I was struck by her effusive arrogance, especially from a
woman who had gladly made the United States her
home, even though she felt
justified in condemning the
buildings in our midst. I did not know how to answer her at the time, however,
as I was so insecure about my identity in Christ.
Now, I know fully well who I am in Christ. As He is, so am I
in this world. It has nothing to do with my feelings, it has nothing to do with
my thinking. It has everything to do with the Holy Spirit, who lives and dwells
in me and in every believer.
Compared to the largest churches in Europe, every believer
as a separate temple of the Holy Spirit is far more impressive, more pleasing,
and more useful to God.
The Lord declared in the last chapter of Isaiah, which the
first martyr Stephen quoted on the day of his death,
“Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool. Where is
the house that you will build for me?”
Isaiah provides the proper dimensions of the house that God
seeks:
“But to this man I will look, even to him that is poor and
of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.” (Isaiah 66: 2)
In the Gospel of John, Jesus speaks of His own body as a
temple which would be raised in three days. In other accounts, he prophesies
the destruction of the Second Temple, built by the Restoration in Ezra and
Nehemiah’s day. The Jews long to rebuild a temple in Jerusalem, but for every
believe in Jesus Christ the Messiah, he has become a temple for our Lord.
God desires a body, first provided for us in His Son Jesus,
who died on the Cross. Then by the power of the Holy Spirit, God can inhabit
each of us.
No more how stellar, how inspiring, how awesome the
sculptures, the naves, the glass-colored mosaics and freshly-painted the
frescoes of the Renaissance era, none of these buildings can compare to the men
and women who have submitted their bodies as a living sacrifice.
Of course, I had to ponder, why would Europeans spend so
much time building massive cathedrals, if God scoffs at the mere thought of man building a house for Him? Even
Solomon, in all of his glory and splendor, which he worked together to form the
resplendent first temple, openly admitted that God does not inhabit the works
of men’s hands. So, why?
The Cathedrals of Europe, for all of their glamor, represent
the state-sponsored boondoggles of the Middle Ages, like the Bridge to Nowhere
in Alaska today. Church and state were one in Medieval Times, during which time
religious authorities siphoned crippling taxes and compulsory tithes from the
laity. Religious figures lived like princes, all the while preaching poverty,
charity, and moderation to the vast majority of their congregants, all of whom
were illiterate or forbidden to read the Word of God for themselves. If they
had known and believed that every human being is granted the grace to be a temple of the Holy Spirit, then the rich
royalized religious leaders would have gone out of business. In order to keep
men and women busy with acts of piety, they would commission men and women
around the world to create those lavish cathedrals, which served as testaments
to man’s vanity rather than God’s worth. Aggrandizing man’s efforts instead of
God’ Son, men and women were either deluded or convinced into placing greater
value in their work than the worth of the Son of God who died for us.
Nationalist jingoist pride certainly played a large part, as did political
favors traded between temporal and ecclesiastical authorities.
Nothing is more scandalous than the squandering and
slandering of spiritual truth in the name of material and national gain. “All
the nations are a drop in the bucket”, to God. Despite the passionate beauty of
these churches and other religious structures throughout Europe, they witness
more to man’s bereft and futile vanity instead of the splendor of God’s
generosity and goodness. We do not outgive God, and there is nothing more that
we can offer Him except our bodies as a living sacrifice to His Holy Spirit and
will.
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