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Ang Dating Daan: 36 Years of Keeping Millennia-Old Conversations of Faith Alive



Subali’t kapag nalagot 
hiningang lubhang marupok 
ng katawan mong mairog, 
ang araw mo’y matatapos 
ang iiral ay ang sa Diyos 

(But when the very fragile breath 
of your beloved body is no more, 
your days will end, and God’s will begin.) 

At one time or another, we need to talk about God. 

Thankfully, it has been one of the echoing themes, advocacies of the program Ang Dating Daan or The Old Path. 

For 36 years now, it has served in the most basic, and yet, beamingly, most effective and satisfying way, it can: Answering any question about God—raw, live and founded. 

Once asked, expect its hosts Bro. Eli Soriano and Bro. Daniel Razon to respond with verses of the Bible and display them on TV, Youtube and Facebook screens for everyone’s reference and checking. Hence, the show’s tagline: “The Bible Will Answer. Ask Bro. Eli.” 

In that same spirit, they give out free copies of the Bible—a practice they have exercised since the early days of MCGI’s Bible Expositions in the 90s—of which, 8,000 were handed out in the recent anniversary celebration at the Mall of Asia Arena. 

Bro. Eli, the show’s main host, answers as transparently as anyone can. Though by reality and experience, the rest comparably don’t. 

In fact, it is this hallmark trait and character of his that sometimes get him in variance with people who are unaccustomed to hearing plain truth. 

Not that Bro. Eli is blunt or insensitive. Often, when a question begs him to present documented facts about religion, he would preface it by hoping that the inquirer would not get offended. Because he will lay down what needs to be laid down. 

Truth is not something he is known to sacrifice a comma of, even if someone did feel strongly against it.  

Enter the Ang Dating Daan Debates. 

Mirroring the no holds-barred exchange of reasoning from the time of the early Greeks to that of Stephen against the Jews, Bro. Soriano has a long list of debates with pastors of various denominations. 

A more awakening form of exposition, ADD's Debates let people see whether a belief or practice will stand under Gospel truth or break down. And even, how religious teachers lack knowledge of their own group’s dogmas and teachings, and sadly, much less of God's words. 

Reality is, the very reason why anyone alive today knows and believes in Jesus is because information about Him while He was on this earth, about His Apostles, and their works and words was written more than 2,000 years ago. The Old Path is merely keeping the conversation alive; albeit, with the help and mercy of God.
 
For 36 years and more, that is something truly worth thanking Him for.

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