Eliseo Fernando Soriano was born on April 4, 1947 to Triunfo Soriano and Catalina Fernando in Pasay City, Manila, Philippines. Eli is seventh of eight siblings whose family belonged to a pool of commoners, but his ancestors were a reputable clan in the northern part of the country. The Rimando-Soriano family has been influential in the sphere of politics and economy in Naguillan, La Union, north of Manila. However, his father chose to raise the family in the metropolis.

Triunfo or Tri, Eli’s father, was a very intelligent man. He was a foreman in a construction firm and worked on some of the earlier buildings and infrastructures constructed in the most developed city in the Philippines today. He was a strict father to his children and a loving husband to his wife, Catalina.

It was Eli’s mother, Catalina or Tale, who was very religious ever since her youth. She was zealous in her service when she was still in the Catholic Church. Whenever someone in her family would get sick, she would walk on her knees from the church entrance up to the altar, believing that through such sacrifice her loved ones will get well.

Eli’s mother Tale was the one who first learned about the Church presided by Perez. It happened when a close-relative visited her. Her name was Terya, and she read to Tale some verses in the scriptures about idols. Tale then read the verses for herself. When she was invited by Terya to come to their worship service, she went along taking with her all her children including young Eli.

Not long after, Eli's mother was baptized in the Iglesia ng Dios kay Kristo Hesus, Haligi’t Suhay ng Katotohanan sa Bansang Pilipinas (Church of God in Christ Jesus, the Pillar and Brace of Truth in the Philippines). When Eli's father knew about what she did, he got terribly angry and eventually left them on their own. Tale, however, was undaunted. She left her vices and showed her husband that the church she had come to embrace is the true church.

After about nine months, Tri, hearing that his wife Tale neither gambled nor returned to any of her vices after being baptized, started visiting the place where the worship services were being held. He listened from outside the premises. After proving to himself that his wife was right in leaving the Catholic religion, he soon submitted himself to baptism and joined his wife in the Church of God.