Executive ministers of the Iglesia ni Cristo are "Manalos", so what?

Is there religious dynasty in the INC? Why the INC is governed by the Manalos? Is the INC owned by the Manalos? Why the executive ministers after Bro. Felix Manalo were his son and grandson? Is it not unfair to other ministers if the next executive minister of the INC after Bro. Eduardo will be his son or another Manalo again?


ANSWER:


To make the answer short, the Iglesia ni Cristo members HAVE NO PROBLEM if all of our executive ministers were Manalos. There is no dynasty and no unfairness in the INC. If there are people who HAVE PROBLEM with that, they are the jealous nonmembers and not us. WE NEVER COMPLAIN who the next executive minister will be, because WE TRUST them, we BELIEVE in them, and we have FAITH in them.


Is there dynasty in the church?

NONE. Bro. Erano Manalo and Bro. Eduardo Manalo were elected by church ministers, there is an election on who will be the next executive minister.

On Bro. Erano Manalo

“On the of January, 1953, Bro. Felix Manalo called a meeting of INC District Ministers (Then also called Division Ministers). Bro. Erano then the Church General treasurer, was elected Bro. Felix eventual successor to the office of Executive Minister…” “ By Providential will he was elected by Church elders in 1953 to succeed Bro. Felix Y. Manalo as the Church of Christ (Iglesia Ni Cristo) Executive Minister in the event of the demise of God’s messenger…” Pasugo Sep 2009 Issue


"...As to CHOOSING OF THE CHURCH ADMINISTRATOR, succession was done THROUGH AN ELECTION attended by the Church ministers in the house of worship in Riverside, San Juan, Metro Manila (formerly Rizal) on 28th of January 1953. Three names were cast, to wit: Bro. Erano G. Manalo, Isaias Samson Sr. and Isaias Reyes. The congregation of ministers overwhelmingly supported Bro. Erano Manalo in carrying on the administration of the church after Bro. Felix Manalo..." Pasugo March-April 1992 issue

On Bro. Eduardo Manalo

“The Church Of Christ is so blessed because even though God called Bro. Erano Manalo to his much-needed reast, he heas placed a successor upon whom he bestowed with an impressive capability to lead and administer it: Bro. Eduardo V. Manalo, the present Executive Minister of the INC. Well respected, well known, and well loved by the whole church, he is now our overall Executive Administrator . Under the tutelage of his father, he had long been prepared for this task, having been unanimously elected in 1994 by the assembly of district ministers to be Deputy Executive Minister and hence successor in case of such an eventuality…” Pasugo Sep 2009 issue

Were the division ministers wrong that they elected Bro. Erano Manalo and Bro. Eduardo Manalo as executive ministers?

No. Because of the leadership of Bro. Erano Manalo, the Iglesia ni Cristo had established local congregations abroad and in his time 50 locales are being dedicated to God yearly. While the present executive minister, who is Bro. Eduardo Manalo dedicates more or less a hundred locales yearly, and more districts abroad are being created.

Do you think the INC will have these achievements if they did not become executive ministers?

Some contributions of Bro. Erano Manalo to the church were:

Infrastructure: Central Temple, Central Office, INC museums, Tabernacle, New Era University, New Era General Hospital, FYM Memorial Puericulture center and maternity clinic, Housing projects (for ministers and volunteer workers) and Resettlement projects.

Socio civic program: Lingap sa Mamamayan

Media evangelization: DZEM radio station, NET25, and GemTV.

On the 46 years leadership of Bro. Erano, he had established the first local congregation outside the Philippines in 1968 which is in Hawaii, in his time, there are 90 districts in the Philippines and more than 11 established districts abroad, the church is scattered in 93 countries and territories around the world.


Some contributions of Bro. Eduardo Manalo:

Infrastructure: Philippine Arena, Philippine Stadium, EVM Convention Center, EGM Medical Center, Net25 and GemTV building [all under construction]

Socio civic programs: INC Giving, Felix Y Manalo Foundation

Media evangelization: PinasFM 95.5

In the would-be-3 years leadership of Bro. Eduardo, he had established an INC activity which is Unity games, created 5 districts abroad with inaugurations of 3 new bigger edifices for the former districts. In present, the church is now in 100 countries and territories with members consisting of 110 nationalities and ethnicities. The districts in the Philippines alone is now 111, he also led the first ordination of ministers and the first general conference of ministers outside the Philippines.


Succession crisis in other churches

Succession for me, is a period of difficult times of a church because new leader, means new kind of leadership, like in any democratic country, new president means new administration, how beautiful the past administration was, the present and the future of the country always DEPENDS on who will be the next leader is. Fortunately, the Iglesia ni Cristo had executive ministers that have the same goals and leadership, succession and/or election did not became a problem and did not make any negative effects in the church. Not like other churches like the LDS church that had succession crisis:

"The succession crisis in the Latter Day Saint movement occurred after the violent death of the movement's founder, Joseph Smith, Jr., on June 27, 1844.

For roughly six months after Smith's death, several people competed to take over his role. The leading contenders were Sidney Rigdon, Brigham Young, and James Strang.The majority of Latter Day Saints elected to follow Young's leadership, but several smaller churches emerged from the succession crisis. This significant event in the History of the Latter Day Saint movement precipitated several permanent schisms." source: wikipedia

Another example is the Jehova's witnesses:

"A dispute developed in 1917 within the leadership of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society following the death of society president Charles Taze Russell and election of legal counsel Joseph Franklin Rutherford as his successor.

