Pagan Christianity, By Frank Viola and George Barna

(review by Dan Smith)
Introduction

Why do we do the things we do in church? Are our practices based on sound scriptural doctrine or are they a mixture of traditions gleaned from culture through the years and solidified by tradition? What if church as we know it today has little or no resemblance to the church Jesus founded in the first century. This controversial "what if" is the basis of Pagan Christianity by Frank Viola and George Barna.

Chapter One

Have We Really Been Doing It By the Book?

Almost everything we do in modern churches has no basis in the Bible. Although we give lip service to being biblical churches there are many questions we have never thought to ask. This book is
not intended to be an excuse for the rebellious to wreak havoc on the church but is intended to be a terrifying invitation for those who love the church to examine our practices and beliefs.

Chapter Two

The Church Building: Inheriting the Edifice Complex

Ancient Judaism centered on three elements: temple, priests, and sacrifices. Pagan religions also focused on these three things. Only Christianity  did away with all these things when Christ founded the church. In the fourth century under the influence of Constantine all three Jewish/Pagan elements were added back into christian practice. This created a major non-scriptural influence on the church that remains to this day. Most people do not differentiate between the church and the building. Steeple, pulpit, pew, and balcony are all extra-biblical additions to the church that have minimized relationship and increased passivity in God's people. All while dramatically increasing overhead to the cost of doing church.

Chapter Three

The Order of Worship: Sunday Mornings Set in Concrete

From orthodox high churches to evangelical low churches to cutting edge "contemporary" churches we find virtually the same proscribed liturgy.

This consists of: greeting, prayer or scripture reading, song service, announcements, offering, sermon,communion (or prayer ministry) and the benediction. This order of worship, set largely in the fourth century by the Roman catholic church gradually evolved throughout the years to what we experience today. Luther, Zwingli, Calvin, the Puritans, the Methodists, Moody, and the Pentecostals all made contributions but left the  medieval structure essentially unchanged. This order of worship bears little resemblance to the pattern set by Christ and the early church. This order of worship 1) Represses mutual participation 2) Strangles the headship of Christ 3) is shamefully boring, and 4) Actually hinders spiritual growth.

Chapter Four

The Sermon: Protestantisms Most Sacred Cow

The sermon is the most sacrosanct of protestant practices. The sermon actually detracts from the very purpose for which Christ designed the church gathering. Unlike sermons delivered in the Bible, sermons today are: a regular occurrence delivered by the same person to a passive audience in a cultivated form of speech. The protestant sermon comes more from Greek exposition than scriptural example. This harms the church by 1) making the preacher the prime performer in the church service 2) stalemating spiritual growth 3) preserving the unbiblical clergy mentality. 4)de-skilling rather than equipping the saints 5) and is often impractical.

Chapter Five

The Pastor: Obstacle to Every-Member Functioning

The pastor is the fundamental figure of the protestant church. Without a pastor most protestant churches would panic. Unfortunately there is not a single verse in the New testament that supports the existence of the modern day pastor. The modern idea of a pastor came as a replacement for the Roman Catholic priest. The priest emerged from the Roman-Greco idea of hierarchy and was adopted by Constantine in the fourth century. The pastor/clergy distinction has done immeasurable damage to both the church and to pastors themselves.

Chapter Six

Sunday Morning Costumes: Covering Up the Problem

"Beware of those who like to walk around in long robes." Jesus Christ, Luke 20:46. Dressing up for church is a relatively recent phenomena. While clothes selection for church is not a burning issue it reflects the false division between secular and sacred and perpetuates the practice of hiding our real selves when we go to church. It also goes against the primitive simplicity of the early church.

Chapter Seven

Ministers of Music: Clergy Set to Music

Walk into any church and you will find the music lead by a choir, worship team, or music director. This is in stark contrast to New Testament teaching that each one brings a song. Christian choirs were a concept borrowed from Greek dramas and Roman Customs. Congregational worship was banned in the fourth century but returned to the church with the protestant reformation. To this day worship and praise singing is proscribed by specialists in the church lending again to the passivity of the majority of the saints.

Chapter Eight

Tithing and Clergy Salaries: Sore Spots on the Wallet

Is tithing biblical? Yes. Is it Christian? There is no New Testament justification for the tithe. On the contrary.  Tithing was not mentioned in Christian writings until the third century. If a believer wants to tithe out of personal conviction that is fine. It only becomes a problem when it is taught as a biblical command for the church. Nor is the clergy salary supported by New testament teaching. Giving pastors salaries elevates them above the rest of God's people. It also encourages pastors to be man-pleasers. 

