The book Pagan Christianity?: Exploring the Roots of Our Church Practices by Frank Viola and George Barna has never been credibly, or successfully, refuted or discounted. It is heavily sourced. Roman Catholic Brad Chase sets out in a sad, pathetic attempt to refute their claims in his book UnPagan Christianity, which is practically source-less, but only succeeds in hyper proof text methodology. Not only does he miss the several points made in Pagan Christianity, but his reading comprehension is appalling (unless he is willfully misrepresenting them and what they said—repeatedly).
Brad Chase attempts to defend every single pagan practice that exists in the institutional Roman Catholic church, engaging in hyper proof text methodology. He incorrectly attempts to attribute the origins of these practices to the Old Testament, but this is extremely misguided thinking. These elements have become common place and so in an attempt to defend them, he turns to the Scriptures and scours through them in order to rip passages out of their immediate context and use them as support for the existing elements. This is proof text methodology at its finest.
Not to mention that if he bothered paying attention to the vast writings of the early Christians (AD 90-300), they condemned a great many of the existing elements that Brad Chase is desperately trying to defend in his utter ignorance. One such example is their stance against iconography and relics. Here is just a handful of the quotes against such practices:
"They call themselves Gnostics. They also possess images, some of them painted, and others formed from different kinds of material. They maintain that a likeness of Christ was made by Pilate at the time when Jesus lived among them. They crown these images, and set them up along with the images of the philosophers of the world. That is to say, they place them with the images of Pythagoras, Plato, Aristotle, and the rest. They have also other modes of honoring these images, after the same manner of the Gentiles." —Irenaeus, c. 180
"It is with a different kind of spell that art deludes you. . . . It leads you to pay religious honor and worship to images and pictures." —Clement of Alexandria, c. 195
"Ages before, Moses expressly commanded that neither a carved, nor molten, nor molded, nor painted likeness should be made. This was so that we would not cling to things of sense, but pass to spiritual objects. For familiarity with the sense of sight disparages the reverence of what is divine." —Clement of Alexandria, c. 195
"He who prohibited the making of a graven image would never Himself have made an image in the likeness of holy things." —Clement of Alexandria, c. 195
"Works of art cannot be sacred and divine." —Clement of Alexandria, c. 195
"In a word, if we refuse our homage to statues and frigid images, . . . does it not merit praise instead of penalty that we have rejected what we have come to see is error?" —Tertullian, c. 197
"We know that the names of the dead are nothing, as are their images. But when images are set up, we know well enough, too, who carry on their wicked work under these names. We know who exult in the homage rendered to the images. We know who pretend to be divine. It is none other than accursed spirits." —Tertullian, c. 197
"Demons have their abode in the images of the dead." —Tertullian, c. 197
"'Not that an idol is anything,' as the apostle says, but that the homage they render to it is to demons. These are the real occupants of these consecrated images—whether of dead men or (as they think) of gods." —Tertullian, c. 197
"[This disciples of Carpocrates] make counterfeit images of Christ, alleging that these were in existence at the time . . . and were fashioned by Pilate." —Hippolytus, c. 225
Brad Chase engages in the Straw Man Fallacy, erecting straw men arguments that he can easily blow over while ignoring and not addressing the full weight of the evidence Frank and George present. Brad Chase demonstrates that he is unable to argue the main point, never providing a reasonable refutation or an intelligent counter-argument, exposing himself as a person speaking by way of confession of intellectual bankruptcy.
Frank and George provide a multitude of sources to support what they are saying, while Brad Chase merely asserts they are wrong because "The Roman Catholic church says so" and spews a bunch of ignorant opinion backed by nothing.
Brad Chase argues that the "biblical source for temples" is 1 Kings 6, because "Solomon built a temple." *Listens to the crickets.* Wow! Such a compelling argument. A fine example of hyper proof text methodology at work. This displays Brad Chase's ignorance excellently, because he is so focused on trying to defend his pagan traditions that he ignores the clear teachings of the New Testament. Not only was Jesus the Temple, of which Paul says He was the cornerstone, but we are that Temple which the Spirit dwells in. New Testament Scripture makes it clear that God does not dwell in temples made with human hands; He dwells in us! Christians were never supposed to have physical temples to meet in. Jesus never commanded such. The apostles never commanded such. The early Christians even spoke against such. But Brad Chase is ignorant of all of this. Purposefully, no doubt.
Frank Viola and George Barna are merely pointing out the pagan origins of the traditions we cling to with these organized religious institutions falsely called "churches" in the hopes that we would reject those traditions that contradict the teachings of Jesus, the apostles, and the early Christians and restore the traditions they did teach. Not the corruptions that slowly crept in over time, but the pure teachings and traditions of the Word.
I encourage Brad Chase to come to his senses, repent, embrace King Jesus, and come out of the beast system of Roman Catholicism. Otherwise his soul is going to be lost forever. He has already received the mark of this beast system, consenting mentally and believing their lies (mark on the forehead) while conducting himself in accordance with those lies and acting upon them (mark on the hand). But Jesus is more powerful than this system. Today is the day of salvation. Come out of her, Brad.