THE PROPHECY REGARDING THE CHURCH OF CHRIST THAT EMERGED IN THE PHILIPPINES

THE PROPHECY REGARDING THE 

CHURCH OF CHRIST

THAT EMERGED IN THE PHILIPPINES

After failing to refute the scriptural doctrines being propagated by the Iglesia Ni Cristo, critics of the Church now hurl the challenge:

 “What is the credential of the Church Of Christ which emerged in the Philippines?” This question will be answered in this brief article.

Basically, our Lord Jesus Christ established only one Church. He called it “my church”:

And I tell you, you are Peter and on this rock I will build my church . . . (Matt 16:18, The New Oxford Annotated Bible)

The apostles called Christ’s Church the Church Of Christ:
Take heed therefore to yourselves and to all the flock, over which the Holy Spirit has appointed you overseers, to feed the church of Christ which he has purchased with His blood (Acts 20:28,Lamsa).

This Church, the Church Of Christ, is composed of three groups of people as written in Acts 2:39:

Because God’s promise is to you and to your children, and even to all those in distant lands and times, to all whom the Lord our God will call (The Last Days Bible).

These three groups of people are referred to by the words “to you,” “to your children,” and “to all those in distant lands and times.”

The first and second groups called by God into the Church Of Christ were the converted Jews and Gentiles as proven in the epistle of Paul to the Romans,
even us whom He called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles (Rom 9:24).

The Gentiles were called as the “children” due to the preaching of the Gospel by Apostle Paul and Barnabas to the Gentile nations, and there were Gentiles who were converted to the Church Of Christ (Rom 16:4, 16). It should be noted that Paul and Barnabas were Jews. Hence, the Gentiles were called “children” of the Jews, not of the flesh, but in the faith, through the preaching of the gospel (1 Cor 4:15). The first-century Church Of Christ, therefore, was composed of Jews and Gentiles.

However, the Church Of Christ has a third group, the people who are from “distant lands and times” whom our Lord God will also call to the Church. Which is this “far off” place (Acts 2:39) or “distant lands” (TLDB) referred to in the prophecy?
From the far east will I bring your offspring, and from the far west I will gather you (Isa 43:5 Moffatt).

Undoubtedly, the Philippines is in the Far East:
The Philippines were Spain’s share of the first colonizing movements in the Far East (World History, p. 445).

Indeed, it is in the Philippines that the Church Of Christ emerged.
Does Christ recognize the Church Of Christ which emerged in the Philippines as part of His Church? Yes! He categorically attested to this scriptural fact, thus:

I have other sheep too. They are not of this flock here. I must lead them also. They will listen to my voice. In the future there will be one flock and one shepherd (John 10:16 ERV).

The members of the Church Of Christ which emerged in the Philippines are the “other sheep” of Christ, but were not of the flock or the Church Of Christ in the first century because in time and place they are truly “far off.” The place is the Philippines, a far country, a country in the Far East, a place truly very far from Jerusalem where the first-century Church Of Christ was established by our Lord Jesus Christ.

How about the time? Is it also “far off” from the time when the first-century Church Of Christ was founded? Prophet Isaiah prophesied concerning the time element involved:

Fear not, for I am with you; I will bring your descendants from the east, And gather you from the west; I will say to the north, ‘Give them up!’ And to the south, ‘Do not keep them back!’ Bring My sons from afar, And My daughters from the ends of the earth— (Isa 43:5-6).

The time element involved is “ends of the earth.” The end of the earth is the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and is also called the end of the world (Matt. 24:3 KJV). However, before the second advent of our Lord Jesus Christ, there shall be occurrence of wars, famines, pestilences and earthquakes in many places (Matt 24:3, 6-7). All these happenings will occur when Christ’s second coming is at hand (Matt 24:33).

The war predicted by Christ to herald the nearness of His second advent is described by the prophet Isaiah as “the indignation of the LORD,” the manifestation of “His fury against all their armies” (Isa 34:1-2). The instruments of this war are likened to “chariots like a whirlwind” and “horses . . . swifter than eagles” (Jer 4:13). The people during this war cannot hold their peace when they hear the “alarm of war” (Jer 4:19).

History attests that this is the First World War which happened on July 27, 1914:

The first great campaign on the southeastern battle grounds of the Great War began on July 27, 1914, when the Austrian troops undertook their first invasion of Serbia (The Story Of The Great War, Vol. III, p. 923).

History testifies that “the First World War was unlike any war in the past. This was the first war in three dimensions: the first war in which cities were bombed from the air, and winged warriors fought among the clouds” (Boak, Slosson & Anderson, World History, pp. 478-479). This same history book testifies to the use of airplanes, a kind of “aerial cavalry,” “horses swifter than eagles.” The fulfillment of “chariots like whirlwind” are the tanks, a kind of armored automobile which could move even on rough grounds because it was built like a tractor (World History, p. 479, ibid.). 

All of the signs given by Christ to herald His second advent were fulfilled. Hence, the term “ends of the earth” is the time immediately before the second coming of Jesus Christ, starting from the time that the First World War began. Thus, the Church Of Christ which emerged in the Philippines, a country in the Far East, in 1914, is the fulfillment of the prophecy written in the Holy Scriptures.

Regarding the expansion of the Church Of Christ from the Far East to the Far West, this, too, is attested to by prophecy and its fulfillment in due time:

From the far east will I bring your offspring, and from the far west I will gather you.

Till in the far west men have awe of the Eternal, and in the east they see his brilliant deeds (Isa 43:5; 59:19 Moffatt).

On July 27, 1968, the Church Of Christ began its expansion from the Philippines to the western hemisphere, and is now firmly established in many parts of the world.

Source:  KKKK

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