Pagans In The Pews: How the New Spirituality is Invading
Your Home, Church and Community
author Peter Jones. Regal Books, 2001. 288 pages
by
Robert Dooling
_Pagans in the Pews_ is an in-depth study of the influence of ancient
Gnosticism on the contemporary church. Its thesis is that there are
currently two worldviews waging an all-out war for the hearts and minds of
the people in our pews. On one side, there is the worldview that follows the
God of the Bible; on the other side, there is the worldview that follows the
god of the ancient Gnostic paganism.
To illustrate the nature and consequences of the problem, Jones tells a
humorous story about a Jewish boy who asks his dad for a Honda as a bar
mitzvah gift. Not knowing what a Honda is, the father goes to his orthodox
rabbi and asks. But the orthodox rabbi doesn’t know. So, the father goes to
a conservative rabbi; but he doesn’t know either. Out of desperation, the
father goes to a liberal/reformed rabbi, who proudly informs him that a
Honda is a motorcycle a wonderful gift for a young man. But, as the father
gets up to leave the rabbi’s office, the liberal/reformed rabbi asks the
father, ‘Excuse me, May I ask you a question? What’s a bar mitzvah?” Jones’
point, of course, is that the reason that there are so many pagans in the
pews is that there are too many pagans in our pulpits too many people who
simply do not know the faith, and therefore cannot teach it.-
_Pagans in the Pews_ comes with the enthusiastic endorsement of some
teachers whom I generally hold in high regard. Among them are Edmund
Clowney, Bruce Demarest, Michael Horton, and R.C. Sproul. And although I am
generally in agreement with the author’s conclusion that Gnosticism/
liberalism worships an idol that has been created/imaged by people who
themselves want to be God at the same time, I have to admit that I was a bit
disappointed with the book. Let me give you three reasons why.
First, the breadth of the book is massive in scope. In and of itself, of
course, this is not a problem. However, in the course of less than 300
pages, Jones attempts to write about every nook and cranny of the issue (IE.
3rd century paganism; Gnosticism then and now; Monism; Feminism; Biblical
authority and interpretation; the contributions of Matthew Fox, Elaine
Pagels, et al., human sexuality; spirituality; etc.), which means, of
course, that he is unable to explore any single subject in any kind of
depth. So there is a sense in which the book seems ‘thin,” even though it
is a massive collection of information.
Second and this is a corollary to what I have just said the book is more
descriptive than analytical. That is to say, while Jones inundates his
readers with massive amounts of information and copious citations from
countless authors, he spends very little time exploring the more difficult
questions of why a modernized, refurbished Gnosticism is so attractive to
contemporary Christians, how the 20th century church has failed in its
responsibility faithfully and carefully to hand on the faith to the next
generation, and what course of action needs to be followed in order to
counter this latter-day expression of a first-century apostasy.
Third, Jones research is not up to date. Although _Pagans in the Pews_ was
published in 2001, the author seems to have stopped his research with the
1993 Re-Imagining event. Many of the people whom he cites have left the
church for a more robust expression of paganism, and many of the current
voices within the church are not cited.
Fourth, and last, Jones seems to lack a Reformed perspective on history in
that he appears to stake the future more on propositional truth than on the
Sovereign and providential God who holds the future in his hands. Says
Jones,
‘There is great darkness in the Church today. She disregards the
Scriptures, she drags the name of God the Father in the mud, she mocks
and spurns the gracious redemptive work of the eternal Son and makes sin
the principle of life. But the seductive lie is not in control of the
situation. In its very nature as deception and counterfeit it cannot
help but cause the light of the truth to appear in greater splendor.
Looking at false teaching makes the gospel even more convincing, and
examining the lie causes the truth to sparkle in all its radiance, and
with greater intensity.”
Does this mean that I would discourage you from purchasing and reading the
book? Not at all. However, I would suggest that before you sit down to read
it, it would be salutary for you to arm yourself with at least a cursory
knowledge of the history of the early church, and a robust confidence in the
One who has purchased his church with the blood of the lamb, who holds her
in his hands, and who will never let her go. The future is, precisely, not
up for grabs.