Buildings and God's Building

1Cor 3:9 ". . . ye are God's building."

Frank Lloyd Wright of Chicago fame became one of the world's most successful architects. A statement that he once made touches upon the main interest of this article, "We build our buildings and then our buildings build us."

The Jewish Temple was the pride of Judaism. The following article by a Jewish writer clearly states the prejudice the Jews shared about this "wonder of the world."

"The crowning achievement of King Solomon's reign was the erection of a magnificent Temple (Beit ha-Midkash) in Jerusalem. His father, King David, had wanted to build a great Temple for God a generation earlier, as a permanent resting place for the Ark containing the Ten Commandments. A divine edict, however, had forbidden him from doing so. "You will not build a house for My name," God said to him, "for you are a man of battles and have shed blood" (I Chronicles 28:3).

"The Bible's description of Solomon's Temple suggests that the inside ceiling was 180 feet long, 90 feet wide, and 50 feet high. The highest point on the Temple that King Solomon built was actually 120 cubits tall (about 20 stories or about 207 feet). According to the Tanach (II Chronicles):

"3:3 The length by cubits after the ancient measure was threescore cubits, and the breadth twenty cubits. 3:4 And the porch that was before the house, the length of it, according to the breadth of the house, was twenty cubits, and the height a hundred and twenty; and he overlaid it within with pure gold.

"He spares no expense in the building's creation. He orders vast quantities of cedar from King Hiram of Tyre (I Kings 5:2025), has huge blocks of the choicest stone quarried, and commands that the building's foundation be laid with hewn stone. To complete the massive project, he imposes forced labor on all his subjects, drafting people for work shifts lasting a month at a time. Some 3,300 officials are appointed to oversee the Temple's erection (5:2730). Solomon assumes such heavy debts in building the Temple that he is forced to pay off King Hiram with twenty towns in the Galilee (I Kings 9:11).When the Temple is completed, Solomon inaugurates it with prayer and sacrifice, and even invites nonJews to come and pray there. He urges God to pay particular heed to their prayers: "Thus all the peoples of the earth will know Your name and revere You, as does Your people Israel; and they will recognize that Your name is attached to this House that I have built" (I Kings 8:43).Until the Temple was destroyed by the Babylonians some four hundred years later, in 586 B.C.E., sacrifice was the predominant mode of divine service there. Seventy years later, a second Temple was built on the same site, and sacrifices again resumed. During the first century B.C.E., Herod greatly enlarged and expanded this Temple. The Second Temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70 C.E., after the failure of the Great Revolt.

"As glorious and elaborate as the Temple was, its most important room contained almost no furniture at all. Known as the Holy of Holies (Kodesh Kodashim), it housed the two tablets of the Ten Commandments. Unfortunately, the tablets disappeared when the Babylonians destroyed the Temple, and during the Second Temple era, the Holy of Holies was a small, entirely bare room. Only once a year, on Yom Kippur, the High Priest would enter this room and pray to God on Israel's behalf. A remarkable monologue by a Hasidic rabbi in the Yiddish play The Dybbuk conveys a sense of what the Jewish throngs worshiping at the Temple must have experienced during this ceremony:

"God's world is great and holy. The holiest land in the world is the land of Israel. In the land of Israel the holiest city is Jerusalem. In Jerusalem the holiest place was the Temple, and in the Temple the holiest spot was the Holy of Holies.... There are seventy peoples in the world. The holiest among these is the people of Israel. The holiest of the people of Israel is the tribe of Levi. In the tribe of Levi the holiest are the priests. Among the priests, the holiest was the High Priest.... There are 354 days in the [lunar] year. Among these, the holidays are holy. Higher than these is the holiness of the Sabbath. Among Sabbaths, the holiest is the Day of Atonement, the Sabbath of Sabbaths.... There are seventy languages in the world. The holiest is Hebrew. Holier than all else in this language is the holy Torah, and in the Torah the holiest part is the Ten Commandments. In the Ten Commandments the holiest of all words is the name of God.... And once during the year, at a certain hour, these four supreme sanctities of the world were joined with one another. That was on the Day of Atonement, when the High Priest would enter the Holy of Holies and there utter the name of God. And because this hour was beyond measure holy and awesome, it was the time of utmost peril not only for the High Priest but for the whole of Israel. For if in this hour there had, God forbid, entered the mind of the High Priest a false or sinful thought, the entire world would have been destroyed.

"To this day, traditional Jews pray three times a day for the Temple's restoration. During the centuries the Muslims controlled Palestine, two mosques were built on the site of the Jewish Temple. (This was no coincidence; it is a common Islamic custom to build mosques on the sites of other people's holy places.) Since any attempt to level these mosques would lead to an international Muslim holy war (jihad) against Israel, the Temple cannot be rebuilt in the foreseeable future." (Source: Joseph Telushkin. Jewish Literacy. NY: William Morrow and Co., 1991. Reprinted by permission of the author.)

The Inevitable End

In Mark 13 we read: "1 And as he went out of the temple, one of his disciples saith unto him, Master, see what manner of stones and what buildings are here! 2 And Jesus answering said unto him, Seest thou these great buildings? there shall not be left one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down."

