There are no examples of separate buildings set apart for the worship of the church within the Roman Empire before the third century. Starting with a long Jewish history to the bringing in of the new covenant, we find examples of buildings set aside for worship. But, in the teaching of Christ and His apostles, there is no pattern for such religious structures. In fact, the pattern moves away from a physical location to the heart of the individual saint. Consider the religious structures that have played a huge role in religion from the time of the tabernacle to our present era.
- Tabernacle
Specific instructions were given to Moses from Mt. Sinai regarding the tabernacle and the Levitical priesthood (Exodus 26; 38; Numbers 9:15-23). This is the only structure that was required by god but it was a tent for a nomadic people. The purpose in God commanding a tabernacle is unclear until we are given an explanation from the Hebrew writer. The first quote reads,
“The Holy Spirit was showing by this that the way into the Most Holy Place had not yet been disclosed as long as the first tabernacle was still standing. This is an illustration for the present time, indicating that the gifts and sacrifices being offered were not able to clear the conscience of the worshiper. They are only a matter of … external regulations applying until the time of the new order. When Christ came as high priest of the good things that are already here, he went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not man-made, that is to say, not a part of this creation. He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption.”
(Hebrews 9:8-12). The tabernacle stood as a physical reminder of God’s presence and thus was the center of their religious activities. Something greater had come. A place of worship had come into the heart of man (John 4:24). The second quote that explains the reason for the tabernacle reads,
“The point of what we are saying is this: We do have such a high priest, who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, and who serves in the sanctuary, the true tabernacle set up by the Lord, not by man…… They serve at a sanctuary that is a copy and shadow of what is in heaven. This is why Moses was warned when he was about to build the tabernacle: ‘See to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.’ But the ministry Jesus has received is as superior to theirs as the covenant of which he is mediator is superior to the old one, and it is founded on better promises.”
(Hebrews 8:1-6). So, heaven is the true tabernacle and what the Israelites had built was just a shadow of the real thing.
- Temple
With the advent of the kings of Israel, a more permanent dwelling was desired by David. He couldn’t accept living in luxury while God dwelt in a tent (2 Sam. 7:1-3; 1 Kings 8:17). God explained that he had never requested a house (2 Sam. 7:5-7). Though Solomon acknowledges that God cannot be contained in a house (1 Kings 8:27), he still prays that God’s eyes be open toward the temple night and day, “even toward the place whereof thou hast said, My name shall be there; to hearken unto the prayer which thy servant shall pray toward this place” (v. 29, cf. v. 43). After the kings of Israel began worshiping other gods and departing from Him, the glory of the Lord that once filled the temple was removed and the temple was destroyed by the Babylonians (Ezra 5:12; 2 Kings 25:8-17). When the temple was rebuilt in 520 BC, it continued to be the center of religion for the Jewish people, even though some Jews rejected it during those early years.
Jesus and His apostles, who had a Jewish background, went to the temple. Did they go to worship there because this was the place assigned for worship? Were they fulfilling their obligations as Jews? Or, did they see the temple as a great venue to preach to the Jews? Remember, the gospel must begin with them. Paul explains in Romans 2:8-10, “But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation, and wrath, tribulation, and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile; But glory, honor, and peace, to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile.” The evidence for the purpose of the temple attendance corresponds to Paul’s pattern of public and private teaching among the Ephesians. The practice of teaching in the temple was an example of public teaching to the Jews. The teaching was also confirmed to the Jews through miraculous signs. Edersheim writes:
“These halls or porches around the Court of the Gentiles must have been most convenient places for friendly or religious intercourse–for meetings or discussions. Here Jesus, when still a child, was found by His parents disputing with the doctors; here He afterward so often taught the people; and here the first assemblies of the Christians must have taken place when, ‘continuing daily with one accord in the Temple,…praising God, and having favor with all the people,…the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.’ Especially do we revert to Solomon’s Porch that ran along the eastern wall of the Temple, and faced its great entrance. It was the only remnant left of the Temple built by the wise King of Israel. In this porch ‘Jesus walked’ on that ‘Feast of the Dedication,’ (John 10:23) when He ‘told it plainly,’ ‘I and my Father are one’; and it was thither ‘that all the people ran together’ when ‘the notable miracle’ on the lame man had been wrought at the ‘Beautiful Gate of the Temple.’
Stephen’s speech recorded in Acts 7 describes the temple as being a man-made house that originated with Solomon. The tabernacle that Moses had built was given by God, who gave the pattern for its building and furnishings. Jesus notes this distinction by using the term “with hands” to describe the physical temple in distinction to the one he would build without hands.[1] The house that Jesus built was made with “living stones,” that make up a spiritual house. He explains to the Samaritan woman that physical location for worship would not continue under His regime. His is a spiritual kingdom. Frank Senn explains, “Christians of the first several centuries lacked the publicity of the pagan cults. They had no shrines, temples, statutes or sacrifices. They staged no public festivals, dances, musical performances, or pilgrimages. Their central ritual involved a meal that had a domestic origin and setting inherited from Judaism. Indeed, Christians of the first three centuries usually met in private residences that had been converted into suitable gathering spaces for the Christian community… This indicates that the ritual bareness of early Christian worship should not be taken as a sign of primitiveness, but rather as a way of emphasizing the spiritual character of Christian worship.”[2]
[1] Acts 7:48, Mark 14:58
[2] Frank Senn, Christian Liturgy: Catholic and Evangelical (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1997), 53.