Josiah Concept Ministries

I have been predicting a schism in the Roman Catholic Church over the issue of celibacy in the priesthood, and I thought that the ugly head of separation was beginning to rear itself when Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo was excommunicated last month for installing four married men as bishops.

I thought that Milingo would provide the growing group a strong, outspoken leader. With the bishops he installed ordaining other priests, I didn’t think it would be long before a full schism would occur.

However, an October 13 article from the LA Daily News would seem to prove me wrong. It seems as though this group prefers to work within the system and not use out-and-out rebellion as its preferred method.

According to the article, Archbishop Milingo’s associations with Rev. Sun Myung Moon and his “flamboyant style” make other groups very cautious to associate with him. They consider the former prelate a “loose cannon.”

The article also makes this assertion:

Most groups estimate there are at least 25,000 men in the United States who left the active priesthood to marry, 100,000 to 150,000 worldwide. The church considers them outcasts. Some totally drop out of religious life. But others continue to independently carry on rites such as marriages even though they are not considered valid in the eyes of the church.

It makes me sad to know that some of these people are completely dropping out of religious life. I wish that the Roman Church would relax their celibacy rules; it seems to me that it is more important to maintain a relationship with Jesus than to hold on to an outdated tradition.

Could this rule be an example of the food that Paul is speaking of in this passage?

If your brother is distressed because of what you eat, you are no longer acting in love. Do not by your eating destroy your brother for whom Christ died. Do not allow that you consider good to be spoken of as evil. For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and approved by men.

Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification. Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All food is clean, but it is wrong for a man to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble. [Romans 14:15-20]

Of course, Rome can make the argument in reverse. But, for now, it seems, more people are in favor of married clergy and that means that Rome should “do what leads to peace and mutual edification.”

If married clergy does not benefit both sides of the equation, I would like to know how.

An article about John Sanders, former professor of religion and philosophy at Huntington University and author of The God Who Risks, recently came to my attention as I was studying some of James White’s debates. Sanders is the most vocal proponent of open theism. Sanders was removed from the staff of Huntington University in 2003 for promoting “probablistic prophecy,” the veiw that biblical prophecy is not certain since God doesn’t know with certainty what free beings will choose to do. Sanders’s views on what happens to the unevangelized is as follows:

According to Sanders, God reaches out to all people “via general revelation, conscience and human culture.” People are saved if they “respond in trusting faith to the revelation they have.”[53] To claim that salvation comes only to those who know Christ’s name or who understand certain doctrines is akin to Gnosticism, in which salvation comes only to those who possess special knowledge.[54] In fact, he notes, if salvation comes only to those who know the name of Jesus then the patriarchs of the Old Testament are doomed to hell![55] Rather, he says, citing C.S. Lewis, “every prayer which is sincerely made even to a false god…is accepted by the true God,” and “Christ saves many who do not think they know him.”[56] In the end it is only those who decline God’s grace that will be damned. [emphasis added]

In other words, Jesus Christ isn’t the only way to God. What makes this man scary is the fact that he doesn’t deny that Jesus is the Son of God and that He came to save humanity. This means that Sanders doesn’t fit the biblical definition of an antichrist, but I think this statement gets him close.

There are literally dozens of news stories being posted to Google from the BBC News, San Jose Mercury News, Telegraph.co.uk, and the Seattle Post Intelligencer (those last just today; there are more articles posted from October 10-11 as well!) on the Pope allowing for the celebration of the Tridentine Rite Mass without permission from the local ordinary.

I just said a bunch of words that people may not understand. So let’s back up and find out what these things are. First, the easy one: Ordinary. That is, the Bishop of the diocese in which a person lives. Normally, to celebrate a Rite (that is, style of Mass or worship service) other than the Rite under which you normally reside, the priest would need the permission of the ordinary. The Pope may soon circumvent this restriction and allow the Tridentine Rite to be celebrated unless the ordinary forbids it in writing, at the discretion of the parrish priest.

What is the Tridentine Rite? It is a fancy name for the Mass said in Latin. There are certain other conventions which are foreign to most younger Catholics, such as the celebrant kneeling facing the altar instead of the congregation. This, according to Roman Catholic tradition, is the way the Mass has been said for over 400 years prior to the Vatican II Council and it is the way that many Catholic conservatives would like the Mass to continue to be said.

I’m not Catholic, but I do attend Catholic Mass from time to time (since my family is Catholic). I, for one, would like to be able to understand what I’m hearing. Personally, I can’t worship in spirit and in truth, as Jesus commands, if I don’t know what is being said. I don’t like answering a celebrant who, for all I know, just told me to commit myself to the Dark Lord Voldemort and swear to be a Death Eater for All Time.

Okay, that’s sarcasm. But really, I can’t understand why anyone would be in favor of this. But, I will–ever the dutiful apologist–follow this story closely and report on it. This should prove to be very interesting.

The following articles are currently in the works. I just need time to complete them:

• Expounding on the “Love and Marriage” entry below as an earthly parallel of the Trinity
• Refutation of open theism
• Rent-a-priest.com (CITI Ministries)
• Examination/refutation of probabilistic prophecy
• Catholic image “worship” — now published here

My memory is terrible (as my wife will attest). This list is as much for me as for building anticipation in my readers! That’s why the links are there, too. In addition to a bad memory, I’m also lazy! And, without a computer, I have no ability to bookmark these pages.

According to Genesis, when a couple marries they become one flesh. Now you have two persons that are, in fact, one being. For a Trinity to exist, you need a third person. For a marriage to exist at all, you need to add love in there. What is love? According to the Bible, God is love!

So, a succussful marriage requires a man and a woman willing to become one flesh in love, and that love is God. A play on the anonymous poem that says a successful marriage takes three, and I know that both my wife and I can attest to the truth of that statement.

Perhaps I will work to develop this insight into a better, lengthier, more thought-out article. Perhaps I won’t have time! I trust that God will prevail, and if this ministry is to survive, it will.

Of course, it is difficult to have a web-based ministry with no web access. But I have faith that God will provide and that I will be able to work this ministry into something really special for His glory.