Chapter Nine

Baptism and the Lord's Supper: Diluting the Sacraments

Typically most baptisms are separated from conversion by a great length of time. In the early church converts were baptized immediately upon believing. In our day the "sinners prayer" has replaced baptism as a sacrament. The Lord's supper began as a celebratory meal that all the saints participated in when they met. Now the Lord's supper is a bite size cracker and a shot of grape juice taken in a somber or glum mood under the supervision of a professional clergyman.

Chapter Ten

Christian Education: Swelling the Cranium

Does formal Christian education qualify a person to do the work of the ministry? This idea is deeply ingrained in the church today.In the first century however Christian leaders were trained in two ways: 1) by living in shared life with other believers 2) under the tutelage of an older seasoned leader.  In church history there have been four stages of theological education: episcopal, monastic, scholastic, and seminarian. Seminaries, Bible colleges, Sunday schools, and youth pastors are all post scriptural concepts. Bible knowledge does not equal spiritual life.

Chapter Eleven

Reapproaching the New Testament: The Bible is Not a Jigsaw Puzzle

The reason we Christians have been able to follow Sunday ritual without recognizing that it is unscriptural is because we have approached the New testament in the wrong way. We have forgotten to take the New Testament as a whole and have served it up as a dish of fragmented thoughts. We need to look again at the order of the New Testament, especially the letters of Paul to understand how the church developed. We need to do away with the "clipboard" approach to studying the New Testament.

Chapter Twelve

A Second Glance at the Savior: Jesus, the Revolutionary

A rebel attempts to change the past. A revolutionary attempts to change the future. Why so hard on the church in this book? Because Jesus wants to use his church to bring drastic change to this world. The early Church 1) was intensely Christ centered 2) had no fixed order of worship 3) lived as a face-to-face community 4) was the only religion void of ritual, clergy, and sacred buildings 5) was organic not organizational 6) did not build Bible colleges or seminaries and 7) did not divide itself into denominations. Is this the church we see today?

Conclusion

This book is not for the faint of heart. I became profoundly disturbed by reading this book, not because I disagreed with it but because I saw that it was true. Ultimately it led me out of the professional ministry and the institutional church.

Pagan Christianity

Introduction

Why do we do the things we do in church? Are our practices based on sound scriptural doctrine or are they a mixture of traditions gleaned from culture through the years and solidified by tradition? What if church as we know it today has little or no resemblance to the church Jesus founded in the first century. This controversial "what if" is the basis of Pagan Christianity by Frank Viola and George Barna.

Chapter One

Have We Really Been Doing It By the Book?

Almost everything we do in modern churches has no basis in the Bible. Although we give lip service to being biblical churches there are many questions we have never thought to ask. This book is not intended to be an excuse for the rebellious to wreak havoc on the church but is intended to be a terrifying invitation for those who love the church to examine our practices and beliefs.

Chapter Two

The Church Building: Inheriting the Edifice Complex

Ancient Judaism centered on three elements: temple, priests, and sacrifices. Pagan religions also focused on these three things. Only Christianity  did away with all these things when Christ founded the church. In the fourth century under the influence of Constantine all three Jewish/Pagan elements were added back into christian practice. This created a major non-scriptural influence on the church that remains to this day. Most people do not differentiate between the church and the building. Steeple, pulpit, pew, and balcony are all extra-biblical additions to the church that have minimized relationship and increased passivity in God's people. All while dramatically increasing overhead to the cost of doing church.

Chapter Three

The Order of Worship: Sunday Mornings Set in Concrete

From orthodox high churches to evangelical low churches to cutting edge "contemporary" churches we find virtually the same proscribed liturgy.

This consists of: greeting, prayer or scripture reading, song service, announcements, offering, sermon,communion (or prayer ministry) and the benediction. This order of worship, set largely in the fourth century by the Roman catholic church gradually evolved throughout the years to what we experience today. Luther, Zwingli, Calvin, the Puritans, the Methodists, Moody, and the Pentecostals all made contributions but left the  medieval structure essentially unchanged. This order of worship bears little resemblance to the pattern set by Christ and the early church. This order of worship 1) Represses mutual participation 2) Strangles the headship of Christ 3) is shamefully boring, and 4) Actually hinders spiritual growth.

