I read the book “Pagan Christianity” by Frank Viola after being referred to based on my connection to the messianic movement by a gentile who thought I’d like it. After getting done reading the book I did some online research of the author and was looking into some re-imaging the church teaching which only confirmed what I suspected. Frank Viola is just another protestant seeking to re-image or reform the “catholic (universal)” church instead of restoring the Hebraic-Biblical foundations. He does rightly point out the pagan roots and influence of many Christian and Catholic practices but he does not show the right Hebraic-Biblical patterns. He overlooks the Hebraic-Jewish foundation of the gospels his discourse on the Acts of the Apostles show his lack of Hebrew understanding and thinking. After rejecting the “pagan roots” he advocates “re-imaging” the church. Along the lines of “Jesus Needs New PR” he advocates the Church has been a bad representation of Jesus and we need a “new” look not the “original” look. This is where he looses me. Jesus has had some bad representatives because many have wrongly represented Him but we don’t need to be re-imaging how we do Church (that is part of the existing problem causing bad “PR”). We don’t need another “new” way of doing church. Simply put the reformers only sought to reform Catholic practice. Many if not most protestant still look to “catholic” “church fathers” for doctrine and foundation not to the Nazerene’s, the Apostles Constitutions or Apostles Way at the time of Yeshua most directly. We need to go back to the original, historical and biblical foundation. When we’re focused on right doing and the right foundation then we will have true, right and correct representation or “PR” for Jesus aka Yeshua. I agree on the pagan influences but I don’t agree we should make it up as we go along, that’s just creating a new form of “pagan Christianity.” Anything not based in biblical record is “paganism” a religion made by men not G-d. No matter how right intended you are its still a work of man. Yeshua and the disciples still attended Synagogue, Peter & John went to the Temple at the hour of Prayer and observed the Biblical feasts even after Yeshua’s death (on Passover), resurrection (on First Fruits during the Feast of Unleavened bread), and the dissension of the Ruach HaKodesh (on Shavout-Pentecost). Even when the disciples meet after synagogue it was “on the eve of the first day” which is Saturday eve after the Sabaath ended. Having Chavurah on the Eve after Shabbat is a normal Jewish custom. It wasn’t new custom it was an established tradition. The church did not start a new tradition, scripture doesn’t state that at all. However if you don’t know that the Eve following the Sabaath that many Jewish families at Yeshua’s time including Yeshua himself had to have Chavurah (Fellowship) the eve of the First day (which is Saturday evening). The Sabaath starts Friday eve and ends Saturday eve. There is no reference to changing the biblical feast or sabaath, and the impromto gathering in home after Shabbat for Chavurah or Fellowship with (Oneg) Food wasn’t new. It included the Kaddish (Sanctification using bread and wine). On the Eve following the Sabaath the disciples were enjoying a traditional and Hebraic gathering after the Sabaath. This Chavurah and Oneg was always done on the Eve of Saturday following the Sabaath day. Yeshua came during the fall feast most likely on or around Sukkot (the feast of Tabernacles), and G-d became flesh and dwelt among them. The disciples called themselves the Sect of the Nazerene which was an accepted Jewish sect up until 119 when the 19th prayer, the heretics curse, was added to the Amidah (standing prayer-”when you stand praying”). After that they maintained the Hebraic roots without connection to other Jews. The pagans started mocking and calling them “Christian” (little Jesus’s) yet it wasn’t a name they took on themselves. When Constantine created the “Universal” pagan priesthood of Catholicism he did embraced “Christianity” as a fundamental component to his universal religion which also included Mithraism and Platonianism, which all the “catholic” church fathers embrace in their writings. Constantine took the name they the Roman torturers used mocking the early believers while crucifying and killing them in the arena’s and making it the official name that he would call them. Only a small number of invited bishops showed up for the Nicene council most disagreed with Constantine yet with a minority showing up he ruled Christianity as he reformed it in the image of his choosing. He made a religion based on mans opinion, philosophy, Mithraism, Platonianism and a distorted view of what being “Christian” really meant. The title “Christian” was a mocking term used by bloody persecutors. It wasn’t a name first century believers gave themselves. The called themselves Talmidim (Disciples) of Yeshua or The Sect (Way) of the Nazerene. Understanding that is vital to having a right view of the early Church. Frank Viola misses this in light of embracing a non-torah observant re-imaging the church devoid of the right sabaath, missing the biblical feasts and never embraces the Hebraic roots as the original and right foundation. Even the Jerusalem Council was a rabbinic ruling council decision made according to tradition and followed the Noahide tradition of Judiasm. If you just reject Christ-mass and Easter, that doesn’t make you right it just makes you less wrong. The Puritans and Quakers did the same, they sought to leave the cristo-paganism of Europe, some say that Thanksgiving was modeled after Sukkot originally before the date was changed. You can’t just reject paganism and then create your own thing or you become a new form of what you just left. The Seventh Day Adventist and Worldwide Church of God are errors that do seek to restore the Sabaath and feasts yet wrongly they don’t believe in a literal hell, the believe in British-American Israelism (the false belief that Britian and America hold the lost tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh respectively) and use ancient pyramids to determine when Christ second advent (return) will occur (which their dating was proved wrong). No, Yeshua will not return 12/21/12. Yes there will be another universal alignment and the Aztec long calendar for this cycle comes to an end. If the Aztec’s were alive they would continue to add cycles to the count they stopped because their civilization was destroyed. No mystery it doesn’t mean anything other than they accurately charted the movement of the stars, the magnetic fields that gravity and planetarion rotation create and that the universe is organized and ordered as
it was when the Mayans and Aztecs measured it. Its accurate to current scientific methods. That shows their order and structure to the universe nothing else. You must restore the biblical foundations and not create new foundations, and do not Re-Image the Church, Restore the right foundation! “Re-Imaging” the church again another time is a bad idea, restoring the right foundation is a good idea.

