For inspiring and transforming lives through the Gospel, Ang Dating Daan Turns 32

The Ang Dating Daan religious program hosted by Bro Eli Soriano is celebrating its broadcast anniversary this month of November. That is a very good news for a program, especially to audiences seeking an informative and intelligent show playing anywhere today be it on radio, television or the Internet. Thirty-two years is no mean feat after all.

According to its website, the show today can be heard at UNTV Radio La Verdad and watched its telecast at UNTV, a UHF channel in the Philippines. Its first public airing was through radio as a 30-minute program managed by three people, including Bro. Eli as the host, Kuya Daniel Razon of UNTV as program director and editor, and Sis Luz Cruz, as the researcher.

Unlike any religious program in the Philippines, Ang Dating Daan is the kind where people flock its studio during its early 90s broadcast to throw their questions live and get answers live from the televangelist who would soon become the most sensible of all the other evangelist with radio and television programming.

To watch the show is like watching a symposium ala-Knowledge Channel or National Geographic Channel docs fest only Bro. Eli as the Bible Scholar is the narrator who reads the script out of the verses and passages from the Bible. You got religion and at the same time science, health, technology and family affairs rolled into one show. The Bible will answer is how Ang Dating Daan is introduced where Bro. Eli is the mouthpiece and reader of the verses as answers to questions of people.

Meanwhile, what is a hero without the antis? As soon as the popularity of the program has become undeniable so are the rise of detractors and enemies who would later fight Bro Eli via a concerted effort through a series of malicious attack to the International Evangelist's person. To the thinking public, the accusations are purely malicious and libelous even suicidal. While many local courts are convinced that there's nothing wrong with Bro Eli to even prove the preacher's innocence and what he's doing on television, still the enemies are desperate to win in this war of public opinion.

Even though the program has been blocked from one station after another to the point of being stopped from airing on television, the program has gained more airing time abroad where Bro. Eli's program is now brought to its Spanish and Portuguese-speaking audience in South America, Europe, and Africa. Ang Dating Daan is also being heard in India.

Now 32 years, this officially makes the program one of the longest-airing radio-television religious program in the Philippines and probably Southeast Asia.

On Sunday, November 4, at around 6 p.m. (PHT time), the program is hosting a special Bible Exposition, see the video below.



My warmest congratulations to an always sensible program and televangelist, Bro. Eli Soriano.

To God be the glory!

Countdown to earth's last gasp for life?

I really planned for this. To wait a few more days before writing about my take on the end-of-world prophecy of Jose Luis de Jesus Miranda.

Earth in our hands for the future / Credit: Royalty-free image from Corbis

Not that blogging about Miranda's failed prophecy is obligatory, but among the headliners that emerged in recent memory, his failed declaration of the end of the world should serve as a warning to many people, especially to those who are still a member of this group.

Miranda's doomsday prediction was not in my radar early June until I found a new blog article shared by Bro Eli Soriano's Facebook fan page. Dated June 3, which is 27 days shy of the June 30 countdown of Miranda, the article discussed why Miranda is an undeniable liar. Only then I realized the relative importance of why blogging about this obvious blunder mattered.

Many may not be fully aware of Miranda's presence in the Philippines because that preacher, who was born a Puerto Rican and had been in Mississippi in recent years, have concentrated to grow his international ministry in Brazil, Mexico and the United States.

This Puerto Rican preacher seems to love shuffling different titles. He is "Daddy" most of the time to his followers, but there came a time that he assumed the position of the "Anti-Christ." The most recent title he stole is Jesus Christ's. He's earned a rock star-like fame in the United States courtesy of CNN and Fox News, not because he is cool or revolutionary but because the source of his personal wealth is utterly questionable.

According to CNN, Miranda was former "petty-thief" and a heroin addict who had a vision of two angels coming down from up high. The mission of these angels were divine, to tell Miranda: you are the Jesus reincarnate! So the story goes. Miranda's followers even have 666 symbols tattooed on their bodies as well.

Fox News traces the origin of Miranda's flock. Twenty years ago, there were merely a few hundred members of the Growing in Grace under this sect leader. Today, Miranda boasts of radio and television presence with 287 radio programs and a 24-hour Spanish-language TV network that reportedly reaches two million homes.

Then last April 25, 2012, Miranda, leader of the Growing in Grace International ("Creciendo en Gracia"), predicted that divine justice will arrive on June 30, 2012 to fulfill a prophecy of the coming end. His ominous vision included strong earthquakes, Armageddon, and the destruction of the rest of the earthlings who will not believe Miranda. The privilege of the believers include getting the ability to cross walls!

Billboards bearing Miranda's countdown to transformation campaign were seen plastered in buildings and walls in the United States, Brazil, and other countries. You can just imagine how much the campaign may have cost to mount, with the burden of paying off the expenses shouldered by the ministry's hapless members.

Then June 30 arrived, July 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and now 6. The world is still breathing and the humans in it, with God's help. Just what Bro Eli said that such doomed prophecy is the mark of false prophets that the Bible says will emerge in the last days.

That is why we should really care because it is all worth our time to talk about these realities. With open mind and deep thinking, it pays to be vigilant more than ever before.

Remember that there is no immediate assurance that Miranda's doomed proclamation will be the last. Because another countdown immediately takes the place of this June 30 prophecy. This time, it is December 23, 2012! The end of the Mayan calendar spells the end of the world it is claimed.

Historically and similarly with other doomed end-of-world prophecies, there are victims and losers. Often, the aftermath is terrible. Just recall what had happened to the members of the Jehovah's Witnesses who sold their properties and gave the proceeds to their preachers when the Watchtower Society predicted that the world will end on 1914. Then in 1925 and finally in 1975. All of these predictions failed. The members suffered grave financial loss and many were reduced to rat-poor conditions.

For some members of these religions, especially the fanatics even of Miranda's, these people will stay and forgive their fallen preachers even after all that had happened. But to those who learned their lessons the hard way, they will surely leave, promise not to be fooled again, and search for the truth.

As a starter, it will not hurt marking out in the calendar the date when the next Bible Exposition of the phenomenal preacher who is the lone crusader against these false preachers will be held in July, 2012, God willing.

Fin