Pagan Christianity | Frank Viola and George Barna

Pagan Christianity has been on my to-read list for many years. I think at one point I checked it out of the library, but didn’t read it.

I didn’t read it because I knew once I read it, I could never unsee what is in there.

That might sound weird, but that’s the truth. I was at a point in life where I didn’t have the time or energy to process it because “church” was already an on-going point of stress for us.

Those of you who have followed our family’s journey on this blog know that we’ve struggled to find a church where we would fit in. Theology, women in the church, Caroline’s needs, my needs, baptism, etc. all contributed to the difficulty.

Several years ago, David and I spent time reading and discussing the works of people like John Zens, Richard Jacobson, and Wayne Jacobson. Each one approached the issues related to how we “do church” from different angles.

• Jon Zens has written extensively about the gathering of the body as well as women in the assembly. You can see a list of some of his articles here and his books here.
• Richard Jacobson wrote Unchruching.
• I wrote about Wayne Jacobson’s thoughts and shared a few videos in Discipling Children in Christ Outside the Box.

The problem David and I faced was always what to do with the knowledge and understanding we had gained. There was no good answer and so we moved from institutional church to institutional church because we really had no other option if we wanted to be “in a church” as a family.

But I knew Pagan Christianity would be different due to the controversy surrounding it and what I had subsequently read about it. I knew it wasn’t just about why we “do church” incorrectly, but why almost everything we believe about “doing church according to the Bible” has very little to do with the Jesus and the Bible.

Well, I started the book last week. And I was right. Once you see it, you can’t unsee it. Some of it I already knew from reading here and there and some of it I had figured out on my own. But this book brings it all together in one place.

It’s interesting that I finally decided to read it after digging into partial-preterism and preterism over the past year. In my mind, I can see how it’s all connected.

I don’t know how to say this except directly.

It’s very clear to me why the body of Christ is so ineffective in America and Western Civilization today. What we call “church” is truly nothing at all like the New Testament. I think most of us know that simply by reading our Bibles. But I don’t think many of us truly realize how much of what we call “church” on Sunday has almost nothing to do with Jesus and fuels the compromise and false teachings we are surrounded by.

These are all things I knew, but didn’t have time to process out to their logical ends. Now I’m taking the time to do it just as I have been with the partial-preterism.

Just the section about how the Lord’s Supper devolved into what it is today is enough to make you realize how much paganism infiltrated and shaped the church to this day (both Catholic and Protestant).

I plan on writing more about these topics as I read the book and process it. I do want to be clear that nothing in this is making me question my faith in Jesus and the salvation He provides. It’s just the opposite. It is confirming that what we call the “church” is so far removed from what Jesus and the apostles started that it truly boggles the mind. Again, I’m not trapped by an allegiance to denominational confessions and creeds so I have no problem attempting to look objectively at what is presented. If anything, it’s simply confirming so much of what I’ve experienced my entire life as a Christian and filling in the historical details I was missing.

It also leads me to believe my suspicion that Christianity has not necessarily declined in America as much as we are told may be correct. The reality is that a significant percentage of the most devoted Christians have left the institutions over the past two decades. I see it all the time when I interact in comment sections online.

We know the public schools are imploding, in part, because many of the best families and teachers have left the system. It has been overrun by leftists and Marxists with evil agendas. The system as a whole is collapsing from the rot and evil.

I think something similar is true with the “churches” in America. Many of the best families and spiritually gifted people have left the institutional church system. That’s why so many churches have devolved into insanity and false teachings. The people who are most sensitive to the truth have left and the infiltrators have come in to take over churches and denominations.

It’s probably also not a coincidence that rigid Calvinism grew in popularity during this same time. I think the people drawn to Calvinism over the past two decades were largely the serious Christians who couldn’t or wouldn’t think of leaving the institutional system. Calvinism offered them all the answers in a neat, systematic package.

As I have always done in the past, I’ll be sharing what I’m reading and learning. There is so much I have been learning in other areas (faith, parenting, homeschooling, etc.) and I need to get caught up on those thoughts. I have started doing that with some of my recent posts such as How Christians Gathered in the 1st Century and other topics I’ve linked to in this post.

I recommend picking up a copy of Pagan Christianity. I’m only part way through it, but so far it has been thought-provoking. Mine is already heavily highlighted and marked. I also have Reimagining Church which is the follow-up.

Pagan ChristianityReimagining Church: Pursuing the Dream of Organic Christianity