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during the time of the early church, the rise of the papacy was seen in the future and many early christians will say that the Roman empire is the beast of revelations 13 because they believed that the beast of revelation 13 was the Roman empire. papal Rome has killed over 50 million peo9ple for not submitting to papal authority
Yeah, yeah, I understand all that, I'm just saying that they didn't invent Futurism and Preterism.
Recently a well-known pastor, television preacher, and best-selling author was asked about his beliefs about God. He coyly answered that he believed in one God who manifests himself in three ways: the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. He said that God the Father was the One True God of the Old Testament. He became a man as the Son, Jesus Christ. When Jesus ascended he sent the Holy Ghost to empower the church. He stated clearly that he believes in only one God – not three.
Now most Christians would read his statement and assume he believes in the traditional Christian doctrine of the eternal Holy Trinity – One God in Three Persons. But that was not what he said. He said he believes in one God who manifests himself at different times in different ways: first as Father, second as Son; and third as Holy Ghost. This is actually representative of an ancient heresy known as Modalism (also called Sabellianism). It said there is only one God who appears at different times in different modes of existence. It is the official doctrine of God of several groups of churches who are usually called the Oneness Pentecostals. They are also known by other names such as the “Jesus Only” churches, “Apostolic Pentecostals,” The “Oneness Movement” and the “Jesus Name” Movement. These are what I call “the hidden cult of Oneness Pentecostalism.”
History of the Oneness Movement
The modern Pentecostal movement is generally regarded to have begun in 1901 in a chapel prayer meeting in Topeka, Kan., led by Charles Parham, a teacher at Bethel Bible College. A few years later, in 1906, the Pentecostal experience of “speaking in tongues” burst on the scene during a revival in an African-American Baptist church on Azuza Street in Los Angeles, Calif. Following these beginnings, Pentecostal preachers and churches spread rapidly, coalescing into various denominations and factions.
In 1913, one popular teacher, R.E. McAlister of Toronto, Ont., began teaching that the Trinity doctrine was untrue and that baptism should be done correctly in Jesus’ name only – not in the traditional Trinitarian formula. Other preachers, such as Frank J. Ewart and John G. Scheppe, joined McAlister in his non-Trinitarian perspective.
By 1916, “oneness” views were being expounded by some ministers in the Assemblies of God (AOG), a then new Pentecostal denomination. These were strongly rejected by the denomination’s council that year, and the AOG, to its credit, adopted a strong Trinitarian stance in its statement of faith. Nonetheless, more than 160 Oneness ministers who were expelled from the AOG quickly formed their own alliances to promote their heretical doctrines.
Eventually, a number of oneness sects formed, most of which were predominately African-American. The largest Oneness movements today are the United Pentecostal Church International (UPCI) and the Pentecostal Assemblies of the World (PAW). The UPCI was organized in 1945 with the union of two predominately white groups started earlier in the century. The PAW formed in 1918 but split along racial lines in 1924. Today it is predominately African-American and is headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana.
Salvation
The Oneness Pentecostal movements generally teach that to receive and maintain salvation, a person must adhere to four essential requirements.
1. A person must have faith in Jesus Only. Oneness teachers would agree that salvation requires putting one’s full faith in the Jesus of Oneness doctrine. That is, the Jesus who is the totality of the Godhead, who died on the cross as make atonement for sin, and who rose again from the dead.
2. A person must repent and be baptized by immersion in the “Name of Jesus.” Acts 2:38 is used as evidence that the early church baptized only in the name of Jesus. They maintain that baptism in the Trinitarian formula is invalid since it implies belief in three gods. They claim Matthew 28:19 is not to be taken as a command to baptize in that formula.
3. A person must speak in tongues. Like most traditional Pentecostals and Charismatics, Oneness Pentecostals teach that speaking in tongues is a gift to be exercised today. However, unlike most traditionalists, the Oneness movements maintain that speaking in tongues is not just a post-conversion indicator of the filling or baptism of the Holy Spirit, but an essential ingredient in the salvation experience itself. In other words, if a person has never spoken in tongues, he or she is not saved!
4. A person must abide by strict and legalistic standards of holiness. Most Oneness Pentecostals teach that once salvation is gained initially by the preceding ingredients, it must be maintained by daily adherence to legalistic codes of personal behavior. Alcohol and tobacco are prohibited. Women are not allowed to cut their hair, wear short dresses or slacks, use make-up, or wear jewelry. Men are expected to dress conservatively (white shirts and dark slacks), be clean shaven, and have short haircuts. Violations of these codes may result in a loss of salvation and exclusion from church fellowship.
