Claims Of Prophetic Fulfillment

A poor and underdeveloped country like the Philippines will look at religiosity as power. It is not surprising therefore to find out that "mystics" in Filipino parlance will have super powers like the ability to heal (as faith healers) or a special capacity for seeing things (like our "seers"). It is not surprising too that another trait of the Filipino -- personality worship -- when mixed up with religion, becomes the seed bed for cults centered around personalities. This latter is reinforced by the charismatic leaders who beguile their followers into believing that they are fulfillments of certain prophecies in Scriptures. Jose Rizal, for example has become a center of a cult, called the Rizalistas and is considered a reincarnation of Jesus Christ.
When I hear members of the Iglesya ni Cristo (of Diliman, Quezon City fame) talk about their founder Felix Manalo as the fifth angel in the Apocalypse (the one who stops the four winds from blowing), I laugh, knowing that the bible passage on which that claim is based will not support it. When I hear members of Ang Dating Daan proclaiming that Eliseo Soriano is the poor wise man in Qoheleth, I laugh too, knowing that the passage cited is not prophetic in nature. But when someone like Apollo Quiboloy comes up on his 54th birthday and proclaim that he is the Son of God, then I am shocked. No prophecy is involved here, just the consciousness that one IS the Son of God. Surely this is madness! When the Lord still lived among us, demons called him "Son of God"; he never proclaimed himself as the Son of God. And when demons did address him as "Son of God" he'd tell them to keep quiet. Apollo Quiboloy is doing the contrary: he even proclaims that all authority in heaven and on earth, all riches, has been given to him by his Father in heaven. But isn't this blasphemy? Yet there are people who believe in his claim. No doubt Quiboloy has gone mad. We might still see another Jim Jones in a Philippine setting.