Raul Mock of The Pneuma Review recently interviewed bestselling author Frank Viola about his new book The Untold Story of the New Testament Church (2025) with Foreword by Craig Keener.

Raul Mock: For PneumaReview.com readers that have not yet encountered you, please tell us about your spiritual journey and your ministry.

Frank Viola: I’m someone who writes books and speaks in conferences for hungry and thirsty Christians who love Jesus, but who know in their bones that “there must be more” to the Christian faith, to Jesus Christ, to the Bible, and to church.

I’ve been part of every denomination and every movement you can name. From the Pentecostals to the Charismatics, all their flavors, as well as most evangelical denominations and camps.

And while I learned valuable things from all of them, they all left me saying, “there’s got to be more than this.” That’s what my books, my articles, and my podcasts are all about.

I’ve written over 20 books to date, and they can be divided up into Light and Shade.

“Light” are books containing the element of the sublime.

“Shade” are books containing a prophetic edge that challenges the status quo.

Your readers can check out my entire book catalog at frankviola.org.

All the books take God’s people into the deeper Christian life.

I also have two podcasts – Christ is All and The Insurgence Podcast. Combined, the two podcasts have almost 3 million downloads.

These two podcasts are designed for Christians who know there must be more.

(Details for each podcast can be found on my website, linked above. We also have a YouTube channel.)

Raul: How do you describe your new book, The Untold Story?

However, we live in an era where Pentecostal and Charismatic Christians regularly face criticism for apparent gaps between experiential faith and biblical understanding.

And that criticism is often valid.

My book, The Untold Story of the New Testament Church: Revised and Expanded, resolves this problem. The book transforms how all Bible-believing Christians engage Scripture, including those in the Charismatic world

The book does this by providing a key that unlocks the New Testament, addressing a long-standing need within the Charismatic community for deeper and clearer biblical understanding.

Dr. Craig Keener, the world’s leading scholar in New Testament background and a Charismatic himself, wrote the Foreword to the book. This is how he describes it:

“In The Untold Story of the New Testament Church: Revised and Expanded, Frank Viola brings context and background together, inviting us on a captivating journey through the birth and growth of the first-century church. With a reputation for captivating prose and heartfelt storytelling, Viola brings his unique perspective to reconstruct the events from Matthew to Revelation. The Untold Story offers a plausible chronological narrative that reveals the grand tapestry of God’s kingdom plan and brings the characters of the story to life.”

Respected New Testament scholar Clinton Arnold, who is known for his work on spiritual warfare, powers and principalities, also endorsed the book saying,

“This volume is a creative and fascinating portrayal of the rise of Christianity and the establishment of churches throughout the Mediterranean world. Viola weaves the evidence of the New Testament into a single unfolding and compelling story. Yet he does so not with unbridled imagination, but with a profound reliance on the best scholarship available. The end result is an accurate, engaging and compelling account of this movement that has had a monumental impact on history and continues to do so today.”

The uniqueness of my book is that it blends together the narrative found in the book of Acts with the epistles, all in chronological order, telling one unified story with all the historical details filled in from different parts of the New Testament and from first-century history.

This approach puts you in the dramatic story. You watch it unfold before your eyes sequentially. The result is that you understand the New Testament like never before – accurately, powerfully, and in an electrifying way. The book is a cinematic experience that unlocks the letters of the New Testament.

Raul: The 2025 edition of The Untold Story is “revised and expanded.” What are some of the differences in this edition from the very old edition from decades ago?

Frank: Unfortunately, there is a very old edition from 20 years ago with an ugly orange cover on it. That book is similar to an experimental high school paper. I wrote it in my youth. It was written in a hurry, it wasn’t peer reviewed, and no scholars read it beforehand to ensure its accuracy.

In addition, the scholarship is outdated and most of the best books written on the New Testament didn’t even exist back then.

So it was a “rough draft experiment” from my youth. In this regard, the new book is not exactly a “new edition.” It’s a brand new work. We just kept the same title because it appears in my other books, which represents over 600,000 copies to date.

The Untold Story of the New Testament Church: Revised and Expanded – with the white cover and brushstrokes on the borders – came out this year (2025).

