DOUBLE BOOK REVIEW - ONCE YOU SEE BY JEFF CHRISTOPHERSON AND PAGAN CHRISTIANITY BY FRANK VIOLA AND GEORGE BARNA

 

Yes, Reformation Day was a week ago. But is it a day we should celebrate year round? After all, many (including me) believe in Semper Reformada - always reforming.

I am reviewing not one but two books today, both of which have the Semper Reformada mindset. Both propose ideas for the church that cause us to examine where we're at and propose where we should be instead. 

Allow me to start with Pagan Christianity?: Exploring the Roots of our Church Practices by Frank Viola (the baseball player?) and George Barna (the researcher), since it was published first (2012). The focal point of this book is that a lot of our church traditions are from pagan influences rather than the New Testament. The proposed reformation is to replace the institutional church with its senior pastor, sermons, and church buildings, with organic house churches. Here's the review I posted on Amazon:

"There are books that I think are on target, those that are dangerous, those that are neither (more educational or more entertaining), and those that are both. This fits in the last category.

"I've already come to some of the conclusions they came to. While I admire the big beautiful cathedrals, I wonder what would happen if the focus was on building the church through evangelism and missions instead of building bigger buildings. I also believe that there should be less distinction between clergy and laity.

"However, there are several things I disagree with. These include:

1. A view that the NT prescribes a certain pattern of worship. Sorry, it's not in the NT.
2. A view that appealing to the Old Testament is no better than a pagan view.
3. An activist tone that isn't interested in any less than unconditional surrender.

"I did find myself scanning much of this book and reading the conclusions and the Q&A at the end of each chapter.

"They are right that most if not all features of the current institutional church are not from the Bible. The question is if it's from paganism (a bad influence) or if it's godly people desiring to serve Him."

The second book is Once You See: Seven Temptations of the Western Church by Jeff Christopherson, which came out in December, 2022. Like Pagan Christianity, this book looks at shortcomings of today's church and ways to reform - e.g. the pastors being bi-vocational. However, unlike the other book, this book is a novel. Here's my review of that book: 

"Once You See: Seven Temptations of the Western Church by Jeff Christopherson is a novel looking at three men who are in a crisis in their lives and in the church, and realize there is something more that's not being realized. But how does one reach that goal?

"This book would appeal to a Christian audience. Most Christian novels are stories first, and Christian thought is organic to the tale. My hunch is this book reflects concerns of the author and are told through story as opposed to a typical book. Christopherson has previously written missiological books, and is the executive director of both the Canadian National Baptist Convention and Church Planting Canada. This book comes with a discussion guide.

"I thought he constructed an interesting story. I am definitely interested in reading his other books, especially Venal Dogmata: A Parable of the Future Church."

BOOK REVIEW - DISPENSATIONALISM: ESSENTIAL BELIEFS AND COMMON MYTHS BY MICHAEL J. VLACH

 

 One of the saddest moments of my life - my wife and I were talking to a Christian friend and mentioned a certain Dispensationalist teacher. That friend went into a diatribe that bordered on hatred, and it definitely made accusations that we knew weren't true.

I find the best way to know a view is to hear what the proponents of the view say, and then read the critiques and judge if they're accurately portraying the proponent's view. Dispensationalism is one such controversial topic, and this book does an excellent job in giving it.

Dispensationalism: Essential Beliefs and Common Myths by Michael J. Vlach, does what is promised. He gives a list of what all dispensationalists believe and deals with common misconceptions (most of which are based on either poorly worded statements from Dispensationalists or misunderstanding, though there's a few accusations that border on slander.

One thing that Vlach deals with is that Dispensationalism is limited in the doctrines it affects, namely ecclesiology (doctrine of the church) and eschatology (doctrine of end times). He also recognizes that Dispensationalism is known as a doctrine of discontinuity (i.e. how the Old and New Testament differ) and then points out where Dispensationalists hold to continuity between the two Testaments.

This is a short book (just barely over 100 pages), because it has a specific purpose - dealing with what dispensationism is and what it isn't. This is not a book designed to convert people to dispensationalism or to win arguments; it is more of a defense against the attacks on that view. It definitely points out that Dispensationalists and Covenant Theologians agree that salvation from Adam on has always been by grace alone through faith alone (Ephesians 2:8-9).

I did find some things that weren't covered. I've noticed that some of the arguments against dispensationalism are based on  the gifts of the Spirit, though Vlach would probably point out that there are continuist as well as cessasionist dispensationalists. Vlach also doesn't mention Pauline Dispensationalism (which teaches that Paul is the New Testament writer dealing with the church and thus focus his teachings, nor acknowledge that all Dispensationalsist don't see the church at Pentecost (for example, Les Feldick who was an Acts 9 Pauline Dispensationalist. These items, however, aren't necessary for what Vlach is focused on in this volume.

This is an excellent introduction to dispensationalism.