Articles
Longer writing from Cornerstone Reformed Baptist Church — careful, unhurried answers to questions about worship, church practice, and what Scripture actually requires of us.
A Response to “Pagan Christianity?”
A chapter-by-chapter review of Frank Viola and George Barna
Pagan Christianity? argues that the ordinary practices of the Christian church — buildings, orders of service, sermons, pastors, salaries, the sacraments — are borrowed from pagan culture rather than drawn from Scripture. This twenty-part review answers the book chapter by chapter, and sets out the biblical principles the answer rests on.
- Written by
- Joshua Arthur
- Full read
- 96 minutes
- Length
- 21,140 words
Introduction
1 articleWhy this review was written and how it is arranged.
Foundational Principles
4 articlesThe interpretive ground the review stands on — tradition, church history, the regulative principle of worship, and description versus prescription.
Tradition in Scripture
Scripture speaks of tradition in two very different ways. Reading those passages carefully undoes the idea that handed-down practice is a threat in itself.
4 min readThe Concept of Tradition in Scripture
Understanding Church Tradition and Church History
If the apostles are gone, is everything the church has developed since a corruption? A balanced way to read twenty centuries of Christian practice.
8 min readFinding a balanced understanding of church tradition and church history
The Regulative Principle
God alone has the right to regulate His worship, by His word. What that principle means, what it does not mean, and where elements end and circumstances begin.
5 min readThe regulative principle of worship
Description and Prescription
The New Testament describes a great deal that it never commands. Missing that distinction is how a history book becomes a rulebook.
2 min readThe distinction between description and prescription
Chapter-by-Chapter Response
14 articlesEach chapter of the book answered in turn, from the preface through to the afterword.
Preface and Introduction
Viola states his premises plainly in the preface, and the framing of the whole book is already off. A look at what "pagan" and "biblical" are made to mean.
3 min readPreface and Introduction Review
Are we following Scripture?
Does your church really do everything by the Book? The question is fair — but the argument built on it collapses once elements and circumstances are distinguished.
3 min readChapter 1 Review — Have We Really Been Doing It by the Book?
Can we use church buildings?
Is a dedicated meeting place a pagan inheritance? Where the church gathers is a circumstance of worship, and Scripture leaves it to Christian wisdom.
5 min readChapter 2 Review — The Church Building: Inheriting the Edifice Complex
Can we use an order of service?
A settled order of service is called mechanical and predictable. Scripture calls for all things to be done decently and in order.
5 min readChapter 3 Review — Sunday Mornings Set in Concrete
Should we have a sermon?
The claim that the modern sermon has no root in Scripture is the boldest in the book. It is also the easiest to answer from the New Testament itself.
5 min readChapter 4 Review — The Sermon: Protestantism’s Most Sacred Cow
Should we have pastors?
Every-member functioning is set against the pastoral office, as though one must crowd out the other. The New Testament gives us both, and gives each its place.
8 min readChapter 5 Review — The Pastor: Obstacle to Every-Member Functioning
What should we wear to church?
Dress up, dress down — the book argues both and settles neither. What Scripture actually says about clothing, class, and the gathered church.
6 min readChapter 6 Review — Sunday Morning Costumes: Covering Up the Problem
Should we practice spontaneous singing?
Should anyone be free to start a song? The objection to led congregational singing turns out to concede almost everything it needs to prove.
2 min readChapter 7 Review — Ministers of Music: Clergy Set to Music
Should we pay our pastors?
Tithing and pastoral salaries are two different questions. On the first there is much to agree with; on the second, Scripture is plain.
9 min readChapter 8 Review — Tithing and Clergy Salaries: Sore Spots on the Wallet
Rightly practicing the sacraments
Spontaneous baptism and a supper turned into a common meal. Two ordinances Christ gave His church, and the care their administration deserves.
8 min readChapter 9 Review — Baptism and the Lord’s Supper: Diluting the Sacraments
Formal Christian education
Seminaries and Bible colleges come in for criticism, some of it deserved. But the case against formal training for ministry does not hold.
2 min readChapter 10 Review — Christian Education: Swelling the Cranium
Are we using the right approach to the New Testament?
This chapter is the key to the whole book. How you read the New Testament decides in advance what you will find in it.
7 min readChapter 11 Review — Reapproaching the New Testament: The Bible is Not a Jigsaw Puzzle
Was Jesus a revolutionary?
Jesus as rebel against the establishment is an argument with a long and troubling pedigree. The Gospels give us a different Christ.
3 min readChapter 12 Review — A Second Glance at the Saviour: Jesus, the Revolutionary
Afterword Review
Will you act, or merely be informed? The action urged is to leave your church — and by this point there is no good reason given to do it.
3 min readAfterword Review
Conclusion
1 articleClosing assessment of the book and its argument.
First published 16 February 2024 by Joshua Arthur.