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Thursday, August 10, 2017

Pagan Christianity: Book Review

Please note that I wrote this post about 4 years ago. I never shared it because I was too afraid. I don't think that it is wrong to question the way things are done. The Bible says to study to "show thyself approved," and "To test everything against the Word of God, and yet often we go about life, not really questioning or asking questions. We often accept everything we hear as truth,because we respect those in leadership positions. 

The Book, Pagan Christianity, is NOT an attack on Christians. It is simply a book that challenges us to ask deeper questions. What did "church" look like in the Bible? 

My purpose in reviewing this book is NOT to attack the institutionalized church or it's members, only to try to point others to Christ. All too often, I see people both in and out of churches who do not have a relationship with Jesus. Many have left the church because of spiritual abuse. Many of these people do not have a relationship with Jesus because of the hurt that they have experienced. This book would be a breath of fresh air to such people. 

Many others have attended church for all of their lives, yet do not have a relationship with Jesus. They simply rely on their "works" for salvation. This book will challenge such people. 

Here is the post:

This week I read a book, entitled, "Pagan Christianity." The authors, Frank Viola and George Barnes, set out to find out the roots of our church practices.  How much of what we are doing in "church" is even in the Bible? How much of what we are doing is based upon human tradition?

What they found is that many of the things that we deem as normal or customary actually evolved from pagan practices.

These men were not, in any way, promoting a witch hunt that attacked the institualized church. They simply wanted to find out why church was no longer a sense of community with Christ as the Head. They asked the question why the "church" is often associated with brick and mortar when Christ said that the "church" was comprised of 'living stones' not made by human hands.

They sought to look through history to find out how the model for church in the Book of Acts, in which there was a Christ centered community, has become what it today.

Did you know that 80 percent of people are leaving the instiutionalized church? The truth is that people are craving a true relationship with Christ and many people simply cannot find Him represented in His truest form while sitting on a padded pew.

The truth is that we are called to be more than what we have become..Through the centuries, we have lost our sense of community, and our focus has shifted away from Christ.
We are designed for more.
How much of our routines and practices are truly found or even rooted in the Bible?

The men had some startling conclusions. I am going to write extensively on their findings in my upcoming posts.

Here is the blurb from the book:

"are we really doing church by the book? Why does the pastor preach a sermon at every service? Why do church services seem so similar every week? Why does the congregation sit passively in pews?

Not sure?  This book makes an unsettling proposal. Most of what present day Christians do in church each Sunday is rooted, not in the New Testament, but in pagan culture and rituals developed long after the death of the apostles. Authors Frank Viola and George Barna support their thesis with compelling historical evidence and extensive footnotes that document the origins of our modern Christian church practices.

In the process, the authors uncover the problems that emerge when the chuch functions more like a business organization than the living organism it was created to be. As you reconsider Christ's revolutionary plan for His church - to be the head of a fully functioning body in which all believers play an active role - you'll be challenged to decide whether you can ever do church the same way again.


according to Barnes and Viola,j the signs of a healthy organic church are:

  • the building together of sisters and brothers into a close-knit, Christ-centered community
  • the transformation of character in the lives of the members
  • meetings that express and reveal Jesus Christ and in which every member functions and shares
  • community life that is vibrant, thriving, authentic, and where members grow to love one another more and more
  • a community of believers who are magnificently obsessed with their Lord, and who are neither legalistic nor libertine in their lifestyle
the signs of an unhealthy organic church are similar to the problems the apostle Paul pointed out to the church in Corinth
  • a perversion of the grace of God to be a license to sin
  • a sectarian and elitist attitude
  • self-centeredness among members

Interesting verses that point out what the original church in the Book of Acts looks like

  • The early church met in homes for their regular church meetings (Acts 20:20, Romans 16:3,5 , 1 Corinthians 16:19
  • They took the Lord's Supper as a full meal ( 1 Corinthians 11:21-34)
  • Their church gatherings were open and particapatory (1 Cor. 14-16, Hebrews 10:24-25)
  • Spiritual gifts were employed by each member (1 Corinthians 12-14)
  • They genuinely saw themselves as family and acted accordingly (Galatians 6:10, 1 Timothy 5:1-2, Romans 12:5, Romans 12:13
  • They had a plurality of elders to oversee the community (Acts 20:17, 28-29, 1 Timothy 1:5-7)
  • They were established and aided by itenerant apostolic workers (Acts 13-21; all of the apostolic letters)
  • They were fully united and did not denominate themselves into separate organizations in the same city (Acts 8:1, 13:1, 18:22; Romans 16:1, 1 Thessolonians 1:1)
  • They did not use honorific titles (Matthew 23:8-12)
  • They did not organize themselves heirachically (Matthew 20:25-28, Luke 22:25-26


quotes and ideas from the book

" The "church" building is so connected with the idea of church that we unconsciously equate the two. Just listen to the vocabulary of the the average Christian today:
 Wow honey, did you see that beautiful church we just passed? My goodness! That is the largest church I have ever seen! I wonder what the electric costs to keep it going?" Or how about the vocabulary of the average pastor: "Isn't it wonderful to be in the house of God today?" "We must show reverence when we come into the sanctuary of the Lord."

Ancient Judaism was centered on three elements: the Temple, the priesthood, and the sacrifice. When Jesus came, He ended all three, fulfilling them in Himself. He is the temple who embodies a new house made of living stones- "without hands." He is the priest who has established a new priesthood. And He is the perfect and finished sacrifice. Consequently, the Temple, the professional priesthood, and the sacrifice of Judaism all passed away with the coming of Jesus Christ. Christ is the fulfillment and he reality of it all.

In Greco-Roman paganism, these three elements were also present: Pagans had their temples,their priests, and their sacrifices. It was only the Christians who did away with all of these elements. It can be rightly said that Christianity was the first non-temple based religion ever to emerge. In the minds of the early Christians, the people - not the architecture- created a sacred space. The early Christians understood that they themselves-corporately-were the temple of God and the house of God.
(1 corinthians 3:16, Galatians 6:10, Ephesians 2:20-22, Hebrews 3:5-6, 1 Timothy 3:15, 1 Peter 2:5, 4:17)

Nowhere in the New Testament can we find the terms church (ekklesia) temple, or house of God, used to refer to a building.

The church edifice demands a vast infusion of money. IN the US alone, real estate owned by institutional churches today is worth over $230 billion. Church building debt, service, and maintenance consumes about 18 percent of the 50 to 60 billion tithed to churches annually. Point: Contemporary Christians are spending an astronomical amount of money on their buildings. We so easily forget that the early Christians turned the world upside down without them (see Acts 17:6) They grew rapidly for three hundred years with out the help ( or hindrance) of church buildings.


* an especially interesting chapter deals with money in the church..once you read this chapter you will NEVER be the same!

In Sum, this book changed the way that I think. It is considered controversial because it cause us to question the way that things are done. If you want your world to be shaken, then I highly recommend this book.
If not, then this book is not for you. 





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