The Sowers of Misinformation

The Sowers of Misinformation

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Unable to face us on issues, INC detractors dish out personal attacks, gossips stories and malicious reports against the Iglesia Ni Cristo

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 “Misinformation” according to the Webster’s Third New International Dictionary (unabridged) is incorrect, untrue, or misleading information. There are usually utilized not only in political and ideological demagoguery but also in religious rabble-rousing. The proponents of misinformation are often guilty of dirty styles such as emotionalism, fallacious statements and beating around-the-bush tactics in influencing public opinion. The current proponents of religious misinformations can be likened to priestly Goebbels who would flaunt public ethics and morality just so they could twist and sway the truth to their favor.

The Sowers of Misinformation

Who were the sowers of misinformation? How can we overcome their contemptuousness for the truth? Before we determine the answer to the first question, it is more appropriate for us to be armed with the solution to the second one first. How can we be free of any form of misinformation? Our Lord Jesus Christ in the Gospel of John preached, thus:

John 8:32 TEV

“You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."

But which truth is capable of setting all people free? The Lord Jesus also stated in the Johannine Gospel, thus:

John 17:17 NKJV

“Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.”

Therefore, the only solution or cure to misinformation is the words of God. God’s words speak the truth. It will sanctify us and free us from all falsehoods.

The Book of the Lord therefore, is the source of God’s truth. In the New Testament, Apostle Paul gave this description for the Book of the Lord:

II Timothy 3:15-17 NKJV

“And that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

The command of God is for man to use the Bible to reach perfection. On the other hand, Catholic authorities belittle the Bible and say it is not useful to teach man his salvation.

Thus, we should not be surprised why there are self-professing Christians who are ignorant of the Bible. They are famished for the words of God denied them by their religious mentors. They have been constantly fed not with the message of salvation coming from the Book of God (the Bible), but with heavy doses of what they falsely claim as apostolic traditions, paganism which God hates, and with decisions of Church Councils decided upon by men.

Observe the pages and sites of INC detractors: how often do they read the Bible? Read and see that what they dish out are personal experiences, gossips stories and malicious reports. Remember the malicious report a Catholic site run by a Roman Catholic priest dished out a malicious report and claim, but eventually proven false. There were who “pose” as “members of INC” to spread malicious stratements to paint a bad image against Iglesia Ni Cristo.

And yet they say that it is the Iglesia Ni Cristo that sows misinformation. This claim had been proceeded by constant salvoes of argumentums ad hominemon on the members of the Iglesia Ni Cristo. Unable to face us on issues, they issued statements like “Manalo ministers are ignorant,” “only ignorant and uneducated are converted to the INC,” “hypocrites,” etc.

Be that as it may , such personal attacksonly reinforce the fact that this Church (the Iglesia Ni Cristo) is not the work of man but of God. Ignorant and uneducated men, by themselves alone, cannot attain the glory now held by the Iglesia Ni Cristo.

The Iglesia Ni Cristo does not boast that its members are highly educated as Catholic defenders do for the Catholics although if the CFDs will only make an honest to goodness survey, they migt be shock into insensitivity. The Church of Christ, now as in the first century, does not rely on human wisdom and learning but on God’s words. It ewjoices solely because its members hear the wordsof God and keep it because by doing so they are blessed:

Lukas 11:28 NKJV

“But He said, "More than that, blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it!”

The “Mother Of All Misinformation”

The Bible is the Book of Truth, God’s Holy Scripture where the truth of salvation us written. Hiwever, the Catholic Church and the Catholic defenders beliitle the Bible by stating the following:

“The Bible cannot be the sole guide to salvation…” (Rev. Louis LaRaviore Morrow, My Catholic Faith, page 123.)

Another Catholic author stated the following:

 “The Bible nowhere says that it is the sole and sufficient for those who want to know and do God’s will…” (H. A. Jonston in his book Plain Talks On The Catholic Religion, page 124.)

This is how low the Roman Catholic Church regards the only source of correct information concerning man’s salvation. However, Catholic defenders argue that “nowhere in the Bible that says that the Bible is the only basis for our faith.” This is another misinformation because the Bible says the following:

I Corinthians 4:6 NIV

“Now, brothers, I have applied these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, so that you may learn from us the meaning of the saying, "DO NOT GO BEYOND WHAT IS WRITTEN." Then you will not take pride in one man over against another.” (Emphasis Mine)

Another misinformation that Catholics defenders spreading is that “the Catholic Church made the Bible.” They added that the Catholic Church first existed than the Bible because the Bible existed only in the fourth century. A big lie indeed. Take note of what the Lord Jesus Christ said:

Luke 24:44 NIV

“He said to them, "This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.”

The Lord Jesus Christ mentioned “the Law of Moses” (Genesis Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy). He also mentioned the “Prophets” and the “Psalms” (referring to the “Writings” – like Job, Psalms, Proverbs). Collectively, the Lord Jesus called this the “Scriptures”:

Matthew 21:42, NKJV

“Jesus said to them, "Have you never read in the Scriptures: 'The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone. This was the LORD's doing, And it is marvelous in our eyes'?”

Mark 14:49, NKJV

“I was daily with you in the temple teaching, and you did not seize Me. But the Scriptures must be fulfilled.”

Mateo 22:29, NKJV

“Jesus answered and said to them, ‘You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God.”

The Apostles and the Disciples of Christ also called these books “the Scriptures”:

Luke 24:3,2, NKJV

“And they said to one another, "Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?”

Acts 18:24, NKJV

“Now a certain Jew named Apollos, born at Alexandria, an eloquent man and mighty in the Scriptures, came to Ephesus.”

Romans 15:4, NKJV

“For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.”

Apostle Paul called these Books “Holy Scriptures”:

II Timothy 3:15 NKJV

“And that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.”

Romans 1:2, NKJV

“Which He promised before through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures.”

These books collectively called by the Lord Jesus and His disciples are what we call today as the Old Testament, the first general division of the Bible. Who in the right mind will say that the Old Testament is not a Bible? How about the New Testament? The books of the New Testament were continuously collected as they were written. This is the reason why Apostle Peter mentioned the writings of the Apostle Paul as they were known to the whole Christian community of His days:

I Peter 3:16, NKJV

“As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures.”

Collectively, Apostle Peter called the New Testament books already written in his time as “Scriptures.” The history of how the Old testament and New testament books were collectively called “Bible” shows that all the books of the Bible were already written and collected at the end of the first century and the beginning of the second century, refuting the claim of the Catholic Church.

“The first use of the word biblia to referring to the books of the Bible was when the Scriptures were translated into Greek. Daniel 9:2 of the Greek translation of the Scriptures called the books of the prophets ta biblia (ta biblia). In the second century A.D., the Greek Christians called their scriptures ta biblia.” (General Introduction to the Bible, p. 24)

As early as second century, the Greek Christians call the Scriptures “ta biblia.”

Thus, those “who go beyond what is written” and instead dish out personal attacks, gossip stories and malicious reports as INC detractors do are the sowers of misinformation.