The first sanctuary for worship wasn’t much. It was beautiful, but it was simple: a garden filled with pristine, freshly created trees. The man and the woman were themselves also in their simplest state: naked and unashamed. The sanctuary and man were glorious but not as glorious as God intended them to be. In all of his dominion taking, man was to take the materials of the world around him and make the garden a more glorious place, which would eventually include man himself being glorified with clothing. The sanctuary and man within it was to move from this pristine state of glory into the greater glory of a developed world.
We can know that this was God’s intention by looking at the rest of the story of Scripture. As the story progresses, God moves his people from making stone altars (Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob) to building the Tabernacle (Moses) and eventually the Temple (Solomon). Man himself doesn’t return to a state of nakedness, but is clothed with garments of glory and beauty (Exod 28.2). All of these structures include the original garden sanctuary in some form, but they are all more developed. The place where God is meeting with man is becoming more glorious.
These places of worship are all the products of dominion over the creation in fulfillment of the original command given by God. Sin fights man in this dominion-taking, but God has promised to be man’s Helper (Pss 54.4; 118.7; Isa 41.10). God defeats the Egyptians, giving the spoils to his people, and from these spoils they build the Tabernacle with Spirit-empowered craftsmen. By the power of God’s Spirit, David defeats his enemies, leaving the spoils for Solomon, his son, to build a house for God’s name.
At each stage of the development of the houses of God, God himself puts his imprimatur on the construction by filling the house with his glory. When the Tabernacle is finished and dedicated by Moses, God’s glory fills the house, establishing the Tabernacle the place of his earthly throne. When Solomon builds the Temple and dedicates it, God fills the house with glory, again establishing the place of his earthly throne.
Times have changed since Jesus has come. There is no central building in the world in which God’s glory is housed. So, why have Christians and why do Christians continue to build these buildings specifically dedicated to the worship of God? Why do we spend so much money on construction of buildings, remodeling, furniture, musical instruments, and such the like? Why did Christians in centuries past build these great works of art that took a couple generations? Because the dominion mandate is still in place, and we are still called to move the world by the power of the Spirit from glory to glory; because worship and the representation of the people of God in tangible architectural beauty is a pattern laid down in Scripture.
God’s people around the world may worship in simple places of worship. And where people have no other choice, where a culture hasn’t been adequately developed, where the culture is openly hostile to the church, God is pleased with that worship. However, where the church has the ability to represent herself and her God with more glorious structures but doesn’t, it just might be an indication of sloth; sloth in the way we think, being unwilling to think through why we do what we do, or sloth in our dominion mandate, not willing to try to do better for the glory of God. Local churches must always take into account where they are in their particular situations, but we must always be striving to make all the representations of God’s people in the world as glorious as we can.
Whatever our situation, whether worshiping in a Western European cathedral or in a house in North Korea, God puts his imprimatur on that place of worship when his glory—his people—fill the place with praise, the Word proclaimed, offerings, bread and wine. The beauty of the church begins with the glory of God being seen in one another (2Cor 3.18); in lives lived together in faithful worship and love for one another.
This past Sunday I was able to be a part of a building dedication of the church I pastor, Cornerstone Reformed Church. The building is glorious. But what is even more glorious is that the building is not a false witness to the community around us. The people of God who make up this congregation, even with all of our sinful warts, express the glory of God. The vibrant praise, the willingness to hear God’s Word, the joy of being around God’s Table with his people, are all in agreement with the place where we now are able to worship.