It’s been endorsed by 20 first-rate New Testament scholars. However, the main narrative is highly accessible and “reads like a motion picture on paper” as some readers have described it.

The Christians – including pastors and teachers – who are reading it have reported that they are experiencing a “revolution” in their understanding of the Bible.

Raul: In one of the early footnotes, you say that you set out to write a book that tells “the entire story of the primitive church from Pentecost to Patmos.” But this isn’t merely a study Bible or a textbook on Christian history. Who is your intended audience and what gap do you want this book to fill?

Frank: Correct, the book is not a textbook or study Bible or even a history book. It’s been described as “the New Testament guides of all New Testament guides.”

The intended audience is any Christian who wants to understand the New Testament in a powerful new way. The book also brings the people and places to life.

It’s also for any Christian who wants to understand the early church, what really happened and didn’t happen.

Therefore, the book was written for pastors, preachers, teachers, Bible study leaders, and all Christians who read their Bibles regularly.

(While there have been a few titles from the past that tried to reconstruct the New Testament story in chronological order, none of them were comprehensive, none were documented with up-to-date scholarship, nor have any of them been reviewed by scholars to ensure accuracy.)

A number of the twenty scholars who endorsed my book have confirmed it’s uniqueness by saying, “There is no book like this.”

I’ve described the book as a contribution to New Testament 3.0 in contrast with New Testament 1.0 and 2.0 (See New Testament 3.0 – A Breakthrough for details on what I mean by that).

The sad truth is that most Christians today, including preachers and teachers, have built their theology on a crossword puzzle of verses.

They don’t know The Story. They know chapters and verses. And some of them are experts at a particular book of the Bible, but this all misses the forest for the trees.

The Story – the narrative of what happened from Pentecost to Patmos chronologically and where the 21 letters in the New Testament fit into that grand drama – is largely unknown. Even among scholars.

That’s precisely why I decided to take the time and effort to write the book, which was no small endeavor. It was a super heavy lift.

Raul: In the Foreword, Dr. Craig S. Keener said that Untold Story is an invitation to see ourselves as part of the ongoing story God has been telling. What are some of the places that did this most meaningfully for you?

Frank: There are so many. One can never fully understand Paul’s letters unless they learn The Story. So it’s meaningful how the Story told in the book opens up the New Testament epistles, including those of Paul who wrote the majority of them.

Another is the way that Christian workers (ministers) were trained in the first century. It’s drastically different from the way ministers are trained today.

Also, the way churches were planted is completely different from how they are founded today.

Without knowing the Story, we are left to interpreting the New Testament we want through cutting and pasting verses together. The result is that we arrive at conclusions that are unbiblical, even though the conclusions are based on certain portions of the Bible. The problem is that context is missing.

Jeremiah 8:8 in the NET Bible says,

How can you say, “We are wise! We have the law of the Lord”? The truth is, those who teach it have used their writings to make it say what it does not really mean.

This text was delivered during a period of spiritual and moral crisis in ancient Judah, when the people and their religious leaders (especially the scribes) claimed wisdom and faithfulness to God’s word. But they were in fact corrupting it through false interpretation and misleading teaching.

The verse addresses the scribes and religious leaders who boasted, “We are wise, and the law of the LORD is with us,” yet Jeremiah exposes their reliance on the pen of the scribes (the Bible experts) who “have twisted it by writing lies” suggesting they distorted or misrepresented the Torah, misleading the people.

This same thing is done today unwittingly and unknowingly when Christian leaders and teachers don’t know The Story. Yet they still teach the New Testament. So they inevitably misinterpret the text.

Knowing the Story prevents this problem. So far, it’s been a tremendous help to Charismatics and Pentecostals who honor the word of God and want to fully understand it. It’s done the same for other denominations and movements in the Christian world.

I explain this in more detail in the many of the interviews I’ve done on the book which your readers can check out here. The interviews delve deeper than this interview. (More interviews will be added to that page in the coming days, so check back.)

Also, we recently launched a visual podcast that goes along with the book. Your readers can check it out at TheUntoldStory.me.

PR

Are Pentecostals offering Strange Fire? (Panel Discussion)

Excerpts from Pouring Holy Water on Strange Fire: A Critique of John MacArthur’s Strange Fire & Charismatic Chaos by Frank Viola.

