September 17, 2006

Cawson St. Church of Christ

Hopewell, Virginia

Mural Worthey

 

Common Religious Mistakes--#5

 

Introduction: “Building Temples for Their Gods”

a.     This series has focused on common mistakes that religions in general have made throughout the centuries.

b.     Our purpose is to understand these mistakes and seek to avoid repeating them, though we often fall prey to the same blunders.

c.      This fourth common mistake is for religious people to build temples for their gods.  Believers in various gods have practiced this for centuries, including believers in the Lord.

d.     One might ask, “What could be wrong with building temples to honor one’s god/s?”  It looks innocent enough on the surface, but is it?

 

Ziggurats

 

Among the first monuments to the gods was the ziggurat.  It was a large building which reached toward the heavens in the center of a settlement.  The tower of Babel was a monument that had spiritual significance to the builders.  They were rebelling against God who told them to go into all the earth and multiply.  They desired to make a name for themselves and stay where they were.  God did not command them to build this tower.  He showed his displeasure by confounding their language so they could not communicate with one another.  Babylon was so named after the confusion of the tongues.  This is the land around the famous rivers, Tigris and Euphrates.  It is modern day Iraq.

 

Did Nimrod think that if God sent another flood that he would be able to escape its waters in this tower?  Or was it an effort just to ignore and dethrone God himself?  Whatever his reasoning, Nimrod would soon hear from God.  Their plans were thwarted.

 

The tower of Babel was on one level a description of the construction of a ziggurat, an enormous stepped pyramid that served as a base for a temple.  Such structures were known in cities throughout the Mesopotamia from the third millennium to the first.  The deity worshipped in the temple atop the ziggurat was the city’s most important god, whose earthly representative was the reigning king.  Religion served the political ends of the state and they often competed in power.

 

Long before the Jewish temple in Jerusalem, religious people were building temples to their gods.  In light of all the idolatry of the people, do you think that God wanted a temple built to honor him??

 

Solomon’s Temple

 

David desired to build a temple to honor the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  “The king said unto Nathan the prophet, See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells within curtains.”  (2 Sam. 7:2.)  God said to David, “Shalt thou build me a house for me to dwell in?  I have not dwelt in any house since the time that I brought up the children of Israel out of Egypt.”  (7:5-6.)  God asked if he had at any time asked why they had not built him a house.  (7:7.)  David was not permitted to build it because he was a warring king.  But his son Solomon built the first Jewish temple in Jerusalem.  (1 Chron. 22:6-11.) 

 

What Solomon said in prayer at its dedication is revealing and shows the common mistake of religions.  He said, “But will God in very deed dwell with men on the earth?  Behold, the heaven of heavens cannot contain thee, how much less this house that I have built.”  (2 Chron. 6:17-18.)

 

The first temple was destroyed by the Babylonians and rebuilt by Zerubbabel.

 

Herod’s Temple

 

Herod spent forty years or more refurbishing the temple in Jerusalem.  Jesus’ disciples were proud of the building.  They once pointed out the building to Jesus, but He was not impressed.  He told them that the building would be destroyed and not one stone left on top of the other.  (Matthew 24, Mark 13, Luke 21.)  He added that the Roman armies would surround the city and lay it under siege.

 

God allowed the Jewish temple to exist, though it was not a matter of great concern to him.  He really wanted something else.  We learn the real interest of God concerning temples in the New Testament.

 

Temples, Cathedrals, & Church Buildings

 

Among those who believe in Jesus Christ, we too have placed a great emphasis upon building sacred buildings to house our God.

 

Mormons.  Mormons are known as great temple builders.  Their temples are usually placed near major public highways so they can be easily seen.  The Washington, D. C., temple has a 288 foot spire, the tallest of their temples, and it is located near the beltway.  The Salt Lake Temple took 40 years to build.  They have only about 120 temples, but they are very expensive and elaborate.  They build temples to be faithful to a supposed revelation to Joseph Smith.  “My people are always commanded to build temples unto my holy name.”  (Doctrine and Covenants 124:39-40.)  The prophet Smith said, “We need the temple more than anything else.”  (Journal of History of the Church, May 4, 1844.)

 

Mormons practice important rituals in their temples that cannot be performed anywhere else.   Inside they practice baptizing for the dead and celestial marriages.  Both of these rituals are contrary to Christianity.  The physical temple as a center piece of their religion is misplaced and represents a common religious mistake. 

