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Concluding Remarks
A Response to "Pagan Christianity?" 4. Concluding Remarks The church has long endured criticism of the kind that authors Frank Viola and George Barna present in Pagan Christianity? A great many cults and sects have been established over the centuries, on the...
Afterword Review
A Response to “Pagan Christianity?” 3.14 Afterword Review I want to provide some short comments on the Afterword to Pagan Christianity? Viola and Barna ask “Will you act upon what you have read, or will you simply be informed by it?” The action they want us to take is...
Was Jesus a revolutionary?
A Response to "Pagan Christianity?" 3.13 Chapter 12 Review - A Second Glance at the Saviour: Jesus, the Revolutionary In the final chapter of the book, Viola and Barna make an argument alarmingly familiar to anyone acquainted with liberals and revisionists in...
Are we using the right approach to the New Testament?
A Response to "Pagan Christianity?" 3.12 Chapter 11 Review - Reapproaching the New Testament: The Bible is Not a Jigsaw Puzzle Chapter 11 of Pagan Christianity? is perhaps the key to the entire book. Here, Viola and Barna lay out their approach to interpreting...
Formal Christian education
A Response to "Pagan Christianity?" 3.11 Chapter 10 Review - Christian Education: Swelling the Cranium In chapter 10, Viola and Barna critique Christian education and, specially, the formal training of pastors for the ministry at seminaries, Bible colleges and...
Rightly practicing the sacraments
A Response to "Pagan Christianity?" 3.10 Chapter 9 Review - Baptism and the Lord's Supper: Diluting the Sacraments Not content to leave any good thing in the church uncontested, Viola and Barna next seek to attack the sacraments,[1] meaning baptism and the...
Should we pay our pastors?
A Response to "Pagan Christianity?" 3.9 Chapter 8 Review - Tithing and Clergy Salaries: Sore Spots on the Wallet In Chapter 8, Viola and Barna address two separate issues: tithing and the payment of pastors. On the matter of tithing, I basically agree with...
Should we practice spontaneous singing?
A Response to "Pagan Christianity?" 3.8 Chapter 7 Review - Ministers of Music: Clergy Set to Music Viola and Barna next consider the practice that is common in modern churches wherein congregational singing is led by an individual or a group who select the...
What should we wear to church?
A Response to "Pagan Christianity?" 3.7 Chapter 6 Review - Sunday Morning Costumes: Covering Up the Problem In Chapter 6 of their book, Viola and Barna address the question of what clothing Christians ought to wear to church meetings, and advocate for the use...
Should we have pastors?
A Response to "Pagan Christianity?" 3.6 Chapter 5 Review - The Pastor: Obstacle to Every-Member Functioning Viola and Barna are particularly fixated on the necessity of what they call “every-member functioning”, by which they mean that every church member must...
Should we have a sermon?
A Response to "Pagan Christianity?" 3.5 Chapter 4 Review - The Sermon: Protestantism's Most Sacred Cow Viola and Barna next direct their vitriol toward the “modern sermon”, which they rightly recognise to be the central element of the Protestant worship...
Can we use an order of service?
A Response to "Pagan Christianity?" 3.4 Chapter 3 Review - Sunday Mornings Set in Concrete Viola and Barna next consider the liturgy of the church, or the order of service. This, they call “mechanical and predictable”, in contrast to what they believe was the...
Can we use church buildings?
A Response to "Pagan Christianity?" 3.3 Chapter 2 Review - The Church Building: Inheriting the Edifice Complex In the second chapter, the authors take aim at the church building. From the perspective of the regulative principle, the particular meeting place the...
Are we following Scripture?
A Response to "Pagan Christianity?" 3.2 Chapter 1 Review - Have We Really Been Doing It by the Book? The first chapter of the book begins with a satirical sketch, in which a bored, hypocritical churchgoer listens to a sermon, where his pastor preaches on “doing...
Preface and Introduction
A Response to "Pagan Christianity?" 3. Chapter-by-Chapter Response 3.1 Preface and Introduction Review Pagan Christianity begins with a preface from the main author, Frank Viola. Viola states his major premises from the start. First, he believes “…the...