The central focus of this critique is simply to show that both Scripture and church history yield strong evidence that spiritual gifts are still extant in the church today.

My primary intention in writing it is to help my non-charismatic brethren who have been influenced by MacArthur’s books to reconsider and re-examine their understanding of the present-day work of the Spirit. My hope is that my non-charismatic brethren will open up their hearts more fully toward their charismatic brethren and sistren and vice versa.
(page 11).

3. Commending & Criticizing MacArthur’s Charismatic Blasting

Having read both Charismatic Chaos and Strange Fire, I want to cut to the chase in this Introduction and tell you where I think MacArthur is dead-on and where I think his conclusions are flawed and even outrageous.

The rest of this critique will provide evidence and examples supporting each point:

1. The charismatic world is an easy target for any critic because there are a lot of problems within the camp.

There is no doubt that a number of high-profile charismatic leaders are guilty of outlandish teachings, absurd practices, stunts, gimmicks, exaggerations, and even fraud. And so are some of their followers. MacArthur is right about this and he articulates the problem well.

However, MacArthur is not the only person who has made this observation. Many charismatic leaders have as well. MacArthur even quotes some of them in Strange Fire.

Just as those charismatic leaders were not able to reel in the excesses that exist within the movement, I do not think MacArthur’s attempts will do so either. In fact, MacArthur’s latest book is his third attempt on this score (The Charismatics, 1978; Charismatic Chaos, 1992; Strange Fire, 2013).

(page 13).

3. MacArthur is wrong in that he paints the entire charismatic world–which would include all charismatics and all charismatic churches–with the same broad brush.

The fact is, I have met many charismatics who were not guilty of any of the problems that MacArthur benightedly lays at their feet.

For example, the late David Wilkerson was a tremendous help to me when I was in my 20s. He encouraged me to make Christ, not the Holy Spirit, preeminent in my life.

Wilkerson—a charismatic leader—wrote a classic article called A Christless Pentecost on this subject.

I would encourage anyone who buys MacArthur’s arguments to read The Cross and the Switchblade and ask yourself if it is possible that the supernatural gifts of the Spirit are still operative today.

In addition, I wonder if MacArthur would admit that Teen Challenge, founded by Wilkerson, has been a blessing to many lost young people.

Throughout his books, MacArthur continually uses phrases like, “Charismatics believe … such and such.” “Charismatics think … such and such.” And then “the charismatic movement is guilty of . . . such and such.”

This is simply false. It would be accurate to say, “some charismatics believe” … or even “many charismatics believe …” or “some in the charismatic movement believe… .”

Using MacArthur’s logic and approach, one could easily write a book about the toxicity of the Reformed movement by painting all Reformed Christians as elitist, sectarian, divisive, arrogant, exclusive, and in love with “doctrine” more than with Christ.

by Frank Viola

Someone has asked me, “Why waste your time on responding to MacArthur’s writings against the charismatics?”

When I was in my 20s, I wrote a critique of John MacArthur’s Charismatic Chaos because a brother in the Lord broke fellowship with me and my friends after reading MacArthur’s book. Jesus said to His disciples, “If they reject you, they’ve rejected me.” So to my mind, restoring a brother to fellowship was enough of a reason for me to try to persuade him that MacArthur’s views needed to be challenged.

For similar reasons, I am re-releasing my critique and revising it to include my response to Strange Fire. I want to clear up the confusion created when cessationists like MacArthur bring forward legitimate criticisms. I argue that theological errors and bad practices must be dealt with, but not by condemning the entire charismatic movement or implying they are not Christians.

My hope is that my critique will change the minds of some cessationists who have bought into MacArthur’s argument and confirm the views and experiences of those who have experienced the power of God today.

Frank Viola’s Pouring Holy Water on Strange Fire: A Critique of John MacArthur’s Strange Fire & Charismatic Chaos is available at http://www.patheos.com/blogs/frankviola/strangefirefree for $5.99. Endorsements by Craig Keener, Sam Storms, Dr. Michael Brown, and Adrian Warnock.

A special summary of the book Jesus Manifesto by Leonard Sweet & Frank Viola.

