Post 2 of the Pagan Christianity series. Previous Posts are below:
Introduction to Pagan Christianity
Historians have long held
that if we do not remember the past, we are doomed to repeat it. Yet, we often persist in our well-intentioned
but ignorant efforts to refine life. A
revolution of faith is occurring that is resulting in forms of church (house church,
intentional communities, cell church, etc.) that are all intriguing, but do
they really represent a meaningful step toward God’s highest purpose? We will grapple with this issue and others as
we learn from the history of the church and get challenged in the practice of
our faith.
There were three historical
periods when a bevy of changes were made in common Christian practices: the era
of Constantine, the decades surrounding the Protestant Reformation, and the
Revivalist period of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Those changes were the result of passionate,
though often ill-informed followers of Christ.
Many of these changes have come to be accepted as biblical in origin,
although they are not. Support for them
has been built through proof-texting.
Proof-texting is the practice of taking disparate, unrelated verses of
Scripture, often out of context, to “prove” that our position squares with the
Bible.
The practices we will look at hinder the development of our faith and the functioning of the body of Christ. Does that mean we must go back to the Bible and do everything exactly as the disciples did between AD 30 and 60? No. Adhering to the principles of the New Testament does not mean reenacting the events of the first-century church. We live in a different world. Our cultural influences will have an effect on the practice of our faith, but we need to be sure that they do not add to or detract from it. Sadly, this is the case with the practices we will be looking at. So, let’s understand how we got from the early church to the contemporary church and figure out what we are going to do about it.
As pastors preach from the
pulpits about being “biblical” and following the “pure Word of God,” their
words betray them. The truth is that
precious little that is observed today in contemporary Christianity maps to
anything found in the Bible and the experience of the people in the Bible
story. But for some reason, most people
never think to ask why they do what they do.
And those that do, tend to get persecuted (Socrates, Isaiah, John the
Baptist, Jesus, etc.).
Most Christians who claim to
uphold the integrity of God’s Word have never sought to see if what they do
every Sunday has any scriptural backing.
If they did, they could not in good conscience continue doing much of
what they are doing. The fact is,
contemporary church thought and practice have been influenced far more by
postbiblical historical events than by New Testament imperatives and
examples. This has created humanly
devised traditions that are routinely passed off to us as “Christian.” But, much of it was lifted directly out of
pagan culture in the postapostolic period.
We will go through a series
of accepted traditional church practices and tell the story of where the
practice came from. Then, it will be explained
how the practice stifles the practical headship of Jesus Christ and hampers the
functioning of His body. This may lead
to a crisis of conscience and change your life forever.
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