Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo is at it, once again. Sunday, he installed two more married men as Roman Catholic priests. Since he is excommunicated, these ordinations will not change the canonical state of the persons in question.

Since incurring excommunication status from the Vatican, Milingo has formed a group called Married Priests NOW! and sent a letter in the name of the organization to Pope Benedict XVI. Recently, Milingo cited that Sun Myung Moon is one of the benefactors of his organization.

Recently, I admitted that I may have been wrong about Milingo being the catalyst behind a schism in the Roman Catholic Church. The main reason being that Christians all over the world should be able to see that Abp. Milingo is a loose cannon at best, a potentially dangerous cult leader at worst. Milingo’s association with Sun Myung Moon should make this fact perfectly clear. There can be no unification between Moon’s church and orthodox Christianity; for Christ’s sacrifice combined with God’s grace is sufficient for the salvation of humanity. Moon’s contention is that Jesus failed since He didn’t marry and He was executed.

This is utter crap. First, there is no evidence one way or the other for Jesus’ marriage or lack thereof. Traditionally, Jesus is thought not to have married; which happens to be my personal belief. Jesus knew, on some level, what He was actually here to do for His entire life. It is unlikely that someone sent here to die would marry and start a family that He wouldn’t be able to care for, especially a person affirming a Law requiring the honoring of one’s family! This is still very much an open question, but one not essential to any specific doctrine of faith, so to specifiy this as a reason Jesus failed is completely missing the point of Scripture, especially the book of Hebrews!

Second, Jesus’ purpose on this earth was to bridge the gap mankind itself created when bringing sin into the world. God had set the scrificial system in place, not as a permanent fixture, but as a prelude to the grace that Jesus brought with Him. In many ways, I doubt God ever intended us to follow the Law. He had always intended a Redeemer, one who would remove sin from this world.

Look at this passage. This is the passage that Paul refers to when he speaks of the faith of Abraham. Abraham went there with the intention of offering a sacrifice to God, his own son Isaac; instead, God provided a sacrifice. Prophetic? Of course! This is exactly what happened in the course of human history. Jesus was the perfect sacrifice for God for the forgiveness of all sin, and like the ram, God Himself provided that sacrifice.

I am only a layman, I hold no doctorate degrees (honorary or otherwise), and I can discern this from reading the Gospel of John and the book of Hebrews. Moon, apparently, cannot discern this fact. In fact, he calls himself the Second Coming, here to redeem humanity where Christ “failied.”

This is the church that supports Abp. Milingo. This is the church he wants to bring closer to the Vatican.

Therefore, I had originally figured that he would not be a good leader for a schism over the celibacy issue within the Roman Catholic Church. But now, I think I may have too hasty in that pronouncement.

With his continued ordination activity, his letter to the Pope, and the reaching out to other congregations, I think that he may be building enough infrastructure to start a schism. Despite his theology being seriously skewed, he may actually do it!

That is terribly sad to me. That he has a chance to start a schism even though he has forged ties to a known cult is indefensible. This is proof positive that people who call themselves Christians need to spend a little bit more time reading God’s Word–the Bible. It does not appear that some people (Milingo himself) are recognizing Moon for what he is: an apostate whose followers need our prayers and support.

If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words, which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions, and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain. [1Tim 6:3-5]