When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for the body of Christ to come to its senses and spell out the biblical bands which define it, the Spirit of God impels us to arise in the same confidence as our ancestors who unwaveringly proclaimed “the present truth” for their day and time and declare the causes which compel this Manifesto.

We hold these truths to be biblically-evident, that all people have fallen short of the glory of God, that they are endowed by their Creator with a Savior, who is Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ, our risen, rising, and reigning Lord. He is the heat in our heart, the marrow of our mind, and the art of our life.

Alas, much of the contemporary church has short-changed Jesus. It has replaced Christ with methods, strategies, concepts, principles, doctrines, programs, fads, gimmicks, etc., and has lost Him who is the Center and Circumference of our faith.

To demonstrate this, we submit the following to a candid world:

Jesus Christ is the subject, goal, and motivation of our faith and devotion.

Jesus Christ came to show us how to be a new kind of human, a Jesus kind of human. He came to do what Adam failed to do. He is the firstborn of a new humanity.

Jesus Christ is the “e” that turns the human into the humane – Emmanuel – God with us.

Jesus Christ is alive. He lives. He lives His resurrection life in and through us – members of His beloved bride – the body of Christ on earth.

Jesus is the Way. What is Christianity? It is Christ.

Jesus is the Life. What is the gospel? It is Christ.

Jesus is the Truth. What is truth? It is Christ. Truth is personified in a person. That person is Christ. Truth is not an ideology. Truth is not a philosophy. Truth is not an ethics. Truth is Christ. When the gospel truth becomes something other than Christ, the church suffers from JDD: Jesus Deficit Disorder.

The gospel is the “good news” that Beauty, Truth and Goodness are found in Love, the Love of God in Christ. The mystery of life has a name: LOVE. God is love, and there is no God outside of Jesus Christ. Hence there is no authentic love outside of Jesus. The Greatest Lover that this universe has ever known says to each and every one of us, “Follow me.”

Not “follow my preachings” or “follow my teachings” or “follow my practices” But “Follow me.” Not “follow me” to become more “like me.” That is too low an ambition for a Christian.

Not “follow me” to “mimic me.” But “follow me” to “manifest me.”

Not “follow me” to “imitate me.” But “follow me” to let my Spirit be implanted in you and to you.

Not “follow me” to become more “like me.” But “follow me” to “become part of me.”

“I am in you and you are in me, as the Father is in you and you are in Him. You are my sister and you are my brother.” This is not a metaphor. … Our greatest dream is to write with our lives a Jesus autobiography.

Editor Introduction: Postmodernism, The Church, and The Future

From Pneuma Review Summer 2008

Postmodernism, The Church, and The Future
A Pneuma Review discussion about how the church should respond to postmodernism

The modern era has past us by. Modernism stood in stark contradiction to the Christian faith. It asserted that man’s scientific and objective knowledge could save the problems of the world. God wasn’t necessary.

In fact, according to the tenants of modernism, God didn’t even exist. Why? Because modernism arrogantly taught that only that which can be verified by the physical senses could be trusted. Since God stands outside the realm of the physical senses, His existence could not be proven, thus there was no rational reason to believe in Him.

Modernism is all but gone, and it failed to deliver its promises. It did not solve the problems of the world. In fact, with the creation of nuclear and biological weapons, it made it far easier to destroy the world it claimed to save.

Enter the postmodern world.

In many ways, postmodernism is much more friendly to the Christian faith than its predecessor which denied the spiritual world.

Postmodernism is difficult to define. Pundits, professors, and philosophers disagree on its precise meaning. Nevertheless, here are some of the basic characteristics of the postmodern mind.

1. Experience, personal testimony, and spiritual encounter are more persuasive than objective, logical argumentation.

2. Authentic relationships, connectedness, and community are more appealing than Western individualism and rugged independence.

3. A humble attitude that respects and gives an open ear to the views of others is more attractive than the conceited claims of those who say they are completely right and everyone else is wrong.

Intolerance, racism, sexism, bigotry are all rejected in favor of love, respect, and concern for others regardless of the outward barriers that separate us humans.

The Church in the Postmodern World

What is needed is a new kind of church for a new kind of world.

Interestingly, the new kind of church I’m speaking of is really not new at all. It’s the church that we find in the New Testament. Unfortunately, through centuries of religious tradition, the modern church has departed from its Biblical roots.