Old Covenant >>> New Covenant (11)

Referencing Pagan Christianity by Frank Viola and George Barna

Barna, Tyndale House, 2002/8

I highly recommend the book.

1

The structure of Pagan Christianity by Viola and Barna is in itself informative.

Chapter one asks and answers the question: have we really been doing it “by the book”?

As Christians, we are taught by our leaders to believe certain ideas and behave in certain ways.  We are also encouraged to read our Bibles.  But we are conditioned to read the Bible with the lens handed to us by the Christian tradition to which we belong.  We are taught to obey our denomination (or movement) and never to challenge what it teaches...

If the truth be told, we Christians never seem to ask why we do what we do.  Instead, we blithely carry out our religious traditions without asking where they came from...

Strikingly, contemporary church thought and practice have been influenced far more by postbiblical historical events than by New Testament imperatives and examples.  Yet most Christians are not conscious of this influence.  Nor are they aware that it has created a slew of cherished, calcified, humanly devised traditions - all of which are routinely passed off to us as "Christian"...

As you read through the following pages, you may be surprised to discover that a great deal of what we Christians do for Sunday morning church did not come from Jesus Christ, the apostles, or the Scriptures.  Nor did it come from Judaism...

Strikingly, much of what we do for "church" was lifted directly out of pagan culture in the postapostolic period.

Hence the title of the book: Pagan Christianity.

The next nine chapters examine, one per chapter,  nine of the central elements of the structure and form of ‘church’ as it is done all over the world: the church building; the order of worship; the sermon; the pastor; Sunday morning costumes; ministers of music; tithing and clergy salaries; baptism and the Lord’s supper; christian education.

For me, one of the most disturbing things of all is that, on some of these matters, Jesus himself had somewhat to say (if we take the gospel records as accurate recordings of the life and times and words of Jesus recorded by his peers), yet we prefer our traditions and doctrines over the actual words of Jesus.  For instance, Jesus instructed his followers to “call no man ‘father’” because, in Christ, we have one Father, God; yet we routinely and slavishly call men ‘father’.

The Church Building: inheriting the edifice complex. (Pagan Christianity, chapter 2 title)

The combined idea of temple, priests and sacrifices is carried into church life from both Ancient Judaism and from Greco-Roman paganism.  While ancient Judaism appears to be built around temple priesthood and sacrifice, as Viola and Barna point out, “When Jesus came, He ended all three, fulfilling them in Himself.  He is the temple who embodies a new and living 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.” (Pagan Christianity, p.10)

Old covenant ‘church’ and paganism continue the tradition of temple, priest and sacrifice; whereas new covenant ecclesia lives the reality that Jesus is the fulfilment of all three and consequently has no need of constituting or instituting such things.  Furthermore, Paul teaches the people of Jesus that our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit in 1 Corinthians 6:19.

Apostle Peter’s words – reinterpreting old testament scripture, I might add – add much to the new covenant understanding: “You also, as living stones, are built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” (1 Peter 2)

Under Constantine and subsequently, ‘church fathers’ would lead congregations into buying and owning land and erecting edifices as temple meeting places.  These were largely modelled on secular and pagan buildings, mirroring those erected for kings and queens.  But it wasn’t just the buildings being so modelled; the pieces on a chess board will show you how central a figure was a bishop’ in the social and political development of humanity just a few short years after the first apostles had died.  Following the old covenant line had already led to the establishment of ranked bishops presiding over priests and congregations, mirroring king and knight etc. presiding over pawns.  And cathedral came to mirror castle; a ‘cathedral’ is literally a place to house the bishop’s throne.

In short, ‘Church’ has adopted secularism to a ‘T’; while the proper venue for the life of ecclesia is daily life and the homes the people share.  Once this door was opened, church came to adapt the concept of ‘sacred’ to spaces and objects – quite contrary to the teaching of Jesus and Paul; and, incidentally, quite contrary to the prophetic prohibitions on idolatry in Israel’s history.

Viola and Barna call Constantine the “Father of the Church Building” (Pagan Christianity, p.18) and they’re probably close to the truth.  My reading of the history is that Constantine’s so-called conversion was not a spiritual conversion but a political one.  He yielded to the insistence of some ‘church fathers’ and ended the persecution of ‘christians’, in return for the church leaders bringing those believers into check and ‘keeping the rabble in line’.  Many believers were prone to live by the creed ‘we have no king but Jesus’ and that would never do.  However, some people could be satiated with land and buildings and pomp and ceremony and status – reflecting that of the secular authorities.

And it was an easy, natural drift from building to steeple, pulpit, balcony, altar, pews, icons, artefacts and, of course, solemnity and silence; from there the rest followed, adapting the ways of king and empire, secular religions and old Judaism.

Some people oppose any easing of laws against using marijuana as they see it as ‘the gateway drug’, leading inexorably to the use of other stronger, more lethal drugs.  To me, moving away from homes to build cathedrals and their protestant equivalents is the gateway drug of the church.  Another way of seeing it might be to think criminology: committing a second and subsequent murders is easy compared to committing the first one – so I am told.

I find it very disturbing that church buildings are constructed, dedicated and occupied in a process where we dare to call on God’s blessing of something He has already said He opposes; and calling on Him to occupy or visit a structure He has already said He has no part in.  Apostle Paul – while he was still Pharisee Saul – witnessed and approved of the stoning to death of Stephen by the mob.  Part of what Stephen was stoned to death for was his assertion that “The Most High does not dwell in structures made by human hands.” (Acts 7:48)

Old covenant persists with these gargantuan travesties; new covenant has no truck with any of this; furthermore, it is utterly contrary to the light and life and freedom of life in Christ.

Note to self: Remember, God doesn’t inhabit “buildings made with hands”.