An acrimonious battle ensued between Rutherford and four of the society's seven directors, who accused him of autocratic behavior and sought to reduce his powers. Rutherford claimed the dissident directors had formed a conspiracy to seize control of the society and overcame the challenge by gaining a legal opinion that his four opposers had not been legally appointed. He subsequently replaced them with four new sympathetic directors. The four ousted directors later gained 12 legal opinions that Rutherford's actions were "wholly unlawful". The leadership crisis divided the Bible Student community and helped contribute to the loss of one-seventh of the Watch Tower adherents by 1919." source: wikipedia

Also happened on the "Iglesia ng Dios kay Kristo Hesus, Haligi at Suhay ng Katotohanan", the church where Mr. Eliseo Soriano was expelled and then founded his own church now called Members Church of God International:

"In 1969, Nicolas Perez, who was then the church's Presiding Minister, bestowed upon Soriano the title Minister making him the only minister in the Iglesia ng Dios kay Kristo Hesus, Haligi at Suhay ng Katotohanan at that time. Rumors were circulating that Soriano is going to be Perez's successor.
After the death of Nicholas Perez, a woman named Levita Gugulan was appointed by a Board of Directors to lead the Iglesia ng Dios kay Kristo Hesus, Haligi at Suhay ng Katotohanan (Church of God in Christ Jesus, the Pillar and Support of the Truth) as the Church Presiding Minister. Eliseo Soriano was a signatory on July 11, 1975 to the appointment of Gugulan. A month after, he again signed a memorandum stating that anyone who opposes their Church administration will be suspended and expelled.

On January 2, 1976, Eliseo Soriano was then appointed by Levita Gugulan as one of their church’s Board of Directors. There were fifteen members of the Board. On February 21, 1976, he was expelled together with sixteen other members for inciting rebellion inside the church and teaching doctrines contrary to their beliefs. Soriano maintains that he was not expelled but voluntarily left his church as he firmly believes that a woman should not lead the church according to the bible. On March 30, 1977, two years after the death of Perez, Eliseo Soriano and followers registered his own group..." source: wikipedia

A crisis also happened in an election of Pope after the death of Catholic Church's pope who is Liberius:

The succession crisis
"In the early Church, new Bishops of Rome were elected or chosen by the clergy and the people of the diocese in the presence of the other bishops in the province, which was the manner customarily used in other dioceses. While this simple method worked well in a small community of Christians unified by persecution, as the congregation grew in size, the acclamation of a new bishop was fraught with division, and rival claimants and a certain class hostility between patrician and plebeian candidates unsettled some episcopal elections. At the same time, 4th-century emperors expected each new pope-elect to be presented to them for approval, which sometimes led to state domination of the Church's internal affairs.
On the death of Liberius on 24 September 366, one faction supported Ursinus (or Ursicinus), who had served as deacon to Liberius, while another faction, previously loyal to the Antipope Felix II, supported Damasus. The upper-class partisans of Felix supported the election of Damasus, but the opposing supporters of Liberius, the deacons and laity, supported Ursinus. The two were elected simultaneously (Damasus' election was held in San Lorenzo in Lucina) in an atmosphere of rioting. Supporters already clashed at the beginning of October. Such was the violence and bloodshed that the two prefects of the city were called in to restore order, and after a first setback, when they were driven to the suburbs and a massacre of 137 was perpetrated in the basilica of Sicininus (the modern Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore), the prefects banished Ursinus to Gaul. There was further violence when he returned, which continued after Ursinus was exiled again.
Church historians such as St. Jerome and Rufinus, championed Damasus. At a synod in 378, Ursinus was condemned and Damasus exonerated and declared the true pope. The former antipope continued to intrigue against Damasus for the next few years and unsuccessfully attempted to revive his claim on Damasus's death. Ursinus was among the Arian party in Milan, according to Ambrose.
This dissension climaxed with a riot which led to a three-day massacre and to the rare intervention of Emperor Valentinian I to uphold public order. Damasus prevailed, but only with the support of the city prefect. Once he was securely consecrated Bishop of Rome, his men attacked Ursinus and his remaining supporters who were seeking refuge in the Liberian basilica, resulting in a massacre of 137 supporters of Ursinus. Damasus was also accused of murder before a later prefect, but his friends secured the personal intervention of the emperor to rescue him from this humiliation. The reputations of both Damasus and the Roman church in general suffered greatly due to these two unseemly incidents.
Edward Gibbon writes, "The enemies of Damasus styled him Auriscalpius Matronarum, the ladies' ear-scratcher." source: wikipedia

These are just some examples of churches that had succession crisis, may it be because of crisis in the election of the next leader or because of a different kind of leadership of the next successor of the church.


The Present Executive Minister --Bro. Eduardo Manalo

What do you think is another reason why Bro. Eduardo was unanimously elected by the district ministers to be the successor of Bro. Erano Manalo?

For me, I think it is because the son of Bro. Felix who is Bro. Erano was successful on his leadership in the church so they taught Bro. Erano's son will also successful on his leadership, besides on the reason of his great skills. Another reason is that Bro. Eduardo was blessed by Bro. Felix Manalo himself, while he is in sickbed:

"Brother Felix was already on his sick bed when one day he sent for his grandson, "Eddie," who was barely seven years old and at the time, was playing in the yard. When Eddie entered the room, Brother Felix asked his grandson to kneel, and then he placed his hands over the child's head and blessed him in front of several witnesses. Afterwards, he had his grandson rise and allowed him to return outside to play." source: Pasugo Issue October 2009

Whoever will be the next executive minister that the district ministers be voted, it is God's will and we respect that even if it will be another Manalo, because what's important are the contributions they made in the church, and not the PRIDE or HONOR of their clan. Again, there is no PROBLEM and it is not a big deal for us if the next executive minister after Bro. Eduardo is his son or another Manalo again.