Addressing the Problems with "Pagan Christianity"

At the beginning of 2008 Frank Viola, a rather influential leader in the organic church movement (formerly called the "House Church Movement")and evangelical pollster George Barna released a controversial book called Pagan Christianity that has received quite a bit of attention. The book was originally published in 2002 by Viola with little fanfare. Then George Barna, author of many influential evangelical books hooks up with Viola's organic church movement and adds his name to the book and it is re-released and sells like hotcakes.

In my opinion this is one of the most dangerous and subtly deceptive books to come out in a long time. The strident tone and arrogant assumptions made by Viola and Barna have the potential to draw many Christians away from their local churches into their less formalized and decentralized idea of organic church. Here is a blurb about the book from the Pagan Christianity website...

Have you ever wondered why we Christians do what we do for church every Sunday morning? Why do we "dress up" for church? Why does the pastor preach a sermon each week? Why do we have pews, steeples, choirs, and seminaries? This volume reveals the startling truth: most of what Christians do in present-day churches is not rooted in the New Testament, but in pagan culture and rituals developed long after the death of the apostles. Coauthors Frank Viola and George Barna support their thesis with compelling historical evidence in the first-ever book to document the full story of modern Christian church practices.

Many Christians take for granted that their church's practices are rooted in Scripture. Yet those practices look very different from those of the first-century church. The New Testament is not silent on how the early church freely expressed the reality of Christ's indwelling in ways that rocked the first-century world. Times have changed. Pagan Christianity leads us on a fascinating tour through church history, revealing this startling and unsettling truth: Many cherished church traditions embraced today originated not out of the New Testament, but out of pagan practices. One of the most troubling outcomes has been the effect on average believers: turning them from living expressions of Christ's glory and power to passive observers. If you want to see that trend reversed, turn to Pagan Christianity . . . a book that examines and challenges every aspect of our contemporary church experience.

Viola and Barna hope to rescue the church from the many supposed pagan practices that have been subtly introduced into it over the last 2,000 years. Throughout the polemic they rail against everything the institutional church stands for. Their solution is to get rid of all church buildings, denominations, seminaries, bible colleges, paid clergy, so that we can go back to the NT pattern of church life which they purport to be small organic gatherings of believers meeting in houses, singing kumbuya and prophesying over each other. While I am also a critic of many of the dead, lifeless and ineffective traditions of the institutional church I am convinced that the local church is the hope of the world; the instrument through which Christ works to redeem the world and disciple the nations. Through my own study of ecclesiology I am convinced that what Viola and Barna calls the "Institutional Church" is in fact the biblical church.

When the book first came out I was astounded as to how many positive responses it was getting. In fact when I googled Pagan Christianity I had a hard time finding a negative review. I was beginning to wonder if the whole world had been duped. Thankfully along came Dr. Ben Witherington who has done a 4-part detailed critique of the historical and ecclesiological fallacies and errors contained in the book. In my humble opionion Dr. Witherington eviscerates Viola's arguments from every angle. I especially enjoyed his refutation of Viola's assertion that pastors are not biblical and that there should not be any sermons given by pastors each week.

You can check out Dr. Witherington's critique by clicking here for Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, and the postlude.