Pagan Christianity & Reimagining Church–Books to read now.
We recently purchased several books by Frank Viola , a prolific Christian writer who questions a lot of what is Considered Church today.He is not writing from an Anabaptist viewpoint , but from the same Holy Scripture.
We very quickly found out why he is so reviled by many Church leaders today . He questions almost everything that we do in or about Church today .He is especially adamant about Christ being the leader and head of the Church , and not some person , as we all are so used to . We would think there is some middle grounds there . Perhaps a leader with a serving heart ?
Most of what he points out applies to all Protestant Churches , and Anabaptist too. We need to keep in mind that just because one reads a book , does not mean one understands or agrees with all of it . It should , and does tend to make one think, and may help evolve one’s beliefs too.
In clearer terms, some of his ideas are hard to follow , If we believe our God is really omnipresent , and that the Church is always present somewhere ,in spite of man’s maneuverings .
We would like to point out just a few of his points here , that we would feel are often overlooked or smoothed over in today’s too often convoluted Churches that are substantive.Adding a few of our own Comments ,too.
1. He quite often takes issue with today’s Bible layout of Chapter & verse , especially the verse layout , that it impedes the tone and purpose .. It may come as a surprise to many that the Verse dividing in Our Bible is a fairly new thing . He also points out that Paul’s Letters are laid out in the Bible Longest letters first , Down to the shortest letters last . He pointed out that if Apostle Paul’s Letters are studied in Chronologically correct order , a lot of Confusion is avoided , in learning from his evolving Ministry.
We have in our library a Copy of a Copy of the Wycliffe New Testament , the first English translation , put out by John Wycliffe . It has no Verse division at all , and the so called English is almost indecipherable ,compared to The later KJV.
Almost everyone I have ever showed this translation to , especially Preachers , are totally bored by it , consider it like an imposition , even if it came out several centuries before the KJV. It’s compiler was executed as a heretic for his works.
2. An issue is made of Church Pews , the high backed wood benches so many of us sit on uprightly on Sunday mornings . (Hopefully padded). He points out how they evolved , that at the early Church services most folks were standing throughout , or setting on stone benches at the sides of the room .
He makes the point that Today’s Pews are set up for one and only one purpose , to watch a performance ,and that is a reasonable assumption , from our own personal observation over many years .
What he says about any and all pompous Pulpits , we won’t bother to go into here , we’ve felt that way for some time. Any kind of Pulpit , raised or at floor level ,has never been a part of Anabaptist history or heritage. Until the recent past , that is .
The Bishop-worship as practiced by the Amish,and others ,up to today ,is an appalling example of Man’s fallacy when it comes to Worship not centered on God or the word. And they try and back it up with Scripture , too.
3. And ”Running ” a Church either by Dictatorship, or by a Majority Vote , has exactly the same end result according to the thoughts in the books.. Both methods divide and compartmentalize folks , and the end result is always chaos or the dreaded split , and bad blood .Between haves and have -nots, In- power or out-of-power factions tend to develop.
He points out that a Godly way is by consensus of believers , and that it is imperative in every way , for a Godly Church to function and grow upon. That Churches often have an abundance of unbelievers in it , complicates matters a lot.
And what could be a main difference between Voting and a consensus in a Church ? A consensus is when everyone to some degree supports a matter. A vote , every major voted decision has the seeds of division in it , every time .
That many, if not most , rules and strictures in our Anabaptist circles are there for folks in the Church who may have no core beliefs , is something for us to think about..
4. Wearing of special or different clothes for Church . The books take a dim view of the reasons for that . Especially in the Clergy’s case, of their special garb, special seating , even special walk , (the stick in the back pant-legs look ?) .in or to the forefront .
. We must realize that the clothing issue is greatly changed from even a generation ago . Clothes are so abundant now , availability is not even an issue . Clean clothes may not mean what it used to . Apostle Paul missed his cloak , and made special effort to get it back . He perhaps used the same cloak for work and preachings , and almost surely would not have washed it as often as we pop clothes in the washers. It seems credible that he would have blended into any street scene with his cloak , because it was what was in his heart that made the difference.
Some Anabaptist often take it out on their women to be different in dress appearances ,in the name of modesty . While so many of the Strictest Anabaptist Men too often live lives that are a sham .That the strictest , most unbending of men in an Anabaptist Church are also Corrupt is almost a given .
5.The issue of Tithing that is taken from several verses in the OT , and is never commanded or mentioned as a thing to dwell on , or practice in the NT.
. We would note that about the only mention of the practice in the New Testament is when people tried to show how upright or holy they were . It seems to us that that trait continues to this day . People bragging about themselves often tout their own OT practice of strict Tithing .
For a child of God, it all belongs to the lord , not just 10% .
6. The idea that every Christian must be under some appointed Person’s authority or even a Denominational ‘covering ‘ is addressed in some detail . He notes that this always ends in sordid corruption , If any man sets himself up. or allows himself to be set up as “God”‘ in any form . This is a huge one for most Mennonite settings we are aware of , that the leader , right or wrong , must be obeyed at all and any situations. He points out rather severely that this whole thinking is not from the Bible , but from the Devil , and that all the fruits bear that out .
So what if he is right in this ? It would toss much of current Anabaptist authority & succession practice into the scrap pile . Our own observation and experience in the past, is that utter corruption always has followed this type of one- way authority practicing. Our God really is a jealous God in every instance.
To be continued…….
November 18th, 2011 at 12:08 am
Hey, keep talking, I like it!
For a number of years now I’ve been bothered with this nagging question: Would Jesus wear a suitcoat? Can’t say as I’ve ever heard a satisfactory explanation, pro or con. It’s so easy to flippantly pass it off and say of course, or of course not.
December 6th, 2011 at 2:59 am
Very interesting. As to Jason’s point, I guess I’d say that all characters in the Bible dressed in the clothes of their time. Paul wore a cloak. Had everyone else been wearing a suit (with tie), I have no doubt that he would have worn one, too.