There are several prosperity gospel preachers advocating how God will prosper His children. There is no need to mention them. While God really blesses, the extreme of their teachings does not sound in tune with the Word of the Lord.

Prosperity gospel preachers teach the "hundredfold return" principle combined with the "seed faith" belief. What these principles mean? Simple: If you give God $10, you will receive $1,000. You need to plant some seed for you to reap more.

I have nothing against these principles, per se. We cannot outgive God, that's the sure thing. But the problem here is the attitude, the motivation behind.

For instance, you have a bill to pay amounting $5,000. Because you believe in the principle of hundredfold return and the seed faith, you will give $50 or $100 on Sunday service and trust God to give $5,000 (and maybe some extras for the extras you give) on Monday.

Scenario 1: No $5,000 arrived on Monday. 

Does it make God a liar? Or does it make the prosperity gospel preacher a liar? (The latter is a better possibility.)

Scenario 2: $5,000 arrived on Monday. 

You did your part of the bargain, now God did his part of the bargain.

Truth

Why were you billed $5,000 in the first place? If it's because you live in an expensive house, had you not thought that God wanted you to sell off your expensive house and buy a more modest home?

Is God now obligated to meet your needs just because you are bad spender? Is God a genie that must grant all your wishes and everything you ask Him?

Is God a CEO of the company who must bargain with the employee union to get them working? Should God really compromise with us for us to serve Him?

Okay God, I have given you $10 already, you must give me $100. If this is how things work, then I think those poor Christians of old were not givers. They died poor, mutilated by the Roman soldiers, tortured during the Inquisition, and even persecuted in most parts of the world. Had they given $100,000 to the Lord, they would have been millionaires (by the standard of their day).

The prosperity gospel principle treats God as the means to an end. A tool. An object. The promises of God on material blessings are now turned into MONEY BACK GUARANTEE. You give, you will get your money back, 100% plus interests.

If we are serving God for the fringe benefits attached to this service, then we are not serving out of love, but out of the compensations we get. And if God is not giving us adequate compensations, I guess we should get a new manager. Sir Robert L'Estrange, a British journalist of the 17th century, wrote: He that serves God for money will serve the devil for better wages. 

Definition of the word "Christian" is "of, relating to, or professing Christianity or its teachings."

From there, let us go to the fundamental beliefs or teachings of Christianity. "They are 

1) the Deity of Christ, 

2) Salvation by Grace, 

3) Resurrection ofChrist, 

4) the gospel, and 

5) monotheism."

I am stressing number 1: Deity of Christ.

Following this line of reasoning, we can say that a Christian church or a Christian individual believes fundamentally in the deity of Christ. This is the foremost requirement for a person or church to fit the adjective "Christian". Otherwise, a person or a church should not claim to be a "Christian" and should be stripped of such claim. (While there are five fundamental teachings, as noted above, and to have disagreement with one strips you of the word "Christian" allow my bias on the first teaching: Deity of Christfor the sake of my line of argument.)

The Iglesia ni Cristo claims to be a Christian church, even an indigenous Christian sect.

However, the INC denies the deity of Christ. Rather, they only believe that Christ is just a mere man following or given authority by God.

Allow my argument to flow, if the INC does not believe in the deity of Christ, it is safe to conclude that the Iglesia ni Cristo does not fit the definition. Even the name of the organization is a misnomer.

To quote Michael Tan, Chancellor of UP Diliman: "Then there is Iglesia ni Cristo, not technically “Christian” because it does not see Jesus as divine (http://opinion.inquirer.net/86708/born-again)."