"There would seem no doubt that Jesus was impressed by the majesty of the great Temple in Jerusalem. "The strength and wealth of the temple roused the admiration of the Galileans. The great stones in its fortifications promised safety from its enemies, and the goodly offerings bespoke the zeal of its friends. According to Josephus, some of the stones were nearly seventy feet in length, twelve feet in height, and eighteen feet in breadth. The same historian tells us of the gifts or offerings which adorned it: crowns, shields, goblets, chain of gold present by Agrippa, and a golden vine with its vast clusters which was the gift of Herod. The Temple was built of white limestone, and its beauty and strength made it admired of all nations. It took forty-six years to finish, and ten thousand skilled workmen are said to have been employed in its construction." (J. W. McGarvey)

This writer is not capable of describing the majesty of the early Roman religious edifices, but I did find this item published by a historian scholar on Roman castles (cathedrals):

"A cathedral is more than a church; this cruciform building is the seat of a Catholic bishop or an archbishop's dominion. A basilica is simply a very large church, though the word denoted a large public meeting hall, separated into aisles by a double colonnade, in Roman times."

The 12th century began a wave of cathedral building throughout Europe. Magnificent large cathedrals were built for the glory of God and the pride and prestige of the cities. These mammoth building projects, without the benefit of modern construction equipment, were a tremendous feat. Cathedral vaults reached heights of 80 to 160 feet. The spires and towers could be twice that height. ⁽¹⁾

Not only did it require vast amounts of material resources; it was a task that would take many years to complete. The average cathedral took 80 years to complete and some took over 200 years of continuous labor. (The current St. Peter's Basilica in Rome required 150 years of work to complete by 1656. More so -- the cathedral in Cologne, Germany, with its two great bell towers, each bursting more than 500 feet skyward, required 350 years of work spanning six centuries.)

In America, the plan for a national cathedral began in 1792 when the plan for the Federal City set aside land for a "great church for national purposes" A century later in 1891 a meeting was held to renew plans for the cathedral. In 1893 the Protestant Episcopal Cathedral Foundation of the District of Columbia was granted a charter from Congress to establish the Cathedral and the site on Mount St. Albans was chosen. Work was begun in 1907 and completed in 1990. This is the highest point of land in the District and the cathedral spires can be seen from miles away in Virginia.

The Conclusion:

Perhaps "Church" in America today is known as much for its edifices as for its mission, or the character of its membership. And, with the recent advent of the Mega-Churches, even among our brotherhood, it will be known by its organization and its multifaceted service-centered programs. Let's consider several points of interest:

1. The history of change indicates that at first our language is corrupted, then our understandings, and then our practices. "Church" to many if not most people is a building. We meet at the Church. Our Church is as First and Broad streets. Church. The sign out front indicates that our Church, for instance, is the XYZ Church. Our non-institutional brethren were perhaps moving in the right direction when they advertized that the "Church of Christ meets here." And then, in recent years we have had the discussions of small-letter church as opposed to capital-letter Church.

2. The "ekklesia" that Jesus said he was going to build had nothing to do with brick and mortar buildings. The ekklesia (church) is people, and is always people. One may locate these people for purposes of identification, but they never become anything other than people. (Check out references to church in, church at, and church of.)

3. In this present dispensation, the "new covenant" times, God is not tied to a physical building of any kind, shape or fashion. Is this not what Jesus taught the Samaritan woman in John 4:

20 Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. 21 Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. 22 Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews. 23 But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. 24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

And also, is this not what Paul taught the Athenians in Acts 17:

22 ¶ Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars' hill, and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious. 23 For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you. 24 God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; 25 Neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; 26 And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; 27 That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us: 28 For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring. 29 Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device. 30 And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent: 31 Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead. 32 ¶ And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked: and others said, We will hear thee again of this matter.

4. In our organization-minded world many are not willing to leave this truth alone; we must organize, name, and establish. And in so doing we are slowly but surely aping the Roman Catholic Church that has become the largest religious/political/benevolent organization the world has ever known. But, is this the church of Christ, God's saved people, that Jesus said he was going to build? I think not! The denominations have followed this organizational format also until there is little difference between them and the self acclaimed "Mother Church." It is astonishing that recently, after Hurricane Katrina, the pastor of a large Georgia Baptist Church expressed the idea that it would be good if we had one human head, i.e., a Pope!

5. A news story tells of someone entering one of the big cathedrals in Europe, and expressing awe at its grandeur. A little old lady inquired of the custodian, "Has there been anyone saved in this church recently?"

6. "In the great day, when the muster-roll shall be read, of all those who are converted through fine music, and church decoration, and religious exhibitions and entertainments, they will amount to the tenth part of nothing; but it will always please God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. Keep to your preaching; and if you do anything beside, do not let it throw your preaching into the background. In the first place, preach, and the second place, preach, and the third place, preach. Believe in preaching the love of Christ, believe in preaching the atoning sacrifice, believe in preaching the new birth, believe in preaching the whole counsel of God. The old hammer of the gospel will still break the rock in pieces; the ancient fire of Pentecost will still burn among the multitude. Try nothing new, but go on with preaching, and if we all preach with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, the results of preaching will astound us. (Charles Spurgeon, "How to Win Souls for Christ")

1. Most of these "cathedrals" are now empty, and not accommodations for worshipping groups, but more nearly are just museums to be admired.