CFD vs. INC Street Debate: Is Jesus Really God?

I was silently hearing a Sunday night mass. The priest gave us final blessings.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and the Holy Spirit. One God, forever and ever. Amen.

“Dili Ginoo si Hesu Kristo! Mga igsoon ko, ginabinuangan lang mo sa mga tawo! Si Kristo kay tawo lamang, dili Ginoo!”

It was a faint scream. But by the hearing of it, it was something seemed to be uttered as nothing but the truth. I can’t find where it came from. Apparently not from the Church I am standing in. Definitely not!

As I was trying to reach the loud sermon, I found myself in an ocean of faceless strangers. The atmosphere was filled with a peculiar taint of stench. It was a concoction of sweat and an unknown aroma. The latter I found out upon strolling further more was the street foods lined up along the street.

I remembered. I was standing in San Pedro. Unarguably the center of Davao’s government and of the Old City.

As I followed the same loud sermon, I saw a welcome arch. It says Osmena park. I was somewhat intrigued so I had a sit on one of the park benches. I wasn’t aware of the crowd that gathered there, it was a great multitude. All so eager to hear the boisterous shouts and ranting.

It was an informal street debate. And I found out it was between the Catholic Faith Defenders and the Iglesia ni Cristo sect.

As I hear both hot sides on the issue “Patinud-an nga matood nga Diyos si Hesu Kristo base sa Bibliya.”, I was like warped back in time. I was like standing on a Jewish temple, with Jesus Christ preaching about his nature with the hypocritical High Priest insulting him and calling him a bogus liar.

And unconsciously I found myself not in silence. I shouted with the crowd.

“Hesus! Hesus! Hesu Kristo! Matuod nga Tawo matuod nga Diyos!”

The side of INC was all about this seemingly clownish point of a passage in their own version of the Bible. All I know was that it was about God being the chair or throne of Jesus or Jesus being God and being the chair.” He said that proved Jesus wasn’t God, he was the chair of God.

He was making all of us crazy. It was simply pointless. I tried my best to be unbiased. But it seemed like they were founded on a seemingly foundationless doctrine.

The Catholic asked. Was there a verse in your Bible that said about Jesus being not a God and only a man? The INC didn’t answer as if evading something. Stuttering and desperately skimming his own concoction of a ‘bible’.

The Catholic asked again. Who do you think does Isaiah prophesize as the child to be born and named Emmanuel, Prince of Peace and Father All-merciful? The INC never sounded. “If he wasn’t God, then why does the prophet of God call this child Father All-merciful?, was the prophet a fool in speaking for God in his words?” “Yes or no?”

All of us shouted. “Demonio! Diakono Diablo! Si Hesus ay purong Diyos at purong Tao! Uli na didto paglast-two na lang! Ang imong ginoo si Manalo!”

The INC tried to desperately take himself out of the woods. He quoted a Catholic publication. He jumped to where the  whole sense of the statement was no where to be found. He was trying a technique called misquoting. The Catholic questioned it. “Why skip to 101? Why not read it from 100?”

The INC still went on. And from how it sounded, the Catholic Church said Jesus wasn’t God. “Hindi nagbabalat-kayo si Hesus na Diyos.”

By the hearing of it, you will think the Church actually says Jesus wasn’t God at all. 

But when the Catholic read the whole passage. “Ito po ang kanyang tinatago.”, referring to the INC debater.

“Si Hesus ay Purong Diyos at Purong Tao. Siya ay hindi nagbabalat-kayo na Tao. Hindi nagbabalat-kayo na Diyos.”

The Diakono was red-faced. All of us who were trying to decipher his seemingly crooked doctrines was all sure of a conclusion now. He was trying to let us in to his fraudulent and futile attempt to misquote the Bible and Catholic publications to suit his business. [INC is registered in the government as a Business establishment.]

Now we are all sure.

Jesus was the God who became man to save us. There is none in the Bible that stated He is only a man. But there is a statement that this man is God.

Jesus Christ is pure Man Pure God.