Iglesia ni Cristo denies the traditional reading of Hebrews 1:8 as calling the Son 'God.' The church teaches that the passage is either a quotation from the Psalms applied to the Son's role rather than his nature, or that it represents Old Testament language about God's representative without affirming Christ's deity. Only the Father is God (Theos); Christ is the Son of God but not God himself.

This interpretation is central to Iglesia ni Cristo's non-Trinitarian Christology. Christ is divine in function and authority but not in ontological status. The Father is the one true God; the Son is subordinate and dependent on the Father.