Some small Oneness groups also practice handling poisonous snakes or drinking poison to demonstrate their faith and holiness based on Mark 16:18 in the King James Version.
Evangelical Christians maintain that salvation is “by grace through faith” in Jesus Christ alone (see Rom. 4:4-5; Eph. 2:8-9; Titus 3:5). Baptism is not essential to one’s reception of salvation. It is a symbol of one’s identification with the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Acts 2:38 must be read in context and in light of Jesus’ clear command in Matthew 28:19.
Answer: Iglesia ni Cristo was founded by Felix Manalo in 1914 in the Philippines. The phrase “Iglesia ni Cristo” is Tagalog (the language of the Philippines) for “Church of Christ.” Sadly, while claiming to be a church, Iglesia ni Cristo has all of the basic elements of a cult. The first and foremost is a single charismatic leader who claims to have a special revelation from God. Felix Manalo was a former Catholic who abandoned Catholicism in his teens. He experimented with several Protestant denominations and the Jehovah’s Witnesses. Manalo finally started his own church, the Iglesia ni Cristo, in 1914. When a schism in the church appeared in 1922, he began claiming to be God’s prophet in an effort to accumulate power and re-assert his leadership over the church.
Some of his claims are that the Iglesia ni Cristo was prophesied in the Bible. The specific prophecy quoted is Isaiah 43:5–6, “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 to the south, do not withhold; bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the end of the earth.” Iglesia ni Cristo interprets the word east as “Far East” (based on a faulty translation) and claims that it points to the Iglesia ni Cristo being created in the Philippines.
The Iglesia ni Cristo claims to be the one, true Church of Christ because they are called “the Church of Christ” and they can point to some verses in the Bible which use the phrase “church of Christ.” Most notably, they point to Romans 16:16, which says, “Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the churches of Christ greet you.” However, in this verse, the “churches of Christ” isn’t referring to the name of a particular church, but to all the churches that Paul visited that followed Jesus Christ. They also read from a mistranslation of Acts 20:28 that reads “church of Christ,” but the actual Greek reads “church of God.” Whether or not a church is named the “Church of Christ” is irrelevant. There are many churches that have “Church of Christ” in their name; that doesn’t make them the one true church.
Another example of defective doctrine in the Iglesia ni Cristo is their Christology. They deny the divinity of Jesus Christ (as do all cults and false religions) and assert that Jesus was created by God and enabled to do miraculous works by God. They deny the doctrine of the Trinity. They claim that the Holy Spirit is an impersonal force. They also claim that the Christian church in its current form has apostatized, and that the Iglesia ni Cristo is the reinstatement of the true church that was lost in the first century; and this by means of God’s last messenger, Felix Manalo—the founder of Iglesia ni Cristo.
Another example of the cultic nature of Iglesia ni Cristo is its claim to be the sole source of truth and salvation. This may seem odd since Christianity, as a whole, makes these claims of exclusivity, too. The difference is that, while Christianity does make exclusive claims, individual churches/denominations do not (or at least should not) claim to be the sole source of that exclusivity. True churches recognize that there are other Christian churches outside of their own denomination that are rightfully Christian and that we can all believe different things on secondary doctrines, yet still all be saved. Jesus Christ Himself said that salvation is found in Him, that He is the only way to the Father (John 14:6), not membership in a specific church.
Here are some of the other unbiblical or extra-biblical doctrines that Iglesia ni Cristo teaches:
• They believe that one must hear the gospel from authorized Iglesia ni Cristo messengers and ministers.
• They believe the official name of the church is “Iglesia ni Cristo.” Other names are not the true name of the church and, therefore, false churches.
• They believe a person must be a member of an Iglesia ni Cristo church and be water baptized to be saved.
• They believe people must avoid eating dinuguan, which is pork blood stew, a Filipino delicacy.
• Their members must avoid joining trade unions.
• Their members must avoid court sessions.
• They must vote in blocs.
• They are under compulsory church attendance.
• They must give tithes to the church.
According to Iglesia ni Cristo, all of the above rules and regulations are mandatory in order for a person to be saved. The Bible, of course, teaches that salvation is “the gift of God, not of works, lest any man boast” (Ephesians 2:9).
In this episode:
Andy Stanley is pastor of one of America's largest congregations located in suburban Atlanta. As a young pastor, he once upheld biblical reliability and truth. Yet, like many of today's "new" evangelicals, Stanley now demonstrates little reliance upon the Bible. In fact, he's gone out of his way to discourage it.
In this in-depth video, Eric outlines the confusing and spiritually dangerous philosophy and motivations that have led Andy Stanley to reject the authority of the Bible.
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