Thus the priesthood, the sacerdotal system (things pertaining to sacrifices), holy places (sanctuaries), and even the veil between God and man was reinstituted through human traditions, though Christ’s death had once and for all made them obsolete. After a thousand years of equating “church” with a building and worship as activity taking place in a “sanctuary,” the damage was done and the Lord’s church in its originality, purity, and splendor was driven to the point of extinction.

Praise God there has always been a remnant of people seeking to worship in spirit and truth. Unfortunately, temple worship never really ceased from existence. People continue to equate things which are “holy” with the four walls of the building and “worship” as what is done in that building.

While anyone can show up once a week for a meeting, being a true disciple of Jesus involves daily worship. “Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.” (Luke 9:23). Paul learned to live that crucifixion experience, “I die daily” he wrote in 1 Cor. 15:31. In other words, Christianity is not a series of regularly scheduled meetings to be attended; it is a way of life.

Now please don’t get me wrong. We are commanded to be faithful to the assembly, (Heb. 10:25), or “gathering” EPISYNAGOGUE. We “come together” or “assemble together” to break bread (Acts 20:7), where the word “assembly” is a form of SYNAGOGUE, Strongs #4863, which is an “assemblage of persons,” the “coming together,” “gathering,” “a Christian church,” or “congregation.” We can study the Bible, pray, and fellowship at home, but we cannot truly “assemble together to break bread” at home, by very definition. This is another reason the Lord’s Supper is so important, because it is a discernment of the Lord’s body, (1 Cor. 11:29).

I also believe (i.e. my opinion) a church building is important in meeting the physical need of providing a roof over our heads and helping facilitate our operations. I would like our congregation to own a building with an adequate auditorium and classrooms with technological support such as we enjoy at James Madison University, rented by our Christian Kingdom College. I envision a nice family life center with fellowship hall, kitchen, nursery, spacious rest rooms, theological library and multimedia lab, and even a Christian school, with a gym, (three prospects have come to us recently through the basketball ministry), of course with an outdoor children’s playground. All of this will be great.

But the joy of the Holy Spirit filled Christian life transcends time and space. We must always remember our relationship to God can not be contained in a building, nor limited to a certain place or hour in the week. The church is not made out of brick and mortar, but rather, living stones. And God does not dwell in temples made with hands, but in us, (Acts 17:24). We must always remember: the church is not a building, we are the church.

This is the essence of what Jesus told the woman at the well in John 4:4-30, when He spoke about “where,” “when,” and “how” God should be worshipped. The Samaritans were non-Jews who had adopted (more or less) the religion of Judaism. To the consternation of the Jews, they had built their own temple on their own mountain, (Mt. GerIzim) in violation of God’s plan, where He had clearly ordained that Zion was His mountain and Jerusalem the residence of His house, (Psm. 122:1-3,9, 132:13, 135:21, 137:3-6, Isa. 2:3). In the Old Testament, David could legitimately say, “Let us go into the house of the Lord,” speaking of the temple in Jerusalem. The aforementioned verses of David, the later psalmists, and Isaiah should have settled the Samaritan/Jewish debate over “where” God should be worshipped. And Jesus confirmed this when he told the Samaritan woman, “You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews,” (Jn. 4:22), i.e. the Jews were right, Jerusalem was the place.

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