The Church Service is Pagan? - Part 1

Adapted from Chapter 3 of Pagan Christianity by Frank Viola and George Barna. Prior posts follow:

Introduction to Pagan Christianity

Traditions Passed Off as "Christian"

The Church Building is Pagan? - Part 1

The Church Building is Pagan? - Part 2

After peeling away various superficial alterations that make each church service distinct, you find from a broad perspective, the order of worship is essentially the same in virtually all Protestant churches.  The greeting, prayer, songs, announcements, offering, sermon, and benediction.  With some minor rearrangements, this is the unbroken liturgy that 345 million Protestants across the globe observe religiously week after week.  And for the last 500 years, few people have questioned it.  Why?  Because of the titanic power of tradition.  

 

Pastors that routinely tell their churches that they are “biblical” and still have mechanical meetings are not lying or being deceptive.  They are simply ignorant and misinformed.  Go ahead and scour the story of the early Christians as recorded in the New Testament and try and find a liturgy or order of worship when the early Christians met.  You can’t.  The meetings of the early church were marked by every-member functioning, spontaneity, freedom, vibrancy, and open participation.  It was fluid and unpredictable, not static. 

 

So, where did the Protestant order of worship come from?  It has its basic roots in the medieval Catholic Mass.  And this mass grew out of ancient Judaism and paganism that was influenced heavily by magical paganistic concepts.  It was a blending of pagan and Judaistic ritual sprinkled with Catholic theology and Christian vocabulary.  This mass changed little over a thousand years until Martin Luther came along (1483-1546).  As Protestant denominations were born, they reshaped the Catholic liturgy.  Luther’s main revision was to make preaching, rather than the Eucharist, the center of the gathering.  This, in turn, made the pulpit rather than the altar table the central element.  But, once again, making preaching the center of the church gathering has no biblical precedent.  Although Luther talked a lot about the “priesthood of all believers,” he never did reform the practice of it.  And this has been the case in most of the revisions of liturgy ever since then.  Therefore, services still make congregants into passive spectators with an MC or two that stands in stark contrast to church meetings led by Jesus Christ.  

 

Because of the way we meet, meetings have become a preaching station where style and pulpit personalities are the dominating attraction for church.  It is also an individualistic affair rather than a corporate one.  

 

According to the New Testament, Jesus Christ is the leader, director, and CEO of the church meeting.  In I Corinthians 12, Paul tells us that Christ speaks through His entire body, not just one member.  In such a meeting, His body freely functions under His headship (direct leadership) through the working of His Holy Spirit.  The goal of the early church gatherings was mutual edification and every-member functioning to corporately manifest Jesus Christ before principalities and powers.  First Corinthians 14 gives us a picture of such a gathering.  This kind of meeting is vital for the spiritual growth of God’s people and the full expression of His Son on earth.  So, why do we do it the way we do it?  Because of the power of tradition.

 

To the contemporary Protestant mind, doctrine must be vigorously checked with Scripture before it is accepted.  But when it comes to church practice, just about anything is acceptable as long as it accomplishes our goals.

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Comments

[Steve Roth]

Thats an interesting view of modern church services. I disagree there is no Biblical precedent for preaching.

Where does 1 Cor. 12 say that God speaks through his entire body?

I submit to you that God speaks to us through his perfect word, the Bible. And that a Biblical church meeting is one where the Bible is studied and exposited. Not the opinions of the preacher. Simply studying the Bible and taking it at face value.

I certainly am not defending hard and fast traditional church services. I would quote to you 1 Corinthians 14:40. "Let all things be done decently and in order" Why would God put that in his word? Because God is not the author of chaos.

[2nd man united]

Steve,

Thanks a lot for the comment. I understand where you are coming from here.

"I disagree there is no Biblical precedent for preaching."

True, but p. 86 of Pagan Christianity? -

"There is a world of difference between the Spirit-inspired preaching and teaching described in the Bible and the contemporary sermon. This difference has been overlooked because we have been unwittingly conditioned to read our modern-day practices back into the Scripture. So, we mistakenly embrace today's pulpiteerism as being biblical."

Where does 1 Cor. 12 say that God speaks through his entire body?

This chapter clearly explains how the functioning of God's people occurs as "many operating as one" rather than "one directing many" as most church services are today.

"Let all things be done decently and in order"

When the Invisible Head, Jesus Christ is enabled to be the leader of a church meeting through the "many operating as one," His leadership creates decency and order. Applying that verse to the modern religious system is reading our modern-day practices into it.

Good discussion. Thanks.