Felix Manalo

108

Felix Manalo : biography

May 10, 1886 – April 12, 1963

He totally lost faith in the established religions. He began to associate himself with atheist and free-thinkers to examine their conviction which he found false and irrational, as well. He discovered that wrong interpretations of the bible caused both the atheist’s disbelief and the diversity of the doctrines of different religions.

In search for the truth, Manalo resolved to undertake a thorough examination of the doctrines of the different religions.

Foundation of the Church of Christ

In an early month of 1914, Felix Manalo with his wife, Honorata, left their home and headed for Punta, Sta. Ana, Manila to begin preaching about the Church of Christ (Iglesia ni Cristo). There he started with four or five listeners in a small room at the workers’ quarters of Atlantic Gulf and Pacific Company of Manila, Incorporated. As the listeners began to grow in number the nightly religious meetings moved out in the open. Soon, the first converts were baptized in the nearby Pasig River.

A few months later, the church in Punta gained more converts and Manalo decided to propagate the church in other places. He left the small congregation in the care of Federico Inocencio, one of the converts, and Atanacio Morte, the head deacon. He headed for Tipas with his wife and infant daughter, Pilar, to bring the mission of salvation to his town mates.

In his hometown, he met stiff persecutions. His town mates could hardly believe that so familiar a figure as he could bring no less than the message of salvation to them. They derided him. Yet some of the more determined detractors were later converted. Among these were Justino Cassanova, pastor of the Christian and Missionary alliance and Norbeto Asuncion who became ministers of the Iglesia ni Cristo.

On July 27, 1914 the Iglesia ni Cristo was officially registered with the Philippine government with he himself as the first Executive Minister.

A few months later, the Church’s work of propagation was launched in the town of Pateros and then in the town of Pasig. The propagation of the Church first began in Tondo, Manila in the closing months of 1915.

Manalo met various oppositions and persecutions from entrenched religious establishments such as the Catholic and Protestant forces. He also conducted Bible classes for the ministry. Soon some student members were ordained on whose assistance Manalo could now depend in looking after the spiritual needs of the growing church.

Trusted ministers were assigned to pioneer in the work of propagating the faith in the areas surrounding Manila. The church branched out to the provinces in Central Luzon. In 1937, the church began propagating in the Visayas when Manalo sent Alipio Apolonio to pioneer in preaching the church in Cebu, whence it hopped from one Visayan Island to another.

In Feb. 1939, the first issue of Pasugo came out. The Tagalog magazine aimed to disseminate the doctrines of the Church. Publication of this monthly periodical temporarily stopped during the war years and reappeared in Jan. 1951.

During the wartime period, when the Japanese Imperial Army occupied the Philippines, the mission of salvation continued in spite of the reign bombs and threats. While other religious groups compromised, out of fear, with the Japanese and succumbed to the machinations of the enemy, the Iglesia ni Cristo continued to hold worship services, continued to hold missionary campaigns and continued to minister to the spiritual needs of the brethren.

In 1948 the church began constructing a concrete house of worship in Washington street, Sampaloc, Manila. It was the beginning of pious undertaking; the resurgence of big houses of worship that became landmarks through the breadth and length of the archipelago. It was far from the expectation of many people because of the majority of the church members are numbered among poor. Because of its force, this church has gained the respect even of those who disagree with it in many things.

Controversies

Before becoming the founder of Church of Christ (Iglesia ni Cristo), he was a former member of different religious organizations such as the Catholic Church, the Philippine Mission Churches of Christ, and the Seventh-Day Adventist Church.