I’ve studied the 500 or so odd years of the reformation and found that many only sought to reform Catholicism not repent and renounce Catholicism completely and restore the right biblical foundations. The Episcopalian Church of England and Lutherans are prime examples. I’ve tried to be a part of the protestant reformation or re-imaging movement and found that there end falls short of biblical restoration. Thats where these denounce paganism but let’s start our own new thing go wrong. We should seek the biblically recorded and historically accurate right way. If you worship on Sun-Day you accept papal changes to the Sabaath then you accept their form of cristo-paganism. The early church meet Saturday evening after the Sabaath day, not on Sunday. The early church did a Christian Passover Seder during the Feast of Unleavened Bread not an Easter Egg hunt eating leavened hot cross buns, and a easter pig (ham). Yeshua was in Jerusalem during Chanukah not Christmass or its related Saturnalia festivals regarding decorating and seeding the fertility tree that gives “birth” to gifts. The biblical feasts are full of biblical and messianic messages that are spiritually deep and significant as opposed to these other pagan un-holy-days.

I do agree with the pagan Christianity that the roots of many practices from the Catholic church predate Christianity and were in existence as pagan religions when Judaism was the way G-d spoke to His people before Yeshua came in flesh. I do agree about the  pagan roots and their influence on the Church are prevelant and a problem.

I disagree with re-imaging the Church if it doesn’t include restoring the biblical Sabaath, festivals (Lev 23), or the Messianic Structure of the Sect of the Nazerene’s. The Nazerene’s where both Jew and Gentile Observers of Yeshua who where accepted as a branch of Judiasm by the other Jewish sects until 119 when they added the 19th prayer to the Amidah (Standing Prayer) and rejected the new Messianic Jewish movement that worshiped Yeshua as the risen savior. If we do not get back to the Jewish-Hebraic-Biblical Roots, we are just creating ANOTHER form of PAGANISM. Anything no rooted in biblical practice which include Sabaath on the Sabaath day and the biblical feasts isn’t correct. The feast of the Yeshua are a statute forever (Lev 23), just as the Sabaath is. Remember the biblical day is Evening and then Day not the opposite day then evening. So all references fall into the pattern of they attended synagogue on Shabbat (Sabaath) and had Chavurah (Fellowship) on the Eve of Saturday the new week. Many things have been distorted over time. All the gospels where first written in Hebrew-Aramaic then translated to Greek. Westcott and Hort, the crew behind the modern bible revisionist used latin and Catholic resources for their biblical text and state that they predate Textus Recepticus, the majority text, and the masoretic text even though there is proof otherwise. I deal more directly with Westscott and Hort in the blog titled Westscott & Hort: The Fathers Of Modern Biblical Revisionism. Many over look Araimic translations of the NT based on arguments from Westcott and Hort or even KJV only. I would say that we should seek out to know all that is available in biblical scholarship, study all that is available and not allow one man or small group high jack what they call “the right way” of interpreting scripture. “There is therefore no prophecy of scripture that is open to private interpretation,” (2 Tim 3:16). I did enjoy the points in Pagan Christianity that I do agree with. The lack of the Jewish-Hebraic foundation for the true Church is something we need to see more exploration and writing on. There are many who do a Christian Passover Seder and other biblical festivals from the perspective of Yeshua as our Messiah fulfilling those Festivals. I would rather do G-d instituted practices over man’s pagan re-creations or abominations.

Related Articles

• Pagan Christianity – A Review (brighthub.com)
• Reimagining Church (Chapter 1) (Frank Viola) – An Interaction (Part 2). (daveenjoys.com)
• Reimagining Church (Preface / Introduction) (Frank Viola) – An Interaction. (daveenjoys.com)
• Top Posts for 2010 (frankviola.wordpress.com)
• Pagan Catholics? (biblicalpaths.wordpress.com)
• The God of Christmas (epages.wordpress.com)

Print PDF