Tracking Down the True Church

Book excerpt: If there is a true church, which one is it? Jose Ventilacion is a minister in Iglesia ni Cristo (Church of Christ in Tagalog). Like his denomination's founder, he claims that the original Christian Church apostatized around the end of the first century and totally disappeared from history, only to be reëstablished in the Philippines in 1914. Borrowing from the Jehovah's Witnesses, Iglesia ni Cristo rejects the Trinity. Borrowing from Protestant Fundamentalism, it rejects Catholicism-but with a vehemence that startles even Fundamentalists. This debate was held before an audience of 3,500, nearly all of them members of Iglesia ni Cristo. The question for the evening was whether the Church founded by Christ is to be identified with Iglesia ni Cristo or with the Catholic Church. Not a few listeners went away surprised. Karl Keating is the author of Catholicism and Fundamentalism, Booked for Life: The Bibliographic Memoir of an Accidental Apologist, The New Geocentrists, the How to Fail at Hiking series, and other works. His avocations include backpacking, studying languages, and playing the baroque mandolino. His author website is karlkeating.com.