Saint Peter’s Basilica.  This famous cathedral was built between 1546-1564 in Rome.  It is named after Peter because this apostle is believed to have been the successor to Jesus Christ as the head of the Church.  His remains are believed to be buried under the basilica.  The famous dome was built by Michelangelo.  It is the largest church in the world and the home of the Pope.  In this tradition, churches can become exalted to the status of cathedrals, which is a mother church of a diocese.  A bishop is a pastor of a cathedral church.  All of these names of these “churches” mean something special.

 

Buildings, buildings!!

 

Jews had the temple in Jerusalem and synagogues in communities.  Muslims have their mosques.  Hindus and Mormons and others have their temples.  Most religious bodies have their local church buildings.  Is there a danger and misunderstanding involved in all of this?  Yes, there is. 

 

New Testament Teaching

 

Paul preached at Athens, “God does not dwell in temples made with hands, neither is he worshipped with men’s hands, as though he needed anything, seeing that he gives to all life, breath and all things.”  (Acts 17:24-25.)  I am sure that this was a shocking statement to all those philosophers and idolaters in Athens who loved to built altars and temples.  The notion of a god dwelling in a temple was a pagan concept.  God lives in heaven; man was upon the earth, therefore let thy words be few.  (Eccl. 5:2.)

 

Paul challenged the Corinthians: “What agreement has the temple of God with idols?  For you are the temple of the living God.  As God hath said, I will dwell in them and walk in them.  I will be their God and they shall be my people.”  (2 Cor. 6:16.)

 

“Know you not that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?  If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple you are.”  (1 Cor. 3:16-17.)  Again, he wrote, “What?  Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which you have of God and you are not your own?”  (1 Cor. 6:19.)

 

“The house of God is built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom all the building fitly framed together grows unto a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are builded together for a habitation of God through the Spirit.”

 

When the Hebrew writer contrasted the first covenant and the second, he made references to the tabernacle, but never to the temple.  Scholars have wrestled with why he did not say anything about the temple.  Some say that it was because the tabernacle was first and commanded of God to be constructed.  God never asked for David or anyone to build a temple.  The real interest of God is that he dwell within the heart of man and walk with him. 

 

Conclusions

 

This is another common religious mistake.  We love church buildings, synagogues, and temples.  What is the mistake of building physical buildings?  It is not wrong to have a place to worship.  But here are the spiritual mistakes involved.

 

#1: Following the pagan notion of putting God in a building.  Some refer to the auditorium as the sanctuary, which means the most sacred place in a religious building.  This is not our sanctuary.  Our church buildings are not New Testament temples or tabernacles!  Our Lord pitched a new sanctuary made without hands.  Jesus is the minister of this new sanctuary.  (Heb. 8:1-2.)  He is the High Priest who has gone into the Most Holy Place for us.  God does not live in a building made by man.

 

 

#2: Spending millions of dollars on buildings while hungry children and poor people are dying!  I don’t believe that God is pleased with that practice.  The churches of Christ have, it seems to me, built modest buildings trying to keep the costs down.  Read the New Testament epistle of James again and see the emphasis on the needy, orphans and widows.  (James 1 & 2.)

 

#3: Spending millions on buildings, but very little on mission work.  We do not hesitate spending millions on land and buildings, but when a missionary comes by we do not have funds to help them.  Read 3 John about being fellow helpers to missionaries.  Diotrephes, who loved preeminence, ran the missionaries off!

 

#4: Public meeting houses forever changed the structure and practice of Christianity.  If I had to name one thing that has affected the practice of first century Christianity more than anything else, I would name our public buildings.  While they are not wrong to have, they can leave false impressions and misunderstandings about what Christianity is.  They can rob us of valuable resources.  It gave control of the members’ lives to priests and church officials; everything from birth to death and beyond.  They devised 7 sacraments of the Church, which included infant baptism, confirmation, marriage, baptism, communion, ordination of priests, and anointing the sick.  Only priests could perform the sacraments.  Yet, Jesus and the apostles did not perform marriages, confirmations or ordinations.  It separated the clergy and laity.  But Jesus did not separate himself from the common man; he identified with him.  He did not wear distinctive clothing.