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Pagan Christianity? (December 06, 2008 - 8:20 a.m.) I just finished the book, Pagan Christianity?, written by Frank Viola and George Barna. It has shaken me to my very foundations. This book examines all of the practices that we do in modern "church" and exposes them to be derived totally from pagan traditions. All the way from "church" buildings to the way we practice communion. Everything. Preachers, worship leaders, youth pastors, dressing up to go to "church," the whole mess. Almost without exception, the things that will happen tomorrow morning, all around the world, in the name of Jesus, will be taken mostly from Grecco-Roman secular practices. We could not possibly be farther removed from the New Testament church. The church of the New Testament was generally made up of many small groups who met together in homes. Every memeber functioned on equal footing. There was no "leader." There were people who went around starting church groups, but they would only stay long enough to make sure the people knew what to do each week, then they would move on to the next one. Paul the apostle was one such person. Somewhere down the line, this all got perverted. Constantine was to blame for most of it. Turns out, he was one of the worst things that ever happened to the "church." I can't even begin to cite all of the references that Viola and Barna use in this book. There is a 10+ page bibliography in the back. Everything they say in here is well-documented with historical sources, as well as biblical sources. If you are willing to have your view of "church" challenged, you need to read this book. I promise you, it will shake you. Badly. Right now, I don't know what I'm going to do. Frankly, I'm terrified. I am, after all, a "worship leader" at one of these "institutional churches" that they have written about. I actually stand to lose part of my yearly salary based on my reaction to this book. I'm going to have to do a lot of praying. Part of which will be on whether or not to try to get my pastor to read this book. That could get ugly. TTFN, y'all! 4 comments so farMissed anything? |