Chapter Four

The Sermon: Protestantisms Most Sacred Cow

The sermon is the most sacrosanct of protestant practices. The sermon actually detracts from the very purpose for which Christ designed the church gathering. Unlike sermons delivered in the Bible, sermons today are: a regular occurrence delivered by the same person to a passive audience in a cultivated form of speech. The protestant sermon comes more from Greek exposition than scriptural example. This harms the church by 1) making the preacher the prime performer in the church service 2) stalemating spiritual growth 3) preserving the unbiblical clergy mentality. 4)de-skilling rather than equipping the saints 5) and is often impractical.

Chapter Five

The Pastor: Obstacle to Every-Member Functioning

The pastor is the fundamental figure of the protestant church. Without a pastor most protestant churches would panic. Unfortunately there is not a single verse in the New testament that supports the existence of the modern day pastor. The modern idea of a pastor came as a replacement for the Roman Catholic priest. The priest emerged from the Roman-Greco idea of hierarchy and was adopted by Constantine in the fourth century. The pastor/clergy distinction has done immeasurable damage to both the church and to pastors themselves.

Chapter Six

Sunday Morning Costumes: Covering Up the Problem

"Beware of those who like to walk around in long robes." Jesus Christ, Luke 20:46. Dressing up for church is a relatively recent phenomena. While clothes selection for church is not a burning issue it reflects the false division between secular and sacred and perpetuates the practice of hiding our real selves when we go to church. It also goes against the primitive simplicity of the early church.

Chapter Seven

Ministers of Music: Clergy Set to Music

Walk into any church and you will find the music lead by a choir, worship team, or music director. This is in stark contrast to New Testament teaching that each one brings a song. Christian choirs were a concept borrowed from Greek dramas and Roman Customs. Congregational worship was banned in the fourth century but returned to the church with the protestant reformation. To this day worship and praise singing is proscribed by specialists in the church lending again to the passivity of the majority of the saints.

Chapter Eight

Tithing and Clergy Salaries: Sore Spots on the Wallet

Is tithing biblical? Yes. Is it Christian? There is no New Testament justification for the tithe. On the contrary.  Tithing was not mentioned in Christian writings until the third century. If a believer wants to tithe out of personal conviction that is fine. It only becomes a problem when it is taught as a biblical command for the church. Nor is the clergy salary supported by New testament teaching. Giving pastors salaries elevates them above the rest of God's people. It also encourages pastors to be man-pleasers. 

Chapter Nine

Baptism and the Lord's Supper: Diluting the Sacraments

Typically most baptisms are separated from conversion by a great length of time. In the early church converts were baptized immediately upon believing. In our day the "sinners prayer" has replaced baptism as a sacrament. The Lord's supper began as a celebratory meal that all the saints participated in when they met. Now the Lord's supper is a bite size cracker and a shot of grape juice taken in a somber or glum mood under the supervision of a professional clergyman.

Chapter Ten

Christian Education: Swelling the Cranium

Does formal Christian education qualify a person to do the work of the ministry? This idea is deeply ingrained in the church today.In the first century however Christian leaders were trained in two ways: 1) by living in shared life with other believers 2) under the tutelage of an older seasoned leader.  In church history there have been four stages of theological education: episcopal, monastic, scholastic, and seminarian. Seminaries, Bible colleges, Sunday schools, and youth pastors are all post scriptural concepts. Bible knowledge does not equal spiritual life.

Chapter Eleven

Reapproaching the New Testament: The Bible is Not a Jigsaw Puzzle

The reason we Christians have been able to follow Sunday ritual without recognizing that it is unscriptural is because we have approached the New testament in the wrong way. We have forgotten to take the New Testament as a whole and have served it up as a dish of fragmented thoughts. We need to look again at the order of the New Testament, especially the letters of Paul to understand how the church developed. We need to do away with the "clipboard" approach to studying the New Testament.

Chapter Twelve

A Second Glance at the Savior: Jesus, the Revolutionary

A rebel attempts to change the past. A revolutionary attempts to change the future. Why so hard on the church in this book? Because Jesus wants to use his church to bring drastic change to this world. The early Church 1) was intensely Christ centered 2) had no fixed order of worship 3) lived as a face-to-face community 4) was the only religion void of ritual, clergy, and sacred buildings 5) was organic not organizational 6) did not build Bible colleges or seminaries and 7) did not divide itself into denominations. Is this the church we see today?

Conclusion

This book is not for the faint of heart. I became profoundly disturbed by reading this book, not because I disagreed with it but because I saw that it was true. Ultimately it led me out of the professional ministry and the institutional church.