected, which in the first place, would not have happened if He did not die or if He were immortal. Moreover, He did not resurrect Himself, but “God raised him from death” (Acts 2:23-24 NKJV).

My Response: This is where the Iglesia Ni Cristo is wrong. Jesus Christ raised Himself from the dead (see John 2:19). One will have the surprise of his life if he knows that the Triune God was involved in raising Jesus’ physical body from the dead. The Father raised the body of Jesus from the dead (see Acts 2:23-24). The Son Himself raised His own physical body from the dead, saying, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” (John 2:19). And the Holy Spirit also raised the body of Jesus from the dead where Paul writes, “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you” (Rom. 8:11). Remember, Jesus did not say “the Father will raise it up” rather “I will raise it up” because no creature can resurrect his own body but God alone. Jesus even claimed to be the first and the last, the Alpha and the Omega, and the beginning and the end (see Rev. 1:17; 2:8; 22:13).

INC: Christ recognizes God as HIs God (Mark 15:34) while God does not recognize any other God besides Himself (Isa. 44:8).

My Response: It is true that Jesus acknowledges His Father as God in Mark 15:34 because He was in His non-glorified humanity state despite Himself being God at the same time. In fact, you will also see how the Father called His Son as God in Hebrews 1:8 saying, “But of the Son he says, ‘Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom.'” At the same time, it is true that God does not recognize any other God other than Himself. But we need to understand that the God in Isaiah 44:8 is Yahweh, being the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit who used the singular pronoun He, His, Himself, My, I, and Mine to declare His perfect unity among the pagan gods of the Ancient Near East. No wonder Matthew 28:19 says, “baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” Do you think it’s possible for the three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit to share the one divine personal name? Or is it possible for three Persons to own one divine name? If you answered “yes” to the two questions then you are correct.

INC: Christ felt “wearied” (John 4:6 NKJV) while God “never grows tired or weary” (Isa. 40:28 NKJV).

My Response: In John 4:6 we can see that Jesus grew tired because He clothed Himself in humanity’s form. But this does not mean He is no longer God because based on Colossians 2:9 He is still existing in the form of God even while walking as human saying, “For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily.” This shows us that Jesus while walking as human by nature, His being divine by nature was never put to a halt.

The problem with Felix Ysagun Manalo and the Iglesia ni Cristo teaching was their Unitarian-mindset that believes God is one person. So every passage that reveals Jesus as God is being twisted that no reputable and prominent Greek scholar would agree with their interpretation. I am not so sure how they use the Greek lexicons and dictionaries of the Trinitarian scholars, that they would not apply in their studies. They invest so much on may Trinitarian reference books but misrepresent the statement of many academic authors, theologians, historians, and scholars. May the Father open their blinded eyes.

And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. – Matthew 16:17