Iglesia ni Cristo

Iglesia ni Cristo (INC), international Christian religious movement that constitutes the largest indigenous Christian church in the Philippines. It was established by Félix Ysagun Manalo in 1914.

Manalo (birth name Félix Manalo ý Ysagun) was raised in the Roman Catholic Church but left as a teenager. During his teens and 20s he adopted Methodism and then Seventh-day Adventism before preaching the need for a return to the original Christian church established by Jesus Christ. Manalo first founded a church in Manila but soon left to preach throughout the country. He attracted some followers who identified him with the “angel ascending from the East,” which is mentioned in chapter 7, verse 2, of the Revelation to John, the last book of the New Testament. That claim gained credence among his followers after the outbreak of World War I, which coincidentally occurred on July 28, 1914, one day after Manalo registered Iglesia ni Cristo with the Philippine government. Church members saw Manalo not only as the angel from Revelation but also as God’s last sugo, or messenger.

Although its beginnings were modest, the church grew rapidly after the end of World War II and, with it, Japanese occupation. Manalo adopted the title of executive minister and oversaw tremendous expansion. His son Eraño, who became executive minister upon his father’s death in 1963, expanded the church internationally. The INC’s first service outside the Philippines, held in Hawaii in 1968, was officiated by Eraño. The church continued to grow in wealth and prestige, becoming a formidable influence in Philippine politics by encouraging its members to vote in elections. Its influence was attested by the recognition of July 27, the date of the church’s formal establishment, as a Philippine national holiday in 2009. In 2015 the church was embroiled in a scandal after it expelled a number of its high-profile members and ministers, several of whom then claimed that they had been unlawfully abducted and detained in an attempt by the church to cover up corruption. Investigations found insufficient evidence of the allegations.

Iglesia ni Cristo is Unitarian and non-Trinitarian in theology, holding that Jesus Christ is God’s chosen son but is not himself God. It teaches the doctrine of the Last Judgment and upholds a strict biblical prohibition on consuming the blood of animals. Services are held in the vernacular language of the congregation’s members. The church publishes a journal, Pasugo (“God’s Message”), in Tagalog, English, and other languages. Its headquarters are in Quezon City, Philippines. In the early 21st century the church claimed to have congregations in more than 100 countries, and its membership was estimated at more than three million in the Philippines and several thousand internationally.