Arrested Filipino Pastor Apollo Quiboloy Claims He’s the Messiah
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Apollo Quiboloy called himself the “Appointed Son of God.”
But to Filipino and American authorities, he was a man wanted for years on charges of sexual abuse and human trafficking.
Quiboloy, the 74-year-old leader of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, surrendered to authorities on September 8 after 2,000 security officers descended on the religious sect’s massive complex in Davao City in the Philippines. Thousands of followers gathered at the 74-acre compound to protest Quiboloy’s arrest as videos of his sermons on the building’s giant screens.
Authorities have accused Quiboloy of rape—including of minors—and engaging in sex trafficking, fraud, and smuggling cash into the US. Quiboloy’s lawyers denied these charges.
Quiboloy, who claims to have millions of followers in 200 countries around the world, is politically powerful. He has a close relationship with former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte, allowing him to continue preaching even as the FBI placed him on its most wanted list. It was only after Duterte stepped down in 2022 that Filippine authorities brought charges against him and issued a warrant for his arrest.
The Kingdom of Jesus Christ is one of many sects that have sprouted up in the Philippines, which have an outsize impact on the country’s politics and culture. Because the Philippines is an archipelago of 7,000 islands, different homegrown religious leaders often grow to represent certain regions, knitting people’s faith and identity closely together.
In a 2022 CT article, Timoteo D. Gener, chair of Philippine Council of Evangelical Church’s Theological Council, noted that indigenous non-Trinitarian heretical groups like Iglesia Ni Cristo, Ang Dating Daan (The Old Path), and Kingdom of Jesus Christ have grown out of “the prevalence of modalism, the belief that God is a single person who reveals himself in three forms, among folk Catholics. Countering modalism in faith and practice remains a continuing challenge for biblical Christians in the country.”
Another similarity in these communities is that they often center around a messianic leader. This is an idea that is attractive to the Filipino psyche, according to Rod Santos, a minister at Greenhills Christian Fellowship, adjunct professor at the International Graduate School of Leadership, and author of a book on why Filipino evangelicals disaffiliate.
Content retrieved from: https://www.christianitytoday.com/2024/09/apollo-quiboloy-kingdom-jesus-christ-philippines-heretical/.
